Waaay back in September – Sep 19-21 to be exact – Laura and I left work early on a Friday afternoon to take a train into Switzerland. A friend of ours from college, Justin, had been living in Neuchatel, Switzerland as part of a temporary work assignment and invited us to join him for some exploring and traveling in the Swiss Alps. Justin had a rental car, and we had were able to find reasonable hotel rates, so we were pretty excited about the opportunity.
The excitement leading up to the trip soon gave way to frustration and stress, as the train leaving the Düsseldorf Main Station to Köln, where we would be making our first transfer, was over 40 minutes late. It bears mentioning that everything you’ve heard about the efficient, worry-free, and above all, punctual German train system is a bold faced lie… at least on Friday evenings between Düsseldorf and Munich. It certainly didn’t help matters that this particular fall weekend was the first weekend of the Oktoberfest in Munich and the cars will filled to the brim with merry travelers in traditional costume – in varying levels of pre-festival inebriation. So while we had no intentions of continuing on to Munich, we got to spend a very uncomfortable 4 hours alternating between standing and crouching over our luggage in the walkways between cars to our next transfer point in Mannheim. So much for the seat reservations we paid extra for – which were invalid on the train we were forced to take in order to have a chance at making our later transfers. Transfers which, of course, ended up considerably delayed and equally overbooked. The end result had us arriving in Neuchatel nearly three hours late at around 10:30pm. Lovely.
Justin picked us up from the train station in his rental Audi A3 and we took a quick drive around the town, stopping for a drink in the old town before heading back up the hill to our hotel. The next morning we awoke to foggy, but pleasant weather, swung by a grocery store (the variety and quality of this store’s offerings absolutely shamed anything I’ve seen in Germany) and set out across the Swiss countryside.
Our drive took us across the better portion of the French-speaking area of Switzerland. Our first stop was along the Lake Léman in the town of Montreaux. We hopped out to stretch our legs for a bit and snap some pictures. From there, we continued on towards the mountains, stopping along the Rhone for a quick lunch before making our way to Fiesch – a small town at the base of Eggishorn Mountain. As we drove into the town, we spotted a group of lunatics who saw fit to honor the beautiful day by donning a parachute and jumping off a perfectly good mountain into the valley below. Interesting yes, but nowhere near as strange as the sight, and sound, that greeted us next. Right across the parking lot from the cable car station we had stopped at, there was a line of picnic tables set up along a fenced area containing cows. Not just any cows… cows with Christmas trees, wreathes, and other decorations strapped their heads and bells around their necks so large in some cases, that they could do nothing other than lay down and prop their heads up on them. Strange… very strange.
So, time to point out for the first of several times in this weekend that I’m not particularly fond of heights. So why not hop in a cable car and go ripping up the side of an Alpine peak? Where did I put that valium? Up we go…
The view from the top was quite literally breathtaking – and if the view didn’t fully deliver, then the 30% less oxygen at those altitudes made short work of the remaining breath in my lungs. Unfortunately, we were only about 1.5 hours ahead of the last cable car back down to the valley, so we didn’t get to spend as much time at the summit as we would have liked. The most awe inspiring sight was the glacial valley between the peak we were on (Eggishorn) and Jungfrau, containing a 23 km long glacier. It was literally a 6 lane wide highway of ice. Incredible. After an hour or so of photos, clambering over rocky trails, and a brief encounter with a mountain goat, we caught the last cable car back down into the valley and drove on to our overnight point in Lauterbrunnen.
Not one to let a good opportunity slip by, I took the wheel for this leg of the trip and we made our way over the famous Grimsel Pass – a series of probably 60 or more sharp switchbacks and narrow roads leading up and over a pass in the mountains. This proved to be a bit more entertaining than even I had hoped, as we drove into a cloud of fog so thick that I could only see 3-4 feet in front of the car at all times. It wasn’t until we were halfway down the other side of the mountain that I decided to pull off and let Laura collect her nerves and to let the sweat on my palms dry up. As it turns out, we were at the top of a massive hydroelectric dam, barely visible through the fog. After a quick look around, Justin took the wheel again and we drove to our hotel in Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland area of central Switzerland.
After a hearty (if not exactly healthy) dinner of potatoes, eggs, and bacon for Justin and Laura and schnitzel with fries for myself, we headed back to the hotel for a game of Scrabble before heading to bed. Exciting stuff. Sunday morning we took advantage of fairly decent breakfast buffet and then headed across town to the cable car station that would take us to the trailhead leading up the surrounding mountains. Choosing the more strenuous of the two hiking options definitely turned out to be a challenging ordeal, but the views made it worth the effort. We spent the better part of four hours hiking the rugged trails along the mountaintop, with a valley separating us from the famous Eiger mountain and Jungfrau mountain. Far below, alpine cattle mooed and clanged happily (and loudly) away with their cowbells. We made it to the town of Wengen in time to eat lunch and catch a cable car back down the mountain. From the base of the mountain, we rode by bus back to our car in Lauterbrunnen and began the drive into Geneva to catch the train back home.
All in all, it was an exhaust and busy weekend, but definitely worth the sore legs. The scenery in Switzerland is easy the most incredible I’ve ever been around. The mountains, green valleys, waterfalls, villages, and animals all added to beauty of the area. I hope to make it back there again before we head home – though perhaps in slightly warmer weather and with clothes more suited to active hiking.
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