The breakfast was said to be full this morning as runners prepared for the Jungfrau marathon, a ridiculously difficult feat. Starting from Interlaken, they would run up to Kleine Scheidegg, which I showed you yesterday. The elevation difference between lowest and highest pointsnear around 5900 feet, and there’s plenty of up and down in there. Yet the winners are still under 3 hours!

We ate later than the runners though, and proceeded to marathon shop through Brienz and Interlaken for a few hours. We didn’t buy much as the Swiss are pretty proud of their handicrafts.

We spent a couple of hours at the Freilichtsmuseum, an open air city of historical buildings moved here from around the country, complete with artifacts and furniture, and some demonstrations in progress. It’s sort of like Colonial Williamsburg only more spread out and more rural. Among several interesting this was the sawmill powered by waterwheel.

it turns this:

into this:

though not at a very fast pace.

We then left the lakes for the capital city of Bern. We walked around the “platz”es seeing their colorful 16th century fountains and eventually eating a very European dinner al fresco. Tomorrow is our last day, though honestly I think we both are ready to head home after two great weeks here.

More cheese and dairy land tomorrow in Emmental and castles and medieval old towns in Aargau.

Drove out of the mountains today and staying in a hotel on Lake Brienz, Brienzersee.

We drove into nearby Interlaken to find a laundromat, and a late bite. We parked two blocks from the laundromat, in an older part of town, and the old church’s bells were ringing for several minutes. We haven’t figured out the meaning if this as it seems to be different times each city, but once or twice per day. This time at eight pm.

Here it is, the pinnacle. At least the highest point – billed as the “Top of Europe”. Of course it’s not, but it is pretty impressive, built in 1912 after six years of tunneling. It is the highest train station in Europe they say. 11,300 something feet I think. We saw the Aletsch Glacier from the north side this time.

And the view from below at the Kleine Scheidegg station.

Thursday we stopped waiting for clear weather and headed out in a hike uphill from Mürren. The North Face trail they call it, but it’s not in the North face of anything. Instead it offers wide views of the North Face of the Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau wall. Or it does when the clouds go away anyways. But it was still a pleasant and fairly isolated, with nice alpine terrain yet again and cloudy days are good too, right? Less sunburn, no sunglasses, at least I tried to convince myself it was ok that the clouds were stubborn again today.

We rode the Allmendhubelbahn funicular, that is train pulled straight up the slope by cable, for a several hundred feet higher, then hike mostly along the mountainside for an hour or so before turning uphill and over a steep ridge. You’ll see photos from the top where the sun made a cameo through holes in the clouds.

Then we continue to our far point at Rotstockhütte, an alpine hut/inn. We had some cake and drinks and talked with of the innkeepers. We bought a bottle if their homemade “sirups” which is a sweetened tea really, this bottle made from spruce, yes the tree. The sample was good. I dont think they usually bottle the stuff, but she put some in a bottle and marked it for us to take.

We wound down into the forested canyon along the glacial river, a bit out of the way because we missed one turn somewhere. Back into the village of Gimmelwald and we rode the lift back to Mürren to save our tired feet. It was a long day, but felt good to get out.

Oh and there were more cows… :P.

The video is working now! Cow bells in the wind…

Here’s a bit to show the ride up to the level of our hotel.

And the view of the big three mountains, Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau:

From outide Interlaken, in Wilderswil, we rode the antique cog train to Schynige Platte, a relatively flat alpine area with good views of both main valleys in this region.

The view of the Grindelwald valley:

And the Lauterbrunnen valley:

Arrived in Mürren this afternoon. It is in the Berner Oberland region, and is reached by cable car or train. We had a run-around with the transportation that had us driving back and forth between two valley towns two full round trips and five visits to the parking lots on each end. I’ll spare the details, but the lift in Stechelberg does not accept the Jungfraubahn pass (which was quite expensive). To get to Mürren on that pass, you have to ride the cable car from Lauterbrunnen and the train from there. Phew.

So we missed the last funicular train up that starts the recommended loop hike here, and we decided to just walk to the edge of the village and sit on the bench there for a while. That’s where the one photo is from with the waterfall.

Then we surveyed the eating in town and selected Hotel Alpina for their great indoor views as it was getting chilly. More Swiss comfort food, and back to the Eiger Guesthouse which is our first English-primary hotel. Many more English speaking tourists in this area than anywhere else.

Tomorrow we are weather watching as it they’ve pulled the rug out from under us. It was sunny all the rest of the week for the past week or so in the forecasts, but now they decided it is in fact going to be cloudy and maybe rain…

Just outside of Montreux (a fancy casino town on Lake Geneva) stands this castle, magnificent inside as it never received heavy damage during it’s active use. Several large halls, bedrooms with lake views, dungeons and cellars founded on solid rock, a classic central keep, ramparts with wooden walkways, moat, outer walls, and toilets with a breezy, fifty foot plunge to the lake/rocks below.

For an interesting, relevant link, try “The Prisoner of Chillon” by Lord Byron.

Really spectacular. Only exterior photos with the iPad – I was too busy with the real camera inside.

Today waking to rain still, we pressed ahead to visit the cheese factory and old town of Gruyères. There are several small villages in the La Gruyère area, including Broc, where the Callier/Nestle chocolate factory is, Moléson, the high village with mountain activities and dairies, and the town on the hill with the castle.

We toured the cheese making facility, which included samples of course, but was somewhat disappointing only because they were ahead of schedule and we missed the good part. That is, they had already packed the molds when we arrived even though we were early. I guess they were in a rush to lunch.

From above, in Moléson, the small walled town on the hill is Gruyères:

From the Château, the church below and hills to the east:

We looked around the shops and admired the town, despite the mist and fog. Then as the clouds began to lift we headed for Montreux and the big castle there.

In the evening we returned to Gruyères for what else but a fondue dinner and meringue, ice-cream, and double cream for dessert. Très bien!

It poured all day today, so we drove from east to west pretty much without stops. One pitstop as we crossed into French country at the first “convenience store” we have seen since arriving. French Switzerland seems more familiar in style and function, with billboards, more varied and modern houses and shopping centres, punchy road signs including one with a skiing cheese wheel beckoning us into town. Anyway the familiar gas station / shop combination off the autobahn exit was not too different from the US, other than maybe the Toblerone and entire aisle of chocolates and the whole rack of adult magazines. And the cashier asking me something in French, to which I replied no and that seemed acceptable. I find no to usually be the right response in a store scenario. I’m pretty sure she asked if I had a dime since the bill ended in .10

We blew past what I am sure is beautiful vineyard country, though low and threatening clouds and heavy rain dampened the views. Everywhere you could see, up the “sunny” side of the mountains were grapes, row upon row. Maybe we will swing back through later if we return to Zermatt.

We arrived in the Gruyeré area and found our hotel in Morlon village, separated a bit from the action but very charming. Supposedly excellent eating as well. Our hotelier is French speaking, but we managed to check in without much trouble as she was expecting us.

As the rain continued, we decided to scratch the day and head for the nearest laundry we could find, in Lausanne on Lake Geneva. I’m sure the Lausanne tourism board would not like to know that all we did in their town was wash clothes and eat at McDonald’s!

Our Cheeseburger Royal combos were right on, very authentic, although I’m not sure the same exact burger exists stateside. Like a quarterpounder with two cheeses. McDonald’s is a delicacy here it seems. The bill? CHF 26, about $34.

The laundry was CHF 7 per load times 2 plus 1 franc per 4 minutes of drying. Add soap and the 1 franc I was cheated by the change machine that ran out mid-dispense, and the total for two loads was CHF 23.50, about $30. Somehow we left feeling that wasn’t too bad.

Nevertheless, our max budget is still well above what we are spending, which is good as I think we’ll be accelerating that soon.

Tomorrow is cheese Factory day and Chateau de Chillon, weather permitting.