What an amazing couple of days. We’ve been hiking all around the Jungfrau region near Interlaken and seen some unbelievable views. It is such a beautiful area, I feel like four days is just not enough.
Yesterday we went on a completely excessive but glad-I’ve-done-it 30km hike through the mountains. Lush green grass that Australia only dreams of speckled with yellow and purple coloured flowers meeting a beautiful crisp blue sky devoid of clouds with the occasional fluffy exception. To top it off, the background bears dark steel snow-capped mountains that seem to mock the sweat leaking out our pores and the burning sun roasting us a gentle shade of pink.
We took a train to Grindewald and hiked up to Kleine Scheidegg, which was roughly 12km. Along the way we went through a ‘residential’ area, which consisted of rolling green hills dotted with infrequent houses, always beautifully stereotypical, with a vaguely dark alpine look and window shutters opening to planter boxes of colourful flowers.
Occasionally we’d walk past a small herd of cows – about 4 or 5 – eating grass, their bells tinkling in a mini-symphony. Apparently each farmer’s bells sound slightly differently.
I was just taken in with the colours of it all – the grass seemed so vividly green against the bright blue sky, it was just stunning. It was strange to have snow in the background though; it was hard to believe that whilst we were sweating, the snow could remain frozen. Granted the snow was at least another 1000m up and they are mostly glaciers, but still!
We had lunch at Kleine Scheidegg (just over 2000m), which in the winter is a ski resort which you can actually take a train up to. It’s a little better organised here than the one bus company which will take you to Falls.
We then walked for another hour across to Männlichen, another ski resort at about 2200m. There was a lookout across another valley which we had planned to hike today, looking at towns called Gimmelwald, Mürren and Stechenberg. After admiring the view, we headed down the long, painful 15km descent. I have always hated going down, and this was no different. I probably only took 10 photos on the way down (as compared to about 200 on the way up) and I was aching by the time we got home.
We met a young couple from north of Sydney who are camping here and had a brief chat to them before packing it in to bed.
Today we were somewhat thankful for the rainy, hazy, overcast weather, because it meant that it wouldn’t be worth going for another hike. Our bodies were certainly grateful! We took a train to Lauterbrunnen and went to Trümmelbachfälle, or the Trümmelbach falls. These falls feed three of the regions’ four tallest glacier-covered mountains, and the water comes down with virocity. Yes, I’ve made a word up. Ferocity + velocity = virocity. Cuz that’s what was happening. Sections of the falls roared so loudly we had to yell to hear each other. You take up a lift and essentially wander down through lookout points and admire the gushing, ice-cold glacier water. At about 2ºC, it would kill you if you were stupid enough to wade in for too long!
After the roughly 8km walk there and back we were quite glad to get home. Andrew cooked up a great dinner and we sat there talking to Nerida and Dean (the couple we met last night) for ages about random crap. I was just so happy to talk to a girl. Boys suck! She had the same problem so we talked about random girl things whilst the guys pretended not to listen but secretly wanted to anyway, rolling their eyes at excited intervals.
So, we’re off to Bern tomorrow, but it’s only an hour away so it shouldn’t be a major trip! Hopefully I will learn some German, but it’s not really going anywhere…..
Bis spatter!
P.S. I adapted an awesome song that I wanted to share with you all…..from ‘Ruldoph the red-nosed reindeer…..
Andrew the red-nosed person (person)
Had a very shiny nose (like this one)
And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a light bulb)
All of the other people (people)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Snuffy Pig)
They never let poor Andrew (Andrew)
Join in any people games (like hopscotch)
Then one sunny summers day
A doctor came to say (G’day!)
“Andrew with your nose so red,
Put some sunscreen on your head!”
Then all the people loved him (loved him)
They could see that he had learnt (had learnt!)
Andrew the red-nosed person (person)
Maybe now you won’t get burnt!!
You know I’m awesome….
Hiking photos
Trümmelbach photos
