August 20, 2015

August 20, 2015

We set the alarm to wake up early today on the off chance that my lucky charm might come through.  I looked out the windows and saw clouds again.  Drats!  I told Aimee to forget it and we took our time getting packed, then moseying down to breakfast.  I said “Cloudy again” to the hostess and she replied, “No, It is a beautiful day” and pointed out the window.  I looked and what did I see but, the Matterhorn, naked and glorious.  I gulped down a bowl of cereal, grabbed the camera and sprinted for her.  I took a dozen photos of her in various poses.  I then turned around to get some of her with the town in the foreground and I could see the cloud layer rising out of the valley.  When I got to the Zermatt bridge, she was dressed in clouds again. 

We hopped on the train and headed back north. Two trains later we pulled into Spiez, and switched to another train going east past the very large glacier-carved Lake Thun.  It is very pretty surrounded by steep mountains.  In Interlaken we transfer to another train that takes us into the Lauterbrunnen valley.  There we take a cable car up to the cliff top and then a short train along the rim to Murren.  Murren is an alpine town that is perched on the cliff edge.

After all the travelling we have done in the United States, we sometimes think we are hard to impress.  But here Aimee and I are mesmerized by the scenery.  The Lauterbrunnen valley looks like Yosemite but with green grass and waterfalls everywhere. (Lauterbrunnen means loud waterfalls).  To push the scenery over the top, the entire valley is in the shadow of a line of tall snow-capped peaks.

After checking into our chalet, we head to the cliff edge and have a picnic lunch while watching one paraglider after another take off to our right and sail over the Lauterbrunnen valley right in front of us. It looks like a blast but Aimee nixes us partaking in the fun.  Seeing that clouds are socking in the peaks on our side of the valley, we decide to hike along the rim downhill to the village of Gimmelwald through the forest.  Like every trail we have hiked in Switzerland, it is very steeply downhill. Gimmelwald has some tourist accommodations but the village is still very rustic and agricultural.  We take the cable car back up to Murren.

This trip we have had a tradition of drinking a glass of wine before dinner, so we take our bottle and sit on a park bench overlooking the valley.  The daytrippers have left Murren and we have the whole place seemingly to ourselves now.  Aimee and I are in heaven.