Interlaken

Met John and Lorraine at Interlaken. They were underwhelmed by Interlaken, which is a mecca (pun intended) for wealthy tourists – we particularly noticed mainland Chinese and Middle Easterners, including women in burkhas (only eyes visible) accompanied by men in very ordinary western clothing. And quite a few babies in baby carriages. The large number of Moslim tourists is especially surprising considering that in 2009 Switzerland had passed a referendum banning minarets.

Dinner at the Golden Anchor, a Rick Steves recommendation. David and I had the best lamb we’ve ever had, and a local beer – Rugenbraugen. After dinner, at the Oberlander Hotel pub, we listened to a white-haired couple in traditional costume playing accordions and singing. The woman sang yodeling tunes in a high sweet pure soprano. I think she could sing more than one note at a time. The man brought out his Alpenhorn, and we all tried to play it. John did well – he was able to get two different notes.

13 August Wednesday, in Interlaken. John’s birthday (yesterday was Lorraine’s). We walked all over, first to see the start of the funicular ride up the mountain, then lunch – fondue at Hotel du Lac. Walked through a nice older neighborhood NE of our hotel, with a lovely old church with unseen organist, then on to the cemetery across the street, where we perused the headstones and sat on a bench to rest our tired feet. We even found a happy birthday billboard for John.

Dinner was at an interesting, noisy pub. Pork schnitzel, fries, beer. On the way, walking many blocks from our hotel, Lorraine and I hear faint singing off on a side street. She and I buzz off like bees to flowers. Traditional folk singers, in costume, are performing and selling homemade bread and cheese. We stay to hear several songs and are delighted some of the singers speak English and tell us about themselves. We buy cheese.

Jungfraujock

Took the train to Kleine Scheidegg where we switched to the Jungfrau train. Too crowded, we stand for the entire 50-minute ride. The first leg is classic Swiss train ride, going through green pastures and quaint villages. The Jungfraujoch portion is fascinating. We can see all the snow capped mountains as the train climbed up to the tunnel. The tunnel is several miles along in the rocks under Eiger. There are two stops inside the tunnel where an opening in the rock allow you look down to the valley several thousands feet below. Why the Swiss built this tunnel is beyond me. Apparently in the old days, a Swiss engineer with a vision (like this) could muster a project like this (like the dwarfs in Lord of the Ring?).

The facility at the top was a zoo of people. We jostle and shoulder our way into an open area to eat our lunch against full-length windows showing parts of the Jungfrau, mostly covered in cloud but occasionally parting to reveal dark rock and glacial ice. The Swiss Alps weather is fast changing. It went from perfectly clear when we started at Interlaken to thick clouds when we arrived at Jungfraujoch.

The facility is partially built inside the rocks. It has eight different attractions – a walkway out into the open air to experience the wind and cold (we put on down parkas). A cafeteria. An outdoor snow play area where people were sledding and skiing. The Sphinx – up many stories in an elevator, a glass sided dome for viewing. An ice palace with tunnel through ice and tableaux of ice statues of people and animals.

Kleine Scheidegg, Grindelwald

We took the train back to Kleine Scheidegg, where it is a short walk to our hut (practically a hotel, with showers and a restaurant) called Grindelwaldblick. We four are the only ones assigned to a dormitory room with 16 bunks. Others are in other rooms, so there’s privacy. The restaurant has choices for dinner – schnitzel; brotwurst; fish and fries; hamburger and fries; and a chicken breast “fitness plate” with salad.  We play hearts after dinner. As we go to bed, we hear a faint, continuous tinkling of cow bells.

We took separate day hikes from the hotel the next day. John and Lorraine head downhill to Grindelwald. David and I take the train one stop (Alpiglen) to the east where we can start the Eiger Trail. It is unfortunately very cloudy, even foggy. The trail is pleasant, with wildflowers and views of spectacular rock faces and waterfalls.

We take the side trail that goes steeply up to the Eiger, which is lost in the clouds. We take the trail as far as the first Via Ferrata, which David had wanted badly to try. He did not rent the gear because the weather was so crummy. We barely see the lower stretches of ladder in the fog but can’t even figure out how to get there from the trail we are on – it is so steep and treacherous with crumbly slippery rock.

The trail takes us to the Eiger Glacier train station. Toward the end, at the base of the rock wall, there are plaques, one commemorating a climber that died, and several others that have biographies of current guides. One guide is noted for free-climbing the Eiger along many different routes, including one named for John Harlin, the American climber who died on the Eiger attempting a new route, back in 1966. His widow Marilyn Harlin was a professor of botany at University of Rhode Island when we were there in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

David and I have a snack at a restaurant near the train station, then hike back to Kleine Scheidegg. On this segment we are next to cows, all munching away on pasture grass and sounding their bells as they move. It is a pleasant, continuous sound. (And verifying that David lost his bet, which was that the continuous sound of cow bells we heard the night before was a tape, broadcast from the train station.)

Back at Grindelwaldblick, I mistakenly take a shower in the men’s shower room. When a fully dressed Frenchman remarks offhandedly to me (also fully dressed) that I am in the men’s shower room I soundly berate him: “Vous etes trop…trop…trop…(what is the word for wrong)!! Ce n’est pas pour les hommes! C’est pour les femmes!” Then in English, “I’m an old lady, I don’t care!!”

Dinner in the restaurant – pasta. Another group of diners off to the right – I recognize the back of the head of the man I had confronted in the shower. I slunk my way through dinner, head down.