Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland!
Once I arrived in Lauterbrunnen, I walked the 1km to the camping grounds I was staying at, and discovered that once again, I'd arrived before check-in, and reception, opened. I had an hour to kill but didn't feel safe living my bag in the open there, it was a camping ground after all. So I sucked it up and sat down at their cafe restaurant and paid through the nose for a Swiss roti for lunch. It was pretty tasty but horribly expensive. On e I checked in, I also discovered hat the place had no free wifi. My dorm was a cabin with 2 bunk beds in it. I dumped my stuff and went for a walk to the waterfalls nearby. The camping grounds were just past an impressive waterfall that falls on the outskirts of Lauterbrunnen.
The walk was beautiful, through a valley and past cottages, each cuter and more Swiss than the last. I managed to have directions fail and turn the 30min walk in to a 45 min walk having missed the turn off, but with a view straight up the valley of Jungfrau, one f the tallest mountains in the area covered in snow and looking beautiful and crisp on an Autumn afternoon, I couldn't be particularly unhappy about the extra walk. When I finally found the falls, I walked in at the same time as a Swiss woman from the southern parts of Switzerland. We got talking and ended up looking through the whole place together. Tremellbachfalls is 10 waterfalls inside a mountain. A funicular takes you half way up, the you climb the stairs to the top and work your way back down. A friend had raved about them and her photos looked fantastic. The temperature in each waterfall chamber dropped drastically as the water tumbling down was glacial and barely above freezing. I don't know what I was expecting but the falls didn't quite live up to it. I think that since it's nearly the end of the thaw and just before winter, they possibly didn't have as much water running through them, in spring they would be overwhelmingly spectacular. But. It was a really cool set of caverns and waterfalls to see and I couldn't be unhappy about that. The Swiss lady and I chatted the whole time and quite enjoyed each others company for the falls. Once out, we said our farewells and went our separate ways.
I walked back, the more direct and not lost way, through the valley and stopped to read the information panels along the way. While walking, I saw local cows with huge bells around their necks each ringing with different pitches. For. Overhead I heard a roaring, tearing sound and looked up in time to see 3 or 4 base jumpers swooping through the air, one had pulled their parachute while the others continued to coast. When the early chuter landed in a field beside me, I couldn't help but stop and tell her how cool that had looked and have a chat. Turns out the Lauterbrunnen valley is quite popular with base jumpers, many of which launch from 'the nose' after taking a cable car or a bus to the top and walking the 15-20 mins to the cliff. On the rest of my walk, I saw another 2-3 take off and soar.
Since the hostel didn't have free wifi, and I certainly wasn't going to pay 5 francs for 30 mins at their place, nor was I going to pay through the nose for a meal, I headed in to town to the super market to buy some supplies and on he way back, stopped at a cafe I had passed called Airtime. One hot chocolate and free wifi later and I was much happier. At the supermarket I hadn't found anything promising for dinner, but had picked up a greek salad to team probably with a microwave meal from the camping grounds' mini mart. The cafe however, sold gourmet pies and I couldn't resist. So I had a gourmet satay chicken pie which is one of the best fancy pies I've ever eaten. They closed at 7pm so I headed back to the camping grounds and met my new Cabin mates, two young Aussie girls, also on busabout. I have met more Aussie and Kiwis on this trip than any other nationality, I blame busabout.
The girls were keen to go sky diving or similar. I had wanted to go white water rafting but was utterly disappointed to discover the season had ended only a week or two earlier. I had instead opted to go up to the 'Top of Europe' to the top of Jungfrau. It was a horribly early owning start, being on a train a 7am. I told the girls about my canyon swing and other adventure options offered at airtime cafe, and I told them about the free wifi. They invited me out but with an early start, I declined, ate my Greek salad and had a relatively early night.
The next morning I woke up before my alarm and was gutted to hear the constant litter patter of rain. Since I'd already bought my ticket, I figured I'd be going up there anyway, so I got up, got dressed and headed out in to the weather. It wasn't overly cold, but the rain was constant. Since I was running so early, I headed to airtime cafe, which was closed, but had a covered Vera day at the front which I sat down at and checked to see if their wifi ran out of hours, I was in luck! So after about I wandered to the train and jumped on for the 7am departure. The way up was marred by grey clouds obscuring the best sights, but tourists still insisted on opening the windows and taking photos of... well, grey! The train stops half way up and we had to switch to the next train that would take us to the top of Jungfrau. On the way up it pauses at two locations so everyone can get out and look through large windows at the glacier and snowy views, only it was a complete white out.
Once at the top, the conditions were much the same but I figured I would make the most of it. I'd met some lovely Brits on the rain and chatted to the a bit as we followed the marked tour through the building looking at the bleak conditions outside. I arrived at one of the viewing platforms and to my surprise, people were outside taking photos anyway. So off I went and joined them, having a great time taking stupid photos, throwing snowballs, throwing fallen snow in to the air and all manner of things to freeze your fingers. Since I'd already been outside in the whipping wind and snow, when I got to the Plateau, a place where they normally fly the Swiss flag, I wandered straight out to take a photo and hopefully glimpse the glacier I was there to see. I actually got to see it! The wind, while strong, did actually manage to clear the clouds occasionally and I could make out the white on white glacier every now and then.
Give the weather, it's no surprise the best bit was the ice palace, a series of carved ice sculptures including penguins, eagles, bears and people. What I didn't realise till the British chap told me later is that that palace is actually inside the glacier!Yes, they carve an entire set of caverns and sculptures for tourists to walk through the gamier to see! That made it all that much cooler in my mind. And far more impressive. After all the "cool" activities, it was time to grab a hot chocolate and warm up with some free internet. Since the ticket I had was a discounted one for the 7am start, it also required that I catch the train back no later than midday, but wi hoards of tourists arriving around the 10.30am mark, I wasn't unhappy to leave, and the weather really didn't look like it would improve. I ran in to the Brits again and the chap said he was heading back to the Phoenix viewing platform in the hopes tha the weather was clearing and the view a bit better, and that they'd be catching the 11:30am train back. It seemed like a good plan so I did the same.
To my utter amazement, the weather actually did clear a bit, enough to see the glacier, and the valley on the other side of the platform. Not amazing it better than the white out I'd had earlier, so I took a whole bunch more photos. I managed to catch the 11:30am train with the Brits and we decided to take a stop at the halfway point where we had to change trains. We went for a walk around the town, which, being a Sunday, was absolutely dead. I'm still not used to most of Europe being closed on a Sunday!
Once back in Lauterbrunnen, I made plans to head back to airtime for wifi, hot chocolate and to get a take away pie for dinner. I went by the supermarket only to discover that it too was closed on a Sunday afternoon. So I headed to airtime and sat down a a table with two blokes who turned out t be Scottish father and son. We got chatting and they shouted me a drink, so I had the hot chocolate wi a shot of kirsch in it and we discussed all things travel and adventure sports. I ended up having the soup and pie combo for a early dinner instead, which was kind of perfect for the chilled, rainy day.
I got back to the cabin and ran in to the girls, they hadn't been able to go skydiving because of the weather but had managed to go canyon swinging instead, and they loved it. They were heading to a Contiki Party, themed red and white, which was in 'the bunker' - literally an old bunker - and they invited me along. Turns out Contiki also uses that camping ground as a regular accommodation option. Against my better judgement, I went along with the girls to the pre-drinks and then to the bunker. I have never wanted to go on a Contiki tour as I have heard enough stories about drunken debauchery and being so hungover you miss an entire country that I knew it wasn't for me. If I'd ever thought my assumption might be wrong, this party reaffirmed everything. The girls were between 20-24, horribly, embarrassingly drunk and dancing loudly to god awful music. There were a fair few drunk guys too, and there was cross over with busabout and Contiki crew hitting on each other's clients. I started chatting to a guy, Dave. He actually was really nice, a bit socially awkward and in his early 30s, so not quite with the right crowd. He confirmed that Contiki leaders didn't care about the rules and slept with a lot of their own clients too.... ick!
Anyway after a good bit of a laugh, a good chat with Dave and having had enough of watching a bunch of young drunk things grind against each other, I excused myself and went to bed. One of the girls came home, the other dropped in briefly at 3am with her party beau and continued on to his room for the remainder of the night.
The next morning I picked up my personalized Swiss Army Knife and then waited until after the buses had left to hit the showers. The. It was time to pack up and head back to the train, bound for Paris!
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