A trip to Switzerland - Day Five

Day Five:

We woke up bright and early. As we had the 9 O'clock travel pass, the schedule I had made up called for us to be at the Rumlang station by about nine am, to get the 9:09 train to Zurich Hbf.

At the lobby, we had a great breakfast buffet waiting for us. Based on comments I read on the site, the breakfast was not up to expectations for folks expecting a hot breakfast spread but for us vegetarians, it was the best we could hope to get :-). We had bread (choice of butter, margarine, jam, chocolate spread, etc to top it with), croissants, muessli, fresh fruits, a wide variety of hot and cold beverages. In other words, we were very full when we got up!

A trip to Switzerland - Day Four

Today was the day we had to check out of the Hotel and so we had already made up our mind on what we were doing regardless of the weather - heading to Oberwald - and therefore the fact that the sun was out did not really affect our decision. Upon further investigation (i.e., stepping outside of the room), I noticed that though the sun had come out, the top of the mountains were still covered so it might not be a good idea to change plans now.

Train climbs from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen

Dining room at Valley Hostel, Lauterbrunnen

View from our bedroom window

We quickly got ready and checked out. My plan was to leave on the 8:03 train to Interlaken Ost so we could be at Meiringen in time for the 9:25 am Post Bus to Oberwald. Upon checking out, we were told where to keep our luggage in storage for pick up when we returned from Oberwald.

Spot the little cottage in the mountain

Travelling along the Lutschine

A trip to Switzerland - Day Three

By the end of Day Two, we had decided that there was no point in trying to postpone a trip up the mountains. Tomorrow (day four), we would need to be ready to pack up early and then do whatever sightseeing we could, come back to pick up our stuff and leave for Zurich in the afternoon (latest by evening). Besides, the Meiringen area was planned to have sunny weather for at least a couple of hours while the weather was still forecast to be dicey in Lauterbrunnen. That did not leave us with much of a choice, i.e., we got Hobson's choice!

With that in mind, we (parents) planned to wake up early to get prepared; as it was, we got up too early - I believe it was somewhere around 5ish. There was not much to do that early, so we took a walk in the empty streets to get to Staubbach Falls. At the entrance, a sign said that the hours were from 8 am to ... pm (I forget what). Like law-abiding folks, we decided against going further though I couldn't think of a reason why the place needed to be closed during this time of the year - the rule would make perfect sense for Autumn and Winter! We just hung around to take a few photos and returned to the Valley Hostel; on our way back, we saw some other folks going right up to the falls (maybe we should have done so as well - it was light enough).

A trip to Switzerland - Day Two

Day two came upon us bright and sunny. OK, I lied. It was not all that bright and it was cloudy! Based on the forecasts, I had decided to go the Zermatt today (Monday), and try our chances with the mountains above tomorrow (Tuesday).

I got out of the room to the balcony and watched the trains leaving for Wengen. As family was still asleep, I spent some time gazing at the mountain as the train ascended. Wengen being on a shelf cannot really be seen from Lauterbrunnen (well, not from the Valley Hostel anyway). After taking a couple of old-style selfies (with a self-timer), I headed down to the bathrooms to get ready. Luckily for us, it appeared that most of the other folks were either a) even earlier risers than us or b) later, much later, than us. On none of the days we were there did we encounter the terrifying (to me) scenario of there being blocked out of using the toilet facilities!

A trip to Switzerland - Day One

We reached Zurich at about 6:30 am in the morning; however, after an eventful morning that included some unwise decisions from me, as luck would have it, we reached our destination, Valley Hostel Lauterbrunnen, only at about 3:30 pm. We immediately checked in without any issues and freshened up.

Looking up towards the mountains, we could see the blue sky partially covered by clouds. But as we had nothing to lose and nothing else planned for the day (plans had been squashed because we got there so late in the afternoon), we decided to take the train to Wengen. As (our) luck would have it (and as we now know), that afternoon was the brightest it ever was during our three-day stay in Lauterbrunnen. When we reached Wengen, we realized that the clouds were getting thicker at the top (we had never caught sight of the top of the Jungfrau anyway) and so decided to hang around in the Wengen area for some time. My son and I walked up the path along the railway line for about half an hour. We were able to hear the sounds coming from the cowbells as the livestock grazed along the mountainside.

Sense of Humour - a Katya Tale

It has been a while so I have forgotten the context. It had something to do with me complaining about folks in the household lack a sense of humour.

Katya: Appa! You have only two senses - a sense of humour and a sense of anger.

Porcupyn [Taken aback]: What do you mean?

Katya: Well, you have a sense of anger because you are mean to me sometimes, and you have a sense of humour because sometimes you laugh for no reason at all!