Switzerland Alpenventure: Wengen

Last morning views from Gimmelwald.  My scene as I was putting on my hiking boot.

After three nights in Gimmelwald it was time to move on.  Up next was Wengen, further up the Lauterbrunnen Valley, closer to the entrance, but also not accessible by car.  My friend Ben recommended the place, and I trust his taste in travel enough to give it a shot.  It also was nicely located on the other side of the valley so I'd have different views and have access to other travel locations.  I had done most of my packing the night before and finished up the last of it in the morning.  Up next was making the decision about travel and in the end I decided I would rather go all the way to Wengen (pronounced Vengen, you know, the German W=V scenario) and drop my stuff off and then head back down to the floor of the valley to spend my day as planned.  

Cable Car to Stechelberg

To get to Wengen from Gimmelwald, I first took a cable car to Stechelberg, followed by a bus to Lauterbrunnen, and then the cog railway to Wengen.  After dropping my bags off at my hotel (it was too early to check in), I took the cog back down to Lauterbrunnen and started walking a path through the valley.  The path itself was rather weird because was it a wide walking and bike path, or narrow road.  Turns out technically a narrow road, but there were only a few houses off of it so I assume cars only drive down it a few times a day.  

Lauterbrunnen Valley

The best way to describe the Lauterbrunnen Valley is Yosemite Valley if Yosemite had been homesteaded before the government preserved it.  The valley has tall walls of rock a couple of thousand feet tall, and waterfalls that flow off of them.  It being September, there are only a few waterfalls flowing at this time of year, but they say when the spring runoff is melting, there are 72 waterfalls.  It is said that this valley in particular inspired JRR Tolkein to create Rivendell.

Staubbach Falls

The trail runs up the valley, past Staubbach Falls first.  It still was flowing, but was definitely a more mild waterfall than pictures show it in May and June.  Further up the valley you could see tell-tale signs of waterfalls, but they appeared dry or didn't have enough water flowing down to do more than make the rocks glisten.  The one issue with the trail is the lack of shade.  It was sunny, not a cloud in the sky and that made it rather warm.  Where are the clouds when you want them? 

Trummelbach Falls

I decided the farthest up the trail I would go was to Trummelbach Falls.  Trummelbach Falls is a series of 10 waterfalls from the melting waters of the Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger glaciers.  The cool thing about the Falls is a lot of it is inside.  Somehow someone back in the 1800s realized that this waterfall was actually falling inside the rock walls of the valley before finally dropping the last bit of it on the valley walls.  And then they thought, how can I make an attraction out of this.  This resulted in them basically building an elevator inside the rock walls and tunnels so you can see the internal falls.  The falls are lit up and definitely worth a visit in my opinion.  It was definitely a neat place.

Trummelbach Falls

On my walk back to Lauterbrunnen, I decided it was necessary to buy cheese from a cheese vending machine along the path, because why not?  When in Switzerland...

Cheese vending machine

Upon getting back to Wengen, I got checked in and then quickly made my way down to the grocery store to buy a sandwich for supper because I really wasn't in the mood for a sit-down dinner.  I wandered the length of the town and sat down on some benches up by a church that had a great view of the valley.  I sat up there finishing an audiobook while the sun set.  

Sunset from Wengen

Then I headed down to the community center where they were having a Folkloric show.  This is something they seem to do once a month during the summer months.  It started out with people carrying in these GIANT cowbells.  So big.  Apparently these bells are used to ring in the New Year and are brought out for events like this.  Then we had Ost and his Alphorn.  He played some songs on it, one being Amazing Grace. In a way it is played like a bugle, by which I mean, there is no fingerings or slides used to adjust pitch.  We had some women do some traditional dances.  The host noted that the club seemed to be missing men, so women were playing all the roles.  There was also the band that played some polkas.  I think that hit everything.  It was just happenstance that I came into town the day they were having this event.

See?  Aren't those bells gigantic?

The following morning was birthday morning!  It's fun to be able to celebrate your birthday on a trip somewhere.  I've also previously celebrated birthdays in Peru and Spain, plus some domestic trips.  The plan for the day was Grindelwald.  I was hesitant about Grindelwald because I had seen a lot of people say that it is overcrowded and not worth the hype.  Honestly, after visiting, I feel that is an apt description and I'm glad I chose not to stay there, but instead to stay in Wengen.

The fierce, fluffy guard dog at my hotel.  So much fluff!

To get to Grindelwald from Wengen, I took the cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen, up on the mountain ridge above Wengen, and then rode in a 10 person gondola on the way down, though there were only 3 of in it.  On the Wengen side, the mountain is steep, but on the Grindelwald side, the slope is much more gradual and it is dotted with ski-lifts.  

Wengen side of the mountain, with avalache protection fences. Much steeper!

The Grindelwald side of the mountain.

Before going down the gondola to Grindelwald, I hiked up to the peak of Mannlichen where there was a great view of the Lauterbrunnen Valley and the Grindelwald Valley.  You could also see one of the lakes on either side of Interlaken.  On the hike up, there were a number of signs talking about the three peaks in front of us (Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger).  The signs talked about everything from composition, to how they inspired painters and poets, to those who have climbed the Eiger North Face, and their names.  Each one also had a fun little game.

Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau from Mannlichen

After making my way back down, I got into the gondola and headed down into Grindelwald.  Upon getting to the station in Grindelwald, I was hot and sweaty, thanks to being inside a glass box on a very sunny and warm day.  Good news was there was a Lindt chocolate shop inside the station, and I got myself a delicious birthday ice cream.  I also decided it was my birthday and I wanted to be lazy, so instead of walking the mile or so to the city center area, I hopped the train.  Yes, I spent a whole 2.20 CHF because I wanted to be lazy on my birthday (with that said, I still walked over 10 miles over the course of the day).

First ice cream of the day!  Because I'm the birthday girl!

Step one upon arrival in the city center, was to find a pharmacy to buy some more ibuprofen, because I have developed shin splints, and I don't exactly have time to rest them, and my stash I brought with me was already almost gone, thanks to headaches my first two days (jetlag), and pain in my body after my hike down from Schilthorn.  From there I wandered the town, making my way towards the Grindelwald-First cable car, which will take you up to the First peak, which sits above Grindelwald.  Up there they had a bunch of hiking trails and some things like a zip line and bikes to ride down the mountain. 

View from First looking out over Grindelwald and the Grindelwald (?) Glacier.  Idk if that's its actual name.

The views were great and you could see the glacier up on the mountain above Grindelwald really well.  Unfortunately it was hot and I was hot because I had packed for cooler weather, expecting I'd think 60-75 would feel cool after all the 100+ degree days I'd been living in.  This meant I packed no shorts.  At least I did pack a few short sleeve shirts, but I was still hot and a bit miserable.  I ended up ending a planned hike only about 1/2 mile in (1 mile round trip) because I just wasn't into it.  I made my way down the mountain in a gondola with 3 Chinese men, who had matching Discovery Travel shirts so I assume they were on some guided trip and had the day in Grindelwald to do what they wanted.  

Once back in the town, I set out to find more ice cream because I was hot.  And I managed to find what has to be the cheapest ice cream spot in the country.  I got three scoops (it's my birthday!) and it was only 6 CHF.  I'd paid more for a single scoop in Zurich.  And then after finishing my ice cream, I headed down to the train station to ride the train back to Lauterbrunnen and then the cog back up to Wengen.  After a shower, I went out for supper.

My last day in Wengen, I spent hiking above the town.  I took the cable car back up to Mannlichen and then set out on the Panorama trail.  The day was cool and perfect for hiking.  I had specifically made this decision, when I saw it was going to be cooler.  Grindelwald on the hot day, hiking Mannlichen to Kleine Shieddegg to Eigergletscher on the cooler day.  The Panorama hike was a pretty easy hike for being on the side of a mountain.  The one unknown for the hike was how the Jungfrau Marathon was going to impact me.

A very different sort of weather morning from up on Mannlichen.

Yes, I happened to pick the day of the Jungfrau Marathon to hike.  The marathon started in Interlaken and climbed almost 2000m up to the Eiger Glacier.  The first half of the trail is pretty flat, before it then takes a turn for the steep as they run from Lauterbrunnen (812m) to Wengen (1283m) to Eigergletscher (2320m).  I got passed by the winners about 5 minutes before he crossed the finish line.  It took me an extra 12 or so minutes to make it up to the finish line area (obviously they weren't going to let me cross the line).  The female winner would have finished 10th overall, which I consider to be pretty impressive.  I would just like to say that at the time I reached the "finish", I had been hiking for roughly 2 hours, and had gone 4.66 miles.  

After watching some of the racers make their way up, and then eating some chocolate (insert Professor Lupin saying "eat it"), I started back down to Kleine Shieddegg, while I figured out what my plan was.  I came into the day having multiple plans.  I could take the trail across and up to Eigergletscher and back down to Keline Shieddegg and hop the cog down to Wengen, or I could hike back across to where I came back up on a different trail.  After seeing how crowded the trains were, and the fact I was feeling pretty good still, I decided to hike back.  I finished my day hiking a total of 10 miles (almost exactly) in 6 hours.  Though my Garmin tells me only 3hr 56 m of that was moving time.  I spent some time snacking, taking photos, and watching racers so that checks out.  And then I spent some time dying on my last uphill trek of the Romantic Trail (misnomer, there was nothing romantic about it!).  

The cog coming down from Eigergletscher.

On the cable car ride back into Wengen, there were some marathoners on it, which means they made it to the top and then chose to hike another like 2-3 miles back to this cable car after!  Insane!  Of course they run marathons, so we already knew they were insane.

I suspect fall colors are starting to creep into some of the alpine brush.

Up next is Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn.  And as Disneyland has taught me, the Yeti.

Switzerland Alpenventure: Gimmelwald

I woke up my last morning in Luzern, packed up and pulled up the SBB App.  This app is where you can buy transport tickets throughout Switzerland.  Tickets for trains, cable cars, pretty much everything, I think.  It is nice because I was able to put in Luzern to Murren, and not have to buy separate tickets for each different leg or type of leg of my journey.  The trip from Luzern to Gimmelwald (my final destination) involved a train from Luzern to Interlaken Ost; a train from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen; a cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grutslap; a train from Grutslap to Murren; and lastly, a cable car from Murren to Gimmelwald.  I intially only bought a ticket to Murren, because I hadn't decided if I wanted to take the walking path from Murren to Gimmelwald or the cable car.  By the time I arrived in Murren and trekked from one side of the village to the other, I had decided I was paying the extra 3.20 CHF (roughly $4) to take the cable car.  I still stand by my decision to only pack in backpacks though, because nothing sucks more than suitcases on cobblestones and hauling them up stairs.

The trip from Luzern to Murren was roughly 3 hours and boy was it a beautiful 3 hours.  I did seem to be on the wrong side of the train though.  I hadn't really thought about it when I boarded.  There was a map on the little ledge in my seats and I saw that for about 2/3 of the trip I'd be on the wrong side, but then the last part, I should have all the views of the lakes out my window.  Even being on the wrong side, things were gorgeous.  Bright blue lakes!  Green mountain sides!  Farms!  On my side there were a lot of backyards with small gardens and fruit trees.  Lots of apple trees.  It makes me want to plant an apple tree in the community garden.  Then we pulled into a town and I thought I was going to be on the right side to see the lakes and everything, but it turns out that was were the train pulled into the station in town and backed out, so I was still on the wrong side!

One of the many lakes we passed on the train.

At Interlaken I had about a 10 minute layover between trains.  Then I got on for the short trip to Lauterbrunnen.  The train actually split into two somewhere between Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen with half the train going to Grindelwald and the other half going to Lauterbrunnen.  At Lauterbrunnen, I stopped by the bathroom and then headed to my first cable car-as-transit-between-towns cable car.  The cable car to Pilatus was more of just a ride up the mountain and seemed like a tourist attraction; but here it was actual transportation.

Up at the top of the cable car line I got onto a 2 car train.  I don't know how they got the train up there.  I seriously want to know.  The ride from Grutslap to Murren was maybe 15 minutes.  You were traveling up on the ridge of a mountain getting peaks of what lay across the valley through the pine trees.

View from the train between Grutslap and Murren.

Upon arrival at Murren, I walked the length of the town, stopping at the grocery store in town to get some food for the next day or two.  Overall, while the prices were probably higher than in Luzern, they weren't as bad as I expected, considering that all the food has to arrive in Murren via cable car/train.  With another bag in hand now, I was for sure taking the cable car to Gimmelwald.

The view from the hostel window.  See, totally worth it!

So how to describe Gimmelwald?  A Swiss Hobbiton.  It's rustic, beautiful, built on the side of a grassy hill.  I read about Gimmelwald in a guidebook, which I soon learned was very old fashioned of me as the two others I was talking to while eating supper and hanging out after learned of it from TikTok.  They were both in the 18-25 range, so just mere babies.  Haha!  One was from Estonia and the other from New Zealand.  The girl from Estonia had never seen mountains before and was so excited!

Gimmelwald

See, couldn't you imagine Samwise Gamgee living here?

I'm staying at the Mountainhostel which has room for like 60 people in 3 dorms, where you're literally sleeping side-by-side.  Luckily for me I at least am on an end, so I'm only sleeping next to one person and it is a lot easier for me to get in and out.  But the bed really isn't that bad and the views are just stunning.  Everyone is like, "honestly, I'm here for the views and the bed works."  

After arriving and setting up my bunk, I grabbed my computer to type up my Luzern post and then headed out for a walk around the village.  The town is a farming village, so there are goats and cows out and around (you can hear them clanging).  On the walk I passed multiple houses that had mini-fridges where you could buy cheese and some other homemade things from them.  They just have an honesty box to put money into or a QR code to send money to.  In the evening I had some ham and cheese sandwiches, chatted, and then played some Estonian card game.

Buy yourself some cheese!

In the morning I ate breakfast and then headed out for a day on Schilthorn.  Schilthorn is a peak on the west side of the Lauterbrunnen valley and the perfect place from which to view Jungfrau, the highest peak in the area, and home to the Jungfrau Glacier, though from the look of things, there are a bunch of glaciers in the area.  To get to Schilthorn, I took the cable car to Murren, and then another one up to Birg.  Birg sits most of the way up and was about a 5 minute trip.  Up there at the visitor center there is a walkway clinging to the side of the mountain and some great viewing sights of not just Jungfrau, but also Monch and the Eiger.  I was familiar with the Eiger from a Jon Kraukauer book.  It is known for its rock climbing North Face, which appears to be a fairly vertical climb.

Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau (Peaks from left to right)

I hadn't been up there for more than 5-10 minutes when clouds moved into the valley.  NOOOOOO!!!  And right as I hit a point on the walkway with a sign that said "Photo Point", you couldn't see a thing other than white in the valley.  Bummer.  I made my way back up to the viewing point and sat there for another 10-15 mintues, hoping it would clear out before giving up.  I figured I might as well make my way to the top as I still had tickets up there, even if I don't see anything.  But it turns out we were just in some clouds because as we climbed higher up to Schilthorn, it cleared and you could see all three peaks right there!  Stunning!

Above the clouds

I real quickly make a quick pass around, getting photos in every direction just in case the clouds moved in.  Luckily though, for the time I was up there it was just intermittent clouds and nothing that blocked the view for long.  From up on Schilthorn, you can see not only the 3 peaks right in front of you across the valley, but in one spot, between two mountains you can see Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe; but it is so far away it isn't all that impressive.

Mont Blanc is the snow-capped mountain almost dead center, way in the back.

One of the things Schilthorn is known for is its ties to James Bond.  Apparently a lot of filming for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a late 1960s post-Sean Connery Bond film, was filmed atop the mountain.  At that point in time they hadn't completely finished building the restaurant and other fixtures in the building, so they let the film take over.  What a great way to bring in more tourism after it was finished.  In the building is a whole display on the filming of the movie.  And it appears I failed to take a photo of the building with my phone (where I get the pictures for my posts from), so I guess you'll just have to create something up in your mind.  I was too distracted by the mountains!

Quick break from eating lunch, to take a picture.

I had a great classic Swiss lunch of ham, cheese, and bread before taking one last round of photos and taking the cable car back down to Birg.  Instead of taking the cable car the rest of the way down, I was going to hike down to Gimmelwald.  According to AllTrails, the route I was planning to take would be a little over 5 miles.  A pretty steady descent.  I failed to notice it was a 4400 foot descent!  Oh my knees!  But it was pretty and the views worth the pain of the following day.

On the way down, I passed some paragliders who were about to take off, and watched them go.  I got my required handstand photo(s).  I got to walk past cows in a field.  I also got to the point where I was afraid if I sat down, I wouldn't want to stand back up, so I didn't let myself sit.  Just keep moving, moving, moving.

The views the whole way down were amazing!  I eventually walked out on that ridge on the right and down into the valley you see.

Cows!

When I reached the top of Gimmelwald I was so thrilled.  Upon returning to the hostel, I grabbed a quick shower and change of clothes, and some ibuprofen for the knees.  Then I went next door to a proper three course Swiss dinner, which was absolutely delicious!  I went to bed early as I was exhausted, taking another round of pain pills before bed.

Sunset as the mountains reflect the sun.  It didn't hit like this the following evening.

I slept soundly and woke up rested, but sore.  It was obvious that the via ferrata plans were being scrapped.  It was just going to be a fairly lazy day.  I walked the 1.5 miles to Murren, slowly, working out the soreness in my hips.  Then I took a slow loop around town before getting some hot chocolate and a cookie.  Sometimes a nice relaxing day is what you need.  Especially after hiking 4400 feet down a mountain.  

Road to Murren

Murren

Up on the ridge in the background is where I hiked from the day before.

Switzerland Alpenventure: Luzern

 Luzern get 5 stars!  I love it!  Luzern often gets spelled by its French spelling of Lucerne, which is rather funny because it is in the German speaking part of Switzerland, so shouldn't it go by Luzern?  There also seems to be an emphasis in the first syllable: LOOTZ-ern.  

Yesterday morning I got up and got ready and said, "Let's seen when the next train to Luzern is?  Oh cool!  There's one in 5 minutes and one in 35 minutes and one in an hour(ish).  How cool is that to have all those options."  I figured I should be able to make the one in 35 mins though I wasn't sure, so I wasn't going to buy my ticket until I got to the train station, which was about a 15 min walk.  I had enough time to also get breakfast: a bretzel with ham (yes, spelled with a B, not a P).  I hopped on the train, took a seat and we set off about 10 minutes later.  The ride was pretty, but the area between Zurich and Luzern is still rather flattish.  You're still in the foothills of the Alps.  Before I knew it, the train was pulling into the station.

As is required, I walked out of the train station and turned the wrong direction (I also did that in Zurich, to carry on my tradition of always being turned around when leaving a station of any sort).  Maybe it was for the best because as I took my detour and eventually poured out into the area right near the river, I literally went "WOW!"  It was just so Europe.  This beautiful wooden bridge and such European buildings.  It was gorgeous. 

Lion Monument

It was too early to check into my hotel, but I was able to drop off my bags, and move my stuff I needed for the day into my smaller one.  Then I grabbed my headphones and set off for the Lion Monument, which was one end of the Luzern City App that had a self-guided audio tour available.  The Lion Monument was created back in the 1800s to honor the Swiss Guard that were injured and killed while protecting King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette at the Tuileries Palace, when the revolutionaries attacked.  The monument has a dying lion protecting a shield with the Fleur-de-Lis on it representing the French royalty.

Hofkirche St Leodegar

Up next on the tour was Hofkirche St Leodegar.  Just as I was approaching, it started to ring noon.  It is surrounded by cemetery.  Upon walking up the stairs and in through the front door, my immediate thought was "This can't be Protestant.  Did this church not get Protestant Reformed?  This has to be Catholic."  And upon looking it up, it is indeed Catholic.  How can you tell?  All the gold and paintings and such.  Things that are mostly missing from Protestant churches.

Walls in the Weinmarkt

I next passed by the Kapellplatz and City Hall.  Both important parts of old Luzern.  Then I arrived at the Weinmarkt with is a square in town...or more of a triangle, that was known as a market place for wine...of course, but also a place were performances were held in the city.  The walls are also covered in paintings.  

Zytturm Clock Tower at Musegg

Then was a walk up to the Musegg Wall.  The Wall is a part of the city's old fortifications.  It consists of 9 towers and a wall connecting them.  One of the towers includes the Zytturm, which is the old clock tower.  In fact, it is the oldest clock in the city, which means that it has a special honor.  It gets to be the first clock to chime the hour in the city.  This basically means it chimes the hour about 2 minutes ahead of the other clocks.  It also means when you can fall asleep and the windows are open, you get to hear like 5 minutes of chiming every hours instead of one.  Ask me how I know.  

Counterweights and pendulum for Zytturm

The wall was pretty cool, but totally hot inside.  It had steep steps, and was quite hot inside.  The Zytturm tower had old clock mechanisms inside of it from other clock towers in the area. You could also see the long pendulum and counterweights that kept the clock working.  You could walk across the ramparts between a few of the towers, and then you could go up one of the towers furthest from the lake.  That one had an open roof and a great view!

One of the things you could see from the roof of the Musegg Wall, was the Spreuerbrucke, a bridge across the Reuss River.  This bridge is an old wooden bridge, but not THE old wooden bridge that crosses the river.  This one is also quite old, and is at a place in the river were it was by the mills.  It is named Spreuer because of the chaff that was removed from the threshing of wheat and tossed in the river at the bridge.  The bridge has a series of paintings in the trusses.  The series includes skeletons doing things like serving dinner or out at sea or in a meeting.  The idea of it being that no one escapes death, no matter your station in life.  

Speruerbruck

Just upstream of the Speruerbrucke is the the Needle Dam.  The lake is controlled by this dam, which allows for water to be let out of the lake.  It is a rather unique dam and has been controlling lake flow since the 1860s.

Jesuitenkirche

The last major church I stopped by was the Jesuitenkirche.  It is a beautiful Catholic church and there was a choir rehearsing inside for a free concert that was going to be held the next day.  I unfortunately wasn't going to be back in time to go to it.  But the little bit of of one song that I hear, sounded great!

Archway at Luzern Railway Station

I chose to bypass THE bridge and make my way down to the rail station, where out front of it is a large archway.  The arch stood as an entrance into the rail station from 1896, until a fire burned down the station in 1971.  The fire was so massive that the domed roof collapsed.  They rebuilt the station and kept the archway out front of the new one as a sort of welcome to the city.

Kapellbrucke

To end my tour of the city, I made my way to the famed Kapellbrucke.  There is a decent chance that you've seen a picture of this bridge before.  The bridge and water tower have graced the Reuss River since 1360.  It has changed a bit over the years, being shortened, but eventually ended up in its current form.  And then in 1993, tragedy struck when the bridge caught fire.  Most of the bridge was burned down with just small sections of it remaining.  But it being such a historic part of their city, it was rebuilt in 8 months.  They kept some of the charred beams in place as recognition to what had happened.  Like the Speruerbrucke, it had paintings up in the trusses.  Some of those have been restored, while others are still blackened from the fire.  And some look fine because they weren't on the bridge when the fire occurred.  They had been removed during one of the bridge's remodels in the centuries before, but the paintings had been kept, so those ones are no on the bridge.

Kapellbrucke

Day two of Luzern mostly didn't actually take place in Luzern.  Instead it took place at Mt Pilatus (Pih-lah-toos).  Pilatus isn't actually a single mountain, but a group of mountain peaks that sticks up above Lake Luzern.  You have a couple of options to get to the top of the mountain, but if you want the full experience, you go with the Golden Round Trip.  This involves a bus ride, a gondola ride, a cable car ride, a cog rail ride, and a boat ride.  You can experience them in this order, or backwards.  There was also a short walk of a couple hundred meters between the bus and the gondola.  Pilatus is a name I was already familiar with because it is the name of a Swiss aircraft company...literally within view of Pilatus (the mountain).  

Cable Car at Pilatus

Pilatus rises about 2000 ft from the lake, or roughly 7000 ft asl.  It also has a huge dragon myth behind it.  Something about a dragon living on Pilatus and it protecting a sacred rock with healing powers.  But anyways, up at the top are two hotels and two restaurants, along with a visitor center.  There are also trails to the top of a few of the peaks up there.  From the panorama deck of the visitor center you can see beautiful views of the lake in one direction and the big Alps in the other direction.  On clear days you can see Jungfraujoch and the Eiger.  

On the cable car ride up I saw a small chapel on a ridge and people hiking up to it.  I wasn't sure I wanted to hike up to it, but it turns out you could hike down to it (and then back up).  From the top, I think it is a shorter trip than from the bottom.  I mean, I had already paid for the cable car ride up, right?  So I might as well use it.  The hike was a bit of a struggle.  Probably 1) because I had gotten almost no sleep during the night 2) I was running on Coke (I needed the caffeine) and a roll.  Not ideal.  Kinda dumb.  But I had decided I was waiting to eat until I got down there.  

View of the chapel from the cable car on the way up.

The trail wasn't an easy one.  Rocky.  But the views were great and I could hear cowbells, though I never placed where the cows actually were.  I made it down to the chapel, and set myself down for lunch.  My lunch was bread and cheese.  Standard Swiss fare.

View from lunch at the chapel.

After the trip back up I had some time to spare because I had a ticket down for 3:35, so I climbed to the top of another peak I hadn't been to and then sat down in a beach chair, in the shade.  Everyone else was in the sun, but I know what color my skin is, so I sat in the shade.

Fun fact, I found out my family has a mountain in the Swiss Alps.  One called Furststein.

The ol' family mountain, which I will observe from a distance.

When my time came, I boarded the steepest cog in the world to head back down.  The cog reaches 48% grade at times.  The views were great on the way down.  

After the cog was the boat ride.  The boat stopped a couple of times along the way at other stops, before ending up back in Luzern.

I grabbed dessert on my way back from the harbor to my hotel.  I had scoped out the strawberry cake the day before, but wasn't hungry for it.  I had said, "I'll come back for you later."  After getting back to the hotel, it was time for a refreshing shower, which included showering with my hiking shirt on. Sometimes you have to be creative with washing.  So I soaped it up really good and washed it off, then took it off and did the inside.  I also soaped up my bra and did the same.  It works out well since they're quick dry materials.  I will do a proper washing at some point, but if I can, I'll push it off as long as possible.  Maybe eventually I won't even need to.  I've slowly acquired a bunch of wool shirts which are great for traveling because they don't absorb bad odors.

Anyways, off to Gimmelwald next!