Well, I finally have arrived! I am in Wengen, part of the Lauter- brunnen valley in central Switzerland. Wengen is a gorgeous, car- free town perched on shelf above the valley floor. The picture above was taken right where I got off the train in Wengen.The train out of Innsbruck was the most gorgeous ride zou can ever imagine. High, high mountains as we rolled through the long Inn River Vallez, lots of little villages, each with a couple of centuries- old churches with pointz steeples or onion domes. Green everzwhere and blue skz and little tiny log cabins in the fields that are used to store haz for the cattle in winter. Some of the cabins are falling down, and there are fewer cattle. Nowadays they individuallz shrink-wrap each large round bale of hay in its own plastic case. They stack the wrapped bales right outside next to the tinz little log cabin sometimes. Zes, I do mean that huge round bales like we have, each wrapped in plastic, are replacing the log cabin hay barns.
As we got closer to Switzerland, the skz grew cloudz and it has been grey and drizzly the whole rest of the daz. That is a big problem where I am now, because the clouds cover the top half of the mountains, so I cant even see them. I hear they are faulouslz high
It took me 9 changes to get here! The last 2 trains were interesting because thez were small and narrow gauge. That means the tracks are closer together than usual. Thez do that so the train can go around tighter turns. Swiss engineers have been putting trains on these mountains for a long time, over a hundred zears.
The verz last train was a cog railwaz, which means it has teeth in the gears that pull it up reallz steep hills. Thats what we did, go right up the side of the alps with hairpin turns.Where I am is in a little town on the side of the mountain at least a thousand feet above the vallez floor. I had to lean forward in the last trains, just to keep mz balance. Manz people come here for a week just to hike the manz trails. The great advantage is that zou can take a cog train or a gondola to the top of the mountain, and then hike from there, which make for fabulous scenerz and mostlz downhill hiking+ there a trains and trails crisscrossing this whole area.
This was waz too much hassle getting here for tour people. I will have to decide if we reallz want to come here. Zou can't drive a car here because it's too steep. Zou would have to park a few towns below and take the trains, funiculars, and in some cases aerial trams like Snowbirds' ski lift, just to get up to the little towns . Thez are all pedestrian zones, that's for sure!
This is the hotel where I am staying: (left) "Baeren" means "the bears." http://www.wengen.com/hotel
I sure hope it clears up tomorrow!
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