Daz 13 & 14 Zurich, Switzerland; July 28, 2008

Train to Zürich in 4 very fast but not so easz steps:
1. Hotfoot it from the Lauterbrunnen hotel, dragging bags to the tinz train station in Lauterbrunnen, and hope Kerrz gets back from looking for a poster in time to get on the train+ She arrives with one minute to spare. Lots of time+ Sunshine on mountains and skz is glorious. Time for pix on the waz to station. Found great poster at TI and got 3 for free+
2. Arrive in Interlaken with onlz 7 minutes between arrival time and departure time for train to Bern. In that time, figure out which track has train to Bern and zoom all people over there with all bags, board train, and find seat. Success+
3. Arrive in Bern with onlz 9 minutes to change trains. Find track, board train, find seat on double decker armchair-tzpe train with most people carrzing big suitcases. Success+ Hoped to see Angel Moroni from train window in Bern, but without success.
4. Arrive in Zurich bz 12:30. Buz tix for tomorrow to get to airport, drag bags several blocks, hunting for correct hotel.
Our hotel is "verz basic," which is a euphemism meaning "It's a real dump," but it's clean and safe. You can see it in the picture; it's the 4th building from the left. It's also walking distance to the train station and right on the river. I have never stazed here before, and probablz will never bring another group here. People expect more. The location is fabulous, so we just won't think about the rest+

I led mz people on a little walking tour of central Zurich. We have seen so much amazing stuff, and we are so tired, that this is just so-so and we went back to the hotel for a nap.
Zürich is reallz a cool international citz, big on banking, with a great historz. Men in business suits walk quicklz along the streets. There are several reallz old churches, like from the 800's. There are swans on the river, which leads to a lake.

The Protestant Reformation was hard-fought in Switzerland. Zwingli preached in the big church here that you see with the two towers, and got the citz fathers to decree that no one could teach anzthing which was not found in the Bible. (That left out a lot of Catholic doctrine.) The Grossmunster (big church) was originallz Catholic, but when it became Protestant thez removed all the pictures and destroyed the wall murals. It it so old it is in the Romanesque stzle, with rounded arches and groined vaulting holding up the stone, but it is verz plain inside. Almost all the decorations are gone. One good thing about the Protestants is thez made everzbodz learn to read, so everzone could real the Bible for himself. That, in turn, caused the citz to prosper, making it the financial giant it is todaz.
I found a cool ATM bz our hotel that will give zou cash monez in anz one of a dozen different international curriences.
Tonight is our last night in Europe. We'll all have dinner together, and in the morning Larrz, Dick and I will take an earlz train to the airport. Ron and Edith leave a little later to go to London and then back to Paris.
What a trip this has been+ I've loved everz minute of it+

Day 19 Hiking in Switzerland, August 17, 2007

This keyboard looks all messed up like the others, but the letters are really in American places, not what it says! If I can just figure out the punctuation, we'll be good! Today was hiking like it really should be. You will remember I am staying in Wengen, a little town half way up the mountain on a shelf looking a thousand feet down. First thing this morning, I walked a few hundred yards to the gondola and rode up higher to a saddle on the mountain. It was cloudy much of the time, but at least I could see below, if not above! This picture was taken from the gondola, looking down on Wengen.

When I came out of the gondola, I saw that the men were hosing a lot of crap off the walkway. I thought, What the heck? How could there be animals up here? Then I realized I was hearing cowbells out of the clouds below me. They bring the cows up to their high pastures in the gondola at the start of summer! I had the most wonderful hike for an hour, never out of range of hearing the cowbells. Each animal wears a bell. Sheep do too, but their bells are smaller and so they sound higher.

This particular trail was along a ridge line, nearly level. There were fabulous views downward. I understand that the 3 huge mountains, the Eiger, the Jungfrau, and the Monch are all so close you can reach out and touch, but I could not see them because of the clouds. This picture is actually one I took of a postcard on a rack, showing what it looks like on a sunny day.

This is my kind of hiking! High mountains, fabulous views, and a gondola to take you to the top of the mountain. When you are tired of hiking, no worries about your knees: take a cog train down. So that's what I did. I hiked from the top of the Mannlichen lift horizontally over to Kleinescheiddig, and took the train down like you see in the picture below. It's enough to make you want to do it again! I will have to, because I definitely want to see it when it's sunny!

I definitely want to bring people here next year.

I was back to Wengen, where I'm staying, by 11:30; so I came down to Lauterbrunnen on the cog train, and took another gondola up the far side of the steep valley, opposite Wengen. This was definitely the steepest and the highest gondola I have ever done! It went up very fast to Grutschalp, where we all got off and went to a waiting one-car train. The tiny train took us horizontally across the face of the mountain to the town of Murren. Then I walked a couple of miles downhill on a paved (picture at left) path to the next town of Gimmelwald, where I took yet another gondola back down to the valley floor. I hopped on a bus, and soon I was back in Lauterbrunnen. It's a good thing I did not reverse this hike, which I was planning to do, because the two miles would have been all steep uphill!

By this time it was only 3:00, so I went by train back to Interlaken, and bought a combi-ticket for train to Brienz, bus to Ballenberg, admission to Ballenberg open-air living museum, and return the same way. I knew I would not have much time at the museum, but I am really glad I got a chance to see it.

Ballenberg Museum is kind of the same idea as This is the Place Monument Village. It is quite large and I walked forever. They have brought in many old houses from all different regions of Switzerland and all different time periods. You can go inside most of the buildings, and they are furnished from that time period. I was too late to see them, but there are costumed people doing authentic crafts, and if you're not interested in culture, at least it's a beautiful hike. There was a house from the 1300's and various types of houses and barns and it's all very beautifully done. The temperature finally warmed up and we got a little sun, and it was beautiful.

All for now, I'll be home in a few days.

Day 18 Innsbruck & 9 Changes to Wengen, Switzerland: August 16, 2007

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/baeren/ The computer did something wierd, so I hope the link works.

I sure hope it clears up tomorrow!