We arrived in Zurich, flying over beautiful green valleys, sun and the Alps in the horizon. Our luggage arrived and we got on our train bound for Murren, above Interlaken. It was supposed to be a 3 hour trip, with 4 changes of trains. The first leg was the longest at 1.5 hours to Bern. The first stop was Zurich Central, where the train waited, and waited and waited. After 45 minutes everyone started to get off as they were making announcements in German, so I asked a guy across from us what was up. He said "mechanical" and we had to change tracks to another train. Ok, so we hauled our stuff to the new train and settled in. The good news is now we didn't need to change trains in Bern, as this one went straight to Interlaken.
 
By the time we arrived in Interlaken, I was feeling very green from motion sickness. Between not much to eat, strong coffee, rocking train and sitting backwards....my stomach was not feeling great. The scenery coming into Interlaken was beautiful, with the tracks right next to the lake and the Alps right behind. I missed most of it, but at least Ken was able to enjoy it! We changed trains in Interlaken, then found we had 30 minutes in Lautegrenn, where we were to take a gondola up to Murren. We sat on a patio next to the gondola, where we grabbed a bit of food to get my stomach a bit more settled.  
 
The ride to Murren was amazing. Beautiful mountains, massive waterfalls in every direction and amazing green valleys. We changed from the gondola, to one more small train and arrived in little Murren and the Hotel Alpina. Paige, Carl and Kyle were already checked in and having lunch next to another gondola a couple of blocks from the hotel. We sat on the patio and got caught up on their travels (Amsterdam and Berlin), then went back to the hotel for a small rest.
 
Once we got rested, Paige, Ken and I looked for Kyle and Carl, as we were all going to hike down and then take the train back up.  No luck on finding the guys, so the three of us headed down the trail next to the train tracks. At one point the trail forked and we choose the Lauterbrunnen direction versus Winterbraun (where the train was), which meant we were hiking all the way to the bottom where we had taken the gondola earlier in the day.   We crossed waterfalls, green pastures and all surrounded by the spectacular mountains. The trail was a bit of a challenge as it was quite steep (at least it was going down) and had a lot of loose rocks. You had to concentrate on where you put your feet as it was quite easy to slip or trip.  
 
 It took us over 2 hours to get down, but by then the gondola had shut for the evening. So, now how to get back up to Murren...we were NOT going to hike back up and there are no roads to get there! Luckily, there was another gondola about 5 miles away that ran until midnight. We ended up taking a taxi (who came from Interlaken 20 minutes away), which cost us a fortune, then the gondola finally arriving into Murren about 9:15p.  It was quite an unplanned adventure!
 
Paige was exhausted and preferred bed to food. But Ken and I hadn't had much to eat, so had dinner overlooking the mountains.  It was a great first day (and night) of the trip!