June 4th

We woke up early and caught the 6:00 am bus to the Amsterdam train station and then we were off to the Amsterdam airport. We used EasyJet this time and it really was easy - unlike Ryanair (I keep reminding Ryan how terrible his airline is and that he should fix it). We got into Basel, Switzerland and caught a bus from the Basel airport to the train station and then a train from Basel to Interlaken and then up to Lauterbrunnen. On the way, we passed the Thunersee which is a beautiful lake on one side of Interlaken. I managed to get some decent pictures through the train windows, though they definitely don't capture the full beauty. Once in Lauterbrunnen, we checked into Camping Jungfrau where we stayed the first night. We had a skylight and could see one of Lauterbrunnen's many MASSIVE waterfalls right from our room! The weather was absolutely perfect and we could see the tops of all surrounding mountains, so we took a long walk down the road and got a lot of nice pictures. We had dinner at the campground restaurant (Ryan got a veal sausage and I had a Swiss type mac and cheese that was great) and then went to bed because we were exhausted.

June 5th

The weather continued to be absolutely perfect, so after moving all our stuff and settling into Valley Hostel just down the road, we headed out. We bought Jungfraubahn passes which gave us 6 consecutive days of unlimited train and cable car travel in the Jungfrau area. Jungfrau is the highest peak in Europe complete with a touristy thing at the top called "Top of Europe". Top is relative because this little adventure/resort place is about 2500 ft below the actual peak and thus lower than most of the other peaks around it. Anyway, going up there costs more than the pass (though we get a discount with the pass) so I think we won't be going up. So we took a cable car up the side of Lauterbrunnen valley and hiked along the ridge over to Murren. Like I said, the weather was amazing AMAZING amazing and we got TONS of pictures and sunburns :) The views were breathtaking and I know this is the most beautiful place I've seen in my life so far. We continued our hike past Murren to Gimmelwald and then hiked down the huge cliffside back into the valley into Stechelberg. This little town is about an hour and a half walk from Lauterbrunnen, but the walk is nice and flat from here. Check out all the pictures when I do post them. On this walk, you pass all of Lauterbrunnen's waterfalls and it was so wonderful! Once we were back, we ate pizza at a little pizza place by the train station, then randomly went by train to Interlaken (still on our pass) to see if food was any cheaper there. Everything is very expensive in all the little towns, but Interlaken (Gatlinburg of the Alps) is a tiny bit cheaper. Since it was Saturday, all groceries, bakeries, butchers, etc closed early in Lauterbrunnen and everything was closed on Sunday. We found food in the bakery on our way to dinner though and bought some food to cook in the hostel kitchen for Sunday dinner. Interlaken wasn't all that much cheaper for food and things, but we found a Hooters, a soccer game (Switzerland vs Italy) and some beer so we stayed for a while then went back to the hostel for bedtime. By the time we got back, our 8 person dorm had been completely filled by 6 Asian college aged kids (note this for later).

June 6th

This morning we hopped a train and headed up to Kleine Scheidegg, which has a great overlook. This is on the way to the Top of Europe and Jungfrau so there were quite a few people there and thus very touristy. We decided to do a little hiking and hike up to the next train station, Eigergletscher, and then ride the train back down. Note that we were wearing shorts and our Teva sandals. When we left Kleine Scheidegg, we could see the station easily and it didn't look too bad. After a decently simple part of the hike, somewhat in shallow snow that was nice and packed already for us, the trail became evil. Very very steep, narrow, and full of two foot deep LARGE patches of snow that you couldn't walk around. This was lovely. Ryan couldn't look down the mountain, but I took some pictures so you all could see. At the very end, we were so close to the station, but everything was covered in snow and we just had to "run" through the thick snow. I tried to step in Ryan's footprints, but it just took too long. By the end, we both had about 5 snowcones in each sandal right under our arches and thus our feet were freezing. Good thing was that we could take off the shoes, get the ice out and get hiking again and our feet were fine. Stupid maybe, but the hike was well worth it. The views were unbelievable. We made the train (everyone on the train coming down from their tourist trap were very confused as to why we magically appeared at a ghost of a train station. Anyway, we came back down and headed over to Grindelwald by train. I'm sure the views there were amazing (I caught some pics of them in the background with Ryan sleeping already) but for the most part, we slept. We wandered around Grindelwald just a little, had delicious "Sunday special" 7 CHF burgers, then took the Gondola (tiny 4 person cable car) up to Mannlichen. The cold front and clouds were starting to cover Mannlichen, but the views were still great. We jumped onto the bigger cable car and went down to Wengen where we wandered around, I ran into a very slow-opening glass door, then hopped on a train back to Lauterbrunnen. We went down to the camping place for a beer and coffee and as we were hanging out in the convenience store buying butter for our bread, it started pouring rain. Complete downpour. Well, stupid me had taken my raincoat out, but Ryan so graciously sacrificed his raincoat to me - I think only because me and the backpack could stay dry at the same time and that's 2 things instead of just him staying dry. Anyway, I offered to cook his dinner and do the dishes at the hostel, so we started running back, but Ryan was soaked almost instantly, so we gave up and walked. We looked really weird coming back to the hostel because I was totally dry, and so was Ryan's backside, but his front was drenched. Oh well. We dried off and fixed some pasta stuff with some nice veggies and bread from the bakery. After dinner, we finally got the internet to start working and booked some things for the upcoming journeys and then headed to bed.

June 7th

This morning, the six Asians decided they needed to leave at 7 am. Instead of packing their bags the night before, they had to gather up all their things off the floor (our room always looked like the coyote put dynamite in their bags to try to kill the roadrunner and the contents of their luggage exploded all over the floor) and put everything into PLASTIC GROCERY BAGS which make the MOST NOISE EVER. Then they decided to just talk in normal voices until I rolled over and covered my head again with the blanket and then they went back to whispering, but it got louder and louder. By 7:45, I couldn't take it anymore and just got up and took a shower. By the time I got back, they were all gone and the door to the room was wide open, all the lights were on, some of their individual bed lights were on, and Ryan was still sound asleep. No idea how. So I waited until Ryan's alarm went off at 9 and then woke him up. We headed out and took cable cars back to Grindelwald. Today was still cloudy though from the rainclouds and the views were not good at all. We took more cable cars up to First, but though the clouds were burning off in the valley, it was still completely dense fog up at First and we couldn't see anything. We went back down to Grindelwald and wandered around. We took the fast train back to Lauterbrunnen and then explored the Trummelbach Falls. Three glaciers on mountain tops drain into this one massive waterfall that has all sorts of cool falling points inside this huge carved out cave. It was only 10 CHF with our hostel discount cards per person so we went and it was well worth it. I took videos here along with pictures because the pictures don't do it justice. The falls are so powerful and crazy!! My favorite was the "corkscrew falls" which actually went down this half tunnel thing and the water literally corkscrewed around itself. Totally unbelievable. There are 10 falls total, going from 1 at the base to 10 at the top. Number 2 had a rainbow across it :) Trummelbach falls is only about a 35 minute walk from Lauterbrunnen and is down in the valley so it's an easy walk. We walked back to the hostel and cooked a tasty dinner using more of our pasta, fresh red pepper and zucchini seared in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and some diced cheese we bought from the cheese shop. Earlier in the morning we had stopped at the grocery to get lunch meat and bread so we could make our own sandwiches and real Swiss cheese from a cheese shop in Switzerland is great. :)

June 8th

Today we tried First (pronounced Fearst) again. We took the fast train to Grindelwald and then up to First and today there were no clouds and it was gorgeous!!! We hiked out to a little lake that started with a B, but we can't remember, but the view was great and the lake frames a big mountaintop (Eiger) perfectly. Half of the lake was still frozen over, but not the more picturesque part :) We ate our lunch we'd packed at the hostel right by the lake and then hiked back. We took the little gondola back down to Grindelwald and found a bus stop and decided to take the bus up to Grosse Scheidegg. There was a decent view, but nothing spectacular and the hike back down was very very long and steep so we waited for half an hour for another bus. That was kinda boring, but I got a pinecone from a tree. We were done early and as the wind was picking up (I told Ryan that a storm was coming - I could feel it!) we decided to take the train back to Lauterbrunnen. Once back, we grabbed a 6 CHF bottle of wine and fixed dinner and now that we're done and ready for a romantic sunset walk, it's raining again (with thunder - I was right). Ryan wants me to point out that there is a herd of cattle being moved to a field further up the road... he keeps saying "the cows are still walking up the road!!" So, no clue what we'll do tonight now that the weather isn't so good, but we'll manage. Tomorrow we're going to Schynige Platte and then on Thursday (Cole buddy's first birthday!!) we're heading to Interlaken and then to Harder Kulm.

For Thursday - Happy Birthday Cole!! (And thank you for my birthday wishes!)

P.S. Check out

http://picasaweb.google.com/sara.e.thurston/

for all our pictures!

- Sara