Switzerland Wrap Up

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…
February 17th – The night before, I had wished that we would have another snow storm before we left Switzerland…well, that happened. When we woke up this morning, it was snowing really hard. We decided to take the train into Interlaken today to shop and arrange our train ticket to Spain. It’s about a 30 minute train ride. We arrived at station Interlaken Ost, but needed to make our way to Interlaken West (a couple of miles apart). Instead of paying for the train ride, we decided to walk. Daniela, at the Booking Office, said that it was an easy walk with a lot of shops along the way. Well, I have no doubt about the easy walk on a good weather day, but it was snowing a lot. We did make the walk, but were very cold and wet by the time we stopped for lunch. Migros Restaurant was our choice for the day. Rick Steve’s book recommended it as an inexpensive lunch, as did Daniela. Migros is one of the local grocery stores with a cafeteria style restaurant. It reminded us a little bit like Central Market and definitely was inexpensive in comparison. After lunch, we decided to do some shopping since we had to wait for the train ticket office to open back up from lunch. Around here, everything literally closes for a couple of hours for lunch. I was determined to find a Santa Claus made in Switzerland. I was thrilled to find one that was carved out of wood locally. We then arrived back at the train station to check on the tickets to Spain. Well, we learned the hard way that overnight train rides need to be booked way in advance. There was nothing available. Mike spent about 20 minutes with the travel agent looking at all various train options and all that was available was a day train that would have taken over 15 hours. We decided that would be a nightmare with the kids and was not a task we were willing to tackle at this point. We were upset that we wouldn’t be able to take the night train and headed back to Lauterbrunnen to determine what to do. Once we arrived there, Mike went to search the internet to figure out how we were going to get to Spain. After some research online, he found us a flight out of Geneva to Madrid on one of the local budget airlines (think Southwest). While it cost a little more than we had planned, a 15 hour train ride turns into a 3 hour train ride to Geneva with a 2 hour flight to Madrid…definitely a good trade-off.

Bond. James Bond
February 18th –Today we took 4 different cable cars up 10,000 feet to the summit of the Schilthorn (mountain). Piz Gloria, the station at the top, includes a rotating restaurant. We decided to eat lunch first and it was by far the best meal I’ve had so far. Sputzli was the name of the dish, but basically it was homemade mini-dumplings with ham, pears and fried onions. Also, it was cool to rotate around while eating and see all the beautiful mountain tops. The James Bond movie, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, was filmed at Piz Gloria and highlights from the movie are shown in a panorama video. While we were at 10,000 feet, Austin had his own shining moment. He pee-peed in a public restroom potty for the first time. I do believe we had to make some James Bond moves to make that happen too. After we were over the “007” hype, we headed back down by 2 cable cars to the village of Murren and went ice skating. The kids had a rough start, but finally got the hang of it (a little bit) and we skated for a couple of hours. The weather was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining so it was perfect for ice skating outdoors.

Never Say Never
February 19th –Scratch the last sentence in “Got Snow boots?” blog because we did go sledging again today without proper footwear! We obviously got over the effects it had on us and given that it was our next to last day in Switzerland, we wanted to do it again. We rode the train up to station Kleine Sheindigg so that we would have a long sledging run. Well, halfway down, Mike and Austin’s steering wheel on their sledge broke off which caused Mike to have to steer the sledge with his feet. When we arrived at the Allmend train station, Mike’s shoes were full of snow and he could not go any further. So we took the train back down to Wengen where we had a picnic lunch. After lunch, we went to trade out the sledge, but they did not have another one with a steering wheel. Lucky Mike (at least he thought) because they loaned him a pair of snow boots so that he could steer his new sledge with his feet. We went up the cable car to the Mannlichen stop. Off we went down the sledge trail…Abby and I were doing fine, but Mike and Austin were having a little difficulty. When they came down the mountain, the “steering feet” caused snow to blow right back in their faces. Poor Austin looked like a snowman because he was completely covered with snow. It is hard to steer a sledge with your feet or at least harder than it looks. It took about 2 hours to make our way down the run and then back to Wengen. We had to make a stop at our favorite bakery in Wengen for some sweets before heading back to the apartment.

Top of Europe

February 15th –When we got up this morning, the weather was absolutely beautiful…not a cloud in the sky. We had been waiting for a day like this in order to go to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe. At 11,333 feet it is the “Top of Europe”. It turned out to be the perfect day to venture up the mountain because it was bright and sunny all day long. We took the 2 hour train ride up the mountain. About the last 20 minutes of the ride was in a tunnel through the Eiger Mountain. As you ride up, it’s amazing to think about the Swiss building this train track more than 100 years ago. We arrived a little before noon so we decided to eat lunch first. After lunch, we walked through the “ice palace”, an all ice cavern with ice sculptures. We made our way up to the plateau which is the outdoor viewing platform. The minute we stepped out onto it the wind was very strong and it was cold (-17.6 C). At times, it almost felt like the wind was going to blow us over. The view was awesome, and we got some quick pictures. We only could handle being out there a couple of minutes. From there, we walked via tunnel to the Sphinx Observatory (observation tower) for the highest viewing point (11,760 feet). From the Sphinx, you could see as far as Bern and beyond; plus the majestic peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. It was also a great vantage point to see Aletsch Glacier – Europe’s longest at nearly 11 miles. It was a magnificent view! The air was definitely thin up there…we were breathing a little heavy and our hearts would pound at times. We took the 14:30 train back down the mountain. The altitude must have gotten to Austin because he fell asleep almost the instant the train started moving.

Got snow boots?
February 16th - Ok, so Amy and I made a strategic packing decision not to bring snow boots for 2 weeks of snow (we did buy them for the kids). We each had Gore-tex / waterproof shoes or hiking boots. That had been sufficient until today! We decided to head up to Wengen and go sledging. I’m not sure if this is big in the US, but its huge here. The ski areas have specific, designated sledge runs. We rented dual sledges and headed up the mountain on the train. We got off at the first stop and started on a nice easy run…Austin and I on one sledge and Amy and Abby on the other. We soon hit a pretty steep slope and I realized the “brakes” were my feet. As I dug them in to stop the sledge, I sprayed snow all over Austin and I…including into my hiking boots. As I turned around to watch Amy and Abby, I saw Amy having the same “stopping experience”. We knew that our feet were a little cold, but didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. We got to the bottom and took the train a little farther up the mountain. This run was much steeper from the beginning. I basically had to drag my feet the entire time to keep us in control and not go off the side of the mountain. By the time we got all the way to the bottom, my boots were completely covered / filled with snow. Amy had the same issue. We sat on our sledges at the base and ate a picnic lunch that we had packed. As the snow melted, my nice, thick, warm wool socks begin to absorb the melting snow. So by the time we finished lunch and went back up for another run, my feet were soaking wet. Oh yeah, Amy and I thought our bums were cold from sitting on the sledges, but soon realized the snow was going up our backs and down our ski pants and so they were actually wet! No matter our woes, the kids were having a blast and wanted to keep going. We made a few more long runs. As we were coming down, I got a little daring and Austin and I caught air after hitting a bump and had a little crash (we went inverted for a few meters – ground, Mike, Austin, sledge). Unfortunately, Amy had chosen that time to let Abby steer and so they slammed right into my back. Luckily, we were all ok. However, we decided that we should call it a day and head into the village for some hot chocolate to warm up. We enjoyed our hot chocolate and then took the train back down the mountain to Lauterbrunnen. If we ever go sledging again, we will definitely make sure we have on good, tall snow boots!