Like I said in the last post, we woke up about 9am. Our hotel has free breakfast so we hurried down to take advantage of that before sending Adam to figure out the travel info while Krissi and I got ready. When we got to Interlaken the night before it was dark so we couldn’t see the mountains, and then when we woke up it was foggy so we couldn’t see the mountains. But luckily we could see the sun shining through and were sure the fog would burn off in no time.
Adam came back with good news- we could get 2-day passes for most of the trains/buses/cable cars for 35 CHF each (about 30 USD each). So we bought those, caught a bus to the train station, and were on our way up to First. Our train ride was a relief—after the hassle of traveling the day before and everything seeming so expensive, suddenly the fog had burned off so we could see how beautiful it was and it made all the traveling worth it! Fall was in full swing in Switzerland and it was B-E-A-UTIFUL!
On the Gondola Ride from Grindelwald to First
To get to First we took a train to Grindelwald, and then we walked for about 15 minutes up to a station where we took gondolas (aerial cable-cars) up to First. Originally Krissi was not interested in the idea (she hates flying and the gondolas are somewhat similar), but she agreed to do it. Up at First (over 7000ft up) we took in the amazing views and took some photos and we noticed some paragliders jumping from First down to Grindelwald (about 3700 feet down). The scenery was so amazing, Adam and I were very tempted to try it out. However, we already had other plans for that afternoon—taking the gondola back down to Bort (about halfway down before Grindelwald) and renting scooters (“trottebikes”) to ride down the rest of the way to Grindelwald. At first after we rented the scooters I was like, “…what…did…I..get…myself…into…” I’d never ridden on a scooter in my life, and now I was trying to balance on one going downhill the whole way—ah! Plus, the bars were not adjustable and I felt way too tall for the thing having to hunch down to reach the handles. For the first few moments I thought I might have to return the scooter and walk down, but luckily I soon got the hang of it and we were on our way down the mountain! The weather was amazing, the scenery was beautiful, and it was just the perfect day to be scootering down the mountain! We all loved it. It was like Ireland again where I couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful it was the whole way down. Also, at a couple points we had to pull over while someone walked a heard of cows by… so random!
Scootering down the mountain!
When we got back down to Grindelwald we went to a café for lunch and had “Grindelwald Toast” which was basically a sandwich that was toasted shut with cheese, tomato, and ham inside. I’m not a ham fan, but it was yummy 🙂 Then we took a train up to Kleine Sheidigg to try to find a hike. By the time we made it up there, there wasn’t enough time to do the hike we’d planned to do and make it back to the train station before dark (Kleine Sheidigg to Mannlicken and back), so instead we walked from Kleine Sheidigg to Wengernalp. Basically, we were walking along the wall of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains. It was very cool and very pretty. There I was—a girl from Oregon, attending a California law school, studying abroad in London, and currently walking down a random path in the middle of the mountains in the middle of Switzerland. Crazy!
Adam with his scooter (stopping for a photo op).
Krissi and I walking to Wengernalp
Mountain Reflection
When we got to Wengernalp we caught a train back to Interlaken and walked back to our hotel, and then went out to find dinner. We settled on a place called “Chalet”—the restaurant in a hotel that a very cute Swiss theme inside, and we had fondue. Yum!
I can’t remember at all what we did after dinner—probably just went back to the hotel and went to sleep because it had been an exhausting day!
For more pictures from this amazing day, click HERE.
I will write about Day 3 (the day we went to the Top of Europe!) and Day 4 (the day of multiple injuries for Michelle!) later 🙂
The Daily Chelle 