Schilthorn

by Miss Penny Black

The Schilthorn is a mountain in the Bernese Oberland and at the top is the restaurant where the old Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was filmed. We like Bond films, food and amazing views so Luke booked us in for the buffet brunch in the revolving restaurant.

To get to Schilthorn from Lauterbrunnen involves taking a bus along the valley to the Stechelberg cable car station. This cable car goes up from the valley floor then over a rise where you get to Gimmelwald, then another cable car to Mürren. I am glad no one has thought to put glass floors in these cable cars because I would probably have to ride them with my eyes closed. As is I get that blurp in my stomach every time they bump through a cable tower.

From the town of Mürren you change for another cable car to Birg. At Birg there is a viewing platform and a cliff walk. We didn’t bother with the cliff walk but the viewing platform was spectacular.

Sometimes I think the views from below the highest heights beat the ones from the top because you’re a bit closer to things and completely surrounded.

The weather forecast had been threatening rain all week and we’d been exceptionally lucky that it had held off but there were definitely clouds all around today. The view was rarely obscured though, and the dry-ice effect of clouds seeming to pour over the escarpments was stunning. If the video appears sideways don’t worry, it will right itself if you play it:-).

The last and shortest cable car journey is from Birg to Schilthorn. Most of the cable cars we took that day were packed with Chinese tourist groups who were quite amusing, making dramatic ‘Ooooh!’ noises every time the car bumped through a tower and making everyone laugh.

The bottom floor of the Schilthorn building has a gallery of exhibits dedicated to OHMSS and although it’s not huge it has lots of interesting facts and some hands-on things, like a screen where you can superimpose your face on a still from the movie.

Terrifying stuff.

Also worth mentioning are the toilets for ‘Bonds’ and ‘Bond Girls’ where the cubicles in the mens’ (you could see them from outside, I didn’t go in!) looked like they had sexy women inside them. So Bond!

We took some photos outside on the viewing platform then made our way to the buffet at 11. It was ok – as buffets tend to be. The most entertaining bit of it was watching the maître d’ try to explain how the buffet/à la carte option worked to people who didn’t speak any European languages. Even though his manner was a trifle brusque you had to admire the way he didn’t take a screaming leap off the nearest viewing platform, which is how I’d have dealt with it after a couple of hours.

We ate until we were bursting (I assume this is how everyone eats at buffets) and I had as much salmon and prosecco as I could fit. Eating salmon and looking at snow-capped peaks reminded me of Canada. In fact it made me realise that I hadn’t eaten salmon since I’d been to Canada because we literally had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner while we were there, didn’t we Mum? (I know Mum will read this and nod her head). I haven’t seen candied salmon on the menu here though – yet!

Ooh, I nearly forgot to mention – the folk music people we’d seen perform at the campsite the night before were in our cable cars on the way up. It was sort of like finding yourself sitting next to The Wiggles on a plane. We cast furtive glances but didn’t go so far as to ask for autographs. While we were sitting in the restaurant they started singing at their table and people gathered round, mesmerised by the angelic notes. Lovely!

We caught the cable car back down to Mürren then decided to walk down to Gimmelwald, which had been recommended in the Rick Steves videos as a good example of a traditional Swiss village. It was a lovely and quiet walk, and the view across the mountains, between layers of cloud, was spectacular. It probably doesn’t translate well in photos but I’ll give it a go.

The walk is very easy too, and only takes about 40 minutes – well worth doing if you’re in the area and don’t have the gear or stamina to tackle some of the other routes.

Of course it’s very well signposted too. This is Switzerland, after all!

Gimmelwald is also home to Europe’s first ‘self serve store’, which tells you all you need to know about Switzerland.

After an exhausting day of eating and taking photos we decided to spend the afternoon in our hostel room, reading and relaxing. We are staying at The Valley Hostel and, apart from the foam mattresses, it has been delightful. Spotlessly clean with an excellent kitchen with proper sharp knives and everything you could want. We’ve cooked ourselves a few meals but mostly just stay on our balcony enjoying the view across the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the mountains and glaciers beyond.

27Jul2018

Switzerland: A Trip To Jungfraujoch

by Miss Penny Black

One of the biggest tourist draws in this region is the complex at the saddle of the Jungfrau (young girl) and Monsch (monk) mountains. The buildings are reached by train from Kleine Scheidigg, a village high up in the Bernese Oberland. Another train is required from Lauterbrunnen to get to Kleine Scheidegg.

We rose at 6:15 to catch the first train, which left Lauterbrunnen at 7:07.

The train was almost full and it was the first one of the day! Mostly families and older people – I dare say not many young adults want to shell out the 200+ Swiss Francs that it costs to get here. With our Bernese Oberland Pass we rode free to Kleine Scheidegg and then 99CHF for the last section. Even at half price that’s 134 AUD. Steep in every sense of the word.

The train from Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Scheidegg was extremely scenic with little Swiss cottages and cows dotting the alpine scenery.

There was a bit of a mad rush to change trains and then the second section of the journey was almost entirely through a tunnel.

There is one stop before the top where viewing windows have been cut out and you can get off and look at the view for five minutes.

The Jungfraujoch station is underground and from there you can enjoy a range of thrilling attractions including a huge snow globe.

This sits in a tunnel lit with edelweiss flowers.

Weird but cute. There’s also some wooden statues in this long hall.

Then a ramp with a moving walkway that takes you past historical scenes and tributes to the workers who died during the construction of the tunnel. The whole thing was the brainchild of a Swiss millionaire who made his money on trains and wanted to achieve a great engineering feat.

There is a snow-carving gallery within the Aletsch glacier. It’s not very big but it is cute.

There are also several restaurants on different levels. We went to the cheapest and got hot chocolate in a paper cup for $10. Crikey!

The main reason for going to Jungfraujoch is undoubtedly the view so we’d been crossing our fingers all week as storms had been predicted and so far we’d only seen one shower.

Fortunately our luck held and the views were spectacular.

We’d taken warm clothes but I wish we’d had gloves. Still, we survived without and enjoyed ourselves. There is a section where you can walk out on the snow and even go for a hike but we weren’t prepared for that.

The viewing platform sits at 3571 metres above sea level, the highest either of us has ever been while still standing on the ground. Luke had a few moments of lightheadedness and I felt a little tingle in my legs but otherwise we were fine.

Last stop was a look through the world’s highest Lindt store. As we still have piles of chocolate from the class we did there was no need to buy anything.

We only stayed for an hour and a half but it was a spectacular 90 minutes and we were glad we went.

Back down to Kleine Scheidegg where we hopped aboard a train to Grindelwald, a town Rick Steves describes as tiny but which has grown hugely since he first visited.

The cog-wheel journey to Grindelwald is stunning.

The town of Grindelwald sits, as Lauterbrunnen does, in the shadow of large peaks, in this case the Eiger.

We hadn’t eaten much so we wandered up the main street to find some lunch. Everything looked expensive but we settled on a restaurant that did a cheap (ish) sandwich for 7CHF. But what sandwiches!

Also Luke kindly let me eat all his pickled onions and gherkins. What a gentleman!

Tired of hauling backpacks full of clothes around, we decided to head back to Lauterbrunnen and ended up having a nap, but not before seeing a noticeboard advertisement for some traditional folk entertainment at the local campsite. That was our evening sorted!

We wandered down to the campsite at about 6pm, keen to get a seat at the campsite restaurant as it had excellent reviews online.

We both ordered the small size of our chosen dishes.

Mac and cheese with potatoes, ham and a side of apple sauce.

We could’ve both survived off Luke’s plate for days.

We walked around the campsite for half an hour to aid our digestion and to ensure we didn’t fall into some sort of food coma, then it was time to grab a seat for the evening’s entertainment.

I assume this is the instrument you’re given in Swiss music classes if you can play anything else. Or maybe a punishment?

The choir sounded like the music from the Wes Anderson film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. One of our favourites!

All in all an outstanding day – hopefully the weather holds for our trip up Schilthorn tomorrow!

26Jul2018

A Day Out In Thun And Oberhofen.

by Miss Penny Black

Today Luke and I were checking out of Balmer’s and Interlaken to move to Lauterbrunnen. We both agreed that three days wasn’t enough for Interlaken and wished we’d had at least another day or two. It’s a pretty city and a terrific base for exploring the two lakes and all the various mountains and cable cars. If I’d come here to hike, a full week would barely suffice.

We left our bags at Balmer’s for the day and caught a train to the town of Thun. Our aim was to visit the castle but first, while walking through town, we managed to see someone surfing!

There was a lot of water coming through the weir and guys would jump in with their boards, grab the handle on the rope until they were comfortable then let go and surf for as long as they could.

It was quite impressive, even more so because we knew the water was chilly glacier-melt.

We then wandered towards the castle towers which were visible over the old town. The route up was about 200 steps so at the top we filled my water bottle from one of the ubiquitous fountains. One of the many things we’re going to miss when we leave here.

The castle, while impressive, didn’t seem to have much to offer inside, so we took a few photos of the towers and then had a little wander around the old town.

If you have a lot more money than us you could stay here – it’s a hotel.

The old town was small but interesting. In one part the street was on two levels – a deeper road between two higher footpaths.

As in Interlaken (and probably everywhere else in Switzerland) there were gorgeous flowers everywhere. Last year my garden was inspired by my trip to Canada, this year it’ll be Switzerland.

We walked along the river a bit and found the public swimming area – a section of river where people jumped in from a bridge then drifted along to another bridge where they climbed out. Most of the participants were elderly and looked to be having an excellent time.

I wish I’d taken a better photo.

Next was a bus to Oberhofen, where Luke had promised me a castle with gardens.

What a castle! What gardens! It was terrific.

First we walked through the gardens (priorities) and admired their dahlia beds and large variety of trees.

Then we went into the castle (10CHF or 8 with the Bernese Oberland travel pass) and had a look around. It was very well set up for school groups and had a lot of interactive stuff about servants’ lives and whatnot.

Unfortunately it was all in Swiss German but I could appreciate the effort.

One room I don’t think you’d take kids was the very top tower, which was an ‘oriental smoking room’ (opium den) that the family installed when smoking opium was fashionable. Although I bet the women of the family didn’t get a look-in.

It was pretty amazing though.

The colours and patterns were gorgeous.

The castle also contained some excellent woodwork and the usual slew of po-faced oil paintings.

Next was a lunch of rather Australian-style pies (although at the rather unAustralian 10 bucks each) and then a ferry back to Interlaken.

Apparently wishing really hard that someone would get out of your photo doesn’t work. This woman stood exactly like this for a full minute.

If you catch a Swiss ferry you’d better be prepared to exercise your arms because everyone you go past, whether on a board, a boat, or a bike, wants to give you a wave. To me the waves meant ‘Oh hello! I see you’re in Switzerland! Give us a wave if you’re thrilled to be here because we bloody well are!’

How could we not wave? We were as enchanted as everyone else.

While I was standing on the deck thinking smug thoughts an American lady next to us told her sons to ‘stop horsing around’, a familiar phrase that reminded me of a sign I’d taken a few days earlier. Do horses really behave that badly? In Switzerland they need a reminder not to enter underground walkways on their own.

No cars, no bikes, and no more bloody horses, ok?

We headed back to the hostel to pick up bags then to the train station and up to Lauterbrunnen, which is higher up the mountains and a gateway to the cloudy peaks we’ll no doubt regret paying through the nose for in the next few days. Of course today was a pure blue sky and would’ve been perfect but… we’ll see!

Right now we’re sitting on the balcony at our hostel and enjoying the sight of lights coming on across the valley and the sound of the waterfalls.

One more view of lovely Lake Thun before I go.

25Jul2018

Interlaken: Buses, Chocolate Making, Cable Cars and More.

by Miss Penny Black

Our Bernese Oberland Pass began today so we jumped out of bed at 6:30 to make the most of it. I’ll post more about the pass after we get to Geneva when we work out whether or not it was worth buying.

First activity for the day was catching a local bus to Beatenberg, a little village further up in the hills (I mean mountains… Switzerland’s mountains look like hills because there are even bigger mountains behind them). The bus ride took less than half an hour and we got out a few stops before the end of line and walked along the ridge that Beatenberg sits on, admiring the houses, the view, and enjoying the peace and quiet.

Everywhere around Interlaken are spring water fountains where you can fill up your water bottle with cold water. I think my favourite spring that I’ve seen so far was this one in Beatenberg.

So stylish!

If I could say that this part of Switzerland reminded me of another place I’ve been I would liken it to Japan. Equally clean, full of polite people, and the architecture, if you take away the geraniums, is very similar to wooden Japanese houses, only heavier and more ornate.

We bused back down to Interlaken in good time for our chocolate-making class at the Funky Chocolate Club. We were the only Aussies in a group of Americans but they were all very nice and we had a lot of fun.

First we heard a bit about the history of chocolate and where in the world it comes from. Then we tasted everything from 100% cocoa (revolting) and pure cocoa nibs (not bad) through dark, semi sweet, milk, and white. We then learned to temper chocolate to make three blocks of our own.

My favourite part was learning that correctly tempered chocolate twirls in a ribbon rather than dropping straight from the spoon. I got to use my lettering skills to write on our bars. It was harder than it looked!

You’ll probably find this hard to believe, but Luke and I did not gorge ourselves senseless on chocolate and only ate half a handful of bits during the class. Therefore we felt we deserved a hearty lunch at the bierhaus our walking tour leader had recommended the day before.

Specifically Alessandra had recommended the mac and cheese so we ordered one and a salad. It was, hands-down, the best mac and cheese I’ve had on our travels and I would’ve tried over a dozen in the US. This one was topped with fried onions, had plenty of cheese sauce and speck, plus it had a side of apple sauce. I don’t know if I’ll ever eat mac and cheese again without it – one of those unexpected pairings that turns out to be magical. Although we all know cheese and apples are good together… why did I not think of this already?

Next up was a bus ride along Lake Thun to reach a tourist attraction that I wasn’t at all keen on – the home of an ancient monk named Saint Beatus. He was possibly Irish and came to the area to convert the Helvetii and also claimed to have slain a dragon, which the Helvetii seemed to think was totally legit and so this monk lived in a cave and then had a take away shop named after him. This would’ve been pretty handy because the cave is miles from the nearest shops.

The site consisted of a long and steep ramp up to the little cave where the monk lived plus entry to an almost 1km stretch of tunnel that contained a river and stalagmites etc. Luke pestered me to give the caves a go and I said ok (I caved if you will. BOOM TISH) but we only got about 50 metres in before the roof got a bit low and I started quietly crying and had to leave. I was trying to convince myself it would be fine but the further I went underground the more a voice in my head kept saying ‘you are trapped!’ and I had to leave. Luke walked me back down to the gate and I sat outside and read my kindle. I felt totally fine when I got out and Luke went back to have a look but that’s it for me and caves. No more!

The outside was certainly attractive and worth a look. There’s a museum too but we didn’t bother.

We went back to the bus stop and caught the next bus to the base of the Neiderhorn funicular and cable car. The cost of this was included in our travel pass.

The view from the Neiderhorn was gob-smacking in every direction. The Neiderhorn is a long ridge so from the top you can see over the edge on one side and down towards Interlaken on the other.

On all the buses, the funicular, and cable car there’d been hardly a soul all day. That was to change, however, for our next activity. In the meantime we enjoyed looking at this Bernese Mountain dog being a bit lazy and catching the bus.

We don’t blame you, buddy. It’s 30 degrees out there.

Our last excursion of the day was another fantastic spot to see the sights.

Harder Kulm ( or, as we like to call it, Heidi Klum) is a restaurant and viewpoint that is accessible via a long hard walk or a funicular from close to the middle of Interlaken, therefore it is very popular.

We crammed aboard the funicular to make it up in time for sunset and a lovely meal of schnitzel and salad. Despite some bad reviews on TripAdvisor we found the staff very friendly and welcoming. Luck of the draw, perhaps.

The space at the top has a viewing platform that extends out over the valley a little and was filled with people getting their photos taken.

We decided not to linger as we knew the funicular would be crowded on the way down and so we lined up and ended up having a nice chat with a high school girl from the Netherlands who was travelling Europe solo in her school holidays. How wonderful to be a teenager in Europe. In country NSW we had a choice between Queensland and Sydney for our getaways. Yawn!

We walked back to our hostel via a sculpture in town that I wanted to take a photo with – a Bollywood director who had filmed many of his hits in Interlaken. Our walking tour guide had even been in one of the movies as an extra!

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hostel but I’ve been a complete trooper and finished this entry straightaway. What a champion I am!

A photo of me with an empty bowl. How intriguing!

25Jul2018

Switzerland: Interlaken

by Miss Penny Black

Before heading off to Switzerland we spent the weekend in Cambridge attending Andrew and Lila’s wedding celebration (one year after they married – Lila is from Taiwan and they married quickly last year due to visa issues) and it was a cracking party with a proper ceilidh band calling the Scottish dances. The kind of thing I would’ve completely detested as a teenager but now love. Luke and I even got in some time on the dance floor to do some rock and roll steps. Everyone had a brilliant time and I’m very glad we were there for it. Thanks, Andrew and Lila, for putting us up!

We also had a chance to play with Jeffrey, Andrew’s parents’ new puppy. He likes biting everyone and everything but was delightful nonetheless.

I also used the time in Cambridge to buy several kilos of fruit and vegetables to undo the effects of all the pizza, pasta and cheese in Italy, then made us a tub of fruit and some salad rolls to take on the plane. We have been warned by everyone that Switzerland is expensive, particularly for eating out, so I filled all the camping-equipment space in my bag with muesli, rice, pasta, tins and sauces so we can cook most of our meals in the hostels. Obviously we’ll be going out for fondue and schnitzel etc at some point though!

On the Monday we caught the train from Cambridge to Liverpool Street then the Dockland Light Rail to London City Airport, which we’d not used before. Many airports around the world seem to be moving towards holding people in a large central area then telling them the gate only minutes before boarding starts, which means you have to fight for a seat or sit on the floor in an overcrowded area then hustle if your gate is miles away. London City Airport is not like that. Plenty of seats at the gates, all the flights are smaller aircraft and it is a walk of only a few metres from the train station into the airport, through security and to the bar for a quick drink. So civilised ;-).

We decided to buy some duty free gin and vodka to take to Switzerland and the fellow manning the duty free drinks told us his brother lived in Switzerland and he’d been to visit and we were making the right decision if we wanted to save money.

We flew with Skyworks, an airline we’d not heard of previously but which has been around for decades, apparently. They only have six aircraft and each seat 50 people so it was quite a different experience to our usual flights.

England looking unusually brown.

The view was lovely when we flew into Bern airport and customs took all of five seconds, with a cursory stamp and a queue of four people in front of us.

We caught a bus from the airport to Belp, then a train to Thun, following the advice of a friendly Swiss family and a girl from Hong Kong who had been before.

In Thun we changed trains to get to Interlaken and it was an incredibly scenic journey around a lake where the sun was shining on turquoise waters, people out swimming and sailing, and mountains rising dramatically in every direction.

Lake Thun.

Interlaken (as the name suggests) sits between two lakes. The city is almost completely flat but ringed by mountains, the furthest of which are snow-capped.

We walked from the train station to our hostel in about 20 minutes and admired all the beautiful wooden houses along the way that had that distinctive Swiss look. We also saw dozens of people paragliding and could hear faint ‘yippeeees!’ Coming from the sky.

We are staying at the Balmer’s Hostel, the oldest private hostel in Switzerland (or so they say) and our first hostel together for this trip. While I have seen people here who are older than me it’s definitely more of a 20-something party-place with a nightclub on the premises and a bar that is busy all evening. We shared a giant burger and sweet potato fries on our first night. They weren’t cheap but they were good.

We’d hardly been in Switzerland a few hours before Luke remarked that it was my spirit animal (or, you know, country). Clean, well-organised, a recycling bin on every corner, friendly, vegetable gardens in every front yard, fruit trees everywhere and one of my favourite things – natural springs where you can fill your bottle with cold, clear water… it’s heaven.