Amazing Vistas, Impasses, and on being Underground

Monday 06-May-2019 (Camping Rutti, Stechelberg)

We remained at Stechelberg (922m elevation) another night on the basis of a weather forecast (from the COSMO, model I expect) – that the weather would clear on Monday – allowing a visit to Jungfrau. On going to bed on Sunday evening the prospects were not great. We got up at 06.00 and while it was cloudy in the valley – the web cam at Jungfraujoch showed clear vistas and sunlight. So it was a case of “on your bike” as we needed to be in Lauterbrunnan by soon after 7am, in order to get the “cheap” tickets that were available on the 07.07 and 07.37 trains.  We made it to town in just under 15 minutes… there was little electrical assistance… as most of the time we were above 25 kph (the speed at which "assistance" turns off)… and indeed for much of it above 32 kph (we are getting better at this…).  A visit to Jungfraujoch is almost worth it – just for the train ride. Starting at 802 m in Lauterbrunnen, it rises to 2061m at Kleine Scheidegg, after which you change to the Jungfrau train which takes you up to 3466m (nearly all of which is in a tunnel) at the Jungfraujoch – the saddle between Mönck and Jungfrau.

This is what one sees along the way… 

Lauterbrunnen station... looking through the drivers cab - about to leave for Jungfraujoch

Probably should apologise for the number of times you are seeing the valley - but it is stunning... looking down on the Staubbach falls on the edge of Lauterbrunen.

This is the town of Wegen on the "upper meadows" above Lauterbrunnen

The Bernese Alps appear (emerge?) through the cloud... 

It's not spring up here!

The Jungfrau train pulling in to Klein Scheidegg (the station where you change trains) 

Then at the top – we emerged above the cloud for views of Jungfrau (4158m), the Aletsch Glacier, the Sphinx Astronomical Observatory (3571m), and Mönck (4107m) - you can't see the Eiger - as it is "behind" Mönck.

Monck and the Sphinx Observatory

Looking down over the Aletsch Glacier

Panorama from the Sphinx Observatory (remember - you can click on the image to see a larger version) 

Jingfrau

And just to prove we were there…

A day out for the travellers...

Of course, once you have seen the mountains.. and become slightly cold… and because there has to be more to it than “just this” – there are various other attractions to keep your interest – from the chocolate (Lindt) gift shop (yes, we succumbed to another addition to our “collection of “tacky” tourist memorabilia – by buying a snowglobe), to restaurants, to a quite interesting “tour” that provides some historical information (it opened in 1912, after a long, tortuous, financially difficult gestation…)  through to shear entertainment – ice sculptures (some with difficult juxtapositions - see below), and ice “experiences” to the current resting place of Scrat, the acorn-obsessed sabre-toothed squirrel from the Ice Age series...

"The" snow globe... note the person on the right to get a sense of the size.

Something not quite right about this... penguins and an igloo....

Karilyn on Ice!

The current resting place of Scrat....

Then – it was back to Stechelberg (after some shopping at the Coop – now open, it being a Monday and not lunch time) – at a more sedate rate than on the descent… it is a 120m “climb” after all… and we were laden up with two bags of groceries.

What this is... is a picture of the two ebikes in the "garage".... they fit perfectly - We have travelled 67km on them so far...

Monday 07-May-2019 (Stechelberg to Cugnasco)

The day dawned bright and blue… so the decision was made to go up to Schilthorn Piz Gloria (2970 m) – via the “cable way” that departs just outside Schelberg. Schilthorn is on the opposite side of the valley from the Eiger, Mönck and Jungfrau etc.  So we dumped, emptied, and refilled the freshwater tank, paid, and drove 500m down the road. 

To get to Schilthorn – requires four aerial cable way rides. The first took us from the base station at 867m to the Gimmelwald station at the top of the cliffs over hanging the campsite (1363m), the second to Murren at 1638m (Murren is the village – that sits on the edge of the valley overhanging the campsite), the third terminates at Birg (2677m) and the final leg (a single span) takes us up Schilthorn (2970m). The views were simply stunning (and, we would say – more interesting than  Jungfraujoc – but the railway is the attraction for that route).

Arriving at Brig... on he Aerial Cableway...

Centre, left to right: the Eiger, Monck, and Jungfrau - from Schilthorn

Gspaltenhorn (I think...) 3427m

Panorama of the Bernese Alps..."The Swiss Skyline" 

In the party that travelled up with us – there were a group of young women – who had clearly decided to treat this as an opportunity to take some fashion photographs… they must have nearly frozen in doing so… the poses and changes of clothing were clearly aimed to charm someone!  Out of politeness – we didn’t crash there session… but they did eventually get a little more warmly dressed!

After the "Fashion Shoot"... all warmed up again...

Small plane "buzzing" Piz Gloria… and a demonstration to the quality of Fuji Lenses... it was quite far away at the time of shooting...

On the way down – we stopped at Birg – to take in the “thrill walk” – glass walkways over the (upper) cliff edge, rope walkways etc… While were probably a long way above the ground – it didn’t seem so…

Karilyn on the rope walk... on the Thrill Walk...

Looking down on the "Thrill Walk"

Afternoon tea - while watching the action on the Eiger… from Murren the village above the lower valley...

As we descended back to the valley floor we had some excellent views of the campsite… and of the lovely bridge that we could see from our campsite when looking up…

Looking down on our campsite at Stechelberg... and at the "hanging bridge" that you can see in some of the photos in the earlier posts... but from below.

Almost "back to earth"...

At which point we needed to be on our way… as we were beginning to run out of time… and this is where the “impasses” enter the story….and in case you are wondering about “on being underground”… we are talking about the Swiss penchant to tunnel through everything!

 

Our plan was to head for Thusis (you will need to google…) via the Fuka (2431 m) and Grimsel (2165m) passes.  Sadly when we got to Guttannen, we learned that the Grimsel Pass was closed – of course if we had checked the web… we would have known that it does not open till June… which is the reason why the navigation system was persistent in routing us around this obstacle – despite our unwillingness to accept it’s guidance.  We will know better in the future!  But it was a nice drive up to Guttannen wand unsurprisingly... the traffic was very light (which was very pleasant)!

On the way to Guttannen

The road up to/down from Andamatt... 

But we hadn’t quite learned our lesson at this point – so we set off for the Fuka Pass… via Andamatt, which meant backtracking toward Lucerne, crossing the Brunigg Pass again (but in the opposite direction – so we have seen both sides now…like clouds…). And this is where the bit about being a troll comes in… i.e. spending lots of time underground. The new route (we chose) was to visit Andamatt – and see what happens after that.  To get there seemed like we spent a long time underground as we passed through a series of tunnels of various lengths from 100s of metres to multiple kilometres in length.  Well the road to Andamatt didn’t have much traffic either… but it was very interesting! After that we accepted our medicine – and headed back to the Gothard Tunnel… 17  km of life underground  - but a lot better than the 57km Gotthard Base Tunnel used by trains! 

By now time was not our friend… so at Andamatt we abandoned our plan to overnight in Thusis – and sought a closer campsite – which turned out to be “Camping Riarena” (nearly) on the shores of Lake Maggiore. We arrived at 9pm… were welcomed by the host – even at this late hour.

Did I mention… its started to rain again… but tomorrow (Thursday, 09/05) may be fine… so we will need to decide whether to stay another day here and investigate Locano and surroundings… or move on…

Lastly – if you got this far and are wondering why so many photos… be thankful we haven’t added all 233 that we took yesterday (alone).

I'm uploading this from the shores of Lake Como - at a beautiful campsite... but you will have to wait a day or too longer to see what we experienced today...