Friday:
04-Ap-2017 (Camping Rutti, Stechelberg)
Some
clearances in the weather today – enough to contemplate a bike ride to
Luaterbrunnen (about 20 minutes) to check out the costs and possibilities for a)
the aerial cableway to Schilthorn (2971m) with views across the Lauterbrunnen
Valley to the Eiger (3970m), Monch (4107m), Jungfrau (4158m) and a several more
peaks all above 3000m elevation), and b) the train to Jungfrau (which leaves
from Lauterbrunnen). The costs were, CHF80 and CHF130 (if you leave on the
0700, or 0730 train, else CHF180pp) respectively. But if we are going for the view – then it
does need to be clear – and it was clear at neither location. So after snapping
some photos of the town – it was time for hot chocolate and on this occasion, slices
of both apple and apple and rhubarb pie!
Stop
Press (while writing this up...at 9.56pm Saturday, 4 May) – it has started snowing… and is 3C outside.
Here are some images from the valley (not so many words today...).. but from an aural point of view the hills are "alive with the sound of music" - cow bells, and goat bells too, as well as church bells - all very endearing!
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| Looking toward Lauterbrunnen from the the exit of the Trummelbach Falle |
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| Lauterbrunnen in more inclement weathter |
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| Lauterbrunnen Banhof: The train to Interlarken - a cog railway |
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| The iconic "church" with the Staubbach Waterfall on the right - which if you are a fan of Goethe you will immediately recognise as the source of inspiration for the poem :Songs of the Spirits over the Waters"! |
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| Cow bells to go... |
And
on the way back to the camp – a visit to Trummelbachfalle – ten glacier water
falls inside the mountain Lauterbrunnen Valley (and just down the road) – which
were quite impressive – even more so when one considered all the tunnelling
that had been done to provide visitor access to the falls. The power of water to shape the landscape was
clearly on display. For those with a hydrological interest – the claims are:
catchment area:24 km2 and flows up to 20 cumecs.
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| Just one of the "ten" falls at Trummelbachfalle. |
The
weather remains “inclement”… so no point in visiting still higher elevations…
Saturday:
04-Apr-2018 (Camping Rutti, Stechelberg)
The
weather forecast for today was for rain, 100% probability from 11.15am (quite
precise, wouldn’t you say?….) – so the recommendation given to us, was to take
the train up Jungfrau at 07.00 (or 07.30). We awoke to rain, and the webcams
for Jungfrau and Schilthorn indicated low visibility – so we decided to flag
that and go back to sleep. Upon
arising, and finding it no longer raining, and slightly improving weather – we decided
on some (more) photography of our campsite and surrounds - which will make a nice contrast to the view from Sunday 05-May)..
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| The beauty of the mountain environment around this site (elevation 900m) is overwhelming - looking toward the "rear" of the Lauterbrunnen Valley - towards Trachsellauenen. |
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| And in the opposite direction - down the valley toward Lauterbrunnen. |
After that - a stroll up the valley to Trachsellauenen seemed
like a good idea for some exercise, and is just the first “recognised” stop on
the way up the valley.
We
left at the appointed time when the probablility of precipitation became
100%... and had a “pleasant” walk ("wanderweg") up the hill – all 300m ascent of it (we are
after all trying to improve our fitness levels). Our time did not match that
advertised, 40 minutes – but it was a very enjoyable walk in the valley – and gave
us some sense of the countryside – which later in spring
must be a riot of flowers.
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| The lunch stop on the wanderweg way... (the song, If I go a wandering, along the wandering way... keeps coming to mind!) |
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| Same mountain (Jungfrau??) a few minutes after the photo above... quite a different feeling to it! |
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| The Hotel at Trachsellauenene (but not open till the 15/05). Elevation 1202m. |
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| Feels familiar? One of the many rustic "barns" / refuges?? on the hills here... |
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| We made it to some snow - at the Lead and Silver mining works (from 18th century) above Trachsellauenene… little were we to realise how different this would look one day later |
Add in K in the snow...
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| Wandering on wanderweg…. |
Sunday
05-May-2019 (Camping Rutti, Stechelberg)
As
noted above… last evening it started snowing as the outside temperature fell
below 4C. We awoke to a changed world –
with the accumulation being about 100mm.
Contrast some of the images below, with those from the yesterday. Breakfast was delayed while we enjoyed the
novelty of the snow….
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| Morning: 05-May-2019 (with 100 mm of snow on the ground). |
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| Contrast with the green and pleasant view a day earlier... |
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| Wet snow... on the tress |
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| View from the same location as above... |
And
then it was time for our Book Club meeting – with video and audio from 3
locations, Wellington, Auckland, and Stechelberg. First we tried Skype – but the audio was bad “from
us”… then moved on to Facebook messenger – which I am sad to say delivered
perfect video and audio from all three sites!
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| Just two sites of the book club here.. but there had been three - I was just too slow to remember to take a photo! |
We
hadn’t quite “finished” the book (My Grandmother sends her Regards and
Apologies) – but it was fun to be involved in a discussion and conversation around
the planet. I have read far enough (and
the discussion confirmed)… this is a book where the characters have wry senses
of humour. It is by a Swedish author, and feels a bit like the “One hundred
year old man who climbed out the window and walked away”… there is some
suggestion that this kind of humour appeals more to males than females – but my
sampling of opinions indicates this is not generally true!
As
we were running low on some supplies – a ride back to Lauterbrunnen seemed like
a good idea – even if it was still snowing. Our limited range of “cold weather”
clothing proved up to the task though – and, for the first time, we got to wear
the over-trousers that we bought back in 2013 before our first tramp over the
Routeburn and Greenstone tracks. While
that was all a good success, the trip was not… I had forgotten, in Switzerland,
everything is closed on Sundays! Oh well,
we will try again tomorrow when hopefully – we will get to go up Jungfrau…
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| Their Easter Gardens are rather spectacular - this one on the cycle way into Lauterbrunnen… and a place to buy honey and cheese too. |
Just wanted to say how much we're enjoying following your travels, especially the photos. (Hope you didn't snap the image of the GPS display of the Brunig Pass route whilst driving!) Sue and I travelled parts of Switzerland by train in 2016 but you're getting into lots of fabulous nooks and crannies that we didn't/couldn't get to - I just have to subdue my envy! Glad to see the electric bikes are working out well. Hope you have good weather for your ascent of the Jungfrau!
ReplyDeleteThanks David... Good to hear that it is "interesting"... actually I'm not sure we are seeing "more", just "different" - as the need to "camp" places some constraints on what you can and cannot do/see. It does slow things down nicely though - eg. we spent 5 days at Stechelberg - waiting for the weather to clear - and in the process enjoyed an altogether unexpected experience - falling snow... and when it did clear - it was spectacular. Will update later today (from Cugnasco, on the shores of Lake Maggiore). Thanks for the comments.
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