When we arrived in Grindelwald, we called home and were greeted
with my Dad’s familiar refrain: “Where in the world are you these days?” We let
him know we were high in the mountains of Switzerland for just over a week and
thought, “Are we crazy to have come to this country for a full eight days –
where bleeding money is the principal pastime of tourists?” Even thinking about
sticking to a budget in Switzerland was
a fool’s errand, but we were anxious to hike and so there we were. The Swiss
franc (no, Switzerland is not and never has been on the euro), currently valued
at just over a dollar, is stronger than ever. Prices were jaw-droppingly high
(a good 30% more than in the rest of Europe) but at a certain point, we decided
to just eat and drink less and go with the exchange-rate flow rather than
obsess about our expenditures and ruin our stay. Because access to many of the
most beautiful, hiking trails required an initial ascent in a cable car or
gondola, we purchased six-day unlimited transportation passes for the price of
a hotel room for two weeks in Greece. Determined to get our money’s worth, we
were out and about every day taking every chairlift, train and ascension
contrivance covered by our pass to explore the Grindelwald valley fully.
More than comfortable with
traversing mountain landscapes on gondolas and chair lifts for skiing, doing so
across the green countryside of summer was a completely new experience. As in
winter, we departed each morning with our trusty trail map in hand, charted our
course and then rather than skiing down the slopes, hiked from the top of one
lift across and over the terrain to the base of the next. We explored both
sides of the valley including a trip up the Grindelwald First cable car to a
lateral path along a ridge that brought us up to the Bachalpsee, a lovely alpine lake well above the tree line. Trekking
across the high meadows crisscrossed every hundred yards or so by gushing
streams of melted snow so reminded me of walking the fells in the Lake District
in England. The rugged, rocky landscape combined sharp crags with rolling
slopes of thick, tufted grass pitted with hollows such that twisting an ankle
in a sudden soft spot was always a fear. Our scenic lift rides took us to the
mountain villages of Wengen, Mürren and Lauterbrunnen where endless trails were
within constant sight of waterfalls and earshot of the thunder of summer avalanches. We took a particularly dramatic
hike along the narrow edge of a mountain ravine that overlooked the glacier
below. After an hour’s ascent, the weather changed in the blink of an eye and
with thunder rumbling in the distance, we immediately turned on our heels and did
an about-face. The rain was torrential and not having donned any foul weather
gear, within minutes we were soaked by a drenching squall. Water ran down our
legs and into our hiking boots, turning our socks into sodden sponges. We
squished and squeaked our way back to the trailhead and just as we made it to
the gondola hut, the lightening flashed above us. It was petrifying to have our
trek over the glacier thwarted by a thunderstorm
but it taught us an enduring lesson – when dealing with the outdoors, Mother
Nature always wins.
We reveled daily in the summer side of the Grindelwald playground.
The gondolas and cable cars are the same as those that operate in winter and as
always, we searched for opportune trails, but our hiking boots were a lot less
painful than our ski boots and our essential trekking sticks replaced our
winter ski poles. The outdoor entrepreneurs have turned what was previously a
four-month ski season into a year-round outdoor wonderland and we couldn’t have
been happier that they had. On one evening trip deep into the valley for an
authentic Swiss cheese fondue at a restaurant recommended by our hotel
proprietor, we found ourselves looking over the spot where the Wetterhorn lift,
the world’s first aerial cable car, started operating in 1908. A replica of the original wooden cabin now stands
next to the Hotel Wetterhorn where the original lower station of the lift once
stood and shuttled skiers and climbers towards the summit. Sadly, the
Wetterhorn lift functioning ceased when World War I broke out and its operation
has never resumed.
The flagship
excursion of a trip to Grindelwald is the 11,400-foot ascent to the Jungfraujoch, the permanently snowed in saddle between the Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. We decided
to forego yet a few more meals to pay the supplement for this amazing train
ride. The cog railway climbs rapidly from the Kleine Scheidegg pass before
plunging into the mountain face of solid rock and continuing for seven long miles
inside the Eiger and Mönch before eventually emerging at the
highest train station in Europe. What makes the
claustrophobic journey all the more incredible is that work on this
breathtaking engineering marvel was initiated so long ago -- in the late 1800s
– and lasted for 16 years. As dark as it was in the train tunnel, when we emerged the
light was dazzling. The brilliant summer sun reflecting off every snow-covered
surface around us was blinding. Once we donned our sunglasses and our eyesight
was restored, we realized that we were not alone; it appeared that the entire
populations of India, Pakistan and Japan were there with us at 12,000 feet
above sea level. As we’d learned from our hotel owner, Switzerland
is the foreign country pictured most often as a backdrop in Bollywood blockbusters
such that as a vacation destination it has become the stuff of dreams for
Indians and Pakistanis. Specially packaged excursions shuttle
entire families to the Bernese Oberland region for the complete movie
experience, including lunch at the “Bollywood” restaurant at the top of the
Jungfraujoch. In a similar manner, the area is a popular destination for
packaged tours from Japan. The Grindelwald area of the Swiss Alps is a huge draw for Japanese tourists,
many of whom make the pilgrimage to mountains they know from the children's
classic, Heidi, and the beloved
musical, The Sound of Music. One Japanese
woman I spoke to shared with me, “They’re always marketing the romantic image
of Switzerland wherever you go. Television ads talk about the clean Swiss air
and travel agent windows are filled with pictures of snow-covered peaks and
edelweiss.” The advertising must work and someone is making an awful lot of
money judging by the hundreds of Japanese with whom we shared the trains. Often the only
non-Asian in the rail cars, we were astounded when information about upcoming
stops was announced in German, English and then in Japanese.
In an effort to flee the stifling crowds at the Jungfraujoch station to
view the magnificent vistas with a touch of solitude, we hiked close to an hour up and across the vast
glacial snowfields to the Mönchjoch mountain hut. We’d left temperatures
in the high 70s in Grindelwald but despite the brilliant sun, once we set off across
the plateau, the icy winds whipping through the pass brought the numbers down
into the 40s. The views across the Aletsch Glacier, at 15 miles the longest river of
ice in the Alps, were incredible and we just couldn’t believe the views we were
experiencing. What magnificence, what grandeur, what oh-my-goodness splendor.
Much-appreciated, belly-warming soup and tea helped thaw our chilly selves such
that we were able to head back across the snow to Bollywood central and up the elevator that
took us to the Sphinx weather observation tower and panoramic terrace. We were
indeed on top of the world.
Every evening after strenuous daily hikes,
we were happy to return to the Hotel Lauberhorn and our cozy duvets in our room
with a view. Our hosts and their staff were always so generous with
recommendations for our outdoor excursions for the following day; we were
living with native resident experts on the entire valley. One evening, we opted
into a very reasonably priced BBQ they cooked and served on the outdoor patio
and every morning, we were greeted with a superb morning meal. The hotel served
some of the freshest, most scrumptious breakfasts we had on our journey:
homemade muesli thick with fresh fruits, crusty whole wheat breads and
croissants served with sweet butter and homemade jams, rich coffee and an
endless variety of loose leaf teas and a nice selection of Swiss cheeses presented
on a thick plank of cedar.
After eight days in Switzerland, we really did hate to leave, but since
our wallets had thinned considerably and my beloved France, still in the Alps,
was our next destination, we once again hit the rails and waved goodbye to
Grindelwald.
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