Day 7 – relaxing 6th July
This was scheduled to be another relaxing day and we had planned to spend it messing about in the boat but it was very breezy, with white horses on the lake so we gave it a miss. We spent the day reading and blog-writing, punctuated by food and drink. We popped into Interlaken in the early evening for more supplies – mainly fruit – although I did pick up a bar of chocolate called Ovalmaltine. It was lovely. A bit gritty in texture, but a lovely flavour. Paul was less keen, but that didn’t seem to stop him scoffing it!
The evening brought football. The first time the TV had made an appearance all holiday. It was the Wales versus Portugal match and sadly gallant little Wales could not withstand the might of the Portugese team and their run of luck ran out. I spent the evening browsing the internet, reading and sighing LOUDLY.
Base camp
Ready for a barbie.
Day 8 – to the hills! 7th July
Off to the mountains again today. We set off for the very pretty town of Wilderswil, effectively the starting point for most tours of the Jungfrau region It has many hotels, accordingly. Our next stop was at Lauterbrunnen, where we viewed and took the obligatory pictures of the most famous (of many) and impressive Staubach Falls. At just under 300 ft, most of it freefall, it’s a great sight amongst valley of waterfalls. There are 72, apparently, in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, including the equally famous Trummelbach, which – rather annoyingly – we missed completely! Next time! We had a coffee at a cafe with great views over the valley towards the Schilthorn mountain.
Staubach Falls – Lauterbrunnen
On the way to our next destination, Grindelwald, we went through a very unusual tunnel. We had noticed an odd circular-looking road on the satnav and it turned out that it is this 1200m long tunnel that is virtually circular, climbing steeply throughout its passage. It was also a single track road with passing places – an altogether different experience! At least!
Screenshot from the satnav showing odd round thing!
Just because she’s beautiful
Grindelwald is a ski town, obviously so, with all the requisite shops, bars and hotels/lodges. It’s an attractive town nonetheless, with a selection of cable cars. We stopped and had our picnic in the shade, overlooking the again shrunken Oberer Grindelwald glacier (gletscher in German Swiss).
Oberer Grindlewald Glacier
Signage showing shrinkage. 😦
After lunch, we set off for the Pfingstegg Cable car, which Arch was quite happy to ride in. At the top, where there are stunning views, there is also a sommerodelbahn (this video gives a great impression of the ride) – or summer toboggan run. Someone had to look after the dog and I knew Paul would love it, so I was left with dog and camera. I am not the most expert with an SLR and I thought I had taken two really good shots as he raced down the curves. Sadly not! My bad! I did manage to get a couple of shots of him on the climb back up, which is a slow rack and pinion affair and not ideal for action shots – Oh dear!
Going up! View of Grindlewald
View from the top
Archie admiring the view – and looking for Paul
Paul – at the end of his summerodelbahn run. Oopsie.
By now it was very hot and we beat a hasty retreat back to the van. The weather was perfect for the boat, so we dug it out of the car and blew it up. Didn’t take long and we were soon out on the water. Archie was quite happy, being used to boats, and we had a very pleasant time, followed by a swim for all of us. The water was refreshing – cool but refreshing.Sadly no pictures because i was “advised” not to take any photographic equipment with me. I did manage to grab a shot of the boys in it though, from the shore.
Our new boat
Day 9 – at leisure 8th July
It was a sunny day so we had breakfast and then jumped in the boat for a quick row and a long bob around and then another swim. So glad we got the boat – gonna be a lot of fun. For those interested, it’s an Intex Excursion 5 inflatable. It gets great reviews and we saw it for a good price. It’s really tough and durable and you can also get an outboard for it, which we will do at some point – maybe after we have got over the Swiss cost of living!!
As we were moving on the next day, we did a little desultory tidying up before returning to our books and snoozes.
We dried the boat out in the hot sun and deflated it – which again didn’t take long – and replaced it in the handy carrying bag it comes with, ready for next time.
The evening was largely spent packing away the awning and the awning carpet and then we went for an early night as we thought we’d make an early start on our journey to our next lake! We will be very sad to leave this lovely spot, a real wrench. Let’s hope our next pitch is as nice – although it will have to go some!
On tour at home and abroad with the Sumpners 