Switzerland: land of chocolate, knives, and cows

So, when I last left you, Youval and I had just arrived at the airport to head to Switzerland. We had to get up super super early to make it ontime and were waiting in the security line because we didn't have to check a bag. I took out our boarding passes and what did I see? Our flight from London Luton to Zurich. The only problem with this was..... we were at London Stansted. So basically I'm an idiot who took us to the wrong airport. We missed our flight and because the Easyjet lines were ENDLESS and we couldn't get to someone in the airport to talk to, I had to call Brian to get him to book us on a flight to Zurich later that day. Turns out later that day meant 7 pm. So we took a bus to Luton and sat there. And sat there. And ate lunch. And sat there. And sat some more. And got some dinner for the plane. Then sat there as our flight was delayed. Then sat some more. Finally we got on the plane, landed in Zurich around 10 pm, and still had a 2 hour drive to get from Zurich to Lauterbrunnen.

The next morning we woke up to a BEAUTIFUL day in the Swiss Alps. We started out by taking a cablecar up to the top of the Schilthorn, one of the mountains in the area and one on which James Bond On Her Majesty's Secret Service was filmed. The view on the way up was incredible and as we climbed we could see more and more.


We continued climbing (making several stops along the way) and eventually we got the cloud layer that was covering the mountain. For the majority of the time we were up on the top there was a thick layer of clouds completely surrounding us. It was a bummer to not get a complete view from the top but it was also pretty cool to be enclosed in the clouds.
The clouds eventually cleared up a bit and we were able to see the whole valley around us. There were lots of people parachuting and base jumping which was amazing to watch as well.



That evening we walked around Luaterbrunnen, which we think means "many fountains" or "loud fountains", so named for the many waterfalls around it. It was an adorable little Swiss alpine town and it was quiet and quaint.

The next day we opted to hike rather than ride cable cars. We started out on a 3 mile straight bit that took us along the mountain ridge. I decided to be silly and run it (don't know where that idea came from) but it was a nice little run and I got to cool off while waiting for the fam to catch up with me at the end.

After the straight bit we started to climb. We climbed quite a bit and made our way up to the town of Murren. It was a really really pretty climb, short and steep which is my opinion is better than long and gradual.


From Murren we started to make our way back down in a large loop. The way down was actually harder than the way up. It turned out to be really long and actually quite steep with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns. At one point we were litterally walking through a herd of cows. Thankfully the path had split into two at that point because they were completely blocking one side of the path and we had to go around them on the other. After about 4 hours of walking we were pretty exhausted but it was an amazing day and a beautiful walk.

In the evening, Mom, Abba, and I went to Trummelbach Falls, a series of 10 waterfalls cutting through the mountains. It was really cool to see the way that the water carved out caverns and crevices and the power of the water as it made its way down the falls was breathtaking.
I got a bit wet here...

Unfortunately, the next morning we had to head out of Luaterbrunnen back to Zurich, but it turned out to be ok because whereas the previous two days had been sunny and gorgeous, we woke up to a pretty heavy rainfall. Thankfully we were in the car most of the day so it wasn't too bad. On our way back to Zurich we stopped in Interlocken to see the city a bit. We got a nice view of the whole city from the top of the tallest building in Interlocken.


We continued to Zurich (stopping several times in an attempt to find me a Switzerland scarf to add to the collection of football scarves I have which we never wound up finding) through Luzern and arrived to more rain. The rain turned out to be a blessing though because to avoid being outside we spent time at the Rosengart Collection, a mostly privately donated art gallery that had tons of Picasso and Klee works. The crazy thing about it was that Mr Rosengart was a close friend of Picasso's and one of the few people that was allowed to see him work. Also included was a photo exhibition done by another friend of Picasso that showed the way he was as a father and a friend and a companion, not just as an artist. It was really really cool to see.
Finally we made it back to Zurich and were told that there was going to be a 3 hour delay on our flight. It turned out the delay was only an hour and a half or so which was nice but it still got us into London around 1, we caught a bus to Ox at 2:30 and were home and in bed around 4 or so. Up later that morning, however, to enjoy England. That post to come soon!!