Our Hike Through the Mountains

Friday, I decided that I wanted to see a glacier and go into a glacial cave. (We decided not to go to Jungfrau as it was too expensive - 500 swiss francs) So after much research on the internet we found Oberer Gletschen (a 10 minute walk from where we could park the car, and 10 minutes later, we could go inside the cave). So we set out.

We found our way there really easily; parked the car and read the signs. (Because our German isn't good, they weren't a lot of good, but we got the general direction).
We walked about 10 minutes and found it was all chained off with a closed sign (that was what the sign had said). I was actually glad it was closed. When I read about 790 log steps, I didn't realise they looked like this, straight up the mountain.

Never mind, we still wanted to have a look, so we climbed a different path and tried again. This time we got views, but no glacier,

So we kept walking

We reached a restaurant at the top, (closed), but we spoke to a lady there and decided to keep walking. (50 mins back down the hill or 50 mins to the next place, easy walk she told us).

It was easy (the first bit), down hill and then along a straight path. 

Stopped for a drink, straight mountain water.

Through a tunnel, (long way up)

And walked more, (so much for the easy walk, we were exhausted)

Until finally we saw the cable car ride (my horrible husband made smart comments about how it was probably shut and we'd have to walk back. Matthew and I were too exhausted to kill him)

But it wasn't. We took the cable car down.

And finally I got to see my glacier.

What I didn't realise at the time was you got the same view from either car park.

Glacier 1

Glacier 2

What did we do in the afternoon? NOTHING. Back to the hotel and rest (although I did go up and down the stairs doing the washing). 

Trummelbach Falls

On the way back from Schilthorn we called in to Trummelbach Falls, (a series of 10 waterfalls that have carved their way inside a mountain. The falls drain the glaciers at Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch, the 3 biggest mountains in the Interlaken region).

They were spectacular. We went into the mountain and straight up a lift inside the mountain.

Then it was up and down steps to see all the waterfalls

and the amazing way they have carve the tunnels in the mountain.

900 steps in total.

After the falls, it was back to Interlaken for a wander around the streets before dinner.

Schilthorn

Today, after much debate about what we were going to do, and looking at different types of passes, we decided to take the cable car to the top of Schilthorn mountain, (2970m high). Schilthorn was where the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Service" was filmed.

We drove up to Stechelberg, where we bought the tickets and started the ride. The drive in itself was amazing. Mountain scenery is just so beautiful (guess it has something to do with only viewing the Moresby ranges for most of my life).

The cable car was incredible. Because it was so high, we had to change cable cars at stations on 4 different levels. It took only 32 minutes to go from the ground to the summit of the mountain and the views were just amazing.

When we got to the top it was freezing cold (0 or below), but the views were worth it. 

This is Interlaken, where we are staying.

And there was snow...

That meant snowball fights

And snowmen

and can't forget Kev

We had coffee and cake in the revolving restaurant.

And then it was time to go back down.

 And that was just the morning.

Germany to Switzerland

Well, our drive to Lake Konstanz was quite interesting. After our trips on the motorway, I decided that we would take the scenic route, no motorways. We set the sat nav and started on our way.

We hadn't gone far before we saw "road closed" and "roadwork" signs. That was to be the order of the day. We turned so many corners due to roadworks that even our sat nav was confused. But we saw so many small villages and an amazing display of woodcarving out the front of a shop. Wished we could take one home, it would look great out the front.

There was also heaps of great scenery

And we even crossed into Austria when we took a wrong turn, and ended up going up along small windy roads up really big hills to get back to where we were heading.

But finally we arrived in Singen (where we were staying), and after a look at our room drove to Konstanz, had a look at the lake and had dinner.

The centre of Lake Konstanz is actually the border between Germany and Switzerland. We accidently went into Switzerland when we we looking for a car park (plenty of car parks on their side, but had no Swiss Francs). Don't know why we had so much trouble finding a car park, so many bikes around.

Wednesday, we headed towards Switzerland and the Rhine Falls (only 1/2 an hour from our hotel). They were magnificent. We even walked around the falls to the bridge (more steps) and admired the view from all angles.

We weren't as keen as these people that caught a boat to the rock in the middle and climbed to the top though, (very popular activity).

Then it was off to our hotel in Interlaken for 4 days in Switzerland.