16 May Grindelwald and Schaffhausen

To get to Grindelwald we were up at 4.30 am to get a flight to Geneva and then a series of connecting trains (4 train trips, one of which had a temporary bus connection because of track work). The route was Geneva, Montreau, Zweisimmen, Interlaken, Grindelwald. There was a faster and more convenient route via Berne but we chose the longer route because we knew the scenery would be stunning and we weren’t let down.

Grindelwald is an extremely beautiful town facing the north face of the famous Eiger. Our room at the Cabana Hotel faced the towering snow-capped mountain with an unimpressed view.

Cog trains service the area, both for access to the town, and of course up into the mountains. There are also cable cars.

On day one (first full day, it was Mothers’ Day) Christine was a wee bit stuffed and elected to stay behind soaking up the ambience while John did a walk along the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the ……. which has an incredible series of 10 successive water chutes actually inside a mountain, top to bottom, accessed by a combination of inclinator, stairs and underground passages. The water flow is approximately 20,000 litres per second, so you can imagine the roar and spray associated with that.

The walk along the valley was spectacular, with many waterfalls cascading down the sheer cliffs on both sides of the valley.

On our final full day we grabbed some hiking sticks and took the cig train up to Kleine Scheidegg, intending to trek all the way down back to Grindelwald. The snow was still quite thick on the ground at that height but the path was mostly wide and clear. The snow, the flowers, the streams of snow melt, the scenery, just stunning.

We made it down to Brandegg before John called off the hike with the excuse that Christine was lame, and we got the train from Brandegg to the bottom.