The Swiss Alps – Lauterbrunnen
One of the Busabout Busses
Monday – Busabout, Rosti and Contiki
I got on the bus with a little bit of time to spare. I stated chatting with a few people on the bus, which is what happens on Busabout. By our first stop, I was pretty hungry, so it was a baguette for breakfast. By that stage, I had really started chatting to people on the bus and was quite enjoying the journey. We stopped in a small towns industrial estate for lunch, and the only option was McDonalds. We embraced it, and enjoyed a Royal with Cheese. They also had free wifi, which as you may know always make me happy.
French McDonalds, Royal with Cheese!
We arrived in Bern late in the afternoon, and I encountered some confusion in relation to my bookings. The driver told me that I was booked to drive through to Lauterbrunnen, but I was pretty sure I had booked Bern. Unfortunately my computer was out of batteries and I was unable to check. I ended up staying on the bus, and subsequently forfeit my deposit for the Hostel in Bern. It worked out in my favor, as I had a few cool people to hang around with, including Kelly from Melbourne, Alissa from New Zealand and Matt from Perth.
Staubbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen
We had been given a good introduction to Swiss culture and particually food, by our friendly and very nervous Busabout guide, Edu. The highlight was info about a local dish called a Rosti. It was shredded potato, topped with Swiss cheese, bacon and a series of special toppings, like egg, or mushrooms. I was very much in for a good Rosti, and so we settled into the camp restaurant. The place we are staying is a campground in a beautiful valley, with views of snow capped mountains, and a waterfall.
Geordie with Swiss Rosti and a beer
We had a beer with dinner, and after were directed to the ‘Bomb Shelter’, a ‘Contiki Only’ bar in the basement of one of the buildings. This was where the carnage began. There were 5 Contiki busses in Lauterbrunnen that evening, and that meant almost 150-200 eighteen to something year olds that were only in Europe to get drunk and well, be naughty. There’s no seeing the sights on Contiki, because everyone is too busy getting drunk and then dealing with their hang over’s the next day. We didn’t partake too much, instead we felt like the old people sitting in the corner.
The Contiki Bomb Shelter... 
Tuesday – Trummelbach Falls, Staubbach Falls, & The Natural Eskie
We were up nice and early, and headed out towards the Trummelbach Falls. The falls supposedly flows over 20,000 litres a second, but I am yet to Google that. It was a nice walk from the campground, passing through fields of flowers and giving us an even better view of the snow capped mountains. When we got to the falls, we were delighted to find a lift that would take us some of the way up the hill. It actually went through the hill and was quite amazing considering it was constructed over 100 years ago with hand drills. It was pretty amazing, as was the temperature drop as we headed further into the mountain.
Trummelbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen
We wondered back into town to try and get some lunch, and found that most of the shops shut from midday to two. It was quite strange, and I found myself eating the rest of my breakfast loaf with good old vegemite. The town was quite cute, and we found ourselves people watching for some time, as we waited for the ‘Coop’ (supermarket) to open. When it did open, we stocked up on beer, and brought our lunch and dinner for the next day. We had purchased tickets to visit Jungfraujoch, host to the highest train station in the world, and the beautiful swiss alps. It was an expensive ticket, and as such we needed to curb the spending by buying lunch and dinner.
House with grass roof... Bomb proof?
We dropped our shopping back, and headed out to the falls that were visible from our campground. The name of these falls was Staubbach, and they were pretty cool. The water would come off the top of the cliff and then get caught by the wind and depending upon how strong the wind was, land somewhere along the bottom of the cliff. It was a decent walk, and once again my knee let me know about it. It was a nice view and provided me with a perfect opportunity for a panoramic photo, which I will stitch up and post here ASAP!
Geordie from Staubbach Falls, Lauterbrunnen
Our evening was not amazingly eventful. We avoided the Bomb Shelter and instead settled for some Rosti and a few beers by the river. Someone, and I am not claiming full credit, came up with the idea that our beers could be chilled in the river, which was flowing water that was around 3 degrees. We tested the theory out, and found that after 5 minutes, our beers were ice cold.
Natural Eskie... 3 degrees!
Jungfraujoch, And An Epic Walk
We were up at the crack of dawn as we had brought the cheapest ticket (we are such backpackers) which meant we needed to be on the first train up the mountain at 6:59am and back down by 1pm. We were pensive as to whether it would be clear views from the top, but had to stick it out, as it was our last day.
Cog Train to Jungfraujoch
The journey up the mountain was amazing, and at times it seemed like we were climbing at an angle of 45 degrees. The train we were traveling on was a cog train, which meant that it had a track in the middle of the rails that matched up with a cog that pulled it up the mountain. These trains operate all through winter, which I found amazing.
Geordie on the train
We stopped at two towns on the way up, which were Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg. Wengen was mainly a chalet village for the more well off. Kleine Scheidegg was where we had to change trains, onto the JungfrauBahn. From there, the train traveled in a tunnel inside the mountain. We stopped twice, at not much more than small stations with toilets and a few windows with good views. In retrospect I think they were more for adjusting to the altitude rather than the stunning views. The first stop was 2865m (9400ft) above sea level, and the second 3160m (10368ft).
2865m and just over half way...
After almost two hours, we arrived at the highest train station in Europe, Jungfraujoch, 3571m (11,782ft). We immediately headed for the observation deck, ‘The Sphinx’, and the views were quite simply stunning. Whilst we were on the deck, a fighter jet flew overhead doing a number of maneuvers. We took some great photos, and I took the opportunity to rang my dad, just for kicks and then my sister to wish her a happy birthday, from the ‘Top Of Europe’. It was interesting how light the air was at this height, and it took some adjusting, and occasional feelings of breathlessness.
Geordie & the sign at the top!
It was pretty cold, around -5 degrees Celsius, and I was grateful for my thermals, beanie, and polar fleece coat. There was a collection of padlocks that people had left, as well as notes and messages. I decided that one of my souvenir koalas might like a new home, so I wrote my web address on the back and clipped him on. I am hoping people will visit my site and say hello and that he is doing fine!
The view from the top.
We headed outside and did some snow disking, which is kind of like tobogganing, but with a disk. I don’t like it as much, because you have no control over which way you go. We all had a go, and mostly stacked at the end of it. We had a coffee and enjoyed the view. People seemed to be walking along a path over the hill, so we decided to have a look.
My koala, left at the top of Jungfrau
This was when the hard work started, and after 10 minutes we were regretting the decision. Not only was it hard to breathe, it was hard to walk, as it was completely snow underfoot. Kelly was having real trouble breathing as she suffers from Asthma, and we had to rest at a number of points. We walked for about 30-45 minutes, most of it was uphill, and it was very cold. Needless to say the chit chat was minimal.
Geordie and the view, during the long walk
Eventually we got to what was over the hill, and were pretty disappointed, it was just a restaurant, and some more mountains. We all agreed that it wasn’t worth the stupid amount of effort, but were proud of our achievement. We then had to walk all the way back, which was a lot better, due to it being mostly downhill.
Geordie & The View!
We got back into the complex and rushed to the ice palace. We had to be back on the train by midday, so after literally 5 minutes, we headed to the station. We were exhausted on the way down, and most of us napped on the train, waking every few minutes gasping for breath, due to the lack of oxygen in the air. We reached Kleine Scheidegg which was as far as our ticket took us. We had purchased bread, rocket, salami and cheese the day before and it didn’t take us long to inhale it all as lunch.
Underneath of the cog train....
Due to our ticket only taking us this far down the mountain, it was up to us to walk the rest of the way. We were pretty confident, as the walk was all downhill. We were set to drop altitude from something like 2000m to about 300m We set out at a dawdling pace, and quickly realized how far we had to go. The path followed the train line for most of the way, ducking in and out of the hillsides, and along what would be ski routes during the winter.
View, coming into Wengen.
After over two hours of walking, we arrived in Wengen, the main town above Lauterbrunnen. We raided the supermarket, and rested on the grass for a good while. We had to get back to Lauterbrunnen by the time the supermarket closed to make sure we got some beers, so we were forced to set back out. Whilst we were walking, a little delivery van drove by and Matt joking asked for a lift. The driver man stopped and let us on. It was awesome fun, and even though he only drove us about a kilometer, we were very happy.
View from Wengen into Lauterbrunnen
The last section was hard work. It was a great deal steeper downhill, and we were all hurting from not only the walking, but the sunburn we had sustained at the top. As we had got some oxygen back, I was able to have a good chat to an old English guy whilst we walked the last section. The other two raced ahead, worried about missing the supermarket. I caught up to them as we got into Lauterbrunnen, and our first uphill section for almost 4 hours. We loved it, as our legs were hurting quite a bit.
Lauterbrunnen Valley
We made the supermarket, got some well deserved beers, met up with another girl Alissa, and headed back to camp to cook our dinner. Matt and I were given the very important job of chilling the beers in our natural eskie (the river), whilst the girls cooked dinner. It sounded like a brilliant deal to us. We were off to Munich on the bus in the morning, so I packed my bag, and after being momentarily dragged to the Bomb Shelter by a few new Busabout arrivals, I retired to bed.
Lauterbrunnen from Staubbach Falls
It was a magical day, and sitting by the river, having my beers chilled naturally (haha) and reflecting on the day.
Tags: Backpacking, Busabout, jungfrau, jungfraujoch, Lauterbrunnen, swiss alps, Travel, Trip '09