Switzerland

After a long day of travel, walk to Bruges train station, take the first train to Brussels, change to the Zurich train, get get off at Basel to take a train to Interlaken and then finally a short train ride to Lauterbrunnen and short walk to the Valley Hostel. Much of the scenery along the way was nice, we travelled through Belgium, Luxembourg, Northern France and Switzerland. Some of the Swiss villages and cities looked especially nice.

After checking in and showering we cooked up a big batch of spag bol, which would do us the rest of the weekend. We are staying in the valley hostel, recommended by Jacq, which is by far the best hostel so far in Europe, even a nice kitchen! We met one of our roommates, Kaitlyn from Perth (Australia) who is travelling after working 2 years in Boston. The next 2 nights were 2 of the best nights sleep Ive had in a long time.

After a lazy Saturday morning, sleep in, slow breakfast, washing, we headed off at midday on a hike with Kaitlyn. We walked along the valley floor to Trummelbach Falle. This cost money to enter (everything in Switzerland is very expensive) but was well worth it. It is a series of waterfalls flowing down the inside of a mountain. All up there were about 10 falls, accessed by a series of steps, tunnels and caves. Was very cool, my favourite was the corkscrew falls, as it was a twisted line of water, like a corkscrew!

The weather was poor, cloudy and light rain for most of the day. Good for waterfalls but not for viewing mountains. We continued on despite the weather and climbed our way to Murren (1645m, Lauterbrunnen 796m) via Stechelberg and Gimmelwald. This was a tough climb, with some very nice views and we picked and ate berries along the way. We spent most of the time chasing 'energiser bunny' Kaitlyn up the hills.

After a drink in Murren we headed back to Lauterbrunnen, a different way, a bit more direct. We arrived back at the hostel at about 8pm, tired, wet, but having one of the best days of our trip.

Sunday morning we had the best intention of an early morning, but slept through the alarm. We were still out of the hostel by 10am. Walking out we saw beautiful cliffs and mountains with blues skies and sunshine. Unfortunately some poor advise from the hostel made us take the longer, more expensive route to Schlithorn. This is one of the highest points in the area which is reached via a series of cable cars through Gimmelwald, Murren and Birg.

We made it to the top by midday, as clouds were rolling in. The view was amazing, 2960m high, we were above most of the mountains and had views of the Jungfrau, the highest point, when the clouds parted. We ate our lunch at the top, on a rock and while we were doing so Kaitlyn showed up, just by chance. There was also a James Bond display, as one of the old Bond films was made here.

Once we got sick of the clouds we headed back to Murren, a lovely little town on the mountain that we really liked. We had beers on a balcony overlooking the valley and snow capped mountains. Being a bit lower we were below the clouds and had great views.

Once we had taken the cable car back to the valley we walked slowly back to the hostel. Along the way we picked some blackberries, raspberries and a few mini strawberries to eat for desert. We also took a short hike up to a look out over the town, from behind the Staubach waterfall.

Back at the hostel we ate with Kaitlyn and watched a massive thunderstorm roll in. We had to pack and get ready for a train at 7am in the morning.