Instead of a picture of the Hauptbahnhof today, how about one of our local station, a masterpiece of late 1920s architecture, built in granite from Ticino.
Unusually, we were catching a different type of train today. One of the boy’s in fact.
Spacious and airy, this train had begun the journey in Hamburg, just after midnight. It had come via Frankfurt, Kahl (yes, really, Karin!) and Hanau before heading south towards Bern, where we hopped on and then finished this l-o-n-g journey in Interlaken Ost, where we got off.
Changing trains there was a bit of a rush, but we made it onto our little blue and yellow train which was going to take us to Lauterbrunnen, a village high in the Bernese Oberland.
Things were quite busy there, too, with many tourists milling around, not really knowing where to go for the next stage of their journey. Some were heading up to the Jungfraujoch, a rather exciting journey which we’ve made a few times on previous visits. Others, like us, were planning to turn left, not right, and head into the village before taking the cablecar towards Mürren.
Here in Lauterbrunnen, having considered the size and relative stability of the cablecar, my hero decided that perhaps he’d give it a try. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a scary ride as he feared…
Of course, as soon as we were aloft, all fears were forgotten (well, until we went over a pylon, which sent the car rocking a little and there was a temporary intake of breath!) How could one feel scared when those magnificent mountains are there, shining in the sunshine? The Eiger had a little cap of cloud on the top, blowing in the breeze, it appeared.
Five minutes later we were at Grütschalp and out we got, to move to the next stage, which happened to be a small train. We’d been expecting a smaller cablecar or a gondola, but much to my hero’s relief, the vehicle had at least four wheels and went along a track, not leaving the ground for as much as a second!
I have no idea who these people are, but they offer some scale to the picture of the view from the train. Pretty good, eh?
With all the train windows open, our journey was accompanied by the usual Swiss Mountain Orchestra of cowbells!
Once in Mürren, we strolled along the path into the village, stopping every few metres to take yet another photograph of the beautiful view. Considering that rain was forecast for today and my hero was carrying our two umbrellas, we were feeling pretty fortunate, I can tell you.
We refilled our water bottles from a mountain spring, gazed over the green fields to those snowy peaks and sighed. Could there be anywhere more lovely than this?
The entertainment came in the form of hang gliders, coming down the valley one by one from somewhere high above us. Not content with simply sitting and floating downwards on the thermals, these chaps were performing acrobatics by “skipping” over the canopy a few times, or spiralling down by swinging around and pivoting on it. Hmm. Fun to watch, but way better to have both feet on terra firma we thought.
The Eiger had lost its cap of cloud by now and was looking splendid against the clear blue sky. Those people who caught the train to Jungfraujoch will have travelled inside the mountain and peered through windows in that north face.
They would have emerged at the structure which looks like a castle, to the right of the snowfield in the picture. Funny to think that some of them could be there right now, looking over to us in our pretty green village.
Meanwhile, we were enjoying a wander and noticing a little yarnbombing here and there.
Not to mention a little bunch of Edelweiss flowers in a pot by a cute front front door.
Of course, we had to make the downward journey by cablecar as well, and this was perhaps a little less comfortable for those who dislike such things, but at least it was over and done with rather quicker than the upward trip. Coming back down to Lauterbrunnen, we caught sight of the Staubbach Falls, but more noticeable were those clouds coming in. We were so pleased we’d enjoyed the best of the day.
Back to Zurich then, by means of another little train, the return journey of the German ICE train which was headed back to Hamburg, but which we left in Bern, and finally, the Swiss SBB service to Zurich HBF.
What a day! Each one gets better and better and though we missed having the youngsters along today, we knew they were having a similarly great time at Titlis, in the snow. We’d arranged to meet up for dinner at the Kropf, a favourite restaurant of ours, and just managed time to come back to the flat to freshen up before going out again.
I’ll leave you with the same picture we started with this morning; the Enge station, but in rather different light as the storm passed quickly through as we were making our way to the restuarant.
But a couple of hours after the heavy rainstorm, it’s as if nothing had happened. Back to the hot and sticky again tonight.