Downtownlodge Grindelwald

... br>Deze hebben we eerder tervergeefs getracht te beklimmen in 2004 én 2007. <br>Helaas ook deze keer zijn we op de helft gestrand... <br>We hadden reeds 4uur omhoog geklommen van 1620 naar 2050 meter hoogte! Volgens de bordjes zouden we hier echter 2uur over moeten doen; Door de sneeuw was dit voor ons niet mogelijk.<br>Eerst was de sneeuw nog leuk maar na dat hij tot de schenen en vervolgens tot de knieen was het bijna niet meer te doen ...

... zig-zag. Stones called schindles sit like heavy checkers on old rooftops, awaiting nature's next move. These stones protect the slate from the violent winter winds. Gimmelwald's biggest building is the school in which 2 teachers share one job. There's nothing but air between Gimmelwald and the rock face of the Jungfrau a mile or two across. Kick a soccer ball wrong and it ends up a mile below on the Lauterbrunnen Valley floor. Gimmelwald ...

... atmosphere. And the libraries I frequent have tons of really interesting books on the topics I am studying, which is always a plus. And, it's pretty cool to walk around sporting a UN library badge. I always feel really important just walking through UN security like I have an important international mission that I need to research. Tuesday was also spent at the library, but I had lunch with a friend<br>from school who is also studying in ...

... in the basement floor...random. ha! Then we caught a train to Interlaken and arrived pretty late (I wanted to shoot myself for getting on the train so late at night...because we couldn't see the scenery on the way to Interlaken!) But we've been here for two days now, and we leave tomorrow night. The night we arrived we ran into some of our friends who were staying in the same hostel....it was quite frankly, one of the worst ...

... and another day of biking around the entire city, we set off at midnight to drive on the Autobahn to Bern. So instead of spending the night on a sleeping train, we took turns driving and sleeping (thank you Alex for the wonderful neck pillow!). <br><br><br><br>We drove into Interlaken around 9, into GORGEOUS views of mountains and lakes (thanks Jess!!). Because we were pooped from almost no sleep, we spent most of the day sleeping ...

... on the cobblestone that has so far covered the streets in both Lausanne and Geneva was interesting . . . and different. And finding our way through the chaos of the market on velos (bikes) made me feel like I was in a San Francisco car chase scene. Why is there always a cart full of oranges in the middle of the street in those movies? We locked the bikes, wandered, and picked up some new delicious items for the day. New purchases included: dried ...

... when we got the hostel I was soaked. At night, the rain ceased and we went to get chocolate fondue. Hahaha and since of course we're scrimmaging for food we found a place that said "free salad" with fondue. Well the waitress seemed so confused by this for some reason but she eventually brought us our salad hahaha. it was 3 pieces of lettuce, some shredded carrots, and a tiny bit of dressing. oh well. then we had chocolate fondue. good dinner

... that we took the cheaper options for our day adventures, but Sunday was different. We went the other way and did one of the more expensive trips here, a ride on the cog rail up the 4000 metre Jungfrau mountain. Mandy had done this same ride back in 1996 when she did a Contiki tour of Europe. Our trip started from Lauterbrunnen station and started climbing steeply straight away up the sides of the valley walls through tunnels zigzagging past Wengen and stopping at Kleine Scheidegg, where ...

It was raining again today which is not the most pleasant experience when you are camping. Still, undettered we made our way to the small town of Grindelwald which had been highly recommended by many people and is one of the big skiing centres in winter. To be honest I found it ...

... bottom of the mountain. As we made our way up we also had snow and ice piled up against glass walls made at the sides of the railway tracks. As we got higher we went through a section cut into the mountain to make a tunnel made around 1889-1912, this was done to make the top of the mountain more accessible. It took about 2 hours to get up there and so we only had about 2 hours to spend at the top but that was all you needed. (It was also 3oc outside in the snow ...