Kirchbuhl Grindelwald

... from the mountain to Murren. One path stated it was for only experienced hikers. That's a very subjective description. I figured you would need proper shoes and equipment. I took a look at the path and it is treacherous. You cross bridges of ice where the mountains just fall away on either side. I didn't mind that but it was quite steep and covered in snow- too slippery for my shoes. It looked spectacular though. Just standing at the precipice on the mountain and away from ...

... to catch the bus to Bonigen which was a quaint small town on Lake Brienz. The girl at the hostel had said that it was a 20 minute walk but in true Swiss style, we think that it was probably 40 minutes for any non-Swiss person. Bonigen was so quiet, hardly anybody was about but it was a good opportunity to see different styles of the ...

Woke up to a cloudy day but it didn't look too bad on the webcam from the Jungfrau so we decided to catch the train to Grindelwald and decide from there whether we went further. As we were on the train, the sun came out so we decided to go up to Jungfraujoch which is called "The Top of Europe". From Grindelwald, we got a cog train to Kleine Scheidegg then changed for the final cog train which would go to the top. Some ...

We had booked onto the Golden Pass Panoramic train but woke up to rain so thought it mightn't be very panoramic. Despite the rain, it was a scenic trip. We were heading for Interlaken and had to change trains twice. Greg was concerned that the guy at the train station had booked us on these trains and there was only 5 minutes between trains (this is the Greg who has us at the train station an hour before it goes). We didn’t have to worry ...

... there were a few people who though it was pretty funny that I went all the way to Switzerland to hike in the Alps and have never done the same in the Rockies. Looks like I have some hiking to do when I get back home.

The pictures will do a much better job of telling the story than my words.

Also, this is the first place in my entire trip where I did not meet a single Australian. Whats up?

... The key thing to be able to do is to go down a mountain heel-edge; that's looking down the mountain rocking on your heels to keep a steady pace. Toe-edge you look up the mountains so it makes it hard to see where you're going but is a little easier to balance despite the extra strain on your legs. Our night was spent washing our tonsils with beer and dining back at the hotel on pork steaks. Schnitzel!

... Balmers Herbege where it didn't take long for us to continue our little fest down at the metro bar. Thanks to Sam, Decatur guy, we all had plenty of rounds, which may have aided our move to the dance floor...which may have helped us stay up as late as we did, it was a blast! But no worries, all we had to do in the morning was rappel down into canyons and use extreme dexterity and caution jumping off rocks. No worries about that:) But ...

OK, So my plans were to ski on my 40th birthday and I was able to do that but, in the end, that was the only day of the entire trip that I really got any skiing in (tried one other day and it was pretty bad). The reason for this was the weather. Here we were in one of the most popular ski areas of one of the most famous ski ...

... did occupy most of my afternoon. However, the experience is a middle of the road one between a theme park like Disney and a Science Museum. Unfortunately, I think these two ideas should be kept separate. For anyone venturing to Interlaken, try to find something more exciting on a rainy day than Mystery Park (unless you have kids, then that changes the experience). Yeah, I got to actually do something on a rainy day, but I do not know if it was worth every franc I paid.

... I have to go round the long way. Everyone falls asleep except me of course and we roll in at an ungodly hour of 3am. Straight to be for me to get up 3 hours later to take another family back to the airport!!!! Luckily this things only happens occasionally and I have now become immune to any sleep!!! Well that is the end of this update, I have loads of pics to put in and will do so soon. I have started another entry for you to read so watch this space. Laters, Sheff