The Swiss Alps
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2006
1
9
13
Trip End
Jul 17, 2006
Lauterbrunnen,
Swiss Alps,
Switzerland
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
I forgot how tired I was when I saw the view along the way; it was breathtaking: snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, stream, green valleys and mountains
Hotel Staubbach
. I don't know whether to looked right or left. Both sides has fantastic view. We arrived at Hotel Staubbach around 9AM-9:30AM. Check in time was 3PM and there were still people in the room that was reserved for us. The hotel manager, Doris, let us use there public bathroom and provided us with towels so we can shower. The bathroom was really clean. While taking our turns in the shower, the kids had fun playing in the hotel's play corner. The staff were really nice. One of the staff was a Filipina and she's in charge of breakfast. She recommended to go to Jungfraujoch. She said it's the most famous and most visited mountain in Europe. It was also a location shoot of one of the James Bond movies. So we went to Jungfraujoch - the top of Europe. We paid SF154.00 each adult and paid SF20.00 pass for each kids. We took a train from Lauterbrunnen with a pause in Wengen (also a beautiful area to stay), and changed in Kleine Scheidigg before making it to the Jungfraujoch station with 5 minutes stopped in Eigerwand and Eismeer intermediate stations where there's a huge observation windows to see the magnificent views of the Eiger North Face and over a glacier world. The Jungfraujoch railway provides a magnificent view from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfrau. A section of the route travels through a tunnel hewn from solid rock. Jungfraujoch has an elevation of 11,333 feet. It's good to have water handy to avoid being dizzy and light-headed in such a high elevation (altitude sickness)
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
. We had lunch at their self-service restaurant with a view of the snow-capped mountains. The food was really expensive and not good. I had a breaded chicken fillet with over cooked peas and carrots and fries for 19.00SF. The food in the cafeteria where I worked was better. Packets of condiments are sold separately for 70 cents. Then we went to the gift shop and bought sweatshirt for everybody. We really needed it. We took an elevator to the Sphynx Terrace where the view was awesome; looking over Europe, longest glacier, the great Aletsch. DS did not got out to the observation deck because he did not feel good. We let him drink plenty of water until he felt better. We went to the Ice Palace. It's beautiful, very creative. Ice Palace is a warren of tunnels carved into a living glacier and filled with whimsical ice sculptures. We also went to the plateau where we got out in our summer shorts and walked in the snow. It was windy and really cold. We encouraged our kids to ski but they said it feels weird to be skiing in the summer. The kids really looked forward to get to Switzerland so that they can watch their favorite show in English only to find out that all the TV stations are in German.
I liked our hotel even though it's not the kind of hotel that we're used to in the US. It feels like a vacation house up in the mountain. It's very homey. The place was old but well maintained. We had the biggest room. Our room has three bedrooms with big living room and a private bathroom with shower and tub. Our bedroom is the biggest of the three. It has a balcony overlooking the Staubbach Waterfalls and the Jungfraujoch mountains and valleys. Very pretty view. DS bedroom also has a balcony. My 2 DD shared room. Each bedroom has a lavatory.The floor squeaked with every steps and it was uncomfortable at first. Beneath us was the reception area. There's a church nearby and at 6:45PM the church bells start ringing and don't stop until 7:00PM. You can hear the bells echoing down the valley. It did not bother us at all. For CHF 290.00/per night, it was a good deal. We bought dinner at a nearby restaurant and had dinner in our balcony.
