Trains, Cable cars, a bee and a carrot
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2009
1
9
17
Trip End
Jul 13, 2009
Jungfrau Region,
Swiss Alps,
Switzerland
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Jungfraujoch
. (It is called that because it looks sort of like a sphinx) We boarded an elevator that took us up 105 meters in 15 seconds. Here was an observatory and weather station. The clouds were beginning to come in, but we still got some great pictures. We then went back down and walked outside in the snow and treated Elizabeth to a short dog sled ride. We didn't have any time to send an email from the Top of Europe or a postcard, as we had to rejoin the group for the train back down. We could have stayed as long as we wished, but we had another thing we wanted to do, so went with the group back down to the Kleine-S station. Here we parted company and after a quick lunch at a restaurant, we boarded yet another train to Wengen. This was a picturesque ride through some countryside that took us to a little town. Here we walked around and got a wonderful view of the glacial valley below. Our main reason for coming to this town, though, was to ride on the world's longest cable car. It takes from the town of Wengen to Mannlichen Ridge Station. The view would have been spectacular, had not clouds rolled in and totally obscured our vision. We had seen a lot on the way up, though, and continued down the other side of the ridge via another cable car. This let us off in Grund, about a 5 minute train ride to Grindenwald. We were going to walk, but it had started to rain, so we used the rest of our return ticket from the Kleine-S train and rode back to Grindenwald.
Ice tunnel
How often do you get to stand at the highest rail station in Europe and then on the same day ride on the world’s longest cable car? That would have been enough adventure for anyone, but our adventures weren’t through for the day. These weren’t in any guidebook and can just be put down as interesting stories we will remember about our trip. The first occurred as we were walking in Grindenwald souvenir shopping. We were looking for T-shirts and had just bought some and decided to check out a restaurant for dinner. All of a sudden, something flew right at me and landed on my face—it was a bee and it stung me on my eyelid. A nice waitress gave me some ice and I walked back to the hotel holding a dripping ice cube in a napkin. I exchanged the napkin for a wash cloth and sat in the bar of the hotel with Elizabeth and Keith while we watched an Alphorn demonstration. It was interesting, but I really couldn’t enjoy it as my eye hurt like crazy. We walked back to that restaurant we were checking out—Uncle Tom’s hut—and sat down outside and ordered some pizza. I had had enough excitement for one day and was ready to just enjoy the evening (hurting eye and all) when across the street came some loud cheers and noise. Some kind of event was going on at a civic center across the street. We ignored it, but soon a bunch of teenagers came spilling out and making all kinds of noise. Some were talking, some were loudly goofing off, some were splashing water on each other at the fountain
Ince sculpture
. Noisy, but ignorable. I said we were sitting outside. Imagine a porch of a cabin, with bushes next to the railing, with flowers and such. There was a window hanging in the space next to us, attached to the cabin and roof with a chain. Elizabeth and I were sitting with our backs to the cabin and Keith was facing us. His head was in line with that window. All of a sudden we heard something whiz by and a loud "Pop" and something fell into the bushes. We thought it was fireworks, but then Elizabeth noticed that a corner of the window was broken. One of the kids had thrown something across the street and had hit the window. Had his aim been a little higher, he would have shattered that window and the glass would have been all over Keith’s head. We told the waitress and she went and talked to the adults in charge. It turns out the kid threw a carrot. Did I mention these teenagers were Americans? Please, teenagers, do us all a favor. You want to know why people in foreign countries don’t like Americans? (The Swiss love Americans, by the way) The answer is because jerks like you do stupid things and break antique windows and then we all get a bad reputation. You should be ashamed of yourselves. 
