Switzerland, 9.6.16 - 9.17.16, Part 1 of 13: Getting to Grindelwald
As most of you already know from my earlier prologue I sent out in August, my lifetime enthrallment of Switzerland finally came to fruition on September 6th when Bridgit and I boarded an Icelandair flight along with our friends Bob and Dana and strapped ourselves in for what we anticipated would be one wild excursion. Boy were we wrong. It turned out to be one REALLY wild excursion.
So let’s start with the math. Switzerland is nine hours ahead of Washington state. We took off at 4:30PM and would end up in Zurich at 1PM Zurich time which would be 4AM in Seattle. Basically 12 hours of travel time to Zurich. None of us had ever been to Europe except Bridgit (Ireland) so this was the longest flight we had ever taken. First we flew non-stop to Reykjavik, Iceland. My plan was to sleep as much of that leg as possible. I wouldn’t really call it sleep but I did get some essential down time.
Landing in Iceland was a weird feeling. We all just felt the sense of being in a foreign place and it was exciting. As previously arranged, we met up with another friend of mine from high school days, Gina, who flew in from Colorado. Gina had been to Switzerland several times before and travelled extensively. She was a valuable source of reassurance in those first few days as we were a bit nervous about navigating trains, buses and all sorts of odd means of transportation. She was always there to remind us that the Swiss don’t dick around when it comes to schedules. Once we learned to trust that the timetables were precise, we were better able to relax and know we would get to where we wanted to go when we wanted to be there.
I took this shot with a very long selfie stick as we were landing in Reykjavik. Came out pretty good I think!
One of the things that came to light very early on was everyone’s commitment to adapting to whatever we got thrown at us and to just have a great time. I had spent an amazing amount of time and energy planning this trip with the idea that everyone’s needs and desires would be met. Hikes had to be easy enough for everyone, shopping time had to be allotted (that omission would have jeopardized the entire trip!), each day had to leave ample time for cocktails on the hotel balcony and even altitude had to be considered. I wanted to get the very most out of each day but still make it feel like we weren’t rushed. I was mightily concerned about the things out of our control, especially the weather. I studied the weather app every day for a year and a half and most of the time it had rain as the forecast. However, many of those days ended up being sunny until 2 or 3 with a slight chance of rain or clouds on the afternoon. So I was hopeful but not naive enough to think we would have great weather the entire trip. Once again, boy was I wrong.
Bridgit upon hearing that she would have time for shopping.
From Reykjavik to Zurich was about three more hours of flying time but I was getting pretty excited at this point and stayed up staring out the window at the North Sea. On the last leg as we flew over Germany and into Switzerland, my heart really began to race when I saw a line of white on the horizon and realized I was seeing the Swiss Alps for the first time. In Zurich it was easy to navigate to the train station which is connected to the airport. We got a SwissPass which gave us unlimited travel on all the major trains up to Grindelwald for the entire trip. The trains were extremely quiet and smooth and had plenty of room.
We slowly pulled out of Zurich and headed to the Swiss capitol of Bern. As we pulled into Bern, I looked out the opposite window and there were several huge white icy giants towering in the distance. The Alps were getting much closer! We followed these mountains as we left Bern and headed for Interlaken.
I had to sidle up next to some lady so I could see out the window better and it turned out she lived in Thun which is very near Interlaken. She confirmed what I already suspected, that I was seeing the mighty Jungfrau massif.
Our first good view of the Jungfrau Massif from the train to Interlaken.
Once we left Interlaken I was through the roof with excited anticipation. The train climbs out of the valley floor and winds up a river valley. The first stop above Interlaken is Wilderswil. There we passed right by the station for the Schynigge Platte cog railway where we would be in several days. Everything began to become familiar to me. I had pored over maps, guidebooks and the internet and felt like I had a very good understanding of the lay of the land. There are times when it’s fun to fly by the seat of your pants but for my first trip to the Alps I wanted to know everything about what my options were, knowing that the actual experience always vastly exceeds any amount of pre-found knowledge.
After Wilderswil we came to Zweilutschinen. This is where two rivers join, one coming down from the amazing Lauterbrunnen valley and the other from Grindelwald. Here we switched tracks and started the final ascent to Grindelwald station. As we neared town, the first monster peak to come into view was the Wetterhorn. Huge rock faces towered above us as we rounded the final bend into Grindelwald and there we were confronted with the mighty Eiger and Jungfrau.
At the station we were picked up by the owner of the Hotel Gletschergarten. I picked this hotel for a few main reasons but my first priority was that it had to have a view of the Eiger. I booked it almost a year ago and arranged for two rooms next to each with a view of the mountains and connecting balconies (at the time we didn’t know Gina was joining us. She was in a room just above us).
Another big priority was that I wanted something that gave us the traditional Swiss feel. This place fit that bill perfectly. The owners are the fourth generation to own and live in the Hotel Gletschergarten which opened as a hotel in 1899. It is filled with historical tidbits and paintings and the whole place just captured everything we were looking for. And then we walked out on our balcony.
The Hotel Getschergarten. We basically had the entire balcony on the front of the hotel on the 3rd floor.
Stepping out onto our balcony, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. To my left the incredible 12,143’ Wetterhorn stood guard at the top of the valley. Directly in front of us was the Mettenberg which is the lower face in front of the 13,380’ Shreckhorn. Just next to that, high above the lower Grindelwald Glacier was a steep icy face that culminated in the Fiescherhorn. Finally, to the right, we had a full view of the legendary north face of the Eiger, 13.026’. It was just an awesome display of mountain splendor and we were all grinning ear to ear and high-fiving as if we had just gotten away with a huge bank heist. We just could not believe that we were seeing this from our very own hotel balcony on a crystal clear, 75 degree afternoon in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Heady stuff.
The view from our balcony.
The Wetterhorn
The Eiger
Our beautiful wives.
After all that travel, we really weren’t very tired, just incredibly jazzed to be at our first destination. Now it was time to find somewhere to eat. We walked down the main street towards the center of town and picked a spot with a wonderful patio. I don’t even remember what we had for dinner but I do remember that we had a gorgeous sunset while we were eating with the setting sun bathing the Wetterhorn and Mettenberg with a brilliant orange glow before dropping below the horizon.
Typical patio dining in a very special place.
This concludes Part 1. There will be many more parts to follow. Come along for the journey and stay tuned for my next installment. Last, I highly recommend viewing this on the largest screen possible. Cell phones are cool but they just can’t capture the scale of what you are about to see.