Swiss Alps

To celebrate Dan's first official Father's Day, we rented a car for the weekend and drove down to the Swiss Alps. The weather in the Alps always seems to be hit or miss with on and off clouds and showers. It was raining when we drove into Lauterbrunnen, but the weather throughout the weekend was always on our side. The family-run Hotel Oberland is a lodge located next to Staubbach falls, a waterfall that they light up at night. This was an awesome welcome as we drove up in the dark. The hotel has a nice wrap-around porch restaurant and wood-paneling throughout. Our bedroom was huge with a comfortable European king sized bed and bunk beds for Gianna. But the bathroom had not been remodeled since the 1970's--eek! We were truly roughing it.



For our only full-day in Switzerland, we climbed Schilthorn...via cable car and cog railway. Schilthorn's summit is 3000m, rocky with snow cover (for comparison, Bright Angel Point at the Grand Canyon is around 2515m). Gianna had a good time making snowballs with Bố. Man and I glad I packed her snow boots and mittens. The daunting views from below the cable car did not phase her one bit. On the way down, we caught a glimpse of some mountain goats. Once we safely landed on the valley floor, we hiked 2 hours back to Lauterbrunnen. Who wants to take the bus? The trail followed a milky white roaring river with rocky cliffs, waterfalls, and alpine wildflowers on either side. Along the way, we stopped at Trümmelbach, a glacial waterfall located inside a cave. Pretty cool, but difficult to photograph. After Trümmelbach, we got a first hand view of a Swiss farmer rounding up his herd for milking time. Gianna points to a cow's udder and says "milk in there". She's got farm street smarts!


Back at the hotel, it started to rain. So we took the VW Golf out for a spin around the two glacial lakes that make up the Jungfrau/Interlaken region. Gianna took a nap, and we stopped to watch some swans. We ate dinner back at the Oberland, cheese fondue, of course. On Sunday, we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast, filled up our water bottles from the mountain spring, and hit the road back to Germany. Overall, I give the Swiss Alps two thumbs way up. People told us it was REALLY expensive, but we found it to be more reasonably priced than France, when considering the exchange rate of the Swiss Franc to the Euro. If you ever want to visit, I will pass on the advice that was given to me: stay in Lauterbrunnen! This small town is centrally located for several different mountain excursions and is much less touristy than the cities on the lake. Take a look at the whole album by clicking here.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!