Swiss tour July / August 2010.
30th July. Geneva
A walk to the lake.
The English Garden
Dinner at the Cafe de Paris
31st July. Train to Wengen
Mannlichen video - with cowbells!
Kleine Scheidegg video - with noisy kids!
1st August. Nice day, walk walk walk.
Restaurant at Brandegg
The Eiger glacier
Waterfalls at Biglenalp
Pause for a rest in the forest
Wengen from Allmend
2nd August. Rainy day. Got very wet.
Started out a bit gloomy, but not too bad
But pretty soon the farmers stared feeling sorry for the cows, and brought them in!
3rd August. Off to Interlaken.
Our hotel. No stars, but very nice.
Let's see how many different forms of transport exist in Interlaken, apart from the usual trains and busses.
4th August. Schynige Platte to First. The classic high-alpine hike.
Click here for
GPS trace.
Starting point. The little station at Schynige Platte - 2068 metres.
Follow the trail markers! Summit of the Laucherhorn (2230 metres) behind.
Glacial lake at 1937 metres - glimpse of Lake Brienz beyond (and far below!)
Steep climb to the Mannlenen mountain hut.
The hut again, from above after lunch.
Glimpse of the glaciers above Grindelwald.
Summit of the Faulhorn 2686 metres. Can you spot the people going up the steep track?
Cloudy above 2600 metres.
Lake Bachalpsee from high above.
Bachalpsee again, after a long descent to 2265 metres
Marmot on the trail
Lots of streams to cross.
At the end of the day we take the quick way down on the First gondola. For some people however, this is not fast enough...
5th August. Rain.
Walked to Neuhaus. Nice place on the lake with a little marina.
The steamer calls here 4 times a day.
6th August. More rain.
Our waitress was talking about floods this morning. Time to go to Zermatt.
Sure enough, Zermatt is basking in sunshine - Matterhorn peeping out above the clouds.
Distant view of the village from Furi up in the hills.
Evening view from our balcony.
7th August. Fantastic day - walk walk walk.
Train up to Gornergrat - 3100 metres.
Up here it's still the ice age. Glaciers everywhere.
The observatory.
Glacial lake called Riffelsee.
View of Zermatt from high above.
5 hours walking later, back in the village.
The Broken Ski Bar, described as the best apres-ski in the world in the Times a while back. They were right.
8th August. More sun, more walking.
Parapenting has a very steep learning curve. Here we are at 3100 metres. Below us is an abyss - it's a 1 mile vertical drop to the village. (He was OK by the way!)
This has to be the strangest lift ever - a gondola on rails, at Sunnegga.
Another one of those mountain lakes. This one's called Leisee.
Millions of these butterflies along the path.
Gornergrat Railways train crossing the Gorner Gorge.
A little lower down we cross the tracks.
They call it folklore. You might call it a diabolical racket.
The churchyard here is particularly sombre. Full of English, American and Japanese kids in their 20's who died climbing the peaks around Zermatt.