Author: Ann Laemmlen Lewis

We decided to take a train up the mountain to see how the view from above was.  The answer was:  still cloudy.

The view to Lauterbrunnen from Wengen was not great but still visible. We walked around town to the best viewpoint by the protestant church, bought a few things, and opened our umbrellas to the rain. We saw the cable car terminal for the car to Männlichen and watched as the car ominously disappeared into the low-hanging clouds. We had made the right decision to stay lower. We stayed in Wengen for about an hour, then took the train back down to Lauterbrunnen. We retrieved our car and drove north a bit to Trümmelbach Falls.

You can barely see the tram cables that disappear into the clouds.  We thought about all the people waiting in line in Grindelwald with pre-purchased tickets, ascending up into a cloud.

On cloudy days, these little Alpine towns are pretty quiet.

Here’s the cloudy view down into the valley below.

Today we had our most challenging weather day. After our hotel breakfast, we set off for Grindelwald and the cable car ride to Männlichen. It wasn’t raining but it was dark and cloudy. We had a nice drive to Grindelwald, then went into the cable car terminal to see if we could get a report on visibility up on Männlichen mountain. We found crowds of people waiting in line for the trip to Jungfraujoch. There were some mechanical difficulties up on top so everyone was delayed. We were told about the webcams up on the mountains and saw that Männlicen was totally socked in—no visibility of the surrounding mountains. So, we changed plans and after a nice drive the Grindelwald Zentrum, we drove down to Lauterbrunnen.

Lauterbrunnen is one of my favorite little towns.  It was beautiful here today.  John and the kids climbed to the caves at the bottom of the Staubbach waterfall and I went looking for cows.  I learned that the farmers here are paid a stipend of $5000 for each cow.  I’m guessing some of that is to provide for tourists like us.  The cowbells ring throughout the valley and it’s delightful (except for the cows, who probably all have headaches).

I was quite curious to take a closer look at the grass on all of these beautiful hillsides.  Just what, exactly, are those cows eating??  It’s actually a nice mix of salad greens!

For as late in the year as it is, everything around us looked as green as springtime.

We continued on from Brienz to Interlaken, where we reserved rooms for 2 nights at the Hotel de la Paix (the hotel of peace).  It was perfect.

If the skies were clear, you would see the peak of the Jungfrau from here on the porch.  Sadly, we had clouds all week, but everything under the clouds is also heavenly.

For dinner tonight we went for John and Aaron had John’s favorite traditional Swiss Raclette.

Then back to our cozy hotel that was filled with old treasures.

Sleep comes easy in the Alpine air.

Brienz sits on the end of Brienzersee (lake).  There is a well-known woodcarving shop as you come into town (John remembered it from 50 years ago.)

The parking lot looks out over this:

The greeters!

We really enjoyed seeing the carvings in the shop.  The prices were very high, so we just enjoyed looking.  I loved how Swiss everything looked.

The workshop was upstairs.  The carvers were all younger women.

These are the kinds of pieces you purchase one at a time to add to a collection.

Here’s Mary on the donkey.  It sells for 478 Euro.  That’s $523, for just this one piece.

Mary with child was even more.

I really loved seeing so many women and children in the Nativity sets.

Here’s one wise man for 176 Euro.

And here’s a simple unpainted Nativity starter set for 540 Euro.

For those prices, I can enjoy looking at the photos!

The shop keeper told us about a street a few blocks away.  She said, “I don’t know why, but people come from all over the world to take photos of that street.”  We went to take a look.

A fun shop with old cowbells along the way.

This really is beautiful country.

We bought tickets for a 1 hour cruise around part of the lake. It was nice and relaxing. And so very scenic. The boat was full of tourists, mostly from Asia.

A little clearing in the rain clouds and a little chocolate made for a very nice cruise!

We saw some lovely mansion homes overlooking the lake.

After time on the boat, it was time to move on.  We drove through beautiful country to Brienz, then on to Interlaken.

This is heavenly country, with the Alps around us and the high mountain lakes and rivers flowing through them.

It’s hard to find a place to stop for a photo on the narrow winding roads.  When there is a pull out, you will probably not be the only one stopping!

This isn’t a great photo, but it shows how the road twisted and turned and tangled as we went up a mountain!

We woke to cloudy skies with blue but had no rain all day. That was a gift. We had a few things on our list to see today–we went back across the covered bridge (this time bedecked with begonias), went into the beautiful old cathedral –St Leodegar (Catholic). Aaron: “I think I’ve had about enough churches to last me awhile.” It was beautiful and a small choir was rehearsing in the organ loft. That was a treat.

St Leodegar’ Catholic church:

This door.  WOW.

The children’s room:

Swiss knives on every corner.

Then we walked over to the Löwen Denkmal (Lion Memorial). Such a beautiful and peaceful place to think about those who have died. This one was created to honor Swiss mercenary soldiers who died in 1792 during the French Revolution. When the revolutionary masses attacked the royal Tuileries castle in Paris on August 10, 1792 the Swiss mercenary troops tried to defend the royal family and make sure the royals could escape.
760 were killed and the number of surviving soldiers was 350. Mark Twain, well known American author, called the Lion Monument “the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world.”

Part of the old city wall:

After that, we walked through town a bit. Today happened to be a Catholic holiday in Luzern (just here), so most shops were closed.

Serious about recycling here.

After wandering, we went to a museum near our Marriott hotel that featured Picasso’s works.

Then we got ready to take a boat cruise on Lake Lucern.

Vendors are selling roasted chestnuts.