Okay, so I'm several days behind here....

As so often happens, I have gotten behind. It's a combination if some technical difficulties, and very bad internet connection at our last stop. Okay, plus a dose of laziness that always happens on vacation.

I will try to write about the remaining parts of our trip, but will most likely add the pictures later. We're in Zurich now, with one day left, tomorrow we fly home. I was sad to say goodbye to those glorious mountains!

Top of the world

I know I posted a quick picture earlier when we were actually at the top of Europe, up in the mountains. Here is a bit more.

Sunday was a gorgeous morning, and even though we had just seen the Matterhorn the previous day, we decided we had to take advantage of the weather and make the trip up the Jungfrau to the so-called "Top of Europe". It's the highest railway station in Europe at 3500 meters up. As a point for comparison, Mt Washington in New Hampshire is around 1900 meters high. Wengen, where we are staying is at 1300 meters. The top of the Gornergrat rail where we saw the Matterhorn is at 3100 meters.

So from Wengen, first we have to catch the cog rail up to Kleine Scheidigg. There we change to the Jungfraubahn which winds it's way through a number of tunnels, up and up, until it ends inside the mountain. You walk through a tunnel, then take lift up to the Sphinx observatory where you finally step out onto the mountains, with views of the Jungrau, Monch, and maybe the Eiger peeking through the clouds. There are glaciers all around. It's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit here today, which is actually pretty balmy. It's frankly amazing.

This is the view looking back at Wengen from the train



This is Kleine Scheidigg. As you can see, the clouds are pretty low up here.





Looking up, ahead of the train:



And here we are at the top.








There's also a part of the complex which winds through the glacier itself. They have dug out an "ice palace", and filled it with ice sculptures. Here' style rather cool entrance






See the small building in the center of this photo, on the ridge? that's where we were!

Location:Jungfraujoch

Arriving in Wengen

It's a long, somewhat complicated trip from Zermatt to Wengen. First, after taking the train down from Gornergrat, we then get our bags from the lockers and hop the train back to Visp. In Visp we have 10 minutes to catch a train to,Spiez, a trip of about 35 minutes. Then we have 6 minutes to catch a train to Interlaken Ost. In Interlaken we change to a train for the short hop to Lauterbrunnen. Then one more change to the cog rail for the ride uphill to wengen. Finally, we have to drag our things downhill to our hotel, the Hotel Baren. It's about 6PM by this point, and there is no one at the front desk of our small hotel. But a key is on the counter with a checkin note for me, so we grab it and head up to our room. At last, we can rest. And we've booked this hotel with half board, so we can stroll down to dinner whenever we feel like it.

This is the view from our balcony

Location:Senggasse,Wengen,Switzerland

Next up...a gorgeous view

Saturday we are due to leave Montreux, to make our way to Wengen. We awaken that morning to fog, clouds and drizzle. That can't be right...I was hoping for this to be a nice day! So I check the weather reports and look at the webcams and decide this bad weather is localized to the lake. We will go ahead with our plans. We pack up our bags, and go grab breakfast at the bakery next door. Then we head to the station, check our bags on to Wengen, and board a train for Visp. It's only a few minutes out of Montreux when the sky begins to clear, and it's sunny and beautiful. Excellent!

We arrive in Visp a little after 10AM. Instead of heading directly to Wengen, we turn south, and board the train headed for Zermatt. It's maybe 11:30 when we roll into Zermatt and get our first glimpse of the mighty Matterhorn above the town. We stroll across the street and buy tickets on the Gornergrat cog rail, and then begins the amazing climb into the mountains. The sky is now crystal blue with a few puffy clouds. Some of them cluster around the peak itself. Finally, we arrive in Gornergrat, where we are greeted by this sight
















Amazing, isn't it? I wasn't sure the timing would work. And the trip from Zermatt to our accommodations in Wengen is a pain. But this side trip was utterly worth it. I heard a lady at the gift shop saying this was the nicest weather they had for a week.

I did have a minor bout of altitude sickness at the top, which is 3100 meters up. I just felt a little dizzy and had a headache. Not too bad, but I had to remember to move slow and take it easy.

About hotel and restaurants in Montreux

This is a food and hotel review post...please feel free to skip if these things don't interest you.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic. The location, across the street from the train station, and a very short walk from the lake and docks made it very appealing. It was hugely convenient for sightseeing. And we loved the room. Decently sized, very comfy bed, balcony with spectacular lake view, very good shower.

There weren't a lot of restaurants close by though. And the ones that were, also were in hotels and hence fairly pricy. In fact, this seems a recurring issue in Switzerland. There are expensive restaurants, mostly in hotels, many very good but feel overpriced. And there are less expensive, casual cafés where you can get pizza or sandwiches. But there really seems to be a missing category of moderately priced, independent places. It makes it very difficult to find places to eat.

We ate in our hotel's restaurant twice, the first time enjoying it very much, the second time not as much. They were busier on Friday night, and service reflected that. The staff is formal, a little stuffy really. The second meal we both order steaks. Todd had the sirloin which was quite good, I ordered the smaller "Paris Bistro" steak which I thought would be entrecôte, or a hanger steak. But no....it was like the tail of a ribeye...incredibly fatty and gristly. Also undercooked. It was nearly inedible, but no waiter came for me to send it back. By the time they came to ask if it was okay, I didn't want to have it cooked more, so I simply expressed my surprise at the fatty cut. The waiter was incredibly patronizing when he told that was the Parisienne style. I thought he must have eaten in very different Paris bistros than me, since I'd never been served such a thing. But I kept my opinion to myself.

We had a more comfortable Italian meal at a restaurAnt near the lake called La Rouvenaz. We both ate pasta, which we shouldn't....but my risotto with mushrooms and tallegio was such a treat, I didn't worry about it.

Last evening on Lake Geneva

After we returned from Rocher de Nays, and after the rain stopped, we had a couple of hours before dinner. We didn't feel like doing much walking. So we decided to spend a little more time on the lake. We checked the schedule and discovered there was a boat leaving around 4:30 that does a loop of the eastern end of the lake, taking about 90 minutes. So we wandered down to the docks, and hopped on the boat.

Here's our boat approaching...



And a couple shots of the lake scenery in the late afternoon sunshine

Live from the top of Europe

I'm skipping ahead to share where we are right now. The Jungfraujoch is awesome!






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Location:Lauterbrunnen,Switzerland