up relatively early again to catch the first funicular back down the mountainside, with another deliciously sunny day on offer.
and we were like nah!
here it was time to say goodbye to both Alice and Shell who where continuing on to see Lucern..
where as i boarded another train to Lauterbrennen.
seemed my interail ticket wasn't zcceptable on the train, and after a game of charades with the ticket man, i handed over my 7 franks for a prpper ticket... and a 10min trip...
arrived in Lauterbrennan at 1400 to an amazing setting...
a little swiss town located smack bang in the middle of the snow covered swiss alps.
it was breathtaking!
rendered me speachless i tell you!
followed the directions to the hostel (hostel is located directly under the the waterfall)
after walking for about 20mins i came across the camp gound and had about 1 hr to wait until i could check in..
so i just sat soaking in the view of the mountains until the office opened.
Got a room all to myself tonight... cabins sleep 4 people, with two bunk beds so close together you could just roll over and be on someone elses bed. dropped off my pack and set off to explore the town
it was like walking into a travel brocure, it was such a quaint, typical town that you'd expect to see, everywhere you turned looked like a postcard... it's know in guide books as the gateway to the swiss alps.
was waslking along the main street in and out of the many shops dotted along it, when i hear someone shout out my name...
and who should be walking up the raod towards me but michelle. A girl i used to do swimming club with and later waterpolo.. i'd heard she was doing one of the 46 day contiki tours through europe bet never thought in a million years i'd run into her like that.
had a good catch up while admring the view.
bought some of the delicious gyor cheese and salami, and crackers and headed back to the campground...
found out the campground was both a contiki and busabout stop so it was a big night...
up at dawn (no idea how!)
and walked back to the train station to catch the early morning rain (630am) train up to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in europe at 3454m.
took about 2hours to reach the top. as the train winded it's way up the mountain, first stop was at klein, where we swapped trains, and then caught another right to the top...
there were two stops for aclimaitization as we headed up, where there were holes blasted in the ides of the mountain, where you could look out and see a blanket of white...
everyone was getting more and more excited the closer we got.
reached the top around 9am to a view of mist covered mountains...
it was absolutely freezing wandered up and along the slippery slope before darting inside for some warmth...
visited the ice palace whith some lovely ice sculptures, all lit up with pretty colours... scattered throughout the winding tunnels, it was like a little palace all made out of ice.
headed outside and half did the glacier hike, up past the massive snow soccer ball, and past where the husky dogs should have been... :O(
threw a few snowballs at random japanese people...
hahaha
by accident of course...
one of which then decided to be my professional photographer and took like 20pictures that all look exactly the same!
as part of the cheaper early morning ticket you had to be off the top of the mountain by midday, so i caught the 1150 train from the top down to Klein where i wandered around in awe...
the sun ahd come out by now and it was just a breathtaking view.
wanted to hike back down, however since i was on my own i'll just have to come back and do it again some day
arrived back in town aroun 430pm and just relaxed for the rest of the day.
up nice and early again and headed up to mullen, after dropping all my belongings in one of the lockers at the train station.
got it all in but have doubts about getting them back out!
caught the cable car from lauterbrennen, and que jumped in front of a huge group of japanese tourists all off to do the whole james bond thing. and headed up the escalator....
they all followed, which would have been fine had there actually been room at the top, and there was not an inch of space on the waiting platform...
so it was like being in a game of lemmings, as more and more people came up the escalator to a wall of people.... it was pretty funny, and if i hadn't been too squashed to move it would have made a great video!
the cable car we boarded held about 70 people, and had a huge drop with awesome views of the mountains as we headed up. when we reached Grutschalp, we were ushered to a train which we caught over to to the actual township of mullen...
being bright and early on a sunday morning, not alot was actually open, so just wandered about taking pictures and sitting watching the view...
headed over to the other side of the town where the other cable car was waiting and caught that one down to Gimmelwald,and then another steep decline down to stechelberg and then i had my feet firmly on solid ground once again!
caught the bus dow the road to Trummelbach-waterfalls.
and hopped into this tiny little lift which took about 15 people at a time up the inside of the waterfalls about half way up... headed up hundreds of tiny stairs inside the mountain right to the top of the glacial falls. it was amazing just how much water was pulsating through the crevices all the time..
met two amusing americans and had many an interesting conversation as we went up and down stairs winding our way back to the bottom of the falls, through little caves and along the mountainside.
ended with a spectacular corkscrew fall and then it was time to run for the bus.
arrived back in town with about 1/2 an hour to go before the train was due to depart to interlarken.
so stopped by one of the little shops to grab a quick bite for lunch.
sat with two amusing japanese tourists who were having difficulty gtting the german speaking waiter to understand them...
caught my train and managed to get the connecting train through to Basel.
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