Switzerland, still in the clouds (and snow)

While the kids had May vacation, and my parents were here, we planned for three days in Switzerland. The hope was to enjoy a beautiful, alpine, sunny, spring holiday.  So remove the word "sunny" (and even "spring"), and we actually succeeded remarkably well.  The forecast before we left was for snow and rain all three days, but despite this we were lucky...
(Cf. my earlier post on our first Swiss visit, when I said I'd like to come back when it's sunny...)

Rest stop by the Sarnersee.
(No, Benjamin is not taller than Julia, yet...)

May 23 we left Munich in our rented VW van and headed for Wengen, a gorgeous holiday resort village in the heart of the Swiss Alps.  We had some sunny breaks in the clouds while we were still at low altitudes, which got our hopes up, and made for some enjoyable picture opportunities along the way.

No cars are allowed in Wengen:  you park in Lauterbrunnen (in the mountain valley that runs south from Interlaken) and take the cogwheel train up the mountain to the village.

Thomas and Benjamin on the
mountain train to Wengen.

Not surprisingly, it got cloudier on the way up, and by the time we reached our chalet apartment, it was starting to snow!

View from our chalet, shortly after arriving.

After finding a fondue pot on the apartment, we bought some Gruyere and wine at the local grocery and enjoyed a fitting cheese fondue for our first evening in Switzerland.

Of course, being the end of May, it stayed light out until past 9 pm, which seemed weird with the snow making it feel like Christmas, but it allowed us to go for a nice walk in the snow after dinner.

Morning dawned... with more snow.  BUT at least the clouds looked less solid.  In fact, they even started to break up by noon with patches of sun.

View uphill from our chalet at 8:30 am.

Same view, 12:30 pm.

We walked around Wengen for a while in the morning... for Thomas this was a bit of a trip down memory lane, since he came here a few times with his family for ski vacations when he was young.

This church sits on a lookout over the valley, which would afford great views if it weren't foggy.

View south down the Lauterbrunnen valley.  Spectacular, even if misty.

The snow/rain line from overnight was easily visible on the mountain sides. 

By mid-day, the clouds were breaking up enough that we decided to take the mountain train up to Kleine Scheidegg, a high mountain pass (at 2061 m) at the base of the Eiger mountain (whose "North Face" is infamous as one of the most difficult and deadly rock faces in the world to climb).

The Wengen train station (at 1274 m)

Julia is excited to be going up the mountain.

It was cold enough in Wengen, maybe 5 C, but a 20 minute and 800 m altitude ride up brought us to winter wind and -1 C.  Brrrr.  We were wearing all our layers (which did not include winter coats, having thought this was "spring"...)  

The north face of the Eiger.  The mountain train in the foreground is going up to the Jungfraujoch, a saddle between
the Jungfrau and Mönch mountains, which is also the highest train station in Europe at 3454 m (that's 11,332 ft!).

We arrived just in time for a hole in the clouds to give us a great glimpse of the infamous North Face.

The train station at Kleine Scheidegg, base of the Eiger.

Julia, very happy to be there!

We didn't get to see the top of of the Jungfrau, but here is the top of
the Mönch, peaking through the clouds, right beside her.

We decided to hike back down, since the weather seemed to be holding and it was beautiful to simply be up there among the snowy peaks.  Many hiking paths around here were closed because of the recent snow, but this one back to Wengen was apparently open, and there was also the option to hop on a train a third of the way down (an option Dad took because of his knees).

Julia loves the mountains.

The paths were a little muddy up top, but passable.  It was actually halfway down that we hit a field of snow across (what we thought was) the path...  Funny, wading through foot-deep snow at the end of May.

We were lucky with the weather on the way down.
Changeable, but no snow or rain!

Yes, that's me (with five layers of clothing).  We had gorgeous views
on the way back down, looking over the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

The town of Wengen, nestled on the side of the mountains.

Even though it was a good 2-hour hike down, after dinner we walked around the village a bit more, simply enjoying the beautiful setting.

Three generations on a bench...

The next morning we woke up early, hoping to see some sun, but our luck seemed to have been used up with the bits of blue sky the day before... Ah well.  We'd seen some beautiful views already.

On the way back down, Thomas ponders his dream job
as a mountain train engineer.

Arriving in Lauterbrunnen, in the valley.

We retrieved our van at the Lauterbrunnen train station, and headed for Thomas's sister and family, outside of Zürich.  On the way, though, we had to stop at one of our favorite cities:  Lucerne.

The wooden bridge in Lucerne 

Steffi and family fed us a wonderful Raclette dinner (normally a winter dish, but it felt great in the gray, rainy 7 degreed Celsius...) and then the next morning we headed back to Munich.  

One more stop: Lindau on an island in the Bodensee (Lake Constance).  It's a beautiful, medieval, town, and I could spend hours there, even in the gray weather... which gives a good excuse to sample the goodies in the fabulous Theater Café.

We really had a great trip again, despite the clouds.  If we inadvertently had made some bargain with the gods about good experiences in Europe or good weather, we still got the better end of the deal.