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In a Mountain Valley

July 3, 2003

Dear Friends and Family,

We left Bern bound for the real attraction in Switzerland: the Alps. Again, we shunned the freeway for the side road, this time along the north bank of the Tunnersee. Despite the cloudy day, we could see the place would be wonderful in the summer sun. But lakes were not our goal and we continued along to Unterseen and its more famous neighbor, Interlaken. It looked like any tourist-filled beach town: streets lined with t-shirt shops, fast food, and unremarkable hotels. We barely slowed on our way though to the Wilderswil, the start of our mountain valley for the next few days.

This was a true mountain valley with sheer rock walls on both sides and a glacier-fed river roaring alongside the road. We went to the very end of the road to the Stechelberg Hotel. Our room was simple, with a spectacular view from the deck. Yeah, now we were in the mountains.

Almost immediately, we left to get Marianne some better walking-in-the-rain clothes. In Lauterbrunnen, we found a pleasant and well-equipped shop and Marianne emerged with new pants, shoes, socks, and a rain jacket. We crossed the street and had our first real Swiss meal. For me it was a "Rosti", shredded potatoes covered in Swiss cheese and oven-baked. Marianne's "Raclette" was baked cheese with a few potatoes scattered on top. This is simple country farmer food but sitting in this mountain valley town, it was perfect.

After lunch, we agreed with the mountain gear store that we could leave our car in their parking lot and headed off to the train station. We bought tickets to Murren, not knowing much more than that it was a town a couple thousand feet above us on the west wall of the valley. The ride started with a 686 meter (2100 foot) climb in a cable railroad up to a transfer station at 1486 meters. The view up was special, as we seemed to climb almost straight up. At the top, we transferred to a small train that ran along the rim of the canyon. We were treated to one marvelous scene after another. (I again learned that taking pictures from a moving vehicle is a pretty futile endeavor. But it's fun and, with a digital camera, there's no waste!)

Murren was a treat. It's big, considering that everything gets here the same way we did: via the funicular and train. There are hotels for every taste, from rough hostels to very elegant resorts. In winter, this must be a ski paradise, with a number of trams and trains leading further up the mountains and miles and miles of challenging slopes.

In summer, there are smaller crowds walking the paths and enjoying the spectacular views. On our visit, clouds obscured the best of the views above us, but we could still peer down into the valley and across to rock walls. I've read that photos of mountains are almost always disappointing because of the difficulty in providing a human scale to the scene. Believe me, in person, the impression is that there is no human scale here, just massive rocks forming the base for peaks hidden in the clouds.

We retraced our steps and rides down to the valley floor and returned to our hotel. There we opened a bottle of wine and a bag of snacks and sat on our balcony and enjoyed staring up at the rock where we had just been. Tomorrow, we hope the clouds will clear and we can go higher. But, if they don't, we'll manage because this is a magical place.

Take care and pray for sun.

John and Marianne

Past the Tunnersee clouds were still hiding the mountains but we could see the beauty hiding there.

After some rain clothes shopping, we had our first Swiss mountian meal. I had Rosti, cheese-covered hash brown potatoes, and Marianne had Raclette, baked cheese.

The funicular out of Lauterbrunnen ran up a very steep hill.

The rock-lined valley showed between the trees during the train ride across the top.

We were getting a colorful tour on the train ride.

This bridge seemed strong enough, but we did slow down to creep over it.

At the top we arrived at Murren Central Station.

The view from Murren was as we expected - spectacular.

We saw the tram flying by on it's way to the very top. We hoped to take this tram during our stay but so far, clouds were engulfing the mountian tops.

It seemed that everyone we ran into spoke English - of some form. We walked for awhile with this Aussie geologist who was wandering from Munich to Sweden.

This was our first glimpse of a glacier.

After a tough day touring, a relaxing glass of wine on our balcony.

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	Past the Tunnersee clouds were still hiding the mountains but we could see the beauty hiding there.		After some rain clothes shopping, we had our first Swiss mountian meal. I had Rosti, cheese-covered hash brown potatoes, and Marianne had Raclette, baked cheese.
The funicular out of Lauterbrunnen ran up a very steep hill.		The rock-lined valley showed between the trees during the train ride across the top.
	We were getting a colorful tour on the train ride.		This bridge seemed strong enough, but we did slow down to creep over it.
At the top we arrived at Murren Central Station.		The view from Murren was as we expected - spectacular.
	We saw the tram flying by on it's way to the very top. We hoped to take this tram during our stay but so far, clouds were engulfing the mountian tops.		It seemed that everyone we ran into spoke English - of some form. We walked for awhile with this Aussie geologist who was wandering from Munich to Sweden.
This was our first glimpse of a glacier.		After a tough day touring, a relaxing glass of wine on our balcony.