This picture was taken in Interlaken, Switzerland. As can be seen, it was raining. This curtailed our activities for the day.

So, we drove to the town of Thun. One of the regional cities. This picture was taken from the south bank of the Aare river of the old portion of town. The covered bridge on the right is a pedestrian way, and has sluice gates to control the flow of the river. We also managed to find the town market.

After lunch, we went up the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the Trümmelbach Fälle. This waterfall drains the runoff from the glacier behind the Jungfrau mountain, as well as snows from the peaks. It moves a lot of water through a tight space, up to 20000 liters per second during the spring melts. It has carved a tunnel deep into the mountainside.

When we reemerged from the chasm, we found that the sun had finally come out. Here is one of the few sunny pictures from that day. This is the guest house at the entrance to the falls.

If you like tall, whispy waterfalls, the Lauterbrunnen Valley is the place to go. With all the runoff from the mountains, and those striking precipices, there is almost always a waterfall in sight. And there is an easy hiking path that runs most of the length of the valley.

We had returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The picture on the left is of our hotel with the Staubbach Falls in the background. The falls are 920ft in height. We stayed at the Hotel Jungfrau in Lauterbrunnen. Wonderful place. There was no TV in the room, but we didn't need one. We had the front center room with a balcony. The pool has a splendid view up the valley and of the waterfalls. If only the weather was clear, we could have just sat on the balcony and watched the mountains.

For dinner, we took the rack railroad up to the hillside town of Wengen. A rack railroad is basically a track with an extra, toothed rail, and a cog wheel on the train, which mates with the track, that is turned by the motor. It enables the train to climb rather steep inclines without slipping.

This picture is of Lauterbrunnen station. This is not the cog rail, that's on the next platform. But, does this place look familiar? It might to someone who's seen the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (OHMSS). This is the station where Bond arrives to meet Irma Bunt on his way to Bloefeld's alpine hideaway.

Anyway, Wengen is mostly a pedestrian only resort town, 4265ft above sea level, and nearly 1500ft above the valley floor. The picture to the left is looking from Wengen up the Lauterbrunnen Valley towards Mürren, the next day's adventure. In the center of the picture, you can see a whisp of a waterfall. That's the Staubbach Falls near our hotel.

Finally! A clear day. This is the first real view of the mountaintops we had. We had two options for a clear day, the Jungfraujoch or the Schilthorn. I had been to the Jungfraujoch the other time I visited, so I wanted to see the Schilthorn this trip. Also, given that OHMSS is one of my favorite movies, and that the Jungfrau can get crowded with tourists, we decided on the Schilthorn.

Getting to the top of the Schilthorn is fun. We took the cable car, which climbs up to the 9744ft peak in four segments. It starts in Stechelberg (2844ft) and climbs out of the valley to Gimmelwald (4484ft). Then it goes to Mürren (5413ft). The picture to the left is the segment up to Birg (8779ft). Quite a steep change in altitude there. They have altimeters in the cars so you can watch your rate of assent. The Birg station looks very much like it did in OHMSS, except the blue siding is gone.

And finally, up to the Schilthorn. In OHMSS, this was Bloefeld's mountain fortress and laboratory, and from Birg up was private. It looks much like it did in the movie. These days, it is a revolving restaurant, that they've named Piz Gloria. They try to market the Bond movie location theme. They even have a well-worn film in the conference room, which shows excerpts from the movie that highlight the Schilthorn.

This photo was taken from what served as a helipad in the movie. I understand that the helipad structure was built by the movie company to house the generators they needed for lighting, and was not in the original designs for the restaurant. The helipad area has since been enlarged from the original square facility into a roundish structure. The restaurant exterior looks much as it did in the movie, although there are no steps from the helipad down to the cable car lobby. I also could only find one elevator.

Hiking in the Alps is wonderful. They have these direction signs everywhere you need one, and none where you don't. It lists the various destinations and how long it takes to walk there. In the background across the valley is the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau peaks. Also in the background, on the near side of the valley is the Birg station. We would have hiked down to Gimmelwald (only 3:15) from here, but we didn't have shoes with ice cleats. Some of the sections where quite steep and slippery. Instead, we took the cable car back down to Mürren, and hiked around there.

However, the snow and ice didn't stop us from venturing out a little ways on the peak. I love this picture, but it doesn't adequately portray the precariousness of a snowcovered Alp. I am standing to the side, because to my left was a rather sharp dropoff. If I slipped or dropped something, it'd be collected back down in Stechelberg, some 7000ft later.

Here's a picture looking back up at the Piz Gloria, from where I was standing in the last picture. We did actually go inside the building. We had hot chocolate, and went around once on the revolving restaurant, to take in the diners' view of the Alps. I wanted Gluhwein, but it wasn't available yet. It must be neat to get up there before sunrise, and have breakfast.

"Take me to the Alpine Room. I want to see the dawn."
-Contessa Teresa Draco, OHMSS

This is the cable car coming up from the Birg station, that building perched on the promontory in the middle of the picture. There is only one support tower, and it is just off the left of the picture. The cable is in free space all the way to Birg. We took an early trip up. There is a discount if you leave Stechelberg before 9am. Another bonus is that is isn't too crowded. We spent two and a half hours up here, and as we were starting to head down, the cars coming up were packed with folks.

This photo was taken from the Birg station, looking down through the clouds, towards Mürren. Click here for a telephoto closeup of Mürren from this vantage point.

We rode the cable car down to Mürren. This is another mostly vehicle free alpine town. I say mostly, because as in Wengen, the hotels operate large golf carts for moving guests and their luggage to the cable car and rack rail stations.

Mürren has some spectacular views of the Jungfrau.

Want a restaurant with a view? Ok, ok, so Switzerland has more than it's share of such establishments. But, try the Alpenruh. We ate on the patio under the gaze of the Jungfrau massif. I had one of the many Rösti dishes they offer. Rösti is a fried potato dish, akin to Hash Browns. Mine had a thick layer of melted cheese on it, topped by a fried egg. Wow! I had ordered the barley soup as well, but they forgot about it, oops. I don't think I could have finished it anyway, the Rösti was that filling. Good thing we were doing more hiking afterwards.

After lunch, we rode the funicular from Mürren to the top of Allmendhubel, a closeby hill. This is a picture from Allmendhubel, looking at Wengen, on the ledge on the other side of the valley. From here, we hiked back down into Mürren, and on to Gimmelwald. Where we got on the cable car.

This is the final drop to the valley floor, from Gimmelwald heading to the cable car station in Stechelberg. The station as seen in OHMSS, where Bunt gets word that Bond has escaped, hasn't changed much. The cliff face to the left is over 1000ft tall. They do allow you to bungee jump from the Mürren service lift here, for a fee, of course.

"We'll head him off at the precipice."
-Ernst Stavro Blöfeld, OHMSS

If you watch OHMSS before you visit Lauterbrunnen, and again when you get home, you'll find you recognize things in the movie. This stretch of street is used in one of the car chases. Bond is making a call from a phone in the parking lot on the right. Tracy's Cougar is in the street in the middle, and Bunt's Mercedes drives essentially through the parking lot of the hotel on the left, shooting at the phone booth. As the scene progresses towards where this photo was taken, you can briefly see the hotel we stayed in. Other sights we've found include the town church, the train station, the ramp behind the train station, and the intersection near the falls.

The next day, and what a miserable day it was. We took the chance and rode up to Kleine Scheidegg. I was hoping that maybe the Jungfrau would be above the clouds, but to no avail. The conductor tried to get us on the train to the top, but I wasn't paying $50 per person to look at clouds. There wasn't much else to do in the rain here, so we bought some postcards. Then, we went back down to Lauterbrunnen, got in the car, and drove into Germany.

Finally, Germany.

There were a couple of events we wanted to attend in Germany. Some were walks, in Jebenhausen and Heidelberg, but the weather precluded any photography. The other events were wine festivals. This is the Heilbronn Weindorf festival, in the rain. In early September, they setup booths in the vincinity of city hall. Many of the region's wine makers have a booth. Heilbronn is in the Württemberg wine district of Germany. It is my understanding that most of the wine made here is consumed here, and not much is exported.

We really enjoy this festival. We've been there twice, and found it to be well off the tourist track, which is a big plus in our book. Didn't hear any English spoken. Add to that, we seem to like the wines offered here. While we purchase to take home, it seems that many folks purchase to consume at the festival, as the merchants kept asking if we wanted our bottles opened. There were some good cheese booths to go with that.

We also attended the wine festival in Oberwesel. Oberwesel is in the Mittelrhein wine district. This one was very touristy, mobbed, I heard more English than German here, and there were miles of tour busses. The wine didn't do anything for me, either. It was ok, but nothing I wanted to tote home on the airplane. There's a bit more of an export market here anyway, so chances are I could obtain some of it back home, if I really wanted to.

What Oberwesel did have to offer that was different, was the Rhein in Flammen fireworks display. This was very well choreographed with music. Most of the fireworks were launched from a barge in the river. It also seemed that every passenger boat that plies the Rhein was present. Fifty or sixty or so of them all in this narrow channel. Quite a sight to see. Next time, though, we'll see it from one of those boats.

And then it was time to go home. Not a bad week, all things considered.
Back to top.