Interlaken and the Swiss Alps

For the weekend of August 6-7th, we headed to Switzerland. Neither of us had been there before and we were looking forward to seeing somewhere that we would focus primarily on the natural beauty of the location as opposed to human made sites. After landing in Geneva late Thursday night, we made our way to our hotel downtown. We were pleasantly surprised as the hotel ran out of space and therefore upgraded us to a very lavish room. The picture below does not do it justice. The next morning we did a quick walk through of Geneva before catching the train to our destination for the rest of the weekend (Interlaken). It was a pretty beautiful train ride going alongside Lake Leman looking down at the steep vineyards surrounding the water. After arriving in Interlaken we made our way to our hotel for the weekend which was a quaint little very Swiss place. They had great breakfasts in the morning! That afernoon it was raining so we went through and looked at many of the shops in the small town (amazing how many stores can sell high class watches and chocolates). We also went up the side of Harder Klum mountain in a funicular. This was kind of creepy as the mountain was very steep and the funicular went right up the side without much lateral movement. On top was a beautiful view of the city below which is situated in a valley right between two different lakes. On Saturday we really lucked out and had gorgeous weather. We started the day out at elevation(1000ft) by catching the train up to Schilthorn which involved a number of different trains up through the mountains as well as 3 different cable cars. It was gorgeous up in the mountains with waterfalls all around and great views of incredibly sharp jagged snow covered mountains. On top of Schilthorn (~10000ft) is a lookout building the has a restaurant inside. It was actually featured in one of the old James Bond movies. We hung around there for awhile and also did some hiking up on top of the mountain. After we had gotten our full of great views we headed back down the mountain and took a train over to the town of Grindewald. This is a gorgeous town made up of little cabins nestled in amongst the rocky Alps. There we took a(kind of scary) bus ride up through the narrow winding mountain roads and were dropped off at a trail so we could do some hiking. It was a beautiful hike down the mountain back to the town. By this time it was evening and we headed back to our hotel in Interlaken. It was a wonderful last weekend in Europe for the two of us together. That following Monday Sarah said her goodbye and headed back to God's country(Iowa). It has been a great memorable summer.

The upgrade hotel room in Geneva

The ridiculously high fountain in Geneva 

Swiss Francs sure are the most colorful money we've seen so far

Both of us in Interlaken standing on a bridge over really blue water

Looking down on Interlaken from the top of Harder Klum 

The steep funicular ride up and down Harder Klum

On the way up to the top of Schilthorn

Looking back at the last cable car ride to the top of Schilthorn

On top of Schilthorn looking to the west

Looking back at the observation building on top of Schilhorn

Again looking back at the observation building except with some people blocking the view

Looking down at a village from the cable car on the way down from Schilthorn

During the trip from Schilthorn to Grindewald

Another village on the trip from Schilthorn to Grindewald

Our hike outside of Grindewald

Sarah enjoying her hike

A husband annoying his wife with excess picture taking

Sarah about to bite down on some Swiss chocolate during a hike in the Swiss Alps.

We got lost.

The beautiful town of Grindewald

Our cosy hotel in Interlaken

View from the train on the ride back to Geneva

Unfortunately Sarah needed to head home. However, her luggage was too heavy. After taking out one tube of toothpaste the weight had dropped enough to get the bag on the plane.