Located in the picturesque Lauterbrunnen Valley, the city of the same name is home to some 2,500 residents and 72 waterfalls. It will be our base of operations for the next two days. Our hotel is located a stone’s throw from Staubbach Falls, the 2nd tallest in continental Europe with a drop of nearly 1000 feet. After checking our bags at the hotel, we set out for our first hike. We rode a cog train and then a cable car to ascend more than a 1.2 miles in altitude to the top of Männlichen. On the way up we got a close look at the avalanche fencing used to protect life and property below.
We also witnessed the arrival of a helicopter which made numerous subsequent trips, shuttling construction supplies between improvement projects. In the Alps, these are the equivalents of construction pickup trucks.
Snow at our altitude was still present in areas shaded from the sun. Jeanine posed me on a large mound for a nice portrait. I posed her in a field of wild flowers which were in abundance everywhere.
We hiked at a leisurely pace to Kleine Scheidegg enjoying magnificent views of the mountains and lakes along the way. Jeanine stopped to photograph every new wildflower she encountered (at least twenty by my count) and I for every gorgeous mountain vista. Although it was forecasted to rain all day, we were fortunate that it did so for only a short while. It started as hail before turning into the biggest raindrops I have ever seen. Click on the image below and see how many people you can find in the photo. This should put the scale of the mountains into perspective. Rain may not be so great for hiking but for someone who likes to photograph waterfalls it is a welcome thing.
Before we knew it the rain was over and the sun was out. Jeanine and I both love to be in nature and to exercise. It doesn’t get much better for us than hiking through the mountains in the midst of such grandeur.
After completing our hike we took a cable car down to the cute town of Wengen where we stopped at a bar for food and to watch World Cup soccer.
