Monday July 17 - off to Grindelwald
We left Friedricshafen on the 10:20am ferry to Romanshorn on the Swiss side of the lake where we caught the train to Interlacken with a short change to Grindelwald We had an OK lunch in the restaurant car on the leg to Interlacken. Once in Interlacken we had to run like crazy to catch the train (cog wheel) to Grindelwald - Dieter just managed to stick his foot in the door as it was closing. The train was packed but we found seats. We arrived some 30 minutes later around 3:40pm and walked with our luggage to the rental office for our holiday apartment - less than 5 minutes.
We checked in and our unit was in the same building as the rental office which was good as we had to return to the office for a variety of reasons - all a bit mundane.
Dieter went shopping for breakfast and some drinks while I unpacked. Once this was done we went together to see if we could sort out the coffee machine - fortunately I caught one of the ladies in the rental office who gave me (sold) the right capsules (not Nespresso) - we had planned to go out for dinner but as we were both shot-ducks we went back to the Coop and bought some bread, cheese and ham.
We finally settled into happy hour at 6:30pm - it was still hot and sunny - our unit’s small balcony had sideways views of the mountains - it was advertised as having stunning views of the Eiger - which clearly was a lot of marketing hype. We sort of felt we should have rented the same place as we had back in 2018 - but it’s now $6000 per week!!
Tuesday July 18
We had already decided to have a bit of a lay-day wth tons of washing to be done and some planning to do. After brekkie of fruit, yoghurt and croissant (the bakery is right across the street) I tried to put on a couple of loads of laundry in the common laundry. It’s great to have the laundry but getting the machine to work proved to be a challenge - even the rental agent had trouble. She admitted they were tricky as you activate the machines via a chip card which the machine in question does not always respond to.
The rest of the day was spent shopping - Dieter did a short walk while I did the pre-prep for dinner - spatchcock !!!
Wednesday July 19
Up the mountain today !! We took the gondola to First and did the Cliff walk (short) followed by the headline walk to a lake and back - about 2 hours. We had a pretty good lunch on top - shared rosti and mixed salad. Then home for dinner at home - pasta and salad.
Thursday July 20 - The Jungfrau and Eiger
Since today had the best weather forecast we had pre-booked our trip to the Jungfrau. We left home around 8:30am and walked (20 minutes but there are busses and a train) to the start of the new gondola (Eiger Express) to Eigerfletcher where you change to the cog-wheel train that makes it’s way to the summit via an amazing tunnel.
We had a nice lunch at the full service restaurant on top then made our way back to the terminal at Grund - from here we were able to catch the bus (only because it was running a minute late) back to the city-centre. - otherwise it’s a 30 minute uphill slog.
We stayed home for dinner of sambos.
Friday July 21
It was a bit of a one/off rainy day so we walked to and from the terminal (Grund) to check out tickets for the Mandlicken. We went out for dinner (Hotel Kreuz und Post) - shared Zurich veal (geschnetzeltes).
Saturday July 22
We made our delayed visit to Gletcherklamm (gorge) - 1 hour walk over - then 1 hour in the gorge followed by the worst lunch in Switzerland (pre-packed sambos) then 1 hour walk home.
We stayed home for dinner - spatchcock.
Sunday July 23
We make the trip to the Mandelekin - up a long gondola with amazing views of the Eiger and Jungfrau. At the top of the Mandelinkin gondola we then trekked to the very top (a tough 30 minute slog uphill) for a wonderful view - unfortunately it was a bit hazy. Back down (at the top of the gondola) we watched and took photos of the drindle festival - ladies and men in traditional dress dancing to a traditional Swiss band - very entertaining.
We then took the Panorama walk to Kleine Scheidegg - we made the almost level walk a bit quicker than the posted 1.5 hours. We stopped for a nice lunch sitting outside with glorious views in the clear skies - the earlier haze had cleared. We took the cog-wheel train back to city - about 45 scenic minutes.
We stayed home for our traditional holiday dinner of pasta and salad.
Monday July 24
We got up to a rainy start to the day - around 5am Dieter heard thunder so he got up and placed the bucket in the kitchen where one of sky-lights had a small leak. On getting up I noticed that the lady in the next building (which had a huge terrace with many beautiful flower pots) had moved all her arrangements under cover (something we have observed since we arrived) - she must also have gotten up in the early morning.
Tuesday July 24
We left today and took the train to Zurich where we stayed overnight at the Raddison at the airport then commenced our long flight home on Wednesday July 25.