Another beautiful day dawned bright & clear so the wet weather plans didn't need to come into force, thank goodness. We spent a quiet morning at the site, doing all those little housekeeping jobs we’d ignored so far: hubby washed all the flies off the front of the van & fiddled with his electrics while I cleaned around and reorganised some cupboards – strangely satisfying in a caravan while its drudgery at home.


 After a quick lunch we set off for the Aare Gorge, which I’d read about in a leaflet from Reception: the River Aare flows from the mountains through an increasingly narrow gorge which has been popular with tourists since the late 1800s. We started at the eastern end & walked westwards, descending slopes and steps, then walking along a specially constructed wooden gallery walkway suspended on the side of the gorge.


 The cliffs tower above you on both sides, extending up to almost 200m, and the turquoise glacial meltwater river rushes along beneath your feet – quite an experience and very impressive. It got even more so as we approached the western portion: the gorge is 1400m long and is reputed to be only 2m wide at its narrowest point, but I would dispute even that.


 At some points the path goes through tunnels, then you rejoin the suspended path which twists & turns. Passing other visitors can be quite a challenge, as its very narrow with overhanging rock, but is well maintained with a very strong railing (thank goodness!).


 For most of the way the cliffs are so high that you simply cannot get both the river and the top in a picture, and it is so narrow that the sun does not penetrate at all. At some places they show the most wonderful swirls of erosion and then there are the entrances to 2 secret chambers constructed for WW2 but never used. Outside one of them is a beautiful carving of the Swiss eagle emblem – all this was done on the opposite side to the walkway, meaning that the constructors & carvers had to work suspended from platforms.


 The walk through the gorge took us about 40 mins but many of them were spent taking pictures; it was really hard to do it justice, but we tried. We returned the same way in much less time and emerged blinking in the sunlight like a pair of cave creatures. Our ticket for the gorge (CHF15, about €12) also allowed us to use the funicular railway at Reichenbach Falls so we headed off there next. 

 
 
 These are the falls made famous by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - they appear in the short story "The Final Solution" (1893) and are where his famous detective Sherlock Holmes fought with his nemesis Moriarty; apparently Conan Doyle stayed in Meiringen with his wife and decided to set Holmes’s death at the falls. They are accessed by a funicular railway in a wooden carriage with curtains, an exact replica of the original from 1899. 



 The ride only takes 5 minutes, but the almost sheer rise is as spectacular as the views over the town of Meiringen and the Aare valley. The falls themselves create a huge cloud of spray – not surprising as they drop 250m, and there is of course a cutout of Sherlock Holmes to have your picture taken with; how could I not?






  We walked up the (very steep) path to a viewing balcony, but aging lungs and knees prevented us from going the whole way to the top of the falls – actually I think we did it right, as the view from the top isn’t half as extensive as from the balcony. That’s our excuse anyway!







 Riding down to road level again gave us the chance to see the whole area from a bird’s eye view (and get our breath back) and we finished the day with some food shopping and a sit in the sun watching the kite one more time.