Amazing Alps

Thursday, July 07, 2016
Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Switzerland
Bryan and I, although sleeping in separate beds across the room from each other, both woke around 2:30AM. If I'd known at the time that we hadn't gotten to sleep until around midnight and wouldn't fall asleep again before it was time to leave for Schilthorn, I would have been very sad. But I didn't know, so I just tried to doze and then would play with my phone for a bit, and then try to sleep again. The room, mercifully, had cooled off and it was comfortable (with a fan pointed at me).

I climbed in bed next to Bryan eventually and we shared whispered excitement about our plans for the day, and looked at the web cam up at the viewpoint . It was stunning. All last week it looked like we might get rained out again, so this glorious weather is a fantastic answer to many prayers.

We were up at 5AM. We all showered and got ready to go, putting on layers because we brought mostly lightweight clothing and it was supposed to be very cold up on top of the mountain. We put Desmond in the carrier and took off, walking to the train station where we would start our trip up, up, up the mountain.

I was completely giddy! I've so been trying to not get my hopes up these last few months knowing it might be stormy, and now to see the mountains in the distance and not a cloud in the sky and realize that we are finally going to do this thing that I've wanted to do for more than four years was really exciting.

And Desmond was finally awake to get on a train and experience the ride. As we sat on the train waiting for it to depart he kept saying, "Ride a train today?" We assured him that was what we were doing right now, and showed him on the map where all we were going, and told him about gondolas. Our excitement was contagious. Early though it may be, sleep deprived as we all were, we were about to have a great day.

We rode the train up to Lauterbrunnen. Next we got on the gondola up to Grütschalp. This was Desmond's first gondola. We gave him fruit snacks (aka: chewies) to help his ears with the altitude change . He did great.

Then from there we rode another train up to Mürren where we caught a longer gondola ride up to Birg. Now, Bryan doesn't care for heights. So all this gondola business is not his favorite. On this ride Desmond also decided it was not his favorite and told me "No. All done. Out." Once I sat down with him he seemed to feel more secure though, and enjoyed the sights.

The final, short gondola ride took us from Birg up to Schilthorn. This is as high as it goes. At this point you are up looking directly across at the other three main peaks up there: Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger. You know, and the rest of the Alps.

I don't know how to describe the beauty and grandeur of this panorama. I could have stared for hours at those peaks and valleys. The best I can do is to say that I was instantly moved to worship the One, our Father, who made the mountains. I asked Bethie as we climbed the stairs up from the final gondola to the observation deck (our jaws on the floor) "What must Heaven be like? If this is fallen Earth, what must Heaven be like?" It makes my heart thrill with a yearning to see Home. What unspeakable beauties and vistas await those whose hope is in Jesus!

We took photos. We gaped. Desmond ran around and climbed on the binocular stations. We grinned stupidly at each other and looked some more . The observation deck was sparsely populated as we had taken the first gondola of the day up. Some other Washington University folks we'd met on the way up were snapping photos and looking around, and a handful of others we hadn't met. It was gorgeous. Bethie pointed in the direction that she lives (the mountain near her was shown on one of the maps describing the view).

Finally we decided we were hungry and went inside the spinning restaurant to enjoy the buffet. We had pancakes, eggs, rösti, bacon, sausage, cereal, fruit, juice and tea. All the while the restaurant slowly turned so we could get a 360* view. Desmond ate breakfast and then I set him up with his little dump truck and some cocoa crispie "pebbles" to scoop and dump. He happily played with that for quite some time while we chatted, marveled at the view, and shared photos with friends at home via Facebook and text. We also teased about this being the future evil lair of Baron Desmond Vaughn Schmidt.

After brunch I took Desmond to use the toilet . Which, admittedly, does not usually warrant mention in the blog. However, this particular trip to the loo was remarkable. But first, a bit of background info: the whole Schilthorn experience was themed for the Bond movies because one was filmed there. To the point where they play the 007 theme song whenever the gondolas start, and so forth. Someone apparently thought that it would be an excellent idea to extend this theme into the WCs. When we entered the stall and locked the door, colored lights began to flash above us and a speaker began to play a monologue (about curing someone of a fear of chickens of all things). Loudly. There were spooky sound effects as well and Desmond kept saying "What's happening? What's happening?" He completely was unable to focus on using the toilet. As I left a woman exiting at the same time said to me, "Well that was disturbing!" I agreed and mentioned Desmond was bothered by it. He chimed in, "What's happening in toilet?" "Oh you poor thing!"

Next we went down the short gondola ride to Birg and spent some time there . They had a platform built out over nothing that you could walk out on and see through the grate and glass to the long way down below. It was a cool attraction and great for some fun photos. Bryan bested his fears and got out on it too!

We took the long cable car down to Mürren and then decided to hike from Mürren to Gimmelwald. It was such a beautiful hike. Desmond was a trooper and hiked about a third of the way by on his own little legs. I couldn't help but thinking of all our Hike it Baby friends. How they would love it! There were butterflies, wildflowers, paragliders, we heard goats and always there were the Alps looming impressively above. (Desmond particularly wanted to see a goat.) And of course flower window boxes and beautiful lodges.

Our previous stay in Gimmelwald, four years ago, was rainy and cloudy and I couldn't see the mountains. So it was a treat to see it sunny with a view of the mountains. "You brought me here?? It's so beautiful!"

By the time we made it to the gondola out little goat enthusiast had fallen asleep in the carrier . So we went down the final gondola and waited for the bus. Bethie watched paragliders landing, I worked on the blog, Desmond slept and Bryan played games on his iPhone. The wait went quickly and soon the bus arrived. This bus had a second bus attached to it like a trailer. We opted to ride in the trailer portion for the sake of novelty. We woke Desmond and he kept asking "Man driving? Look [where] man is?"

We rode the train back to Interlaken. The rest of the evening consisted of laundry, resting, and watching all the paragliders as we walked along the river. At one point we counted fifteen up there at one time! Bethie is pretty convinced she needs to try that at some point, and I tend to agree. It looks like so much fun! And it was very festive to see the sky full of them. It reminded me of the kite festival at the beach.

We decided on a low key dinner at Subway. Which turned out not to really be an option (the low key part, at least) because Desmond completely melted down . As his mouth was wide open crying loudly I noticed that one of his teeth that is coming in had pushed further through and the surrounding gums were a dark, angry pink. And then I felt awful. Because he hadn't been able to nap today, and had asked me for medicine, but I didn't understand. He had been pointing to Benadryl, so I was just thinking he wanted the grape flavor. Now I'm wondering how much of his resisting sleep and eating less has been due to pain. I just assumed that travel is hard on young people and wasn't looking very hard for anything else being wrong. Bummer. Maybe he would have been able to sleep on the plane? No way to know.

In any case, I ran up to our hotel room and gave him some Tylenol and he immediately fell asleep in his stroller while we went to retrieve our clean laundry. He stayed asleep while we walked along the river (avoiding our hot hotel room for a little longer) and then transferred to the crib and slept through the night. In all, he slept eleven hours .
If only Bryan or I could sleep half that much!

~ Merilee

Interlaken is a beautiful, but small town. There aren't any hotels there that are part of major chains. This makes staying here on points a bit tricky. It's also an expensive town and we now needed a larger room as Bethie was joining us. We'd like to have stayed further up the mountain Ina town like Murren, but it wasn't an option for us. Most big credit card banks (Chase, Citi, Amex) have their own cards with their own points. Those points can be transferred to other programs or used to purchase travel through an online portal. In this case I was able to use some Citi ThankYou points to book our hotel in Interlaken. It wasn't fancy, but it's what we could make work.

It was so great to be back in Switzerland, but with better weather. In fact, the weather was essentially perfect. The trip up to Schilthorn was expensive, but we should be able to reimburse it with another of the Barclay Arrival cards like we used for the rail passes.

The heights thing drove me nuts and it was a big challenge for me, but that is the kind of thing that is always worth stepping out of your comfort zone to do.

~ Bryan
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Comments

Leslie
2016-07-08

What an adventure! Thanks again guys for the story and the pictures.

Andrea
2016-07-09

Neat day! I'm glad you were able to learn about Desmond's tooth. Hopefully that can make things go a little easier now!

2025-02-12

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