GRINDELWALD 2013 Day 3

                              Monday, Sept 23, again a glorious day, for a fact, the weather forecast will stay like that all week. Lucky for us although the breakfast is becoming routine, (continental, with cheese and specialty sausages) the view never gets old. Sitting outside on the balcony watching the sunlight descending on the north side is phenomenal.

This was about 8:45 am, the sun comes up behind the Schreckhorn, at the back of us, starting to

 light up the north side of Grindelwald

A little bit more at 9 am

and all the way by 9:30 am.

                             Today we decided to explore the lower valley and taking a boat ride on the Brinzersee, after all it is included in our tickets we bought yesterday. First we took the car down the hill to the Railroad station Grindelwald Grund about 250 yards. 

All the red lines on this map are included with our tickets

for 6 days

On this map you see the boat route we took. 

The start of our Monday journey at Grindelwald Grund

                          The train took us up to Grindelwald, just about a mile. We changed trains and had a beautiful ride to Interlaken Ost. 

Here we just left Grindelwald

The gondolas to the Mannlichen we took the Day before.

The dare devils are up early this morning

                              Arriving in Interlaken we found the boat landing right across the station  and very convenient only yards away.  Because it is end of season, less boats are available for site seeing tours and unfortunately we had to wait about 2 hours for departure. No problem, a quick opportunity  for our beloved ones  to go shopping.

Tony and Amy are thinking of getting a new car.

This one was parked by the boat landing.

Waiting for the boat

It was nice and warm in the sun

On our way, just left Interlaken

Crossing path with on other excursion boat.

Getting ready for lunch

They served fresh local Egli fish filet and Amy and I had to try them.

We had  nice crisp fresh salad with french dressing and 

Donna had poulet with Tony ordering the Bratwurst.

Delicious!

                                 The boat ride took close to 3 hours docking on several ports letting people in and out, with  a half hour stop at Brienz. It was sensational being on this clean blue water with all this mountain surround us. 

Approaching Boenigen

Great mansion in Boenigen

Coming up Giessbach

Behind the port you see the cable train going up to the Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel

Picture perfect weather

Giessbach waterfalls

Enjoying the sun shine

Water skiing in the cold lake

I am about to order another beer

and so is Donna

We got back to Grindelwald in the train about 5:30 pm. Tony and Amy decided to walk down to the Bahnhof Grund, while Donna and I took the train down. They beat us by a few minutes because they took a dangerous, forbidden trail over some train tracks. Lucky they did not get arrested!!

Donna by the Kiosk back in Grindelwald

Tony and Amy already enjoying some Ice beer when I arrived in the restaurant

I like to share with everybody this giant umbrellas they have everywhere,

two are covering the entire outside restaurant.

                               After a few drinks at the restaurant we went to our home and fixed Knorr Swiss tomato soup and Nuessli salad with french dressing. We all relaxed with some Bacardi and coke before bed time.

Day 4 coming soon ;-)

GRINDELWALD 2013 Day 2

The top floor of the house in the middle was our home for the week,

Toni and Andrea's Vacation home.

                          Sunday, Sept 22, we wake up to an incredible beautiful day, sunshine, 78 degree and not many clouds in the sky. After coffee on the terrace, indulging the breathtaking view, we had a typical Swiss breakfast consisting of Zopf, butter, marmalade. cheese, metwurst, buendnerfleisch, cervelat and landjaeger. And Tony fixed some Macaroni Alfredo with fried eggs on top for Amy.

 The view from the terrace

The coffee tastes better with a view like that.

all the clouds dispersed by ten in the morning

                           We all been very satisfied heading down to the Bahnhof Grund. There we purchased a Jungfraubahnen Pass for 250.00 franks per person, valid for unrestricted travel on  6 consecutive days. This even includes boat rides on the Thunersee or Brienzersee and a one ride to the famous Jungfrau Joch.

Best buy of the week

                           We where walking over to the gondola bahn, taking us up to the the mountain top Mannlichen. We consumed a beverage at the restaurant and started our first hike. Since I broke my ankle  just 3 months ago, we all decided on a short hike, approximate  one and a half hour  to the next destination.

On the way to the Mannlichen bottom station

On the way to the top

and so are we

A lonely daredevil, a view from the gondola

You found cows all over the alps 

A portrait on the top of the Mannlichen

On the left of us you see the Thunersee, on the right barricades to prevent avalanches

The newly renovated Mannlichen restaurant

The Gondola station to go to Wengen

We chose the one and a half hour hike to Kleine Scheidegg

Starting the hike

What a great Day

The impressive Eiger nordwand is always in front of us

Another view of the trail

As you see I am already behind

Everybody is checking on me on a regular basis, and actually 

I am doing pretty good. 

A good look at the Eiger

and the Jungfrau

Half way rest

A good view of the trail

Amy and Tony in front of the Wetterhorn

Donna and Tony in front of the Eiger

Amy in front of the Wetterhorn

Donna on a mission

On the right bottom you see the train track to the Kleine Scheidegg

                            It was sensational, except a few to many tourist, because it was a Sunday. My ankle was holding up great, (I had brand new hiking booths) but my legs got pretty tired. I was glad when we arrived at the Eiger Nordwand restaurant for a well deserved meal.

The Eigernordwand Restaurant

Tuna salad for Amy

Wurst salad garnished for Donna

Tony and I had a cold plate

                             After lunch we went site seeing, but not walking. The train to Wengen, a town famous for the yearly Lauberhorn ski race on the world circuit, was slow, because of the steep descend of the train track, but the site was incredible and the view was crystal clear, you could see every Mountain top in the region. We checked out the town for a few minutes, but took the next big gondola  ( max 120 per capacity ) back up to the Mannlichen and the small gondolas on the other side down back to Grindelwald.

On the way from Wengen to Mannlichen

                              We went strait to the Bahnhof restaurant  and like it never fails , we had to order 4 Bacardi and cokes and as always in the entire Switzerland it was not consumable. No Ice and Tony and I think they forget the Bacardi. It was 42 Franks!  After the recommendation from Monica our waitress we ordered 4 so called Eigernordwand (Ice Beer). It is a beer mug with a 3/4 inch ice cube in the bottom and filled with the local beer Rugenbrau. The ice is frozen in the bottom of the glass and stays there all the way to the end. This became our beverage of choice for the near future.

4 Eigernordwands

                                Again we had a fabulous dinner, but no wonder, our choice for this night was, guess, Swiss Cheese Fondue!!  It was perfect, except Donna would liked more of the white bread morsels and less wheat.

Delicious!!!

                                After all that, there was only one problem, we had to walk up that steep hill to get home. but after lots of heavy breathing we got to our condo and Tony fixed us some good old American Bacardi and coke. What a great conclusion to this exceptional beautiful day.

A little stop for a photo and a breather.

The building across the parking lot is the Bahnhof restaurant.

We arrived on top

Amy was home first

but not before checking out the neighbors garden

Tony, the master in mixing our Bacardi and coke

Grindelwald Day 3 next