Both my brothers family and my family are late risers, and given a choice would not wake up before 9 am. But the weather forecast predicted only one day of sunshine in our 3 day trip to Interlaken (the first day) so we decided to do the Jungfrau summit on the first day itself. The trains rides to the top are quite long, and the last train back it at 5:45 so we had to be there at the base train station latest noon to actually do anything at the Jungfrau peak. My brother had to pick up his rental car- we decided not to hire an 8 seater van for both families as a) it is very expensive and b) difficult to drive, so the hubby and bro were actually out of the house at 8 am itself and we managed to get all the kids ready and out by 10 am.
We decided to drive directly to Grindelwald train station as our hotel was in Grindelwald and catch lunch at the Jungfrau peak itseld, otherwise a lunch break would set us back at least an hour. We drove directly to Grindelwald and reached there around 12:30 and by the time we figured out the car park and bought the train tickets, we just managed to make it to the 1:17 train. Good we decided to drive non stop. The girls had decided that today was the day they should act up. S threw up in the car, and we had to stop and change her and clean the car. Then A woke up with all this activity and decided to cry all the way to Grindelwals (which was a good 45 mins away). When i offered her milk in Grindwald she got so agitated that she also threw up and another 10 mins went in cleaning her. Good I had packed one set of clothes for both kids in the handbag which I carry around, next time should pack an extra set for me! The size of the handbag is a big bone of contention between the hubby and me as he can't seem to understand why i need to carry so many diapers, change of clothes, milk bottles etc. But this time I used all the items in the hand bad- so there!
The train ride from Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg was about 1/2 hour and was a beautiful ride through the mountains. We could see the valley as the train climbed up through the mountain and in particular the Eiger wall (the sheer face of the huge Eiger mountain) was amazing. At Kleine Scheidegg, which is the terminal stops for all trains coming up the mountain from various points in the Interlaken region we changed to the train for Jungfrau top (or Top of Europe or so it called, though I believe some people dispute this and say that the Montblanc peak is higher). We quickly grabbed some sandwiches and samosas (can you beat that samosas in a remote village in Swiss but I guess more than 50% of the tourists are Indian here and we love our samosas :)) and ate it on the train ride up. This ride is not as scenic as the first as most of it if through a tunnel in the mountain. There were two stops where you could peak out of a viewing window and we were soon among the snow capped mountains. It got colder as we reached the 3400 m mountain peak.
We first went out to the viewing deck where we got a lovely view of the surrounding mountains and the region. The boys (my nephews were very keen on the snow activities such as snow boarding and flying through the air suspended from a rope among the mountains) but unfortunately they closed it just then as a snowstorm was coming. We went out to the plateau instead where we all made snowballs and threw them at each other (except for A who happily slept through most of it) and played around in the snow. It was very cold and we soon retreated to the cozy warmth of the cafe where S enjoyed her staple diet of fries and the boys were happy with hot cocoa. We then went to the ice cave where they have the ice sculptures, but after a point me and one of my nephews had to go back as we were experiencing difficulty in breathing and our hearts were paining (I had this sensation many years ago when I was a kid and had gone with my parents to Nathula pass in the India China border)- its breathlessness due to the lower oxygen levels at the high altitude and my nephew suffers from the same thing. I had visited Jungfrau in the last visit as well but did not experience this, maybe because that time we had spent a night at Wengen (one of the towns on the way up to Kleine Scheidegg) and my body had got used to the higher altitude. Anyway S enjoyed the ice sculptures in the cave and when she came back was delighted about the squirrel of Ice Age which is captured in one of the sculptures. We set off on the long journey back, down to Kleine Scheidegg and then to Grindelwald. It was raining when we reached Grindelwald at 7:45 pm and we were all exhausted from the long day. We had dinner in our hotel itself- it was about 15 mins drive from the Grindelwald town, located in the middle of the farmland and while the view from the hotel was breathtaking , one downside from being in the middle of the farmland is the flies from the farms- they were all over the restaurant and quite spoilt our dinner. The cheese foundue was excellent though and we all overate. It helped that they had a childrens playroom next to the restaurant and A and S were busy there, giving the hubby and me some time to talk with the others!
The second day also turned out to be sunny (never trust these weather forecasts fully I say) and we drove towards Stechelberg (a particularly scenic part of Interlaken region). On the way we stopped at Trammelbach Falls which is a waterfall inside a mountain. We had to take a life up inside the mountain and then climb the steps inside the mountain towards the top. We could see the gushing waterfall (this drains the three mountains of the region- Jungfrau, Eiger and Monk) inside the mountain and it was spectacular. At the top we could see the sun streaming in from the top of the mountain inside the mountain and lighting up the inside (somewhat like the view in 127 hours if you're seen the movie but obviously not as gory :)).
We walked around Stechelberg a bit but there was not much to do there other than the cable car up to Schilthorn mountain, which we were not keen on after Jungfrau the previous day, so went back to Lauterbrunner town where we had a leisurely lunch of pizza and rosti, again helped by a kids play area in the restaurant) and strolled around the town. The nephew got his swiss army knife (small version) promised by my brother and was occupied with it for the rest of the trip! After lunch we drove to Grindelwald as the boys were keen to do some fun activities (and not sighsteeing!) and while the hubby baby sat (or baby slept as the three of both slept in the car in the car park) S and A, I went with my brother and his family up a cable car to Pfingsteg and we went on the rodelbahn (tobaggon ride) there. The cable car ride was nice as we could see the mountains all around and I personally found the tobaggon ride quite scary as it was going down the mountain and I was quite sure that if you take the curves too fast you might just fly off the mountain!!). Looks like my brother had the same fear- in his second ride he didn't press the brake at all (the accelerator and brake are in our control and we can chose how fast or slow we go) and at some point he felt he was going out of control and the tobaggon would fly off the mountain so he actually used his elbows to stop the tobaggon (and got huge scars from the friction!). The boys of course enjoyed it and went some 10 times totally on it.
The evening we got some pizza for dinner and after many rounds of vodka made maggi and had that too (i had carried my cooker for S and A's dal rice) and it turned out to be useful for the greedy adults as well. I tell you nothing like a hot maggi on a cold day.
The next day was heavy rains and we had originally planned many things for that day- cable car upto First where there are activities for the boys, and a visit to the Ballenberg musuem at Brienz which is an outdoor museum with animals (which S and A would enjoy) and Swiss crafts such as cheese making, wood carving, watch making etc which the boys would enjoy. But the rains were too heavy for us to do any of these so we drove down to Interlaken and took the cruise upto Brienz. Its a lovely cruise on the Brienz lake and the view was amazing even in the heavy rain. S and A were busy in the toy corner of the ship (love it, I can relax as well). It continued to pour heavily at Brienz also which was 11/2 away, so we decided to have lunch first and wait for the rains to recede. We saw the pizzas getting tossed and put into the wood fire oven (the hubby went upto the chef and asked him to add more chillies to his pizzas) and everyone enjoyed the warm lunch more watching the heavy rain outside. The rains had lessened by the time we finished and we spent an hour browsing through the shops in the town. We took the cruise back to Interlaken (its a round cruise stopping at many points in the lake and you can hop on and off wherever you want) and the rains had stopped by the time we reached Interlaken. We walked through the town- there was a yodling festival going on and we saw many people in traditional costume, and there were many corners in the town where they were singing in groups. Very merry indeed! The children were direct beneficiairies of this general merriment as they were given balloons at a local shop. S was sleeping in the pram and we tied all the balloons to the pram and we heard one mother telling her kid that the pram was going to fly away with so many balloons!! My eldest nephew who is 12 was not very happy to be carrying balloons and my sister in law tried to convince some other parents who did not have balloons to take them, quite unsuccessfully. Most of the balloons were carted back all the way to Zurich and the younger nephew and the girls had a ball playing with them at night- S actually turned to me and said-everyone is playing with balloons at home, we are having a balloon party. These girls, they miss company so much and are so happy to have their cousins over ( as am I)
After the walk around Interlaken we headed back to Zurich. My mom asked why we did Interlaken twice in a month- but we had booked our hotel for the first trip before we decided to go with my brother there, and there are so many things to see in the region that you don't feel its a repetition at all. And I really enjoyed my second trip with family much more- it was more relaxed and fun and nice to do things together. When i look back at the trip, its not only the waterfalls and the cable cars and the train rides and the views, its the lunches together, the getting drunk and bottoms up and late night conversations which make it a holiday!
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