Europe Trip Extension -Day 2

 Tuesday- October 17- This day was outstanding! On this day we fully grasp that the original tour itinerary was a good overview of Europe and Anabaptist history, but it barely scratched the surface of what Switzerland has to offer. Now we were getting to see the "real" Switzerland! We can't express enough how grateful we are that we got the privilege of these extra days. Fair warning- photo overload coming... 

Richard & I each thought the other had set an alarm so we didn't wake till 7:30am. The sun shining on the Alps from our room window was amazing- what a glorious view to wake up to!  

We made it to the breakfast buffet by 8. Ernst bought us tickets online for a cog train and drove us to Brienz. Across the street from the train station was this statue. I'm assuming it's Peter from the Heidi book, but I can't find any information on it. 

The train cars were almost full till we arrived and the train was going to depart soon. So our group had to squeeze in here and there. The car looked full but the conductor ordered Richard & I to get in this one anyway. I had to sit across from Richard, but it worked out ok in the end because we each had a different perspective for taking pictures. We shared a car with a German family of tourists (and their dog) and a man from Zurich who was showing them around. Notice all the coats, hats, scarves. And here we were in lite jackets because we had packed for hot Israel, not chilly Swiss mornings...

As we climbed above the village of Brienz, the view kept getting better and better... Lake Brienz really is that blue.

Just a hint of fall color (while back home it was peaking)

The railway still owns & operates steam locomotives from the 1890s! They push the passenger cars up the mountain vs pulling them. (This is #14 locomotive, which is much newer.) 

There are 6 tunnels along the route; the lights came on in the cars when we went into the tunnels.

It took an hour to climb 4.7 miles to the top, with a 5 minute water stop (for the steam engine) midway.

We were told that the higher up in the mountains farms are, the more the government subsidizes -as incentive- because Alpine farming is more challenging. Since half the country is mountains, they have to "make do" with what [land] they have. We also learned they have to keep the grass mowed up here to prevent avalanches; we were fascinated by their avalanche barriers (not visible on this photo).  

Looking back at Lake Brienz and part of the track we just traveled up...

Up there, that's where we're headed...

I tried to insert videos so you can hear the "tut-tut-tut" of the train, but Blogger isn't cooperating. 

We made it! The summit station is located at 2,244 meters/7,362 ft. 

Our group hiked uphill to the lookout area 

Once again God outdid Himself, blessing us with clear weather and incredible views.

That is Interlaken (beyond the lake), where we had stayed a couple days earlier.

If you look at the foreground of the photo above, it gives you just a wee bit of perspective on how high up we were. Eek, that's really steep! There are actually hiking trails and people with the stamina to walk up, but we were told it's an all-day hike. It was worth $100 to ride up, IMO. 

And in the other direction you can see a bit of Brienz and Brunig down in the valley. 

The Zurich resident in our train car told us that the military was doing training exercises that day in preparation for an air show the next day. Tickets to go up Jungfrau -where the main action was- were difficult to obtain and super expensive, so some folks were going up Rothorn instead to watch the planes. We indeed saw some people with expensive camera equipment. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see & hear some of the action. 

We were above some of the clouds.  

There was still another 348 ft. hike up to the actual summit. I'm not going to lie- there was some shortness of breath getting to that altitude, but I decided I had made it that far and I was going to the very tippy-top. This is the highest point in the canton of Lucerne.

Do NOT fall!

From the very top, the views just got better. We could see for miles! 360* of Alps

Take a look at us now... On top of the world... [2 songs from Lyle, Lyle Crocodile]

Translated by Google Lens [again], I loved this plaque at the summit. 

So majestic ! How can you see this and not believe in a Creator God?! 

Ernst pointing out places to Richard. We were so fortunate to have him for a guide!  

The group that went to the summit of Rothorn- Beilers, Brubakers, Millers, a Hess & our local guide.

This is Meiringen, the airstrip where the planes were taking off & landing

Another train coming up the mountain...

The Trauffer brand of wooden toys were everywhere in Switzerland and I would've liked to buy some  but they were pricy. The Nikes of the toy world, I guess. This was a life-sized one on top of the mountain. 

We ate lunch at Berghaus Rothorn Kulm on the mountain. I had the fish nuggets & fries; Richard had the leek soup, and we shared the crème brulee. The food was very good!  

We got in line early for the return train so that we could get seats together this time. 

Trying to make our car look full to avoid a stranger being crowded in with us. Ernst said they count heads, not bellies, so Ron held up the hat to make it look like 4 heads in the row. Didn't work. But we got a good laugh out of it.  

I believe we went down with a diesel engine, instead of a steam engine. We marveled at the brakes required for the descent. 

When we stopped at Planalp, a local was selling fresh wheels of cheese. She made 2 sales to our car.  

See the 2 holes in the rock- those are a tunnel we went through. 

Twice we went on a side track to let another train past. 

It was 2:30 when we got back to the train station. The engineer showed the men the train's engine. 

Brienz, known as the "village of carving", has a long tradition in wood processing and still has a school for carving and violin-making. We were allowed an hour to shop in Brienz and did buy some souvenirs there, but had I known about Brunngasse, the most beautiful street in Europe, and the delightful shop Huggler Holzbildhauerei AG, I definitely could've used more time to explore the village!  

Richard picked out a small Heidi Haus cuckoo clock from a tiny shop there so we ended up coming home with a clock after all. The lady behind the counter spoke broken English but we managed to understand that her father makes everything in the shop. Very nice carvings, but a 1200 franc cow was out of our budget.  

The planes were flying stunts over the village right then so we got a few poor quality shots with our cell phones. And sampled fresh figs that the Brubakers purchased from Coop. Yum 

Next Ernst took us up to Giessbach Waterfalls. Now you're talking my language! (I've been known to go chasing waterfalls- just ask my kids.) It was a short but steep hike to get to it, however the exercise felt good after so many days of touring. 

So beautiful!

The waterfalls goes the whole way down to Lake Brienz, in 14 tiers.

This is the view from in front of the falls at the top, looking down towards the lake and Grandhotel Giessbach.

Ernst wanted to take us to the chocolatier in Ballenberg but it was closed till we got there. Too bad, that would've been the cherry on top of the day! One of the entrances of Freilichtmuseum der Schweiz (Swiss Open Air Museum) was there, but we didn't have time to go through that, although it would've been quite interesting. Another mountain photo from the parking lot instead... 😉

Without charging ports in the van, my phone battery would be running low by evening, so I turned the data off at times to conserve battery. The down side of that was the location is not marked on some of my photos. That is where I should've compensated by making notes as Ernst pointed out things of interest. But if memory alone serves me correctly, this is Rothorn. The mountain we went up that morning. 

We drove around Hasliberg a bit to see the ski resort chalets and condos. If we had a spare million bucks... we might buy a chalet here. 😉

We just couldn't get over how they utilize every bit of land into pasture, from their front door to the road. What's not to love about brown Swiss cows though?!

We got back to the guest house in time for dinner. They rang a cow bell to notify us guests that it was mealtime. Again it was a basic healthy meal, and no dessert.  

We sang #10 at the end of the meal. Those of us who didn't know German well enough sang the English words "This is the Day". 

We were invited to the evening service, a slide show of their mission work in Ethiopia. The midwife who served there for 32 years was fluent in English so we could understand her presentation. It was quite interesting and touching. And they seemed to enjoy our acapella singing afterwards. 

-to be continued-