The end of the San Gottard Pass

At the end of a long day of driving over the passes this pic shows the entrance to the San Gottard road & rail tunnel at the Southern end of the Pass.

Kiki tucked into a lay-by for the night

More Snow - in August!!

Three Passes in One Day

Today we are heading South out of Switzerland. Just to make things interesting we have decided to go the "roundabout route" via Grimsel, Furka and the San Gottard passes.

Heading up Grimsel Pass

The snow plough's had been out this morning and cleared the snow - here we're at the top of Furka Pass. Kiki (and Steve) enjoyed playing in the snow!!

Em cooks dinner

Sausage & mash with onion gravy - perfect after a day in the mountains

Hiking in the Snow

It rained in our valley and snowed in the mountains last night. Today we took the rack railway from Lauterbrunnen up to Kleine Scheidegg then down the other side to Grindelwald. From Grindelwald we took the Gondola up to First.

Lots of snow, occasional sunshine and a cold wind

How much further?

We eventually made it up to the lake - on a clear sunny day the views of the Alps from here are (apparently) stunning...

Behind the Waterfall

A short climb up a hill, a walk through a tunnel and a staircase and we emerged behind the Lauterbrunnen waterfall.

Lots of water thanks to the last few days of rain

We were up there!

Murren

Em liked this "cottage style" garden in Murren

We ate lunch on bench with stunning views across to the Alps - all the time these nutty Paragliders kept throwing themselves off the hill just above us, barely skimming the treetops and before landing on the floor of the Luterbrunnen valley several thousand feet below.

Our view a lunchtime :-)

Kiki is somewhere down there!

Above Grindelwald

After heavy rain all morning the sun came out in the afternoon so we went up another mountain... this time it was to Pfinstegg above Grindelwald - nothing up there besides a restaurant so we took the next one back down!

Then we took the tiny four seater gondala up to Mannlichen - the longest gondola ride in Europe - it was so long we nearly go off at the halfway station by mistake...

Jungfrau Region

We're currently in the Jungfrau Region and have decided to stay on a campsite at the top of the valley above Lauterbrunnen for a week (shock horror!). We've bought a 6 day travel pass to the mountains and plan to go on all routes.

On Wednesday we went up to Manchellin (on a Gondala) via Wengen (by rack railway) from where we walked to Kleine Scheidegg. The panorama of the higher mountains to the south was fab. We then took the rack railway and two trains back down to Lauterbrunnen via Grindelwald.

Yesterday we went to the "Top of Europe" - Jungfraujoch. We couldn't have picked a better day, wall to wall sunshine with clear blue skies. The air at 11,400ft was quite thin which made walking on the snow quite difficult. Although it was very expensive (extra cost on top of the pass we bought) we both agreed it was definately worthwhile. We will post some of the 150 pics we took later.

Today, in marked contrast with yesterday, we have heavy rain so we've come to Interlaken and have just been up the funicular to Harder Kulm. Not much of a view with cloud above and below! We came down in same train and are now in McD's for free Internet - oh and a coke :-)

The sun has just come out (weird this mountain weather) so we're off to the top of another mountain!!

More pics from the Top of Europe

The Ice Palace

I think the cold and thin air was getting to Em.......

.......the Penguins were not impressed........

.......then she got locked in the freezer :-)

Scrat in the Ice Palace

The Top of Europe

Em and Steve with the Eiger in the background. The air was cold and very thin at 11,400ft - you couldn't walk very fast up here.

Glaciers as far as the eye can see

Ice Station

The Jungfrau

Snow & ice - Halfway to the top

Looking out of the observation window cut in the North Face of the Eiger

Em pretending is not really 3degC up here...

On our way up to the Jungfraujoch

The view of Monch (center) and the Jungfrau (right) with Jungfraujoch in the middle - here you can just make out the Sphynx - the "Top of Europe"

Em consults the train timetable

Here comes the "little red train"

The view from the first stop enroute

Lauterbrunnen valley

We stayed for a week in a campsite at the head of the Lauterbrunnen valley

One of the many waterfalls in the valley - the rain we had on several days really improved them!!

The North Face of the Eiger

The view from the top of Mannlichen

Looking South with the Alps in the background

Looking North towards Grindelwald

Spot the Gondola