Lauterbrunnen, Day 3
We woke up to rain today, which made us all want to sleep in and stay inside all day. However, since this was our last day in Lauterbrunnen and we had another hike planned, we decided to put on some ponchos over our jackets and go out anyway. We took the train up to Wengen, which is another cute little town on the other side of the valley from Murren that does not allow cars. You could see the clouds hanging right over the valley.
From Wengen we took the cable car up to Mennlichen and went right through a cloud bank. You couldn’t see anything outside of the car! When we broke through the clouds we could see the beautiful mountains with clouds both above and below. There are also big fences at the top of the mountain, I think to help with rockfalls or avalanches maybe.
When we got to Mennlichen we did what is called the Royal Walk, which is a half mile walk up a huge hill to the ‘crown’. We all made it up, even Willow and my mom. The half mile walk back down was much easier.
Also in Mennlichen is another playground with a crazy cow slide. The stairs are situated at the cows…ahem…bum, and you slide down the tongue. It is pretty weird, but whatever. There were also little trampolines built into the ground.
We then did the Panorama hike, which is another three miles hiking to Kline Scheidegg. Here there were lots of cows beside the path and even walking across the path. One of the best parts of hiking in Switzerland (other than the spectacular views) is the musical sound of cowbells throughout the hills and valleys. We heard the cowbells on every hike, and even when we were on some of the cable cars we could hear the bells. Here it started raining, so we put the kids in the ponchos. My mom had a rain jacket, and I had an umbrella. Poor JonPaul was out in the rain, but I was prepared to trade off the umbrella with him. Fortunately, it didn’t rain long, and then only sprinkled sporadically throughout the rest of the day. You can see the fog and clouds coming in and out of the sky, and the sun trying to peak out of the clouds. It was still pretty cold, so we all had our jackets on.
All the kids picked wildflowers as we walked and made me bouquets. They are so sweet, but it is hard to carry them and keep flowers alive as we hike. So the girls put the flowers in their hair so they could keep them forever. Or at least until we got back home.
From Kline Scheidegg we took the train back to Wengen and then another train back to Lauterbrunnen. Someone was pretty tired today! Although the day started out pretty yucky and we weren’t sure we would be able to do anything, we made it work and had a pretty great day.
