Grindelwald is a few train rides away from Interlaken, the base of the Jungfrau region of the Swiss Alps. The Jungfrau is split into two sides. On one side is Grindelwald and the Jungfraujoch, known as the “Top of Europe” and on the other side is the calmer, less touristy Wengen (of Swiss Army Knife notoriety) and Murren with its small surrounding villages. Our plan was to spend our Alps time in Murren and one of its small villages called, Gimmelwald (not to be confused with Grindelwald), but the hostel we were planning to stay at was booked for our first night, so we went to the other side to Grindelwald. Last year, I had visited Murren with some good friends from my study abroad group, so seeing the other side of the Jungfrau was perfectly fine with me. The day we arrived was absolutely beautiful. We arrived from our expensive Rome night train at about 5:30 AM which meant we would be overlooking Lake Brienzersee at sunrise. I was completely anxious for Jason to see the awesome beauty of the Alps and was on the verge of being giddy when the train arrived at the station. The moment we stepped off, Jason was on his phone (as usual) looking to play on Facebook and I almost lost him as I made a bee-line for a bench to watch the sunrise over the lake (pictured above). About 30 min later, our connection arrived and 15 min later, we were at the base of the Alps. Our next trip was a steep train that runs on a special drive engine to Grindelwald.

Grindelwald is very touristy. As we got off our train, we saw about 100 Japanese tourists. Grindelwald must be a national holiday destination for Japan because they had their own special tourist office, their own bank, and restaurant menus were in German, French, English, and Japanese. Our hotel was cheap and very comfortable. That was the only cheap thing in Grindelwald. Food, beer, and wine were so expensive that we considered eating grass with the cows. We had a thunderstorm move in were advised to not go hiking in it. Thunder in the Alps is a treat in of itself. The lightning is very bright and the thunder bounces off the mountains so each lightning session lasts for several rounds of earth-shattering lightning. A local told us we could walk to the base of a glacier even with the rain and lightning, so we put on our rain gear and headed out. Within 5 minutes, it was clear and completely sunny. Our walk to the glacier had cows, deer (fawns to be exact), goats, cats, and all kinds of company. The picture with the big rock and the white clouded blue sky was taken during our walk to the glacier.

Once at the glacier base, we decided to hike up to a viewing point created several years ago. To get there, we had to walk up 500 stairs. But they were not ordinary stairs. They were logs split down the middle and attached to a rock face. Each one was like 3 stairs and Jon and Jason were tired when they reached the top. The glacier (called the Oberer Gletscher) runs down a canyon and the special thing about the man-made view point is a suspension bridge that is a bunch of wood planks held up by about 4 cables that allows you to cross the canyon. Think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After playing around at the glacier, we headed back and Jason took a nap for a few hours while I scoped out a place to eat that was under CHF 30 per plate. That night we ate Rosti and enjoyed being in Grindelwald. The next day, we were headed to the tamer, less tourist-driven areas.