Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Day 13

First may I say that we have had internet issues for the last week since leaving Munich, so this is our first post since then. :( Will have to backtrack to cover the time in Salzburg, Verona, and La Cinque Terra. And I have now edited the previous posts, so check those out, too!

Second, last night was the first night since Salzburg on 7/22 that we got a great night's sleep on a bed that wasn't as hard as a rock. Score 2 points for Austria and Swizterland, 0 for Italy when it comes to mattresses!

Now for Lauterbrunnen. It took 12 hours to get here--we planned 6-7 (we did stop briefly 4 times). Lots of traffic around Milano and then leading to the 17 km tunnel just before the Sustenpass. Yes, Ryan, we took the alpine pass--you would be proud! Nobody else turned off there--that should have been a clue. But the scenery was beyond description, and I wouldn't have missed it even though I had white knuckles the whole 30+ miles. Rain, fog-shrouded and snowcapped mountains, valleys, cliffs, switchbacks, waterfalls, tunnels, and a mountaintop restaurant offering delicious cappuchino. Not to be missed!

Today, it's raining here, but no matter. It's so stunningly gorgeous we don't even notice. Waterfalls are everywhere--you can hear them throughout the town of 930 inhabitants-- and the green countryside is dotted with houses. Whoever coined the phrase "God's Country" was talking about Lauterbrunnen and the alps around it. I have never seen a place so beautiful. The air is clean and clear, the pace of life peaceful. This was the way life was meant to be lived.

We visited Trummelbach Falls today, which is a series of waterfalls inside the mountain. We took the lift to the 6th "story" then walked from there to the 10th, where every staircase offered a new view, some illuminated by electric lights, some by natural light, but all amazing. We could feel the ground under us vibrating with the power of the water surging and crashing as it carves the rock it tumbles upon.

On the way to the falls, we passed a cemetary that was without question the most beautiful and unusual I have ever seen. The graves were planted with begonias, hydrangeas, even fuschias, and some were even decorated with gnomes and the like while the headstones were carved with flowers and swiss houses, even tractors. It was charming.

Tomorrow we are going to Murren and then hiking Gimmelwald. Afterward we'll take the lift to the 10000 ft. Schilthorn peak. The lift takes 1/2 hour to reach the top.