Lucerne log (4)

It may seem from reading these blogs that Switzerland - or at least, the Switzerland of the tourist - is either mountains or water. Today we visited a place which combines the water with the mountain - Trummelbach Falls. This is a most amazing place in which the visitor can see water - the fall off from the Eiger and other mountains - flow in a mighty surge through the mountain. Paths have been hewn out of the stone in order to allow the visitor access to views of the path of the water. This blows yesterday's Rhine Falls out of the water, to use an inappropriate expression.

After we had finished with the falls (it took us about 3 and a half hours to get there from Lucerne, so this was already after lunch), we had to decide what to do next. Had we arrived earlier, then the plan was to take a local train (or tram) to a place called Kleine Scheidegg and from there take a cog train to the top of a mountain called Jungfraujoch, whose railway station is the highest in Europe. Had we managed to do so, then we wouldn't have returned to Lucerne until 9pm. As it is now 6:45pm, obviously we didn't go there.

Instead, it turned out that there is a cable car service opposite the Lauterbrunnen train station, which when combined with another train, takes one up a mountain to a village called Mürren, at an elevation of a mere 1650 meters - we are getting terribly blase about such things. The train ride had fabulous views of the snow covered mountains on the other side of the Lauterbrunnen gorge, whereas Mürren itself was unremarkable - although a village at such a height is remarkable enough on its own.

We wandered around through the village, photographing the mountains, had an ice cream cone (the cheapest so far in Switzerland) then headed back via the train and cable car. A train was waiting for us in Lauterbrunnen, and we only had to wait a few minutes for our connection in Interlaken.

A good day! This was our penultimate day in Switzerland and our final trip. As our flight leaves Zurich Airport only at 10pm, we will be able to spend a complete day in Lucerne. To my wife's delight, there is supposed to be a flea market being held tomorrow on both sides of the river so that will keep her occupied, although I don't know what I will be doing. And of course, there are chocolates to be bought....

Thus the next log may be written in Zurich Airport or it may be written at home. Whichever way, we certainly went out on a high note!