Tuesday: Füssen to Mürren

 

My hotel room had a very tiny bathroom, especially the corner shower.

Nathan and I went down for breakfast at 7 am.  

Cute tiny cone that you could put jam, Nutella, or honey in.  Nathan had one with jam.

We packed up and headed out at 8:30 am.  I think that we are a pretty prompt group. 

First WC stop.  There was another bus that got there right before us, so Laurel thought that we may need a little extra time. 

After our break, we started getting more interesting scenery 

We passed several lakes.  They all had very turquoise color water.  The color doesn't show up as well in the photos. 

Our lunch stop was near Lake Zurich.  We grabbed a sandwich to share and headed closer to the lake.  Others in the group joined us there.  It was a very beautiful spot. 

I took a picture of this bird because of the interesting markings.  I didn't know what it was.  Nathan looked it up and said that Google says that it is a kite.  

We passed several more lakes.  Each one was beautiful. These are all drive-by photos.

We stopped for this photo op.

We got into Lauterbrunnen.  The town was very crowded with people.

We headed over to the bus parking area, and then we all headed to the aerial tram.  We could all fit in one tram. Rick Steves provided us with a free pass for the Stechelberg Tram.  We can use it as many times as we want.  We will need it for when we go back down.

The Stechelberg Tram is the world's steepest cableway.  

We had to wait out front to get our instructions and our keys.  While we were checking in, the close church started ringing its bells. It seemed to go on FOREVER!!! Nathan and I were in a hurry because we wanted to go up another funicular to the flower walk.  The last run of the funicular coming down was at 5 pm, and it was already 4 pm. Naturally, Nathan and I were the last ones to get our keys.  We just left our luggage in the lobby.  We headed to the funicular.  It was very close.

Allmendhubel funicular

Great views, plus it was a lot cooler.

Some of the flowers which were on the flower walk.

After doing the flower walk, we sat with a glass of wine at the top.  Then Nathan had to check out the playground.  The wine was not very good.  The Swiss make cheese and chocolate, not wine.

 

We got on the last funicular heading down. As we were leaving, we started feeling a few raindrops.

We collected our bags and went to our rooms.  Nathan's room was really small. Nathan and I may change rooms.  I have a corner shower again, but it is slightly larger than the last one.

I turned in a bag of laundry.  Washing in the sink just doesn't get things as clean.  I got an electric kettle for my coffee.  Once we had gotten settled in, we went out for dinner.  We wanted a place that would serve raclettes.  We thought that we had found a place that served raclettes and which was also cliffside with great views.  

Edelweiss restaurant did have great views but no raclettes.

We requested a table by the cliff.  "But a storm is brewing," they said.  "We're from Oregon, what's a little rain?" we said.  We ordered a nice Italian wine and Rosti (hash browns and cheese), which was quite tasty. 

We shared this so that we could order apple strudel.

It started to rain in earnest, so we had to move. The wind was so bad that they had to pull in the canopy. 

The strudel was more coffee-cake-ish.  Still good.

This is the table we had been sitting at.

Totally socked in.

We thought that we could sit there while the rain passed.  We wanted to order a warm drink, but no such luck.  Those are winter drinks.  You can have tea.  Bah!! So we went back to the hotel.  I got totally drenched.  We got changed and then headed downstairs to the hotel bar. We ordered, and then we worked on trying to get tickets for something in Chamonix.  I had problems, so I worked with Laurel to get it straightened out.  What a pain.  I wasn't sure if it was ok yet.  

By then, the rain had passed. 

Nathan got some good sunset pictures.

I went on a short walk with Nathan.  He decided to walk some more, and I went back to the hotel.  I stopped by the bar at 9:15 pm (it was supposed to be open until 9:30).  The waiter was just ready to close the door.  He asked me what I wanted.  I said a glass of merlot to take to the room.  He filled up a glass and didn't charge me.  He said that they had already settled the accounts.  So a free glass of wine!!

Nathan took this.

Sunset pictures from my window.

What an amazing place.  I guess a lot of the Rick Steves tours stay down below in Lauterbrunnen.  I am so glad that our tour came up here.