Mürren

June 3 we packed up our bags and got back on the train to leave Zermatt and it was another several hours of train travel. On the journey we made a stop in Interlaken (or the city between lakes). While it was very pretty, it was also pretty hot and since I had been in chilly London for the past 5 months, I only had long pants and long sleeves. So needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

We didn't stay for very long, we were just switching trains. From Interlaken, we took this tiny train into Mürren. This city was built up into the mountain, so in order to get to it, you had to take a train to Lauterbrunnen and from there a gondola. From the gondola, we had to take a train to the city. There were 2 other cities that were set up on the mountain next to Mürren, and it was the last stop. From there, we had to drag our luggage to the hotel. And there were no cars in the town, although the hotels had little golf carts to shuttle to and from the gondola station. Once we finally checked into our hotel, it was time to go explore!

We took two trams to get to the bottom of the mountain, where we could have taken a bus to get into town, however we decided to walk. It was weird walking, it was mostly just green meadow, with trees scattered here and there, and two walls of straight mountain on either side. I would say it was only 3 or 4 miles from wall to wall. While we were walking towards town, there was a water fall on our right side that ended up running into a river. 

We were walking to Trümmelbach, is a long waterfall that comes from 10 different glaciers and it is completely inside the mountain! The waterfall carries 20,000 liters of water per second! The walk from the bottom of the mountain to Trümmelbach was about 1.3 miles and I felt like it took us forever! When we finally arrived, we just caught the last elevator ride up to the top, after that we would have missed seeing the falls entirely! 

It was pretty dark, cold and wet inside the cave that let us view that waterfall, honestly, I was super afraid of dropping my phone into the water. 

After walking down 9 flights of stairs to get back to the bottom, it was another 2.1 miles back to Lauterbrunnen. We walked by several sheep farms and Megan and Josh were able to pull some weeds up and feed the sheep. The sheep in the farms all had bells on, so that it was a constant noise while we were walking. At some point on our walk to the city, someone kept shooting a gun, which wasn't too bad, but the close proximity to the mountains caused it to echo, until it sounded like a huge thunderstorm where we finally collapsed at a restaurant and had some much earned dinner. 

Dinner was pretty tasty and we were able to eat outside and listen to the lovely sheep bells.

After dinner, as we waited for the tram to come pick us up, JH was looking in the vending machine and found candy that he really liked while he was in Spain. Of course he had to buy some and get the rest of us hooked, so throughout the rest of the trip we were hunting for this candy. Now I'm not sure what the name was, but it was a Galaxy Mix of Fini (not sure how you spell it), but to sum it up, it was almost like a Sour Punch Straw filled with marshmallowy goodness. And fortunately it's not sold in the US, or I'd be an extra 20 lbs.

We finally made it back to our hotel room where we were able to crash with the windows open of course and listen to the sheep. Dad read us a story from his weird book and then we went to sleep. 

The next morning (June 4) we woke up early to head to the top of the Schilthorn to have breakfast. In order to get to the top of the mountain, we had to take two gondolas for about 10 minutes each. During the ride up, we were crammed in with a bunch of Asian tourists. This one lady, had a selfie stick and the camera that she had on her stick kept making this ridiculous beeping noise! Once we arrived at the top, we were able to go to the rotating restaurant for breakfast!

Now this restaurant is somewhat famous, one of the many Bond movies was filmed in this restaurant! (Don't ask me which one, I have no idea) But they had a buffet style breakfast with a couple different meats and cheeses, bread, cereal, juices and tea (drank by yours truly). 

The only annoying part was while we started by the buffet at the beginning of our meal, we had to walk quite all the way around the restaurant by the end. 

After breakfast, we went out on the viewing platform, where the annoying camera Asian lady was again and took in the amazing view. 

It was super bright!

After spending time on the deck, we went downstairs from the restaurant and went into their Bond museum, where they had relics from the James Bond movies and some fun activities!

MH and I looking super 007y

We couldn't spend too much time on the Schilthorn because we had another train to make that afternoon. We left and had to stop at our transfer gondola halfway down the mountain. This stop was called Birg and while it wasn't as great as a view as the Schilthorn, they had a glass observation deck, so you could walk out and feel like you're just walking on air. It was such as weird feeling, looking down and seeing the ground a couple thousand feet beneath you.

Once the gondola arrived, we headed back down the mountain and took a bus to get back to Lauterbrunnen. From there we all piled into a train to take us up the mountain. We made several stops and transfers, one of them was in Kleine Scheidegg and Wengen (we will come back to these), until finally, about 90 minutes later, we had made it to Jungfraujoch or the tallest mountain in Europe that you can take a train too! 

The mountain was surrounded by other mountains covered in snow and lots of glaciers. It was set up so that you could not only get to see the observation deck, but also get to do some cool activities. On one side of the mountain they had a large sledding hill along with a zip line. The snow on this side of the mountain was very fresh and we enjoyed throwing snowballs at one another. JH got it into his head that it would be funny to throw snow at some unsuspecting sledders, and he almost managed to hit someone! It was pretty funny to watch the snowball land and have the sledder whip his head up at us. 

On the inside of the mountain, they had a room full of ice, and I think we all slipped at least once. Dad was the only one who managed not to slip and fall on his bum.

There were a few ice sculptures, but Scratt was the best.

There was an observation deck that was built on the top of the mountain and there was an observation deck that allowed you to walk on the snow cliff to look around. The snow was pretty dirty and wet there, but we ate gummy bears and tossed them to the birds that were handing around. It was so bright we had to wear our sunglasses otherwise we couldn't see anything!

As much as I hate the snow, it was all pretty cool to look at! 

We stopped in the Lindt Lindor shop where the chocolate was very cheap and they were giving out samples along with free samples if you bought anything. (Once we left the shop, Dad decided that we hadn't bought enough, so we got to go back and buy some more!)

It was another long trek down the mountain. We stopped in Kleine Scheidegg for some souvenirs while we waited for a train and again in Wengen for some snacks (Which we were unable to find). By the time we finally made it back into Lauterbrunnen, it was close to dark and we were starving! All of the shops in Mürren were closed, so we had to suffice with dinner in our hotel. Let me say that it was very expensive and we got scolded because we didn't order any water, but kept drinking sips from our water bottles we already had. I don't remember what I had exactly, but it had asparagus and strawberries in it and it was delicious! 

Traveling with the family

We woke up the morning of the first at about 4:30 so that we had time to eat breakfast and catch the shuttle that would take us to the airport. Thankfully, it didn't take that long to get through security and before long we were waiting at our gate. Let me tell you that my dad did not like Stansted Airport! He said he felt like he was herded cattle moving through the security and waiting for the gates to be called. He also said that he wasn't going to be coming back through that airport anytime soon.

Thankfully, we were able to sleep for a bit on the plane, it was about an hour and a half flight to Basel. It was a pretty weird airport, once we landed, you were able to choose if you wanted to leave via the Swiss border or the French border.

We left on the Swiss border, so we had to stop at an ATM and pull out Swiss Francs. (Which by the way is a super expensive country!)

The four of us took a bus into the city to get to the train station where we bought our Swiss passes (they are tickets that will allow you to ride the train pretty much anywhere in Switzerland, but they cost a pretty penny.) And stowed our luggage so that we could walk around the city and have some lunch. Basel is the city that my Grandma Bethley grew up in and we thought it would be a good idea to see were she spent a good portion of her life. 

This was a beautiful cathedral that we walked pass on our way to find some lunch.

We took off in search of food and ended up at a little restaurant/cafe. MH thought that she would put her German speaking skills to the test and ordered us some water. This turned out to be a good idea, until it ended up being that she ordered us mineral water that cost about $7 a bottle. On top of that, each meal was about $25, so our total was over $100 for lunch! It was a great start to a vacation! 

This was the most expensive fish and chips I had ever had! 

Afterwards, we walked around the city getting a feel for the architecture and culture. We walked to the river that we had ridden over on the train and it was beautiful! 

I loved the look of all the houses, it felt like I was in a movie! 

After walking to the river, we had to rush to make the train. Since there were 4 of us, we decided to take up 2 compartments to spread out since it was a bit of a train ride. Once we arrived in Bern, we checked into the hotel that we were staying at (it was more like a hostel that adults and families could stay in) after that, we took the book that my dad used to plan our trip and went on a self guided walking tour. 

Bern (pronounces Bearn) is the capital of Switzerland. It was named after the first animal that was found on a hunting expedition, which was a bear. The city actually keeps bears in a little zoo in the center of the city, unfortunately, they weren't out while we were there. 

Bern is full of many different types of fountains. It is actually sometimes referred to as the city of fountains. There are over 100 of them of all shapes, sizes and ages. (In fact, dad, JH and I made a game of counting them as we passed by) Now I'm not really sure why there are so many fountains, but it was pretty cool to see. The city of Bern has a bulge in the river, just like London, and its super hilly. So walking around was pretty tiring after a while. 

Bern also has a cool clock. (Why is it that so many cities have famous clocks?) 

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to pick up Megan and to find some dinner. We couldn't find anything that we really wanted, so we went to a grocery store nearby and got some food to eat, including chocolate bars! We then tucked in for the night because we were exhausted from traveling. (Let me also say that dad read a lovely story from his strange fishing book that he was determined to read to us every night)  

The next morning (June 2), we packed our bags, had breakfast and then checked out of the hotel. Thankfully they were very kind to let us leave our luggage while we left to go to the Temple which was only a 15 minute train ride from where we were staying. 

I really wish we could have gone in and do baptisms, but we didn't have much time on this trip. Maybe next time! 

It was time to leave the Bern area and move on to more beautiful locations!

We picked up our luggage and headed back to the train station. This time we had to transfer several times and even take a tiny train of 4 carriages to the next town we were staying at (Zermatt). Most of the time on the train was spent sleeping (MH), watching videos (JH), looking at the sights (dad) and reading (me) (although I did look spend about half of the time reading AND looking at the sights.) 

It looks like a picture you would only see in a National Geographic magazine and I couldn't believe I was there! 

We finally arrived at our destination around 2:30 in the afternoon and rushed to check into our tiny little hotel close to the mountain. We had a beautiful view of the Matterhorn from our attic window. 

Our main reason for being there was to see the mountain up close. So we ran back to a different train station that would chug us up the mountain! This was also a small train, but it was packed with people from all over the place. 

The view was AMAZING!!! 

As much as I HATE snow, it didn't bother me too much and it wasn't too cold either. 

Thank goodness that it was cloudy, or it would have been super bright. I don't know if I can really describe the beauty that was surrounding me that day. I was just grateful to share it with my family! 

After spending a couple of hours up on the mountain, we headed back down because we were starving and the shop on the mountain had already closed. So we piled back in the train and scrounged for food in our bags that we were carrying. Once we arrived back in Zermatt, we headed to  dinner for fondue, which we loved! Our server was a guy who spoke seven different languages and was learning his eighth! HOLY COW. 

We walked around the city for a little bit, there was a little cemetery that we passed to and from the hotel. The city also had a small river cutting through it, it was a lovely picture! We then headed back to the hotel and called mom to check in with her and show her our amazing view.