Lauterbrunnen, Day 1
Happy birthday Willow! Today is Willow’s fifth birthday, and we celebrated by going to the “snowy mountains”. Well, actually we went to the Bernese Oberland area, or Jungfrau region. We first took a train from Zurich to Bern, then a train from Bern to Interlaken, then a short train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen. Lauterbrunnen is a small town located in the valley between two mountain ranges, and is known as the valley of 72 waterfalls. It is also the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Rivendell. It is so beautiful, and I think this is my favorite place we have been so far on our trip. I could spend the entire summer in the Bernese Oberland, minus the huge prices! For her birthday breakfast, Willow got a small cake, a few glass animals from Venice that Zoey and Ronin picked out for her, a mermaid hatchable, and some unicorn gummies. Small gifts, but the biggest gift is this huge trip we are taking!
The town of Lauterbrunnen is beautiful. Nestled in a valley, there is a waterfall just a few minutes walk from our hotel. We stayed in a hotel above the only pub in town, so it was a little loud at night but nothing we couldn’t handle. We slept with the windows open, and it got cold at night! We had two rooms; one with two bunk beds and one with one bunk bed and a small loveseat and each with a sink, small wardrobe, and table. Of course the kids all got the top bunks. This place had the best pillows we have had in Europe, and I wanted to sneak one home with me! The bathrooms were shared with the floor of five rooms, but they were clean, the water was warm, and it worked out great.
We took a walk from Lauterbrunnen to the town of Stechelberg, a 2.5 mile walk. We first passed by the Staubbach falls, the one seen right beside the town of Lauterbrunnen. There was a beautiful cemetery we walked through with little flower gardens on top of the graves. Here are some pictures of our hike. The backgrounds look like a movie set! We walked by several waterfalls, across a river several times, and by many picturesque houses.
Halfway through our hike we came to Trümmelbach falls. This is a series of 10 waterfalls that are partially in a cave that you can walk up and down and behind. It was so cool, and everyone loved seeing the different waterfalls. The power of the water coursing down each fall was so great, and the water went so fast until it came to a quiet pool, where it was then funneled into the next fall.
After going to the falls, we took a small snack break. The kids were excited to have another picnic, but I think they just wanted to run around in the grassy area.
Then we continued with our hike until we got to Stechelberg. The water in the stream was coming directly from the mountains, and it was cold! We even saw quite a few parasailers, and the kids thought that was so cool.
When we made it to Stechelberg the kids saw the cable car and really wanted to ride it. Because we had the Swiss Travel Pass it didn’t cost anything, so we took the cable car up to Gimmelwald. In Gimmelwald there was a small playground so of course we had to stop and play! I even went down the slide, and it was really fast. All in all, I think it was a pretty successful birthday.
