Leena's Big Retirement Trip with Penny

Stay tuned for a new adventure.  Leena is retiring Friday (that's today) and without skipping a beat she wants to travel.  She's lined up buddy passes on Delta from a work colleague's wife and she and I will be at JFK on Sunday at 5:15 p.m. hoping we will get on our flight to Milan.  Send your most positive thoughts our way, please.  The bones of our trip are posted in the left column.

The Rhone Valley - Weds, Aug 8

We took the gondola down to Betten Station, then the train to Brig where Klaus lead us on a quick tour of what looked like a prosperous and charming town.  Its older houses are very Italian in appearance, while its most prominent buildings (Stockalper Palace, former Jesuits' college and Ursuline convent) all date from the 17th century, and are due to the generosity of a single member of the local Stockalper family, the baron Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper.

Then we got back on the train to Ausserberg (3050 ft) on the sunny hillside of Loetschberg.

 It was quite hot as we walked the Lizard Train westwards to St. German (2480 ft) surrounded by vineyards, and then continued on to the Burgkirche, a church since the 13th century with some interesting frescos.  The highlight was a stop at a "typical wallisher" winery for a very nice wine tasting with air cured meats and cheese and at least six different wines .

 

Then the walk descended along houses of the 16th century into Raron (2090 ft).  We had an excursion to a church carved into the rock, unique to the continent, and then were rewarded with apricot tart in a local bakery.  We returned to Bettmeralp by train and gondola.

  walking time: c. 3 hrs

 Dinner was, as always, fantastic!

 

The Aletsch Forest and Villa Cassel - Tues, Aug 7

First a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel.  Fantastic breads, cheeses, meats, fruit, yogurt, cereal, boil your own egg, and lots of coffee.










The field trip this morning began with a walk to the neighboring village Riederalp and up to Villa Cassel, a stately home built by a German/English banker at the turn of the 20th century.   The way was mostly paved and there were a lot of other walkers.

That's Lucy - very informative as well as charming

The villa is now the property of the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature and the first Swiss ecological center for the study of the environment.  We had a lovely young tour guide Lucy who told us about the ecology and efforts to preserve the environment.



Continued the walk to the Aletschwald, Forest of all Forests, on to Blausee (Blue Lake) and Bettmer Lake back to the hotel.

the forest and the Aletsch Glacier

Yes, we used our walking poles

We had a picnic on the trail.  The strong hikers continued on, and the rest of us returned a shorter route back to the hotel, but three of us stopped for pastry and cappucino/tea.

View from the bakery - the pastry wasn't bad either

Here we are coming up the back slope to the Hotel Waldhaus.





Field lectures:  Villa Cassel and The Forest of All Forests.  Walking time:  4 hours

Travel to Bettmeralp, Mon. Aug. 6

In the morning we left the Hotel Belvedere in Wengen, cogwheeled down to Lauterbrunnen and then we driven by private coach via the Grimselpass  to Bettmeralp.  Here's some info on cycling the pass
Bus was fine, but a bit hair raising watching those cyclists.  And there were motorcycles all over the place.

Grimselpass - glad we're not cycling

At Betten we took the gondola to Bettmeralp, another car-free resort village, this one on the south side of the alps.

Bettmeralp with Bettmerhorn in background

View from the balcony

The Hotel Waldhaus  is small, family-owned and quite close everything.   We checked in, and then attempted a stroll through the village but the heavens opened so we only got to see the grocery store. Our room is great - the Eagle's Nest
This photo of Hotel Waldhaus is courtesy of TripAdvisor on the fifth floor with views to die for.

We had raclette AND fondue for dinner

Field lecture:  Energy resources in Switzerland

The Maennlichen Walk & Jungfraujoch - Sat, Aug 4

We walked over from the hotel to the cable car station and rode up to the Maennlichen (7315 ft).

This field trip was over an alpine moor to the bottom on the Jungfrau Mountain, Kleine Schweidegg (6760 ft).

Eiger, Monk and Jungfrau

 From this location there is an excellent view of the majestic Jungfrau mountain range.  Description of the Mannlichen-Kleine Scheidegg walk (easy - except for the last bit- and with dramatic views)

Local guide Doris told us about the Alpine Pines

It was a rough scramble at the end, just before lunch, but I brought up the rear, and I even got a slap on the back from Katrin, as I made the final grade.

Eismeer from the Eigerwand

After an interesting lunch of macaroni, ground beef and french fried onions, I decided to take the plunge and join the members of the group (most of us) to make an independent excursion on the Jungfraubahn to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe.  The Jungfraujoch is a col or saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau in the Bernese Alps on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais, inside the Jungfrau-Aletsch Protected Area.

Along the way there many snow sheds and tunnels, and two stops where we could look through windows at the surrounding glacier.  It was a spectacular landscape

Finally we reached the end and spend a wonderful hour or so admiring the glacial view, people watching and looking at the various exhibits such as an ice house with ice sculptures.

Great People Watching Opportunities

Then we took the train back down to Wengen and the hotel.  What a spectacular day!

A Day in Interlaken and Beatushoehlen - Fri, Aug 3

We took the Cogwheel and train to Interlaken (1866 ft) then the local bus to the Saint Beatus Caves (2030 ft).   The location was beautiful over Lake Thun,

but the excursion through the caves, was disappointing although there were some beautiful drip stone formations and colors. The tour group was huge and the narration was mostly in German. 

We did not see any evidence of the dragon St. Beautus is reputed to have killed here around the 9th century.

Following the excursion, walked to the boat landing for a boat ride back to Interlaken. 

Interlaken was very touristy, but the old town, Underseen was quaint,

And at the central (Hohematte Park) park we enjoyed watching the parasailers land with the Jungfrau in the background.  Then we traveled by public transportation back to Wengen.  Dinner at the hotel
Field lecture:  St. Beatus-hoehlen and Interlaken), walking time, c. 1 hour

The Grindelwald Valley, Thurs, Aug 2

Today we took the cogwheel and train to the famous resort of Grindelwald located at the foot of the Eiger Mountain. We didn't spend time in Grindelwald but caught the local bus for a spectacular drive to Bussalp (6625 ft).

We walked along the Hoehenweg (contour of the mountain), with breathtaking views of the Bernese mountains, and stopped to sample the wares of a mountain cheesemaker, and learn about cheesemaking.

We continued to Bort for a picnic at the top of the gondola run, and then returned to Grindelwald by cable car.

After a hot slog across Grindelwald we returned to Wengen by train and cogwheel.

Walk Bussalp to Bort 

Field lecture:  Grindelwald and its famous mountain, walking time c. 3/4 hrs

1903 postcard from Grindelwald