Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Lauterbrunnen, a stereotypically awe-inspiring Swiss town located in the middle of the Alps. The scenery was indescribable; I spent the entire car ride with my face glued to the window. How could anyone get sick of a view like this?
We found a small campsite, where once again we did not have the correct plug for our electricity cord. How can there be so many variations in all these neighbouring countries? Thankfully the office had an adaptor for us, which we thought was the least they could do after charging us a surcharge for only staying one night. Switzerland: beautiful, but will drain your wallet in a day.
The first attraction we wanted to hit was the Shilthorn, a mountaintop reached by a series of cable cars and trains that provided views over the region. We inquired about the trip at the ticket office but we were informed that the last tour for the day left an hour ago and services were ceasing from tomorrow for maintenance for a week. Talk about bad timing. The best they could offer us was one cable car two kilometres up the mountain. The view from the top wasn't that impressive. We walked around the mountain for an hour but didn't see much more.
After descending the mountain we walked back into town, where we passed a restaurant offering fondue and roesti. We couldn't pass up trying two famous Swiss dishes in one go. So we sat down for a massive cheese fondue, complete with onion, garlic, chives and pepper that we added ourselves, plus bread and potato for dipping. The roesti came covered with ham, cheese and mushroom but I preferred it without the topping. Both were delicious and horribly unhealthy. We felt extremely full, and slightly sick, for the rest of the night.
The next morning we woke to the sound of sheep baaing and cow bells right outside our door, which was not what we were expecting after seeing no animals the previous day. We actually thought that someone had moved our van in the middle of the night. We stepped outside to discover a farmer had relocated his sheep pen right next to our van. I'm fairly certain it's the first time I've woken up to a sheep alarm.
It had been a while since we had stayed in a camp site with amenities, due to the busy Easter period and accommodation being booked out. Today was our first shower in six days. I'm not sure how we are going to cope when we go home and are expected to have showers every day.
Today was a lovely, sunny day and would have been perfect for going up the Shilthorn. As that was out of the question, we instead went waterfall spotting. Lauterbrunnen is home to 72 waterfalls; as I am a massive fan of these forces of nature, this came as sensational news. We saw about 15 on our travels - not sure where the other 57 were. Just walking along the main road, in a valley between huge cliff faces, water was gushing out over the top of the mountains and dropping hundreds of metres to the bottom. It was fantastic. There were also wild flowers everywhere, covering the green fields. It was straight out of a movie set. Danny picked a small bunch of colourful flowers for me - he's so sweet sometimes.
We headed up to Trummelbach, the ultimate waterfall self-guided tour. We took an elevator straight up the middle of a mountain, and walked down to the bottom on the inside of the mountain past a series of huge turbulent waterfalls jutting in and out of the rocks. There were a total of 10 waterfalls, complete with mood lighting. swirling and churning its way through tight crevasses. The water appeared to be flowing in different directions that defied logic, which made the experience disorienting but incredible at the same time. I wanted to do it again - I can't help but love a good waterfall tour.
