The Schilthorn

You know that vague memory you have of an old James Bond movie that takes place in a 60's chic round building perched on top of snow covered mountains, and populated with fur-clad Bond girls?

We went there. (I'm just barely containing my nerdy freak out right now.)

Just a couple of days after visiting the glory of the Matterhorn, Jacob and I set off for a day of driving and exploring with Daniela. We drove into the heart of the Alps via Lucern, our goal: to make it up to the top of the Schilthorn to see the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains.

Switzerland is an exciting place to drive. As you get closer to the Alps the view gets progressively more magnificent, the roads winding up through forests, and down into valleys striped with glacier fed streams.

Jacob and I have already decided that we will return one summer when we have lots of money, and drive a fabulous car (I would choose an Aston Martin, Jacob would take an Audi R8) around these mountain roads.

This time around however, we could have ridden donkeys there and would have been just as thrilled (albeit a bit colder). Just being amongst these mountains is an incredible privilege.

It was a cold and windy day, our stops relegated to just enough time to snap a photo and run back to the car. We saw a Swiss flag so torn and frozen by the elements that it looked like it had gone through a battle zone.

We arrived at the base of the Schilthorn, the walls of the valley obscured in thick cloud. You could physically feel the impressiveness of the mountains; we were truly standing at the feet of giants.

Assured that the view from the top was clear, we started our first of four gondola rides to the Schilthorn. We were joined on the gondola by a group of base jumpers, who would soon be throwing themselves off the cliffs we were ascending.

It got progressively colder as we went up. (Well "duh", you might be thinking - but I mean it got cold.) It was a little unnerving to watch the thermostat drop even further at every gondola station.

Once we were up this high, watching skiers (apparently) ski off the edge of a mountain, we still hadn't reached the top.

On the last gondola it occurred to me that we might die here. Seeing this looming in front of you is slightly frightening:

Thankfully we soon rose above the clouds and saw our last stop - the Schilthorn.

The famous round restaurant featured in the 60's Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", is actually a rotating restaurant, providing an ever changing 360 degree view of the mountains. We sat down for lunch, making sure not to put any of our stuff on the part of the wall that would rotate away from us.

Oh yeah, and it was COLD. 

After a lovely lunch we ventured out onto the terrace that wraps around the restaurant.

Were it not for the cold, we could have easily been there all day.

And this is the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau (left to right).

Lastly, a panorama of the mountains Jacob took on his phone. (Click on the photo to see it bigger)

"Magnificent" doesn't even come close. We reluctantly left the Schilthorn and started home just as the sun was beginning to set. It was an incredible day - one we will remember and talk about for a long time.

Little did we know (literary trick to keep you interested and looking for the next post), we had a few more ridiculously wonderful adventures in the Alps ahead of us.

The Matterhorn

On Monday morning Jacob and I woke up with a mission. We were going to see the Matterhorn, come hell or high water.

As it happens, the Matterhorn was about as far away as it could possibly be while still being in Switzerland. We started early and had taken 3 different trains before we got into the mountains.

My friends, if you have never been to the Alps before, I highly recommend you add it to your bucket list. It's impossible to describe the wonder of this landscape; it is sublime, fantastic, and endlessly nuanced.

Thankfully the good people of Switzerland realize this, so they build whole train cars with huge panoramic windows like this one:

Our train worked it's way up the mountains slowly, a fact for which we were very grateful. This is not the sort of journey you want to take quickly - you want to inch along with your nose pressed against the window glass, preferably while listening to some really grandiose music.

This is what you will see.

Around noon we arrived into Zermatt, the ski town that sits in a valley at the base of the Matterhorn. Seeing the Matterhorn is always a risk. The famous peak is so high that often the summit is covered in clouds for days on end. However we were incredibly blessed by warm, sunny weather and perfect visibility.

I bet you that Zermatt looks exactly how you imagine it. It is a perfect Alpine ski town, dotted with wooden A-frame chalets, snow-capped pine trees, and a mountain stream.

We wandered the streets of Zermatt watching as groups of skiers prepared to head up the slopes, or disappeared into restaurants for an Apres-Ski cheese fondue. We planned our dream Swiss ski holiday, all the while asking ourselves, "do these people realize how good they have it?". Then we stopped and asked ourselves, "do WE realize how good we have it?".

We couldn't believe we were actually there, in the midst of the mesmerizing beauty of the Alps. It's the sort of place where you can spend hours staring dumbfounded with your mouth hanging open. I don't know how the skiers manage to avoid running into each other when they are surrounded by such distracting scenery.

Jacob and I took a tram up to a ski lodge that provided glorious views of the Matterhorn. From there we were planning to take a "winter hiking" trail that would take us back down to Zermatt.

After spending a while with the view we started on our hike down the mountain. We had a problem though: we couldn't find the trail. There was a sign for the hike, but it pointed straight down a ski slope. Having no other place to go, we started tromping down the side of the slope, trying to stay out of the way of passing skiers. Thankfully the trail soon broke off from the ski slope, turning into a plowed trail that switch-backed down the mountain.

The trail took us past views so beautiful that we were almost giddy with laughter. At one point Jacob found a piece of wrapped Babybel cheese on the ground. He ate it.

We made it down the mountain after about 2 hours of hiking, just as the sun was setting behind the mountains and the clouds began to gather. We reluctantly boarded the return train home. But as it turns out, just two days later we would be going to see another famous Swiss Alpine peak - the Jungfrau.

More mountain posts to come!

Switzerland

Jacob and I had been waiting a long time to go to Switzerland. It is the final stop of our 6 month European tour and one of the countries we have anticipated the most. Just over a week ago Jacob and I took the train from Germany to Switzerland where we were met by Jacob's relative Daniela.

Daniela, her husband Marcel, and seven year old son live out in the countryside close to the Swiss-German border with their fish, three cats, two dogs, two horses, and one mini-horse. We were royally welcomed as guests into their home, and are greatly enjoying our stay.

We have managed to pack in a lot of adventures into the short time we have been here. We've spent a day in Zurich, gone on a hike with a view of the Alps, seen the Rhine Falls, swam in thermal baths, gone horseback riding (twice), seen 8 castles, and toured the beautiful city of Lucerne. We've also eaten some fantastic food, most of which Daniela made herself.

Needless to say, we are excited to see what next week will bring.

On our first day in Switzerland, Jacob and I took the train into Zurich to spend the day exploring the city. We enjoyed our time, but mostly found ourselves in "sticker shock" over the prices of... everything. People in Switzerland have famously high salaries, but it is matched by high living costs. In the end, it all evens out for the residents of Switzerland. For those of us with an American bank account however, the prices can be a little appalling. Lunch at an averagely nice restaurant can easily be $40 per person. It has become our game to see how much money we can save while spending a day out on our own. (Hint: The prepared food section of grocery stores).

On our second day, I lived out a long deferred childhood dream and went horseback riding. Daniela keeps two horses in a stable close by and goes riding whenever time permits. I might have known a lot about horses back when I was 8, but that was a while ago. It gives me a little thrill to be able to say, with sophisticated nonchalance, "Oh yes, I rode frequently during my time in Switzerland". Truth be told, I don't make horseback riding look remotely glamorous, but I love it nonetheless. (Jacob was a good sport and came along one morning, even though he refuses to ride a horse.)

In the afternoon Daniela took us and her son Jannik to go see the Rhine Falls, the biggest waterfall in Europe. (I think it is the largest by liter of water per second, not by height.) It was breathtakingly beautiful. We spent several hours climbing up and around the falls.

After our visit to the Rhine Falls we stopped by a town that perfectly embodies "idyllic Swiss town on the Rhine River" as we have experienced it so far. The town of Schaffhausen has a medieval fortress with a tower that we could climb for a view of the surroundings. We got to the tower just as the clouds were parting and the sunset was beginning.

Picturesque, isn't it?

A day or two later Jacob and I were able to borrow a car for some exploring on our own. Our first stop was Baden, an innocuous town about 15 minutes away that just so happens (yet again - this seems typical of Switzerland) to be stunning.

Our climb to the top of the ruined castle over Baden whetted our taste for more castle hunting. We jumped in the car, took our roadmap, and started planning a route that included as many castles as possible. Fifteen minutes later we were in a town that had a massive castle looming over the city. We parked the car, ran around the castle like giddy children, and jumped back in the car to find another one. Thirty minutes later we were in another town with a castle that sat on the edge of a lake. And that castle had a moat. Castle heaven. Once again we ran around the castle, then took off for the next one. Another two castles later, we drove back home - we had a dinner reservation for Daniela's birthday.

Guess what? Our dinner was at a castle. Six castles in one day. We sat in a long diningroom decorated like it belonged in Versailles and ate fondue followed by a decadent dessert buffet.

It was here that I had one of the strangest and coolest desserts I've ever tried. It was called "Snowballs". We watched as the chef put a mixture of whipped cream and sweetened cream cheese into a ladle, placed a fresh berry sauce into the center, put more cream on top, then dunked the whole thing into a vat of liquid nitrogen. After about 30 seconds of "cooking", the chef pulled the now frozen ball out of the liquid nitrogen, and doused it in Grand Marnier. Delicious.

On Friday Jacob and I took a morning train to Lucern. Although it was sleeting and snowing on us for the majority of the day, and the clouds obscured any view of the mountains, it was easy to see that Lucern was a beautiful place. We cannot wait to come back one day in summer.

In the afternoon Daniela and Jannik met us in Lucern to go visit the Museum of Swiss Transportation. Under normal circumstances, this subject would not make for a terribly thrilling museum. But I suppose Switzerland does not operate under normal circumstances, because this museum was awesome. Four hours flew by, and we could have easily been there much longer. The museum was made up of a series of buildings each dedicated to a different form of transportation: trains, planes and space ships, cars, and boats. Every section was filled with interactive games and activities, like train-driving and helicopter-flying simulators, that taught you about the history and physics of each vehicle.

In the car building there was a gigantic wall of vehicles that ranged from old classics to motorcycles to Formula 1 race-cars. In a small arena you could vote game-show style on what car you wanted to see exhibited. The winning car would be brought down by a giant machine, and placed on a revolving plate in the arena while you learned facts about the car.

Even for someone who doesn't like cars all that much, that is super cool.

As we reluctantly left the museum, we saw that the sky over Lucerne had cleared, granting us a glimpse of the mountains.

The mountains were incredibly beautiful, even from so far away. Jacob and I have been dreaming of the day we would get to see the Alps up close. Tomorrow is the day - we are going to see the Matterhorn!