From: Rainer Subject: Rainer's Europe Trip 1998 -- part 24 Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 19:38:24 EST Hi all, It's winding down now. We're in Paris tonight and we fly back to Portland tomorrow afternoon. I had hoped to finish all of the journal before I left, but that probably won't happen. I'm sending parts 24 and 25 tonight (really 1:30 in the morning). If there were more beer in the minibar, part 26 might also make it out, too. I'll have to see what happens in the morning when we get up -- there's little to do but finish packing and go to the airport two hours early. This time we will sit together on Air France or I'm not coming back. See you soon (or talk to you soon) as the case may be. Cheers, Rainer Saturday, 10/17 -- part 24 The day starts out mixed and ends up great. The clear view of the mountain peaks from the Beau-Site Hotel is no where near visible. There's a thick mist, a fog really, that covers the valley. Breakfast sucks even on a continental breakfast scale. We ask about other breakfast places at the front desk, but are informed that nothing else is available here. This turns out to be false. The drive to up the Lauterbrunnen valley is a short 20 km and is pretty slow. The fog is thick enough to impede traffic flow. But, you look straight up you can see blue sky. As we gain elevation driving up the valley the fog disappears and gives way to a beautiful day. Vera had read a lot about this place and had her heart set on visiting as much as possible in a single day. But even though you've read about a place and studied it, the actual place always turns out to be different. We found the parking area for the funiculaire to Muerren. The funiculaire just takes you up vertically. Where it stopped, we had to transfer to a little electric train that completed the trip to Muerren station. A short walk and we were in Muerren proper. The views were breathtaking from the walk. Vera wanted to visit Gimmelwald, rumored to be the place that the story Heidi is based on. The trails are well marked and are actually little roads for small vehicles that live in the mountains. They are paved and not what you think of as a hiking trail. We walked the 45 minutes to Gimmelwald and catching good views of the Crested Tit, a new bird for the trip. It was quite warm and there was little wind at the upper end of the valley. Vera was going to take the cable car to the top of the Schilthorn. Monika wasn't sure but watching the large cars glide overhead and thinking about an uphill walk back in the warm sun convinced her to take the ride, I think. We bought round-trip tickets to the Schilthorn in Gimmelwald. Many people buy just a one way and hike/walk the other way. Vera's in paradise and takes in every detail of this area. I'm still not with it and offer little to no verbal enthusiasm. But my partners bear with me and just let me be. We ride the trams to the top of the Schilthorn. There are three different levels that you ride to and change trams. The last one is probably the scariest since there are no towers to suspend the cables other than at each end. The cable sags so that the tram actually descends as it leaves the lower peak before it climbs up to the higher one. The summit is over 9800 feet. There's a restaurant and gift shop and hotel there. This is where 007's "In Her Majesty's Secret Service" was filmed. There is a movie theater that shows clips of this -- I'm not sure what all it shows since we didn't watch it. The spectacular view is what we came to see, and we spent a long time there taking it in. A great panorama shot was stitched together. It reminds me of the background to my 50th birthday card that I prepared. You can feel the altitude as you get off the tram. Climbing the steps makes us light headed and you have to consciously take a deep breath every so often just to catch up. The weather has held; the sun is shining and the view is really undescribable. There are Alpine Choughs flying around and landing on the view deck railings. People are feeding them and they are so tame they land on your hand. I forgot to mention that we first saw these new birds in Ehrwald. they look like crows but have yellow beaks. Their profile makes them appear cuter than crows. To relate it to another species, a Crow is to a Collie what an Alpine Chough is to a Golden Retriever. As we spend our time walking around at top of the Schilthorn, we can see hikers walking up the mountain. There's a thin layer of snow the last 500 feet of elevation or so -- only a few inches thick. The climbers are mostly in T-shirts and shorts but quickly change into warmer clothes once they reach the summit. The wind is picking up and with the temperature of 8 degrees, the wind chill has a noticeable affect on everyone. We're all glad we carried along the extra layers and are all wearing them. The GPS sees every satellite in the sky since there are no obstructions down to any horizon. I get a good reading with an average position better than 45 feet. You can see the clouds starting to over the highest peaks. Some of the climbers mention it as they ascend the summit. Before we get back to Muerren, the entire valley ends up being shielded from the sun because of the fast-moving clouds. As spectacular as this alpine vista is, there's something not quite right about it. In fact, I think what bothers me about all of the Alps and probably about all of Europe, is that there are not areas untouched by people. Can you imagine in the Sierras or the Rockies or on Mt. Hood that a railroad takes you to the summit to a resort? Here across the valley from the Schilthorn, on the Jungfrau, a train has been drilled through the mountain to a full service resort at the 11,000 foot level! All of the mountains have trails, many paved most of the way, all well marked. You walk to the top of mountains like Mt. Hood. There's no wilderness. Each alpine meadow has electric fencing to contain goats or cows. It's all very neat and meticulously cared for. It's a park setting, but it's not a wilderness. There's no space for all of the people that have lived here for so long and built things for the last 2000 years. They've tamed and cultivated and manicured and replanted everything. Sure, there are wild challanges like the face of the Eiger and the Matterhorn where people risk and sometimes lose their lives. But for the most part, the places we've visited in Europe have all been tampered with by people and technology. The wilderness has been tamed. And, as a result, it's lost much of it's awe and wonder. We retrace our ride down the mountain, 3 cable cars, one electric train, and one funiculaire, and end up in the 7-level parking structure in Lauterbrunnen where we get the car our of hock at a computer-driven cash machine. We look for an art gallery that Vera's read about, but find it closed. Since we have time left, we head off in the direction of Meiringen, about 20 km from Interlaken, to visit the Sherlock Holmes museum that Monika had read about. I know little about Sherlock, but apparently he was killed in Meiringen. The museum was very small, like Switzerland, but Monika enjoyed it. Dinner's much better in Interlaken tonight than yesterday. We eat at an Italian restaurant -- even though we're going to Italy tomorrow. The roesti's are still great; you can tell this restaurant is still in Switzerland. After dinner we walk around town a bit more and let Monika get thrilled with her own swiss army knife. We also found a nice place for breakfast tomorrow. And, we found another little restaurant in which we had a coffee and good dessert.