From Interlaken, it was a short 20 minutes drive to our hotel in Lauterbrunnen – The Oberland Hotel (free parking for guest). This was the hotel we most dreaded about during the journey as it was the only hotel we managed to find vacancy at and the biggest room available (and the last one) was for 3 people.
As it turned out, the rooms was quite large and we managed to get thru the night but not before exploring Lauterbrunnen’s famous waterfalls and sights. We’ve never seen waterfalls such as the ones there and there were simply so many of them. One of the most famous and tallest one – the Steubbach fall was actually visible from our hotel room window and to our pleasant surprise – at night, it was lighted and the view was simply spectacular. It was drizzling when we arrived at Lauterbrunnen at 2.30 pm and we decided to simply check-in and straight-away headed for the attractions. Having ruled out cable cars, we had an easy choice of the Trummlebach fall which was and experience of pure force of water again rocks. The fall is famous for being a waterfall WITHIN the rocks and the folks of Lauterbrunnen had built a nice lift to take visitors to the 6th of the 10 falls.
You have to climb from there to the 10th but it was simply breathtaking (and a bit death-defying as well). Expect to get wet from the sprays of the tremendous surge of water between the rocks and just enjoy the exhilaration of witnessing such raw, pure, brutal force of the H20 against the granites (or whatever the strong rocks were – they had to be strong to be still standing despite being eroded over the millennia by the gushing water).
Along the way to the fall from the hotel (and we actually went to the end of the road where another cable car station was located at), the view was majestic with the straight rising wall of rocks running along the side of the valley with sprays of waterfalls jutting out at various locations. Apart from the natural wonders, the valley and it’s building are also picturesquely beautiful. We ended up at our hotel at about 5 pm and after a quick rest and solat, we decided to brave the drizzle to the train station. It was conveniently located about 5 minutes walk from the hotel.
We took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, a town on the other side of the mountains and the train ride was exceptional in the sense that you get a holiday experience on a commuting train. Nice ride with nice views not dissimilar to the Montevers in Chamonix. As the train was approaching Wengen, a glacier is visible and continued to be visible from the station. Beautiful....but as we quickly learnt, only on a clear day. It started drizzling again as we arrived in Wengen and very soon the fog shrouded the mountains and the beautiful views were suddenly gone. As it was quite late and all the shop in Wengen are closed, we felt like the first day we were in Chamonix – we had to whole town to ourselves. So we ended up exploring Wengen on foot, in the rain for an hour or so and by the time we returned to the train station, the next available rain was the 7.40 pm which was due in 20 minutes.
Back in Lauterbrunnen, we headed for our room and before long were ready for bed.
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