My 2005 Trip To Switzerland

In July 2005 I took a 10 night holiday in the beautiful Jungfrau region of Switzerland, staying at the Sunstar Hotel in Wengen with Dan from work, Gary from uni and my mum (though she only came for the last 7 days). By day we explored the area and did some great walks and by night we enjoyed wonderful food and a couple of pints of the local brew. Thankfully, the photos are only of the day. :-)

These photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Bern

Bern is the capital of Switzerland, though you could be forgiven for thinking that the capital was Zurich or Geneva for Bern is somewhat smaller. We visited it on our way to Wengen from the airport on the day we arrived.

The river through Bern	Grass growing on a roof - a disguise?	One of Bern's many great clock towers
The three Bern bears	A Bern bear up close	The old town of Bern
One of the many river bridges

Wengen

These are some photos of Wengen that were taken throughout the holiday. The first 4 were taken on a walk from Kleine Scheidegg down to Wengen, the next 2 were taken from near Wengen station and the last 3 were taken from the centre of Wengen.

Wengen on a couldy day	Wengen in more detail	Wengen from Almend
Another view of Wengen from Almend	View from Wengen railway station	Another view from Wengen station
The cable car from Manlichen - what I saw from my balcony	Looking left from my balcony	The main street of Wengen

Jungfraujoch

Jungfraujoch is the highest point you can reach by train in the Jungfrau region, at over 11,300 feet high. You reach it by travelling through a tunnel built through the Eiger mountain. The fact you're at high altitude is very noticable - you're short on breath and the sky looks a much deeper blue. Note that a few photos need some cosmetic tweaks and as such are not online yet.

From the first of two stations on the way up	Also at the first station	More of the valley at the first station
At the second station...	...and again...	...and again - check out the shapes in the ice
More of the ice	At the top - above the clouds!	A break in the clouds reveals part of the valley
A stark rock face	More rocks poking out of the snow	In the ice palance
More ice sculptures	And igloo sculpture	The entrance to the ice palace...
...had lots of pretty lights.	More ice sculptures	On the snow
The Sphinx observatory	Another shot of the Sphinx	The Jungfraujoch Center
Me on the snow with the Swiss flag	Gary, myself and Dan	Gary, myself and Dan again

Mannlichen To Kleine Scheidegg Walk

This is a fairly simple walk that we did a couple of times, once in each direction. The first time we walked this it was rather cloudy, so the pictures are from the second time.

Looking towards Kleine Scheidegg	The Grindelwald valley	Wider shot of the Grindelwald valley
Cloud obscures a snowy peak	Interesting contrast in the colors of the land	The path with a ski lift station in the distance
The sky reflects the shape of the peak	Another shot into the valley	Cool could formation
Clouds over the valley	Snowy peak in the distance peeks from the clouds

Schiltorn

Sitting atop of the Schiltorn is a rotating restaurant and a viewing platform that let you see mountains and valleys in every direction. On a really clear day you can even see to mountain ranges outside of Switzerland. Schiltorn was also featured in the James Bond film "On her majesty's secret service".

A desert of snow-swept rock	A few clouds hang over the valley	The rotating restaurant
Looking in another direction...	...and yet another...	...and yet another.
The restaurant again	Valley and peaks	Helicoptor flies over a mountain range
A cable car approaching Schiltorn	Looking at the Schiltorn from Birg	At Birg
The cable car down from Birg to Murren	Looking down towards Murren	A view from Birg
Another view of the Schiltorn from Birg	Mum and Gary and Birg	Another view from Birg
The Birg-Murren cable car again

Mannlichen

The Mannlichen peak sits in the center of the Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and Interlarken valleys, giving views into all three of them. It is really spectacular and only a 20 minute walk up hill from the cable car station. On one day it snowed at Mannlichen, so we nipped up there to get a few photos of the snow - I've never known it to snow there in August before now. On other days it was much clearer and we got some nice photos of the valleys - it's really hard to capture the scale and enormity of what you're seeing though.

Mannlichen with a covering of snow	Gary and myself	View from near the Mannlichen cable car station
The cable car down to Wengen	Another shot from near the cable car station	At the peak, looking into the Interlaken valley
A small peak opposite the Mannlichen one, with the big mountains behind it	The Grindelward valley	The Lauterbrunnen/Wengen valley
The Lauterbrunnen valley again..	...and again.	The town at the bottom of the photo is Wengen - the other is Lauterbrunnen
Mountains	The Grindelwald valley again	And the Lauterbrunnen one again
The Interlaken valley

First To Bachalpsee Walk

This is a fairly high altitude walk and pretty steep in places, but quite managable and not too long (about 50 minutes from First to the lake and 45 or so back at our pace - we stopped to take lots of photos on the way back).

Accross a valley, taken from the path	The path towards the lake	A hut near to the lake
Cows graze in front of one part of the lake	Surrounding hills reflect in the lake	The other side of the lake
More grazing cows	A view to the left of the lake	Accross the lake to the peaks
Path towards the river	Water and mountains	A small pond
A little mountain stream	The stream winds away down the hill	Accross the valley to the mountains
The path ahead	Into the valley	The valley from another angle
Bare rock pokes out of the grass	Spot the stream	The waterfall/stream in more detail
A view near to First

Bort

Bort is one of the stations on the Grindelwald - First gondola route. On the first trip to Bort it was rather cloudy. On the second visit, we hired scooters and scooted our way down the mountain - well trendy!

A rocky peak pokes out of the cloud	The cloud moved around really fast	Spot the glacier in the middle of the rocks
The next part of the cable way	Clouds and rocks	A view on the way down
Looking at some mountains on the way down as darkerer clouds moved in	Looking back up towards Bort on the ride down	Dan on a scooter
Gary on a scooter	Me on a scooter

Grindelwald And Grund

Grund is at the bottom of the Grindelwald valley. Grindelwald is the main town in the valley - a fairly sizable place with masses of hotels and many trips starting there.

In the Grindelwald valley	More of the Grindelwald valley	Looking at the mountains from Grund
Curious building near Grund railway station	The river at Grund, getting high

Grutschalp To Murren

A funicular runs from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp, and from there you can take a train into Murren. However, we walked into Murren from Grutschalp - easily done and very beautiful. Here's some pics from the journey.

View from Grutschalp station	Looking accross the Lauterbrunnen valley	The path to Murren
Dan and Gary	Flowers and stark rock faces	The train between Grutschalp and Murren
The train again	Gary, Dan and Mum	I nearly got run over by a train taking this!
Unsurprisingly, I took this later one from the path.	In Murren

Schynige Plateau

The Schynige Plateau is kinda like a lump of rock that a train winds its way up, then when you get to the top, after a vaguely steep walk, you end up on another lump of rock that offers views over Interlaken and the two lakes either side of it. It's incredible to see - if I was skillful enough I'd put my photos together into a panorama.

Schynige Plateau station	Looking towards lake Brienz	The landscape was somewhat different to other places
A train on the way up to Schynige Plateau	Interlaken and lake Brienz	Interlaken
Interlaken and lake Tunn	Lake Tunn	Interlaken again
Interlaken and lake Brienz	Towards the mountains	Mountains and a valley
Me and lake Tunn	The path - it's pretty much a ridge walk...	...with a steep drop.
Cool rock formations	Flowers and rocks in the distance	The path back towards the station

The Lauterbrunnen Valley

This is the valley that includes Wengen and Murren. These photos are taken along the base of the valley, famous for its numerous water falls. Lauterbrunnen lies at the open end of the valley.

A couple of falls	Looking along the valley	Staubach fall in the distance
Flags and the Staubach fall	The Staubach fall	A church in Lauterbrunnen
Looking at Lauterbrunnen on a walk down from Wengen	A similar shot

Trummelbach Falls

The Trummelbach falls are a collection of falls that drain the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains - a pretty massive area!

Shapes carved in the rock by the water	View accross the valley from the falls	Water shoots out of the rocks...
...and falls.	More water	The river fed by the falls
A huge torrent of water

Machinary

Taking photos of machinary we discovered on our walks set against mountain backgrounds became the running photographic joke of the holiday. I guess you could almost call this art.

Spotted while walking to Mannlichen from Kleine Scheidegg	Spotted while walking to Murren from Grutschalp	Another one on the way to Murren
A snow plough at Birg	On the Bort - Grindelwald scoot	At the Schynige Plateau

Flooding

It's always sad to see a beautiful place devestated by the forces of nature. Here I saw first hand the scary reality of what a lot of water can do to an area - and this wasn't even as bad as it got. Had I stayed a day longer I would have been stranded in Wengen.

The river runs even faster than usual and is much higher	The river again, on the train from Lauterbrunnen	Waterlogged field at Wilderswill
Flooding at Wilderswill	More of the Wilderswill flooding	The river bursting its banks
Lake Tunn was high	Lake Tuun again	Flooding in Bern this time - houses were deep in water

Zurich

We had planned to visit Luczern on the way to the airport but sadly it was badly flooded, so we spent the afternoon in Zurich instead. Zurich is pretty much the financial capital of Switzerland - an extremely rich place packed with shops selling stuff I can't afford.

Mum standing with a pink teddy	The harbour with the fountain in the distance
A boat and a ferris wheel in the distance	A boat sets sail	The fountain up close
A huge clock	Some buildings in Zurich	A Catholic church
The main street	A tram approaches	More of the main street
Randomness	More of the city	A statue of sorts
Every hour, the bells played a song	Another statue	Zurich railway station
Inside a Zurich museum	More of the museum	Yay! A cannon
Bridge over the river through Zurich	Station and museum from accross the river