Mürren, June 20

Today ended up being overcast and rainy from the start - so I decided to push going to the top of the mountain railway until tomorrow. The good news was that the gondola to the rail station was back up and running between Lauterbrunnen and Mürren- so thingswere faster heading down hill. I started in the town of Lauterbrunnen, walking up the valley. The first falls are just outside of the town, Staubbach Falls - there is a trail that takes you right up to the edge between valley and the rock wall - then stairs and a carved section that takes you right behind the falls. The wind made sure that any one heading up had to have rain gear or they were soaked. Good thing I had my jacket!

After heading back down, continued up the alley to Spishbach Falls - these are noted for a 1889 landslide which buried a farm and shifted their stream by 100 m, then to Buchenbach Falls. These ones were noted as the sometimes do give an ice falls in the winter, but also because apparently is has a good topography for base jumping - easy access because of the train access above, a knoll at the edge, yet still high enough for the chutes. Now a bit further up, and the opposite side of the stream - the large falls from the Eiger and Jungfrau.

Trümmelbach Falls, a series of 10 drops that has a huge catchment flowing through a narrow crevasse. They have dug a tunnel for an elevator that takes you 3/4 of the way up, with stairs andplatformnviewing along the way. I waited to the top before photos so all of my photos are in order of the 10 falls. Talk about natural air-conditioning - the water is cold, so as soon as you walk into the crevasse, it drops about 10 degrees with the moisture in the air. The last falls corkscrew due to the way the rock has been worn. Caught the bus back to Lauterbrunnen, along without about everyone else - no room left after everyone got on.

At Lauterbrunnen, I caught the train up the other Berner valley to Grindelwald. A much bigger town than I had expected, with a big hole right in the center of town where they are building a big new parking garage and shopping center. This town is not car free. The view of the glacier and high valley fields was nice- and got a bit of information about the valley as a UNESCO site. By this time, it had started to rain and really blow - hard enough resturants and businesses were picking up their plants and table cloths.

With that, I headed back to the Guesthouse in Mürren. The timing ended up being perfect to catch a double rainbow looking back down into the valley - the photo is only of the single variety as it came about better than the double one - but something good from the rain! Headed down for dinner - a great Swiss-style salad (butter lettuce, with white dressing, their cold spiced corn, beets, tuna salad, pickled cucumber), then chicken and mushrooms in sauce with Swiss hash browns, and then pot du crème and warm berry sauce for dessert. The choice of adding dinner I think was a good risk.

Tomorrow the last day with sight seeing, then heading back yo Zurich! Once I'm headed that way the cell connection should be strong enough to upload and add the photos.