The Swiss Alps - Lauterbrunnen and Jungfrau, Switzerland
I'm in the Swiss Alps! No Heidi's or Yodeling yet, but we're staying in Lauterbrunnen, and it's absolutely beautiful here. There are about four waterfalls right next to our hotel that we can see from our balcony. The one pictured above is walkable in 5 - 10 minutes, depending on how many pictures you take along the way there. There are all these trams and stuff that take you to all these small towns scattered through the mountains. The air is so clear, and the mountains are spectacular. I've yet to see so many high waterfalls in one place, even more than I've seen in hawaii. I was too young to remember Yosemite, but I've heard this area around Lauterbrunnen is comparable.
There's a bunch of stores that sells stuff like North Face clothing and gear, mountain biking, and other extreme / outdoor sports. This is very outdoorsy. We arrived yesterday from Luzern, and the entire train ride we were pointing, wowing, and just sat back and enjoyed the views. The Swiss country side is so unique and beautiful.
Our hotel is really cool, it looks right out to the waterfalls (as do most hotels here). The town is so small that it is just big enough to have all the services you need, but nothing more. I think it's only about a mile long along one street, and that's it. Lots of tourists, but not the site seeing kind that just want to take pictures while staying warm, but the ones out to look for adventure who aren't afraid to do a little work.
We walked around Lauterbrunnen and I snapped some shots around the area. Then today we woke up at 5am and went up to the highest point in Europe: Jungfraujoch. This spot is about 3700 meters high, and you can see most of the neighboring countries on the clearest of days. Yesterday was super rainy and cloudy, so we were kind of bummed, but this morning, the clouds parted and it could NOT have been better weather conditions for us. We layered up and made it up there just after the sun was rising above the alps. It was about -4 degrees Celcius, hehe, i was cold, but wearing 4 layers, including a northface ski jacket, a switzerland beanie, and double socks, I was basically sweating after 5 minutes. So at the end of this post you'll see our shots from the top of Europe =)
We also visited Interlaken in the afternoon, but I was too pooped to take any pictures. Tomorrow we head to our last destination in Switzerland: Brig! A tiny bit of prep for Mike and Pamela I think, but otherwise just hanging out and relaxing.
Anywhere, here are the pictures from Lauterbrunnen: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kinetic/tags/lauterbrunnen/
Here are the pictures from Jungfrau: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kinetic/tags/jungfrau/
Teasers:
We climbed up the Staubbach waterfall that you see in the first picture of this post. This is us underneath the water. You can see the water spray on the side of the cliff as a white glow. It was super wet, my camera was drenched but thank goodness for the weathersealing, it made it =) You can see Melissa there behind the railing in front of me. I had to setup my tripod in the rain while standing on slippery stone, but it turned out nicely.
Baby bulls hanging out by their barn I think. The bells on their necks were so loud, I'd go crazy if I were a cow.
Here are a few from Jungfrau:
This is the sun rising above the alps. The sun is right behind the cluster of clouds on the left.
This is Europe's longest glacier. I don't know what the name of it is, but it's supposidly really long. It extends all the way to Bettmeralp where Mike and Pam are having their wedding. We also went down into the glacier to walk around some ice sculptures they made in there.
Jungfrau
Mike looking over at the Glacier
