The Dilapidated Marco Luethy Weblog - Weblog

Published Thursday August 19th, 2004

Heh, Today, Monday, was a much better day then the day before. I woke up at around 0930 and quickly realised that i had over-slept. Our bus was to leave at 1006 and it was important that we got on this bus because Marwin had a connection in Bern to make. Everyone started moving quickly and we made it on time. We took a bus and then a two trains to Bern where we said goodbye to Marwin who was heading back to Germany. We said out goodbye's and then boarded our train to Interlaken Ost. Marwin had to hang about the train station 20 more minutes untill his train was to depart. We reached Interlaken Ost in around 40 minutes from boarding the train. From Interlaken Ost we took another train to a village named Lauterbrunnen from where we took a bus to a gondela which was too take us up to the top of a mountain named Schilthorn (A James Bond film has scenes from up in this mountain.) We took two gondelas and reached a village on the side of the mountain named Mürren. Because the weather was really poor, completely over-cast and visibility up at the top of Schilthorn was zero we decided not to head up.

We wandered around the little village for a while, bought some food to eat for lunch, and then we took a tram/little train thing back down the mountain back to Lauterbrunnen. From there, we got on the same bus with the same driver back towards the direction of the Schilthorn gondela, but instead of going all the way back to where we first got off, we got of at a stop before at Trümmelbachfälle, or a bunch of waterfalls falling between rock crevases. We paid CHF 10 for some entry fee, and then got on a little lift which took us a few hundred meters up into the cliff-side. The whole area was carved by glaciers. The village of Lauterbrunnen is in a valley between two completely vertical cliff sides: |__| Sort of like that depiction. At the top of these cliff's mountains begin and shoot up further into the sky. It's truly extraordinary. I love it in this part of Switzerland. One of my favourite places on Earth. Heh.

Anyways, we viewed the various falls. The rush of glacier water plumeting downward through the rock crevases carved by the waters sheer force. Very noise, very fun and amazing. Towards the end, at the bottom of the cliff side, the water, the creek, and the surrounding area was so beautiful and perfect i could have taken photos for hours and hours. I wish i had had a tripod with me. 1 second shutter speeds without a tripod is difficult to pull off.. Heh..

After some waiting, at 1717 we got on a bus and headed back to Lauterbrunnen, and from there back down to Interlaken Ost where we waited for 20 minutes untill we got a connection back to Bern, and from there we got a connection 15 minutes later to Burgdorf, and from Burgdorf back into Wasen via a bus from Sumiswald. Fascinating, no? Surely. Heh. We got back to our appartment at around 2045ish. Cooked dinner: a pizza, and left-over pasta and a sauce. After dinner i went over to my grandparents apartment. Adam used their computer, and i chatted with my grandma untill my grandpa returned home at around 2200. Then, i chatted with both, looked up some train schedules and times, said goodnight, returned over to our apartment, made about 8 bottles of drinks with various syrups and ice tea powder, copied a gig and 200 MB of photos to my laptop off of my camera's CF memory card, typed this.. And here i am. It's 1224 and Wes is ready to sleep, i suppose i shall sleep too.. I'm tired, but today was a good day. I got a good amount of sleep. Woke up in a good manner, and i love Switzerland.

Sitting on the train.. Staring out at my surroundings. Listening in on various peoples conversations on the train. Some in german, some in British English, some in Swiss german, some in American English, all from an asortment of people, riding in the train.. In Switzerland. I was happy. I love it here. I love that i am here and i can't wait to do more. Heh.. Anyway, bed.

Tuesday was a slower day. We got up at around 1000 and left for our bus at 1055. We got on a train in Sumiswald, then on another in Ramsei, and then onto yet another in Langnau which took us to the city of Luzern, or Lucerne. Once we got there we walked around the old-city for a while, and then ate lunch there. After lunch, at 1422 we got onto a boat untill 1500ish at which point we got off the boat at a village named Vizsau, i believe it was called. From there we wanted to go up a mountain called Rigi, up to Rigi Kulm, however.. The peak was up in the clouds and no one wanted to paid CHF 30 to see the insides of clouds, and thus we got back on another boat at 1550 back towards Lucerne. Once we were back in Lucerne we walked into the city a bit more, went into various stores, saw a monument of a Lion and suchlikes.. At around 1730 we headed back towards the train station. Our best connection departed at 1857 and we had thus about an hour to kill. Within this hour we went to a cafeteria in the train station and had dinner for a fairly low price. My warm meal cost me CHF 16.20. That's not too bad. Although, the food was not terribly grand either.

Before getting on the train, i wandered about the train station a bit simply because i was bored of listening to Kate and Raymond's conversations about how they're better than everyone else. I cought up with Wes and Adam who were doing the same thing i was and we eventually got on the train where Tyson, Raymond, Mike and Kate were already seated. We had a hilarious time on our ride back to our apartment which we reached at around 2100 as the sun was setting. I took a shower, and then went over to my grandparent's apartment where i chatted a bit with my grandma. I returned to our apartment where Mike, Wes, Adam and I had ourselfs some fun, and now here i am typing this as the clock approaches midnight. I believe it is due time for bed.

Photo time! No specific order to these. The order that a script spit out the HTML is the order they're in here on this page.

Monday: Interlaken, Mürren, Trümmelbachfälle