The last 2 days have been wet. Rain off and on, the clouds and fog rolling down off the alps and into the valley, the stream beside the chalet gurgling happily and the river beside it starting to resemble rapids....but this is all glorious to watch from the huge wall of windows in our warm and cosy chalet. No complaints here! We like it so much that we have extended our stay until Tuesday (supposed to leave Saturday) and will then spend our last few days in Zurich before boarding the plane to come home.
Yesterday - after the excitement and adventure of Monday - it was almost a welcome relief to have weather that was inductive to staying inside. We spent a lazy morning gazing out the window (could never get sick of view like this) before jumping in the car to explore Interlaken (a 20 minute drive away).
Interlaken is a lovely town which seems to be undergoing some major renovation at the moment (getting ready for the snow season I expect). There was lots of roadwork and building work going on.....coupled with the rain I am not sure we saw it at its best. Shane and I (and Neve when she was 18 months old) had been here before when it was looking far more enticing.
But it was still nice to wander the street and do some window shopping. Shane is fairly obsessed with watches so being in Switzerland is like shopping paradise for him!!
Neve looks very different without her top front tooth....
We came back to the chalet for a late lunch and then the sky seemed to brighten a little and the rain stopped. We had gone for a little drive past our chalet to see how far we could get up into the alps from the road past our chalet....it doesn't go much past but at the end of the road there is a gondola that goes right up to the top of the mountain where there is a revolving restaurant (it was in a James Bond film once) which we will go to when the weather is better.....and we also discovered a special set of waterfalls, called Trummelbach Falle.
The Trummelbach 'river' is the only river that comes from the Eiger, Monach and Jungfrau mountains...this is the only way that the water gets down off these amazing alps. The river itself flows 'inside' a mountain and carries up to 20000 litres of water per second over 10 waterfalls that are inside the mountain....and it's just down the road from our place....bonus!
Anyway - we went up a escalator inside the mountain to get us closer to the top waterfalls.
The lift up the mountain....
Once near the waterfall the sound of so much water pouring through the holes in the mountain was incredible! It was like standing next to a jet plane as it takes off!!!!
Neve and Shane beside the one of the lower waterfalls...
Looking down the 'chute' with the water pouring through....
Inside the mountain...another waterfall
It truly was amazing. The amount of water and the noise was like nothing I had ever seen or heard before.....
The pictures just don't do it justice....I took a quick movie of part of the waterfalls to show how fast the water movies and how loud it is....not sure if this will work on the blog but lets give it a go....turn your sound up as loud as you can, multiply that by 100 and you might get some idea of how loud it was
We all got pretty wet by all the spray off the waterfalls....but it was totally worth it.
And even the views outside the waterfall were like a postcard.....this is looking back down the valley towards our chalet
It was another fantastic adventure!!!
All the water coming down through the mountain ends up in this river, which runs just past our chalet
Further down the road they have a few avalanche bunkers which brings home the reality of how much snow must be around here in winter....
We went back to the chalet wet (and just a little bit deaf) but very happy about seeing such an amazing natural wonder.
Today (Wednesday) was even more damp than Tuesday....we managed a quick walk into the village and the kids got a play at the playground before the rain really set in for the day. Knowing that we still basically have another week here we decided to stay out of the wet today and just hung out in the chalet, watching the dozens of waterfalls that were forming down the walls of the valley. Tomorrow the rain is supposed to clear so it might be the perfect chance to take the cable car up to the top of the mountains and see how 'James Bond' Shane can get in the revolving restaurant!!!
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