We enjoyed our walk around while looking for Juicy Jones. We were all still hungry and happy to find the restaurant. The walls we wild and crazy and you can see from the photo and we had high hopes for some great vegan dishes.
One thing we have noticed, we are in a city now. Servers are not as patient as they were in Switzerland and Italy. JJ & I both struck out on our choices. How does a vegan place run out of hummus...seriously! Then we tried something else...nope, out of that too. JJ ended up with a tapas of olives and tofu and I got potato soup. While the food wasn't bad, it was probably the worst meal we've had.
We had a great day yesterday. While the clouds never actually burned off, we still made a day of it. Jo, JJ, & I hiked up to Murren, then to Im Suppen and then back down. Murren is the next town up from Gimmelwald. We can't really call it a hike to Murren, because it's actually a paved road, but it is UP. A quick comment about the road. Gimmelwald is relatively car-free. There are some tractors and small 4x4s, or farm trucks that pass by. Even this really cool old Mercedes Military truck I'm trying to get a photo of. One of the other guests works for Mercedes and is blown away by this thing as well. Anyway, the road that runs from the cable car up is a narrow single lane. While we don't see vehicles often, they do zip along. I need to ask Tim about the "rules of the road" for when there is opposing traffic. It has to happen at some point. There are not a lot of places to pull over or into along this road, so one vehicle must have to back up. I just wonder how they decide. Ok, back to the walk/hike. It takes about 35 minutes to get to Murren. Since we were still in a lot of cloud cover, we couldn't see the peaks and were walking in pea soup like fog. But it was still quiet neat. One thing that is really investing here is that no matter where you are, you can hear the sounds from waterfalls. The run-off is unreal and the water falls on the other side of the valley are huge. I've included a video so you can get a little bit of what I'm saying. The sound you hear is not static, it the sound from the waterfall in the center of the frame when the video starts, which is on the other side of the valley. It's not a great quality video, but I think you'll get the idea.
Once we got to Murren, we made our way through town to an actual hiking trail and started up some more. Yes, thin air, lots of climbing, and not riding/hiking this summer made for some tired lungs. However, the hike was well worth it.
About half-way up, a we crossed paths with a women. She told us about a little zip-line in the trees up the trail. We had a fun time playing on that. Here are a couple actions photos of Jo & JJ on the swing. We hiked along through mountain meadows and heard the cow bells in the distance, but the fog really prevented us from seeing much beyond a few hundred yards.
After a nice long night and a couple more big thunderstorms, we got up and decided to check things out. We grabbed a nice European breakfast down stairs: fresh bread, butter & jam, OJ, Swiss cheese, and hot cocoa. One thing is certain, the beds are not made for anyone over 5'8". My head touches one end and my feet hit the other with my knees bent. So I to tossed and turned a little, but still slept well.
Jo & JJ were not up, so we decided to wander down the hill to Gimmelwald. Walter's is a 15 minute walk up from town, so with Charm crutches, it's a little more of an adventure. When we arrived yesterday, we took the trail (shortest distance). This morning she and I took the road. It was raining and we figured the road would be easier. We were right. Plus, there were some great views. Here are a few of the local critters trying to stay out of the rain. And then there are the crazy humans that think Gore-tex is all you need.
Once we arrived in town, we enjoyed the Honesty Shop (Europe's first unattended village shop). Then we hit the Pension for lunch, make that a yummy lunch! We chatted with the Australian bartender and enjoyed mountain veggie soup and an assortment of cheeses, meats, and pickles. It was outstanding. Charmelle went on another successful fly hunting expedition and we enjoyed chatting and taking in the scenery.
The walk back up the road wasn't too bad. The rain had stopped and the views were even more amazing.
On the way back up, we saw Charmelle's next investment coming down t road from above. She thinks this would be a good idea, I don't know about that.
We got back to Walter's as Jo & JJ were heading out. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be clear and nice. We plan to head up to Murren and take in some more sights.
We really did take three trains, a bus, and a cable car. The mass transit
system here is something to be respected. Things run on time, they are clean and so far they are understandable. I've included a few photos of the journey. There are Jo, JJ, and Charmelle heading to another train.
The first two trains were about an hour each. Then we had a short trip of about 20 minutes. After that we packed into a bus for 15 minutes to the cable car. The cable car was pretty empty. One passenger mentioned that it is cheek-to-cheek during ski season. We enjoyed a nice quiet ride up.
We are sitting about 4,000 ft above sea level here. As you can see from the photos, it's a little cloudy today, but still quite amazing.
