Switzerland & Black Forest

I've uploaded photos from the first half of our vacation for your viewing pleasure. This set includes photos from Switzerland and Germany. We were in Switzerland from Saturday through Tuesday and then we drove up to Germany and stayed one night in the black forest in a little touristy village called Titisee. Below is a map that will give you a rough idea of where we were this part of our trip.
Saturday I flew into Zurich and Mark met me at the airport. We drove from Zurich to the the Interlaken area. Our hotel was located in Lauterbrunnen, which is a beautiful village with easy access by train to the top of Jungfrau. Along that train ride there are several villages that are only accessible by train as there are no roads that lead up the mountain. From Lauterbrunnen, we also had access to the Schilthorn mountain top by gondola ride.

By the time we reached Lauterbrunnen on Saturday I was dead tired and ready for a nap. While I napped, Mark explored the village a little and started planning our activities for the next few days. After my nap, we walked to the waterfall we could see from our hotel and then enjoyed dinner. Sunday morning we woke up extra early to catch the 6:55am train to Jungfrau, AKA "The Top of Europe." This was a beautiful train ride that took about 2 1/2 hours to reach the top. We met two local mountain guides/skiers on the train and they pointed out some of the most beautiful views, as well as telling us some local traditions and such. Their names are Hans & Peter and I wish we had taken a photo to remember them. Here is a map of the train ride (red line).The engineering is amazing! There are tunnels running through the mountain in order to get us to the top. Once at Jungfrau, we enjoyed awesome views as well as getting to walk through a glacier where they have ice sculptures, and reading about the "special relativity theory" that Einstein worked on at that location. We took the train back down and got off in Kleine Scheidegg to tour the shops and eat lunch. We hiked from there to Wengernalp then hopped back on the train to Allmend and then hiked to Wengen. We walked around cute little Wengen and then took the train back to Lauterbrunnen. A lot of the fabulous mountain photos are from the hiking trails. Upon our return to Lauterbrunnen, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Trummelbach Falls. This is a waterfall that runs through the mountain.

Monday was not as clear but we took the gondola ride to the top of Schilthorn (where one of the Bond movies was filmed). This gondola ride was not my favorite, especially when we were totally engulfed in clouds for awhile and all we could see where the cables the gondola was suspended by. Scary for someone with a fear of falling! ;) When we finally reached the top, it was snowing and very windy. We stayed long enough to watch some clips from the old Bond film and snap some photos. Then we were on our way back down. (check out the blue line on the map above for an overview of this activity)

Also in Switzerland, we visited Grindlewald, Interlaken, and Brienz for good food and plenty of shops. Brienz is known for their wood carvings and has the only master wood carving school in all of Switzerland. We brought home a few trinkets to remember our trip. ;)

Tuesday we checked out of our hotel in Lauterbrunnen and drove to Bern. We spent the morning exploring this old city and capturing some great photos. Mark also toured Einstein's apartment while there. Then we drove up to Basel and then into Germany. We visited Freiburg and then drove on to Titisee where we stayed for one evening. Titisee has amazing shops with many cuckoo clocks to pick from. We did not purchase one this trip since Mark visits there often enough for work and can buy one for us at a later date.

Well, I think I have covered the first half of our trip in more than enough detail for most of you. I'll give you a few days to digest this before posting about the 2nd half in Paris.

Here is a link to all the Switzerland photos. (I recommend viewing as slideshow fast speed.)

Have a great weekend!