Another long day of driving to get to Interlaken (then another 17km to Lauterbrunnen) after leaving Thomas and Polina's place, but we are staying for five nights and are having a rest day tomorrow. We've a few things to get organised for the next part of the trip and the blog to update. Hopefully internet access will be better here!

We had to take a detour on the way to which took us over the Albrecht pass, 1780m high. We emerged from a tunnel at the top of the pass to be effectively surrounded by snow. We stopped a little way down the other side and took some photos, drove on and then stopped again as we could see part of the tunnel up on the mountain through which we had come. Got a photo of that, too!

Lauterbrunnen
Our first day here was a rest and get reorganised day. The hostel (couldn't get airbnb accomodation) has very good facilities and is very clean and tidy. The town is small, which suits us. However, the prices here in Switzerland are wallet-draining! Everything is expensive - it's a wonder the Swiss can afford to live here!
The name "Lauterbrunnen" means "loud springs" or "streams". There are over 70 waterfalls in this valley. We can see one from our Room!

Off to Jungfraujoch tomorrow! Up early to get on the train at Lauterbrunnen at 7.37am to Kleine Scheidegg, change trains, then off up the mountain to the top of Europe - 3454m above sea level and views of of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau I believe.

What a beautiful day! We were told the weather would be good for the trip up on the train, and it was! Shortly after Wengen we started seeing snow on the ground and on the trees as well as the mountains.
The tunnel through the mountain started just before Eigergletscher (2320m above sea level), and continued up through Eigerwarld (2865m) and Eismeer (3160m) to Jungfraujoch (3454m). It took about 50 minutes to go up through the tunnel, with stops at those places for 5 mins so we could take photos. The views were impressive!
Once at the top, we had about three hours before we needed to catch the 1.00pm train back down again.
One of the first things I did was write a postcard to Uncle Don about the train trip that I posted there, as Jungfraujoch has it's own postbox! We followed the tour arrows, going through the Jungfrau panorama cinema, to a terrace (called the Sphinx), out onto the snow at the Aletsch Glacier (Craig held snow in his hand for the first time), to the Ice Palace with some great ice carvings. We didn't go walking out to the Mönchsjoch hut. Craig has discovered how much his asthma is induced by cold. We were very glad of our warm coats as it was -10 degrees when we arrived!
We enjoyed our time up there, but are glad we chose a morning ticket, as we would have run out of things to do if we'd had a day ticket.
Sometimes, we are amazed at the things people do. When I was drying my hands at the hand dryer, a Chinese woman waiting to go into the toilet put her hands under too! Most unexpected!
We got back to Lauterbrunnen a bit before 3.00pm, with lots of photos!

Yesterday, we drove to Interlaken in the afternoon, then on to Thun. Thun was much bigger than I expected - don't know why really! We had a coffee and apple strudel at a Scottish restaurant before wandering around the old part of town.
Deciding to have a late lunch, we chose well! A Margharita pizza at the Cadillac Cafe by the river. It was the best pizza we'd had in Europe so far - crispy, thin crust, without too much topping!
We drove around the lake, stopping off at scenic spots to take photos. On the way back to Interlaken, we decided to go to Grindelwald on the way back to Lauterbrunnen. We are so glad we weren't able to stay there. It's a much bigger town, very tourist-focussed and not as picturesque as Lauterbrunnen.

In the kitchen here tonight, we met Ian and Fiona from Brisbane! They arrived too late to get food from the supermarket, so made do with bread rolls from the bakery! We shared our wine and beer while having a nice chat about travel.

Today we took Ian and Fiona into Interlaken to get food and wine, as they don't have a car and the food at the supermarket here is so expensive.
After getting our washing done, we all went out to Trümmelbach Falls, about 3km from here. There are ten waterfalls there, and you go up in a tunnel-lift inside the mountain to a point where half of the waterfalls are above you and half below. The water comes from the Eiger, Mönsch and Jungfrau glaciers. The water carries 20,200 tons of boulder detritus each year! Up to 20,000 litres of water per second pours out. It's the only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside a mountain and accessible.
Lots of steps take you up into the mountain to the various waterfalls. The noise is quite loud and spray hits you in several viewing spots! It took us about an hour and a half to see it all!

It's such a beautiful day again today. We had lunch in the garden - very pleasant!

We are cooking with Ian and Fiona tonight - chicken tacos and burritos! Another enjoyable evening.