The Great European Adventure Travel by Airplane and Train, Gondola and Train

Somehow I feel like I'm missing a day here.  We left Milwaukee on July 7 th and arrived in Murren after 5 pm on July 8.  When we arrived at the Milwaukee airport we found our flight had been delayed.  A delay on the first flight you take is never a good thing, when three flights all depend on it.  By the time we actually left Milwaukee the flight departure time had been changed six times.  Lucky for us the pilot made up some time in the air and we ended up only slightly delayed into Cleveland.

Leaving from Cleveland, we were on the run way in line to take off when we were called back to the gate to put more fuel on the plane so we could take a longer route to Boston due to some difficult weather.  Lucky for us the pilot liked to fly fast and was also able to make up some time in the air.  We arrived in Boston not too far behind schedule.  

Stepping off the plane in Boston we needed to get from terminal B to terminal E.  The signage for this terminal change is non existent.  We asked so many people how to get to terminal E, it was ridiculous.  We had to leave the airport get on a bus that was going to water transportation, get off the bus, go into the airport, go upstairs, go back through security, then hustle down to the gate.  We made it with about 15 minutes to spare.  

Plane to Zurich was huge, we were sitting way back in isle 47.  The two seats were none to big and required some sort of body contortions to get into them.  When sitting in the seats, they seemed like they should lay back further, but when the person sitting in front of you ,leaned their seat back, it seemed like it was in your face.  I assume the person behind me was thinking the same.  Each seat back had it's own movie screen with several movie choices, so Kathi and I each chose our own movie and fell asleep before the end of it.  Even with the aid of movies, it was a restless seven and a half hour flight. Those seats were just too tight.

Stepped off of the plane ready to begin the amazing race adventure by land.  The next learning challenge was train travel in Switzerland. From everything that we have read we are suppose to go to the ticket counter and have our Swiss Travel Pass tickets validated. This pass will allow us to travel one whole day by any cable or train from an International airport to or destination location.  The directions were quite clear that we were not to write on them, the ticket office would fill them out.  Ok, so we stood in line at the train ticket office for twenty five minutes waiting for our turn to validate our tickets and begin our one day of travel.  The lady at counter said we should fill in our names, we did not need to validate them.  We were very surprised by this response due to all of the directions we had read on what not to do.  The information we received with the tickets was quite clear on this we should not write on them...they would write on them.  We asked her if she was sure, she doubled checked, said we should write our names and passport numbers, and head to the train.  We had her print us a connections print out and then headed down to the train platform to wait.  

Once the train arrived the first challenge is to man handle your luggage onto the train and then down the isle, next challenge became finding a seat and securing a spot for our luggage.  We found suitable seats and wrangled a spot for our luggage.  ( the idea that I may have over packed entered my mind as I am trying to heave my bag up onto the train and then down a skinny isle).  The famous travel author Rick Steves, told us to keep a watchful eye on your luggage to make sure no one leaves with your bags. So we had to create a good viewing angle between available seats and available location for luggage.

I sat with three Italians.  Ok, I'm guessing Italians because the grandmas looked like she could cook a mean dish of lasagna and she talked with her hands.  They were very quietly carrying on a conversation in their language until Grandmas purse started to ring.  As the phone was ringing she was digging all over in that satchel for the ringing phone.  She located the phone just in time for it to stop ringing.  So if you can imagine she pushes the call back button to reach who ever had been trying to call her.  When the person answers quiet Grandmas starts talking really loud into the phone, gesturing vigoursly with her empty hand.  I can't imagine what she might have been saying, but she could park a plane one handed that is for sure.  

Grandma and the two other exit the train at the first stop, new people get on to take their place.

The second half of our ride to Bern was not as peaceful, we had a three year old girl who was running the show for her parents. Any displeasure on the little girls agenda, she would scream until she got her way.  This lasted for forty five minutes.  Gladly, we had to change to a different train in Bern.  Very happy that the little girl and parents were not traveling where we were!

From Bern we road the train to Interlacken Ost, not to be confused with Interlacken West.  I'm still not sure what Interlaken Ost is, but I suspect Ost stands for east? I'm not sure if a map would support that or not.  

At Interlaken Ost we boarded a train to Lauterbrunnen.  At Lauterbrunnen we exit

Lauterbrunnen is in the valley, Cable car up in red, Another train travels along the green line to reach Mürren which sits on top of the cliff.

Starting to see a few hills while riding the train from Zurich

In the Gondola we can see the Eigar, Mönch and Jungfrau peaking through

Gondola car arriving Lauterbrunnen is WAY below.

Exiting the car

You can see the steep valley walls, Mürren is up on top to the right.  Sleep walking in town is a bad idea!

the train line we have been traveling on and switch to a different train line, the BLM.  A separate system built to take people up to Glutschulp, Winteregg and Murren.  We switch to a gondola car to Grutschalp. The gondola ride is the start of moving up in elevation because Murren sits on top of a hanging valley above The Lauterbrunnen valley floor. The gondola ride is very smooth and we get our first glimpse of the face of Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains.  As we move up the cable lift, the mountains are peaking in and out of the clouds.  They look massive! Arriving in Grutschalp, we now have to leave the gondola and take a cog train up the last fifteen minutes to Murren.  

Stepping off of the train, we think for a moment, ahhhhhhh we're here... Nope, Nope, Nope. We found we did not know how to get to Bob's Chalet.  Our directions consisted of: it is a ten minute walk from the train station.  Well, that is helpful.  So off to find someone who knew where Bob's Chalet was located and who spoke English.  We decided to check the hotel across from the train station.  He did not speak English very well so he sent me to another hotel next door.  This lady spoke very clear and even gave me a map identifying the grocery store and where Bob's Chalet is. Bob's Chalet is the last house in town.  Fifteen minute of walking and pulling our luggage we arrived at the chalet.  23 hours of travel.  There are no cars in Mürren, you walk. 

When we finally walk up to the last house in town, Kitty the owner met us in the walk way.  She happily showed us our place and told us how to us different items like the stove.  Kitty's English is pretty good, but she always says she doesn't speak good English.  Well her English is better than our German, so we compliment her on her dual language ability!  (Switzerland is and interesting country with half of the people speaking high German and the other half speaking French.  Most people speak English, but as a second or third language.)

When she left we grabbed our shopping bags and walked back up the hill to go grocery shopping for a few things. Well, Grocery shopping is an adventure!  Items in the store are labeled in German making shopping a tad more challenging.  We had to make a few guesses.  Our total was 80 Swiss franks and we had only a few things to show for it. 

We returned home to make supper and get ourselves ready for the next day.  The stove proved to be a real bugger to figure out.  Very difficult to know what was high and what was low,  the high and the low worked equally poor.  We had mushy veggies and crunchy mashed potatoes. Just could not manage to get any sort of logical reason out of the burners. 

Oh, well off to bed. We made the trip of three planes, four trains and a little walk through a beautiful town.  Welcome to our European Adventure.