The Alps

Switzerland is a postcard.

You know how it looks in postcards, green, mountainous, snow covered peaks in the distance, stunning lakes, wooden houses, cute shutters and window boxes with pretty flowers?

That's how it looks in reality!

From the city of Milan I headed to gorgeous outdoors of the Jungfrau region, the village of Lauterbrunnen in particular. It was a long day's drive from Milan to Switzerland - but the beauty was reward enough after a long day on the bus.

Arrived at the campsite early evening, checked in and didn't really do much else.

I'd picked up a cold in Milan (started out as sinus issues...and I really hope I'm now nursing the last of it. I've been through dunno how many packs of tissues already!)

Lovely night...and sad to say, the only clear one of my stay in the Swiss Alps. I had a lie in on my first morning, while some people doing busabout went skydiving! I just couldn't bring my sick self to get up that early... in some ways I'm glad my time in Switzerland turned out the way it did. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My first full day in Switzerland I did what was called the Murren loop - a cable car/train journey from Lauterbrunnen to Murren, past the Trummelbach falls and back again. It was a gorgeous day, and I was able to fully appreciate the beauty of the Alps.

I've used that word a lot - because it is beautiful.

There's an Afrikaans word - asemrowend - and that describes it far more aptly than any English one I can think of.

For those who don't speak the language, a poor substitute (but a translation nonetheless) would be the word breathtaking.

How does one describe being thousands of meters above sea level, up in the mountains, in little villages and looking down on the valleys below?


If there is one place (of the few I've seen, and having absolutely loved Italy!) you should see and experience for yourself it is the Swiss Alps. Nothing you see or read will ever compare to the experience of actually being there and feeling oh-so-small with the towering mountains all around you.


The villages I saw included Murren, Gimmelwald and Stechelberg. From Stechelberg I took a walk to the
Trummelbach falls - these are the only internal waterfalls still accessible to the public. The falls consist of ten waterfalls and is the drainage of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - glacial water at -2 centigrade - being inside and viewing the gushing of the water is a chilly experience :p

Photographs won't do these falls justice.

How the water has shaped the rock and curves through the mountain...just the sound of the water gushing - how powerful!

Mother nature one definitely needs to respect.

After gawping at the falls, I headed back into sunshine and warmth and took a lovely walk back to Lauterbrunnen.

The Jungfrau region has many many hiking trails and is a fabulous place for both summer and winter sports! We were told that one cliff face near our campsite is famous for basejumping - I think I might have seen one on one walk I took on my last day - I'd just heard the whoosh of a glider opening (on the otherside of the valley might I add) - and there was definitely no sky divers around, so it had to be a base jumper as the glider opened quite close to the ground as far as I could see!

Day two was supposed to be my day to do my bit of outdoor adventure sport, but alas, I got rained out! And for the rest of the day it remained raining on and off, mostly on. Didn't do anything, found a book in the lounge, read, fell asleep and I guess continued recovering from my cold ( I really am fed-up of blowing my nose already! At least it is far less than what it was...going through four packs of tissues in a day - not fun!)

Day three...and success! I went paragliding! It was such an awesome experience...and I wasn't nervous or frightened at all. There were two sisters from camp who went paragliding as well - we were all quite disappointed that we didn't go get to do it the day before and were hoping like crazy that we could. And we did.

There was cloud cover - the weather was pretty iffy for the rest of my time in Switzerland but hey...need to take such things in your stride (or end up not doing anything at all!) We went paragliding through Outdoor Interlaken- great pilots.

The one thing I didn't think about was how I'd actually get up in the air - yeah, by running down a short strech of mountain! Perhaps a wee bit apprehensive, but still no nerves, it was a very short run (for me at least, being on the short side, the pilot did a bit more running) and then we were up and floating away into the clouds, through the clouds...and all of Interlaken and the valleys below us!

It was gorgeous - floating away above the world - wished it were for longer! It really is the dream of flying come true :)

It was an overcast day again, but thankfully not as wet as the previous one! Wondered Interlaken, grabbed coffee and then took the train back to Lauterbrunnen.


Went for a short walk later that afternoon, viewed the Staubbach falls, the falls closest to the campsite I was staying at, and viewed Lauterbrunnen from above. Last day in the alps and yet more rainy weather (if I'm not used to rainy weather by now then I never will be!).

Another chilled day, another walk, in a different direction, just soaking up the beauty around me. It was great having some chill time, even somewhat enforced chill time with the rainy weather and all.

Sometimes you're on this mission to just see as much as possible of a place and kinda forget to relax - even though technically speaking you are on holiday :p

From the Swiss Alps it was onward to Munich...