May 20 - A day in the Alps!

Friday, May 20, 2011
This was Schilthorn day! We started our day by having breakfast in the dining room, cereal and milk and pain au chocolat that we’d bought at the grocery. Got to visit with Diane, one of the owners of the B&B. She is from Australia, her husband Marc is from England, and Switzerland is the compromise. They absolutely love it here. She pointed out the spring special on the Schilthorn tickets which did save us quite a bit. After breakfast we walked to the cable car station, about a 15 minute walk. We stopped briefly at my wifi place : ) to see if Eric had emailed us yet. He finally had, guess Max is still alive and so is Grandpa…
Bought our tickets and the next car left in 3 minutes so we hustled on up and soon left. The first leg of the trip, to Gimmelwald, was right up the side of the sheer face of the mountain. It was about a 45 degree angle, I thought I would be terrified but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We switched to the next car at Gimmelwald, headed for Murren. Then we switched again for Brig, then the final switching which brought us to the Schilthorn. Piz Gloria is the name of the revolving restaurant at the top, and a James Bond movie, Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was filmed in part here. We spent a lot of time on the terrace getting lots of neat pictures of the snow-covered Alps. There was even still snow on the terrace, though a clear walkway near the edges where people had been walking the most. Next stop the gift shop, of course. Two shotglasses and a Tshirt for Steve, and a hiking shield, pen, and a genuine cow bell for me. This one is nice because it has a nice hanging thingy and doesn’t have some particular town name written on it. Next we headed for the Panorama exhibit downstairs which was all about filming of the 007 movie, including film clips. Made us both want to see the movie again when we get home! It was also interesting (at least to me anyway) that they were filming scenes from a “Bollywood” movie while we were there. An Indian film crew and actors/actresses. Music, cameras, and lots of foreign words. They all were at the station with us at the same time to ride back down which didn’t make Steve very happy!
We rode the first section, back to Brig, with a very full carload. We, along with another couple, decided to stay at Brig for a bit – there was another observation deck and not much else. But it gave us some breathing room. The next car came in about 10 minutes so it wasn’t long of a wait. Back to Murren, and we got off the car and walked around Murren for a while. Nice views, a nice little town with almost no car traffic to speak of. Not sure how they would get the car up there! Got some more close up views of cows, still not one close with a bell though. Also got a cute picture of a St. Bernard which was up on its front paws drinking out of the town water fountain!
Back to the car, where we were again greeted by a crowd. This time, though, it was a school group. But still just about as crowded. We thankfully got off at Gimmelwald to have a look around. Not much there to look around at so we got back on the next car back down to Stechelberg. A very nice trip and not nearly as terrifying (I don’t like heights) as I thought it would be.
The walk back to the B&B took about 15 minutes. Took a break in the middle to stop at my favorite wi-fi hotspot and check email again. Then back to the B&B, another short visit with the owners, and a rest for a bit. We are both coughing pretty well – said we needed to call this the “coughing our way through Europe” tour. Yeah, I could feel miserable if I tried, but I’m in EUROPE – I’m not gonna let it get me down.
After a rest, got going again to drive to Lauterbrunnen and the Coop store for dinner provisions. Ended up with chicken nuggets (I kid you not, we ate chicken nuggets for dinner in Switzerland….) a salad, and fresh strawberries. Cooked them up when we returned and had a nice dinner. I do really want to experience genuine Swiss fondue at least one night. We’ll see how that goes. We may be as far as Liechtenstein or even Austria tomorrow night so hope I still get the chance.
Quietly spending the evening in our room. There are actually neighbors tonight, who were using the sink when we were ready to wash dishes. So Steve, to his credit, said he’d go back downstairs and wash the dishes. Gave me time to download pictures, which was nice. We had made a quick stop on the way back from Lauterbrunnen at my wifi hotspot as I’d forgotten to check the pass status for the passes we wanted to drive on tomorrow. They had, at first, been closed until June 1st, then a few weeks ago were posted as open, then a few days ago when I checked they were closed again. Today they show as open so we’ll hope for the best.
Tomorrow’s plans will be to wash up, pack up, eat up (breakfast anyway) and head for the passes and then for Liechtenstein and Austria.