Thursday, May 19, 2011
Today was supposed to be an easy day. Not. I woke up first, the bunk beds were just not all that comfortable. Decided that I would take the opportunity to do a load of laundry since the facility was there (at Kandersteg) and we were running low on some clothes since it’d been a week. While the washer was running I sat in the lobby and used the wifi on my Ipod. Steve was still asleep. When I came back to check on him, he was eating cookies for breakfast instead of the cereal he bought yesterday because “he couldn’t find the milk.” Wouldn’t have taken much looking. Anyway, he wasn’t too happy about that and about sleeping in the Africa room. I reminded him that they were scouters. That didn’t matter. He put a towel on the wooden chair so he wouldn’t pick up any germs. I’m serious. Anyway, left him to clean up and to change the load to the dryer. The dryer timer said 1 hr. for 2 CHF so decided to go take a walk to find the site where the geocache here was hidden. I logged a note last night that I was here and disappointed that the cache was not active, so that I could log my scouting trackables as visiting the cache. Anyway, a pinkie (staffer) told me that I could post a picture of me by a certain object near the cache site and then could log it as a find. So I took the pix, now just have to upload it. Also tried to get another nearby cache. GPSr kept bouncing around, plus I was in sandals so not the best equipped to go “off road” though it was only supposed to be a 1.5 terrain.
Came back, and started to pack up the car, and make sure the room was left in good condition. Discovered that, though the clothes had been tumbling for an hour, they were no dryer than they’d been before. I knew I had a full load and some of the load was heavy like jeans, but I would have expected that the lighter things would have been a bit dryer at least. My only disappointment at Kandersteg. Our last stop was the gift shop. We walked out of there spending more money than we had for the room….Steve bought a t-shirt, we both bought cups, and I bought some patches both for myself and for scouting friends back home. Wish I could have bought enough for my entire WB staff, but that would have been pricey.
Started north again toward Stechelberg. It was only 9 miles away as the crow flies, but took us an hour or so to get there as we had to make our way up one pass and down the next one. Steve decided that he had had enough of eating our own meals, so asked where the nearest McDonald’s was. There was (at least) one in Interlaken so we stopped there. We spent 28 CHF for Mickey D’s! He had some sandwich called the 1955, that was almost 15 CHF itself…..A Big Mac was almost 12CHF. So McDonald’s isn’t necessarily much cheaper. Wish he could just not worry about the money, he says that everyplace charges about 600% more than it is at home. And I quote him directly.
Anyway, headed down the valley toward Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg. Absolutely beautiful! We arrived at Stechelberg where we had trouble locating the B&B we had reservations at. After a few false turns and turn arounds, we finally spotted the sign but were both getting pretty frustrated by then. It was too early, the doors were locked, so we just sat down for a while. Talked about our frustrations for a bit. It’s hard to put a positive spin on things constantly – I don’t want him to be miserable but he is finding so much not to like about Europe. It’s too bad. I don’t see him ever wanting to come back. I’m doing my best to have a great time regardless of what Steve’s frame of mind is. And I do seem to have his cold, too. Not the congestion, thankfully – jus the cough. Asked someone in the store this afternoon if they spoke English, then tried to explain in simple English that I was looking for a cough drop. Uh, turns out they were American. Ooops.
Anyway, we finally decided to go check out the station where we will take the Schilthorn tram car. It’s very steep, I’m not sure I’ll be looking down on the trip up! We got a schedule and found out it will be 94CHF each. Steve was taken aback at that, of course. I told him I knew it would be expensive but that this trip was less costly than the Jungfraujoch. And to look at it as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Which he finally seemed to do. We decided that by this time of the day (it was 1:30 ish) that we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything properly so we’d be better to wait until tomorrow. We went down to Trummelbach Falls instead, that is the waterfall inside the mountain. Turns out it’s the only accessible one in Europe. And an earthcache there, too. Elevator took us halfway up, then we finished the damp walk to the top and got to see many views of this neat sight. Even got some pictures with rainbows in them. After Trummelbach, we went back to the lift station in Stechelberg to see one of the cars. We did that, then hiked a little bit to see a waterfall closer up. Turned out to be the highest waterfall in Switzerland. Murrenfalle.
‘Next we decided to go back to Lauterbrunnen and find a grocery store. We found a Coop store (very aptly named, we must say) and found cold Coke for a lot less than out of machines. That made Steve much happier. Also bought two packaged Caesar salads and a small pizza to bake as we have kitchen privileges.
Back to Stechelberg and this time we were able to check into the B&B. It’s a bit rustic – no electric outlets in the room other than the light on the ceiling. Bathrooms down the hall. But it’s about half the price of other accommodations in the area. We were even able to use their clothesline to hang up our still wet clothes from the morning’s laundry at Kandersteg. They were mostly dry by the time we took them down later.
The view from our little balcony is awesome – right up against the mountains, with several waterfalls right there as well. Ok, far enough away to be safe. But nothing between us and them except some land.
We just sat and enjoyed the view for a while, plumb tuckered out. Ate dinner about 6:00 after figuring out the centigrade oven. Dishes are also provided so we don’t have to use our little plastic blue ones or our sporks, either. Nice dinner, the pizza and salad were much better than the sandwiches and such we’d been having. I noticed there was fondue equipment in the kitchen – maybe I’ll try to make some for dinner tomorrow night. We’ll see.
After dinner, we walked down the road a bit into Stechelberg. Passed by several avalanche shelters, basically concrete bunkers with an opening away from the mountain. Painted by school kids about 20 years ago but still nice designs. We stopped to look in the window of a little shop (which was closed.) Steve asked about the meaning of a sign, I pulled out the Ipod to check it on my translator, and discovered that there was wifi there! Checked my email then Steve was able to check his. So nice to know there is some wifi not too far away. While we were sitting there some cows came walking down the road, got some great pictures. I now have a cow face picture but I want one wearing a bell…..
Came back to the room, downloaded pictures, and am now working on the daily diary. We plan to go up to the Schilthorn tomorrow, weather permitting. Looks good so far