Grindelwald: Traveling Like A Student. Sort Of.
Grindelwald: Traveling Like A Student. Sort Of.
May 26-29, 2022
May 26th is a public holiday in Baden-Württemberg and it falls on a Thursday for 2022. I took the 27th off so that Paul and I could continue our European adventures at our new home.
Our friends Lucia and Justin live in Paris, and if we take the TGV (teh-jeh-veh), it’s only 3 hours. I wanted to visit them, but they already booked a week in Biarritz. However, they kindly offered their apartment to us. I thought I was ahead of the game by booking our train tickets three weeks in advance. To my disappointment and surprise, the trains were sold out! Unless I want an 800 Euro first class ticket for one, or something like that, Paris is out of the question.
My first real travel lesson is, if I want cheaper train tickets and available hotels, I have to book early. Three months in advance, at least.
Holidays in Europe are a thing. Europeans take days off quite seriously and add on additional days from public holidays, to make a full week or two. One advantageous part for us Americans, the ones who are less inclined to walk into big crowds, is that the European holidays are mostly in popular destinations like Paris. Paul and I don’t mind visiting less frequented places, although less doesn’t mean unpopular. It just means not claustrophobically crowded.
Now that Paris is out of the picture, I Google “Best lakes in Switzerland”. Paul loves to swim, and I dream of crystal blue waters surrounded by the Swiss Alps. It’s quite easy to find more than enough blogs about Switzerland. Lake Zurich, Interlaken are all options, but when I read about a lake that requires a gondola ride up the Swiss Alps and an hour hike, that is precisely how I chose Grindelwald as our plan B.
Switzerland is one of the more expensive countries to visit, so I decided to book the cheapest train tickets. The train connected 5 times before arriving to our destination. I like to try new things, and trains here are supposed to be on-time, right? How bad could it be?
Hotels are more challenging, but I lucked out in finding Hotel Alpenblick, which is comparably more affordable than the surrounding hotels. It is set up like a hostel with private rooms, although one could disagree since the price is equivalent to a 3-star hotel somewhere else. I immediately booked a private room because according to Bookings.com, there was only one room left.
Traveling like an un-pro
The first train we take is a regional German train. It is packed where every seat is full, and bikes block the doors. I’m obsessively looking at my German train app, Deutsche Bahn. The dreadful notification pops up to say that the train is delayed. I’m still chill, not worried yet, because we can still catch our connections. Another notification pops up. Then another. This time, it says that we may not make our next connection. Now I am worrying and anxious, and I can feel my heart beating fast. So much for on-time German trains.
My fear is realized when we run to our platform, and our train is gone. Paul’s relying on me to get to our next destination, but I’m panicking. I said, “I don’t know what to do. We have to cancel and just go back home”. Paul looks at me with wide eyes, “What? No, we are not turning back around”.
I look over to see two men with their kids. A woman stands next to them, and she doesn’t look like she is part of their crew. “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” I ask them.
“Yes”.
“Did you miss the train to Zurich?”
“Yes, we did. The next train we can catch is the train to Schaffhausen. From Schaffhausen, we can catch the train to Zurich”.
Hallelujah.
Paul and I follow the two men and their kids, and I notice that the woman and a young man that I didn’t see before also follow. We catch the small train to Schaffhausen, and we are in the green. The other train connections are on-time, but Swiss trains are extremely efficient. We’re on the right itinerary, but on different trains, so we lost our reserved seats on these packed trains. Sometimes we can find vacant seats, but other times, we stand near the exit.
We arrive Grindelwald just an hour later than expected. All is forgotten when we step out of the train station. The Swiss Alps are magnified. It seems fake, like we are in a Virtual Reality game, but we aren’t. We are actually seeing it. Hotel Alpenblick is about a 20-minute walk uphill, which I soon learn that most of our walks to our hotels are like this. I mistakenly chose a private room with shared showers and bathrooms. No wonder the price is like a 3-star and not 4-star. Our room has a sink and only one plug, while we have to go down the hall to shower and use the toilet. It’s not really my idea of a vacation, but to be fair, the showers and bathrooms are clean. Paul’s response, “That’s how the Swiss roll!”. Although our beds are somewhat hard, with one flat pillow, the view through our window makes up for the underwhelming ambiance of the room.
The Gorge and Scenic Dinner
As a tourist, and in the middle of the Bernese Alps, we are doing everything tourist-y. It’s late in the day, so we take the local bus (cost included in the hotel price) to the Gletscherschlucht, a glacier gorge. It’s a fun thing to do with just a few hours left of sunlight. Although it is the end of May, be sure to wear a warm jacket or coat that can fair any type of weather.
Hotel Alpenblick might be a very simple lodge, but the outdoor seating is a view that I’ve only seen in paintings or photographs. The food is typical Swiss cuisine such as Spaetzle and potatoes, and quite seasonal.
First Hike
The next morning to the view of the Alps and sound of cow bells is one of the most surreal experiences. Am I in a Swiss Miss commercial? Breakfast is a typical German and Swiss spread, such as cold cuts, bread, cheese, and boiled eggs. There is plenty of coffee, which gets our day started. The sunshine on the outdoor terrace helps us from getting too cold but sitting outside is a must.
We do exactly the one excursion that I came here for. Take the bus to First, which is the mountain that everyone has to do. We take the gondola and pass pastures, cows with their cowbells, streams, alpacas, trees, and of course the Bernese Alps. Our gondola companions are a couple from Singapore. Poor guy is wearing a mask because of allergies. He has tissues stuffed up his nose to plug the nonstop leak. I feel him. I’m taking allergy medication because the beautiful wildflowers organically dispersed in the mountains and pastures make me sneeze to a debilitating level. Later, I learn it is the ragweed, not the flowers.
We reach the top, and I have no words to describe the feeling. We begin our pilgrimage to Balchapsee, the lake that we could have missed.
I’m suddenly in the movie, The Sound of Music, except we are on the Swiss side. It is a slow and consistent walk, and at times, we would lie in the grass or Paul would meditate. It is that kind of place. An hour and a half later, we reach our destination. Its magnificence draws me into a place of peace, awe, and excitement. We meet an English man from the Lake District. It is his second time here and he plans to go mountain climbing after this. A young Filipino woman has been retaking her selfie for half an hour, because the sky keeps changing. It is a tourist destination, and we are indeed one of them. There is plenty of room for all of us so it is quite easy to find the quiet space to think, meditate, and give gratitude to God for allowing us to see this majestic place.
Paul’s knees are hurting, and he is a firm believer in cold water healing. The lake is split into two sides. One side is smaller and colder and still has sheets of ice. Two men strip down to their underwear and go swimming, which gave Paul the confidence to roll up his shorts and walk knee deep into the water. He immediately turns back around to get out of the water because it is too cold for him. Plus, the man cut his foot on a rock. Luckily, we have napkins to wipe up the blood, and it was our signal to start our journey back. It seems like a fairly hard trek but when I see women dressed in long flowy dresses taking photos for their Instagram, I have second thoughts. Albeit the designer outfits, they are wearing cool sneakers. That must be the secret to Instagram. You see only what you want to show.
At the very last leg of the journey, we spontaneously decide to walk the suspension bridge. Did I tell you that I’m afraid of heights? I don’t know what has gotten into me, but next thing I know, I’m walking it. Folks, don’t do this at home, but when in Grindelwald, give it a try.
The freezing water temperature doesn’t stop Paul from finding another water source for his aching knees. In the valley near our hotel, he finds a stream that is still too cold, but he braves it. It’s a beautiful walk and a different vantage point when I look up at the mountains. I’m still pinching myself and continue to do so through dinner and to bed.
Mannlichen Hike
The next day is very foggy, but since we came for the mountains, we opted to do the Mannlichen Royal Walk. The fog took away our majestic mountain view, but it is an eerily quiet hike. We could only see a few feet in front of us, hear voices in aimless directions, while shadows of people appear before they become clear in our line of sight.
Paul is sunburned from our previous hike, but only on the ears and knees. He covers his lower half with pants and wraps his scarf around his head like Grace Kelly, but embarrassingly unchic. I would actually rather that he is unfashionable, instead of feeling the burning pain that keeps him from a good night’s sleep. The embarrassment subsides when I am reminded of this. The walk is much shorter than the previous day, and the end is the viewpoint of the three mountains Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains. When the clouds move, we could see the caps, but more disconcertingly than the misty walk is the feeling of being at the gates of Heaven. Perhaps it isn’t scary, but I’m not quite ready to go there yet. We come back to earth when we meet a beautiful young couple, high school sweethearts on their honeymoon. Today is their last day before flying back to Alabama.
This and That
Our train ride home has just as many legs as the first one (minus one to Schaffhausen), except that all of the trains are on time. Regardless, I’ve decided that at our point in life, we deserve to be comfortable. My leg and back hurt, as well as Paul’s knees, which makes me realize that traveling like a student has less of an appeal these days. We walked a lot, we felt the aches and pains, so less train transfers could lighten our load. I am not really sure if we really needed the Mannlichen trek, but it is still quite cold to go swimming. If there is a next time, I’ll opt to Interlaken during August, where the stunning lakes are ready for us to swim in.