I just returned from 10 days in the Alps and couldn't have had a more amazing time. It's been a dream of mine since I could remember, and I can"t believe that I finally managed to pull it off.
It all started in November when I saw a promotion for a trip to Paris. Basically, flights and hotels came out to roughly $1000 for a week, and that got my wheels turning. I don't really have much of a desire to go to Paris, so I looked into getting a train to Switzerland, and then concluded that, if flights were so cheap into Paris, perhaps they were just as inexpensive to other parts of Europe. A couple of weeks later, flights into Geneva dropped to $480 and I wasted no time booking and planning the trip of a lifetime.
We flew with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and it was amazing. They fed us, gave us new release movies, and warm, moist towels for our 15 hours in the air, and even though I was really nervous about spending that much time with that many other people in the air, it was downright pleasant.
We landed at 8 am and immediately hopped on a train to Lauterbrunnen...a tiny little town in the Bernese Oberland that looked like a painting in real life. There were a few stops along the way...we hopped off in Bern to eat lunch and explore a little bit.
After a couple of hours, we hopped back on the train and soaked in the gorgeous scenery...rolling hills of green, turquoise bodies of water, and pristine little villages.
The forecast called for thunderstorms for pretty much our entire trip, so I was nervous that it would just be cloudy and we wouldn't be able to see anything. It was a little patchy in spots, but overall beautiful, so I was feeling optimistic :)
We finally arrived to the train station in Lauterbrunnen and caught our cogwheel train up to a tiny village called Wengen on the cliff side overlooking the valley. We hopped off about 1/2 mile down from the station and opted to walk through the countryside to our hotel. It was quite a climb, but so beautiful, covered in flowers and criss-crossed by waterfalls. As we walked along, the clouds started lifting and revealing the snow capped peaks.
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| We managed to find the ONLY SNAKE in the Alps...moseying very slowly across the path as it was quite chilly |
We took the train back down to the valley floor, Lauterbrunnen, and walked around for a bit before catching the gondola up to the other side of the walls, Murren. It too, was sleepy-we soon discovered that we managed to hit the area during the down time...probably why we got such a good deal on everything. I didn't mind though, I'd much rather have room on the trains and quiet trails than have a bunch of restaurants to choose from.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a market and grabbed some salads and everything we needed for Caprese on the patio and hit the sack after being up for about 34 hours.