Our first morning in Wengen we hit up the continental breakfast bar in the lobby and gorged ourselves on croissants, yogurt, eggs, cheese, and espresso before venturing out for a hike. While riding the train up from Lauterbrunnen, I spotted a trail heading off into the mountains on the far end of town and couldn't help but be curious about where it led, so we pointed ourselves in that direction and set out through the countryside. We meandered the rural roads through farms past sheep and gardens and fat cows with big bells around their necks.
Every so often, we saw fountains with the cleanest, crispest water you could imagine so it was easy to get a drink and top off our water bottles
Eventually, the smooth country path wound into the woods and began to get steeper, turning to switchbacks straight up the face of the mountain.
As we climbed, the forest broke up and opened to a huge meadow with the Eiger standing over us...it was glorious. I told Brian that I couldn't imagine a view being any more grand and I just stood in awe for several minutes. We even saw an big Ibex Bull running across the trail, but unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch it
Off to the lower right, a trail led into the trees but was blocked with a gate and several signs warning of avalanches. Apparently, if one of the glaciers along it's edge broke off, it would send a massive wave upwards and we could get stuck in a flash flood. So exciting! Of course, that meant that I had to go check it out. It was super steep downhill and Brian's ankle was starting to act up (did I mention that he broke it 3 weeks ago hiking?) Anyway, I saw the most picturesque scene of my life through a hole in the trees, overlooking the valley with paragliders cascading down the cliff walls and the towering waterfalls peeking back at us. Before I got caught up going all the way down and then having to come back up, we turned back and got back on course. We found out later that that trail eventually wound up at Trummelbach Falls-Europe's largest subterranean water fall and famous for being the result of glacial melt from the Eiger, Junfrau, and Monch. We made it there a couple of days later, so stay tuned for pics in a post down the line :)
The trail split and we couldn't decide which way to go, so Brian pulled it up on his phone and figured out that it was just a loop and they met back up on the back side, so we took a right along the Eiger. It was basically an old road, nice and wide and smooth and we strolled along, hand in hand, and fantasized about camping there in the warm summer months and exploring the endless web of trails. It was 75 degrees and there were little benches set up at each of the little scenic overlooks and fountains to drink from, so we took our sweet time and soaked it up.
After a while, the we started seeing spots of snow on the road and it continued to climb upwards to a train station and motel perched above the tree line.
We paid 22 Francs to take the train back down to Wengen and it was totally worth it...the hike ended up being about 12 miles in total, and we figured that 9 of those were pretty much straight up. I have to say, looking back, that it was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip and so beautiful.