Magic Mountain_1

1_ARRIVAL
75 minutes of bus ride, 150-minute-long wait at London Stansted, 75 minutes of flight time, 120 minutes of ICE service, 20 minutes of mountain railway, and we still hadn't reached our destination. By 20:30 we reached Lauterbrunnen and had our first glimpse of the mountains. Rain began to pour as we stepped out of the station. We had an hour to kill before the next bus arrived. Despite the rain and darkness, we strolled to the southern end of the main street to see the Staubbach Falls, one of the valley's many glacier waterfalls. The bus finally came. In 20 minutes it took us deep into the Lauterbrunnen Valley to the cable-car station at Stechelberg. In complete darkness, we made a short lift from the valley floor to Gimmelwald, our final destination of the day at 1370m. Flocks of tourists pass by Gimmelwald everyday without delay, enroute to the panorama restaurant at Schilthorn, where a few scenes of 007 were shot back in late 1960s. By around 22:20, we finally arrived at our pension. London-Stansted-Basel-Interlaken-Lauterbrunnen-Gimmerwald. All it took was 13 hours from London Victoria to the heart of the Swiss Alps.

2_MORNING
A peaceful night in the timber chalet.
Next morning, we woke up at around 06:00. Out the window we watched the sky gradually brightened, and discovered the beauty of the surroundings - mountains, cliffs and waterfalls. At 07:00 we went out for a stroll and were exhilarated with the clear sky (a). Local farmers were already starting their days. Bell tone of goats and cows. And the sound of waterfalls and rapids. It had been so long since we last enjoyed such tranquility and freshness of the nature. After breakfast, at 08:30 we began our day-long journey into the mountains. We exited the village (b) and descended to the rapids below where glacial water continue to carve the river valley. A black cat with thick fur followed us from halfway, until we crossed the river that he finally gave up.


3_ASCEND
Our day's first challenge began immediately after the crossing. For the next two hours or so we wound through dense evergreen forest and continuously ascended up the mountain for about 500m in altitude (a). As the mist gradually cleared away in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, our morning excitement was overwhelmed by physical exhaustion (b). Though freshness of the air, fragrance of the soil and the sound of waterfalls made our bodies relax as ever. At occasional clearings we looked across the valley to the north, where the village of Gimmelwald appeared like a dozen tiny timber toy houses on a lush-green hillside (c). By comparing where we stood to the level of Gimmelwald, we tended to estimate roughly how far we had made uphill.