Sights of Killarney

Ross Castle on the shores of the lake

After our awesome day walk up Carrauntoohil we had the whole next day to spend checking out the sights of Killarney.  I have to say I do like Ireland, there are some nice spots.  They certainly like golf a lot, at least in this part of the country, but I'm not sure I even really saw a golf course.  Just an awful lot of golf memorabilia.

There were quite a few tourist sites around the place, excluding the national park (which was what we were really there for).  We saw Ross castle (didn't go inside - you could only do that with a tour guide).  It's this old ruined castle on the shores of a lake, I think it was actually built on an island, though it's not an island anymore.  There's not a lot of history to it, was built in the 15th century and at some point there was a siege of it, that's about it.  It looks very romantic though, this crumbling castle on the shores of the lake, surrounded by greenery.

The view towards Killarney National Park

Muckross Abbey

There was also the Muckross Abbey, again not a massive amount of history.  Built in the 1400's by Franciscan monks, then plundered by Cromwell's forces.  Again it's this romantic ruin, in the middle of a forest (I sense some trend here).  It's really very well preserved, for how long it has been abandoned.

Muckross House

Along with the abbey, there were also the Muckross House and gardens.  This seemed to be the main attraction of the area, the car park was massive.  Stonehenge car park had nothing on this place.  And yet the house itself wasn't particularly large.  Nice gardens though.  We couldn't see inside this place either as you could only go in with a tour group (again some sort of trend here with their tourist sites).

It's not particularly old, being built in 1843, it's meant to have something like 65 rooms, but I'm not sure they are all that big, given the size of the exterior.  Again not much to report about the house, it's been owned by a succession of really wealthy people, before eventually being gifted to the state.  It's definitely popular though, the cafe was maaasive.  And the gardens are nice and big, with lots of dogs running around.

Since we couldn't go inside the house we went to this working farm they have on site as well.  The farm is meant to be run using whatever would have been available in the 1930's, so there's these little houses, with no electricity or ovens or anything.  It's basically a chance to walk around and pat some animals.  It was a lot bigger than what you might have thought, it definitely wasn't just a petting zoo, but a proper farm.  Still a slightly odd tourist attraction.

Views across the lakes of Killarney

All around this area there were all these people with horse and carts.  It seemed that the traditional way for tourists to be transported was in a buggy.  I didn't see a lot of people partaking, some of the buggy drivers looked a little scary, and some of the horses looked a little mistreated.  It seemed like a lot of the jobs in this area were tied up with the tourist industry.  We were admiring the view across one of the lakes, and a really old guy came up to us and tried to get us to take a boat ride.  I wasn't so keen, I thought he was more likely to dump our bodies on some abandoned island.  I know Ireland has been going through some tough times lately, and it must be a pretty hard life at the moment, but if you want tourist dollars, perhaps tone down the crazy.

It's not to say I wouldn't be back, it's a really pretty area, and I would like to explore further in the hills.  I just don't think I'll be doing any pony trap rides anytime soon.

Swan Lake - Matthew Bourne

Rather than our usual Nutcracker, this Christmas we saw Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadler's Wells.  There were no new productions of the Nutcracker, at least without spending a lot of money on tickets.  So it was Swan Lake instead, and I have to say I was not disappointed.  It's not like this is a new production either, having been around since 1995, but I hadn't seen it before.

The music was great, as always, and Matthew Bourne never goes in for the full ballet experience.  I think it's ballet inspired contemporary dance.  Perhaps he's a gateway to the stricter ballet, since after seeing this one I am keen to see the full ballet.  He's changed the story around too, so it feels a bit more modern than the usual love story that most ballets/operas seem to have.

I knew the original story of Swam Lake (it's not particularly complex) and so was wondering how they were going to fit that in with the male swan, but it was done really well.  If you haven't seen it in the 18 years it's been running, I would make time for it, it's definitely worth it.

Killarney and the Top of Ireland

Dave at the start of the walk

After our week walking in Switzerland we were enthused for something a little harder.  The whole walking between hotels and not carrying any backpacks was nice, but we felt we could go a little harder.

The highest mountain in Ireland is in Killarney national park, in the south west of the country, near Cork.  It's Carrauntoohil, at 1038m high, and that is the relative height as well, since it's so close to the sea.

We planned a weekend adventure to Killarney to climb the might Carrauntoohil (don't ask me how that is pronounced).  We had the idea that we should try and climb the highest mountain in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.  Not that any of them are very high, the one in Scotland, Ben Nevis, is the highest, and that's only 1344m.  Basically if you are over 1000m you'll make it on to the wiki page of mountains in the British Isles.

Looking towards Carrauntoohil from Beenkeragh with the scary Beenkeragh ridge in front

The usual ascent is along Hag's Glen and then straight up Devil's Ladder (the name should give you some idea as to how steep that is).  But that sounded a little unpleasant, and short, to us.  It's weird that so many people walk that way, as an out and back, since this mountain lends itself to a great loop of a day walk.  In the first photo Carrauntoohil is hiding off to the back left.  But if you look to the right of that you see the ridge carries on.  What you have is this amazing ridge walk in a horseshoe above the lake behind Dave.  It's 15km long and you get to climb Ireland's three highest peaks in one go.  And you never have to retrace your steps.  Perfect.

About to climb Beenkeragh, our route so far was along the ridge in front of us

We started in bright sunshine, there wasn't much of a path for the first part of the horseshoe, it's just scrambling up a fairly rocky slope, gaining a lot of elevation pretty quickly.  About 30 minutes in we got caught in a torrential downpour.  The rain was literally coming in sideways, it was that windy.  The storm only lasted about 15 minutes but it was enough to be completely drenched.  Lucky this was back in summer, so we weren't going to freeze to death, we did have our raincoats on, it was just our boots and pants that were soaked.  It was quite incredible.  I only had one leg get wet because the rain was so horizontal.  It did mean our map was destroyed though.  Lucky the walk is incredibly easy navigationally wise.  Though it would have been pretty tricky in mist or cloud.  Only because there were sheer cliffs which could be easily missed.  And that would have ended badly.

The lake we were walking around the whole day - this is after we had summitted Carrauntoohil

This first section was probably the most unpleasant section of the whole walk, there was no track, the wind was incredible, at some points I had to crouch down to stop being blown over, and the rain had made the rocks like ice.  But the sun soon came out again and started to dry up the rocks.  In hindsight we were lucky that the rain hit us then, and not later in the day, since the route got seriously dicey in an hour or so.

Looking back at Beenkeragh ridge, we came over the ridge in the middle - and there is no path.

Once we had reached the top of the ridge, it's then a simple matter of keeping upwards in a gentle curve.  We reached the top of Beenkeragh, at 1010m it's the second highest mountain in Ireland. The route from the top of Beenkeragh to the base of the climb up Carrauntoohil was pretty scary. I think the snow walking in Switzerland was scarier, but I think if it had been windy, icy or wet then this section would have won that contest.  There was no path to speak of, just a knife edge of a ridge, covered in boulders, and sheer drops to either side.  Because there were so many rocks it actually made it easier though, since the whole way along you are just clinging to the rocks, so it's not so much walking, as crawling.  I wouldn't recommend that route unless you had a good head for heights and were a confident scrambler.  But it was definitely fun!  Though it did mean there were less photos from this section, since I needed both hands wrapped around rocks at all times.  If the storm and wind had hit us whilst we were crossing this section, I'm not sure what would have happened.  I think we would have ended up taking a lot longer, and there may have been a few tears shed.

Climbing Carrauntoohil - looking back at Beenkeragh mountain and the scary ridge

After traversing Beenkeragh ridge the rest of the walk was actually really easy.  I'm guessing the last half of the walk is what everyone else does.  On the first half we literally saw nobody, it was just us and the mountains.  Then you hit the main track and suddenly there were heaps of people.  The climb up Carrauntoohil was easy, though I have to say the route most other people took looked pretty unpleasant, the Devil's Ladder really did look vertical.  I much preferred our route, even with the scrambling.

Carrauntoohil and the ridge we came along to the left

 After Carrauntoohil the walk just keeps getting easier, we had one more climb up Caher, at 1001m it's the third highest mountain in Ireland, and then it's all downhill along the other side of the lake, back to our starting point.

I can't recommend this walk highly enough, it has everything you want from a great day walk, no back tracking, great views, easy navigation and a touch of danger.

Back at the lake, with the horseshoe in front, we walked from left to right.

Kandersteg

The sun rising over the valley

Kandersteg was a nice village to spend our last few days.  And it was lucky that there was the horse jumping carnival on, since there was daily free entertainment.  I watched the most horse jumping I have ever watched in my life.  It was a strange carnival, as I was expecting the standard to get better as the jumping progressed, I thought they would have different classes of jumper, you know beginners, children, masters that sort of thing.  But it actually seemed that everyone would just jump in all the events they could and since we watched so much of it, we got to recognise all the different jumpers.

I think the best event was a relay race, with horse rider and mountain biker.  The horse would go first and do a round of jumps and then they had to hand off to a biker, who had to cycle around and do their own version of mountain bike skills, so riding over see-saws and between poles that sort of thing.  That was their Friday night entertainment.

Horse jumping in Kandersteg

More impressive Swiss infrastructure

We also caught a bus up into the mountains, it was a pretty scary bus ride.  It was a single lane road, and when I say single lane, I mean if there were any walkers or cyclists on the road as well, they literally had to climb over the barriers so the bus could get past.  On one side you would have the cliff face, and on the other side was just a straight drop to the valley floor.  And this road was by no means straight, we are talking winding through tunnels and the like.  Scary stuff.

And that was our Swiss holiday, just a train ride back to Zurich and the plane home.  It was a great week, and has certainly inspired me to try a mountaineering course over the winter, to perhaps allow for some more winter walking.

Kandersteg - Walk to Frudenhutte

Dave over Oeschinensee

We spent a few days in Kandersteg, this was another very touristy town, almost as bad as Grindelwald, but they got extra points because there was a horse carnival the whole time we were there.  So that felt more local and less touristy.  I was glad for a few days rest in Kandersteg in the end.  It had been a tough week of walking, and I was definitely feeling it in my legs.  Our final real walk was up to an alpine hut and back, past Oeschinensee, which was an alpine lake that Kandersteg was famous for.

After all the walking we had done, this actually felt like quite an easy walk, though it was still 1000m up and down to the hut.  There was another great cable car ride to the start of the walk.  Almost from the centre of town to the lake, I was starting to see why Kandersteg is such a tourist town.

The shores of Oeschinensee and more mountains above

Approaching the lake

Walking up one side of Oeschinensee we could see the path we would have come down if we have gone over the pass on the previous day.  Since the pass was still covered in cloud, it was hard to see how difficult that route would have been.  I was almost tempted to try it to see whether we had made the correct decision in skipping that section, but then perhaps it's better not to know sometimes.

This was one of the better paths of the week, though it did get pretty scree-y up near the top.  Hardly any snow either, even though the hut was at 2500m.  It just goes to show what a difference the shape of the mountains and the direction they are facing make to how late the snow gathers.  Once we reached the hut we saw that the other side was just snow and ice all around.  But the side we had climbed up there was nothing, just bare rock.

A bull enjoying the views

Waterfall with snow

There were a lot of mountaineers we passed, going both up and down the mountain.  You could always tell them, they had unusual boots, much bigger than just hiking ones, and they looked like real blister formers.  There was also the permanent coils of rope and ice axes attached to their bags.  One set who were heading down as we were going up had blood on their faces, so I think the mountain had one in that encounter.

There was a bit of snow heading up, not much, and there were hardly any patches where we were actually walking through it.  But it was here that you really understood that you would want a good feel for snow before heading off.  There were patches where it looked really rotten.  The whole underside had melted away, but there was still a covering on top.  And if you had walked on it without realising you would have been plunged into a ravine with added river.

More flowers and the lake in the distance

Bridge crossing with Oeschinensee in the distance

This was probably the most popular walk we went on in the week.  There were quite a few people heading both up and down.  And when we got to the top there were quite a few groups around.  This was the first hut we had gone to that was actually properly open.  It was unbelievably luxurious.  Such a change from the huts in Australia and New Zealand.  The hut had a proper kitchen, where there were a couple of people on hand to cook you what you wanted.  Yes, there was a proper menu at 2500m.  Unbelievable.  So it was hot soup and rosti before the walk back down.  I don't think we ever went into calorie deficit the whole week.  You could even buy chocolate bars and iced tea.  And the thing was they weren't even that expensive, for where the food was.  You would think transport costs would have to be factored into the price, but it seems like that wasn't an issue.

The view from the hut. The tiny specks in the front left are people 

A rough section here.  There is a path somewhere in there

We sat out the back of the hut in the full sun watching the mountaineers come down off this massive mountain to the left.  You can see our view in the photo above.  The mountain everyone was coming down was the one on the left.  And you have to remember we are already at 2500m where this photo was taken, and that mountain was a lot higher than where we were.  The people were completely dwarfed by the landscape.  It looked pretty full-on what they were attempting, but it seemed that's just a weekend's walking for the Swiss.

As we were walking down after stuffing ourselves with rosti, we realised how these huts were stocked with food.  There was a helicopter buzzing around for the rest of the afternoon, it must have been visiting all the huts in the vicinity.  You would want to be a good pilot, as I don't think they even land, there certainly didn't look like enough room for that.  It looked like they would just lower a cable and the people on the ground would hook up the rubbish and get the new deliveries.  That's got to be an inefficient way to stock the huts, but if it meant that I can eat chocolate bars at 2500m I'm not complaining.  I wonder what a hut like that would have been like to sleep in, I didn't see the sleeping quarters, it looked a little snug, but then I trust the Swiss to be able to do mountain huts well.

The luxurious hut

Even the toilets were amazing, full on flushing toilets with electric lights.  You wouldn't even know you were halfway up a mountain.  There were no signs of composting toilets here.  I wonder what Swiss campers think of the facilities made available to them in Australia, that's got to be a bit of a shock.

It was coolish at the hut, but as we dropped back down into the valley and the lake, things started to heat up again, all that bare, dark rock.  Once down at the lake, Dave even braved the water.  It looked a little too bracing for me.  But the water was lovely and clear.  You can't beat an alpine lake for clarity.

Best toilets in such a remote location, electric lights and flushing.

A long way above the lake here

Dave near the top, with more scree

Dave and the lake

Murren to Griesalp to Kandersteg

Looking towards Reichenbach at the bottom of the valley

This is going to be two walks in one, since the two walks were actually quite similar.  The first, from Murren to Griesalp was an early start, since there was a lot of travel ahead of us before we could even start walking.  We had to take the train from Murren back to the cable car, where we had come up the day before, then down the cable car to Lauterbrunnen, then a train to Interlaken then another train to Reichenbach.  The train to Reichenbach unfortunately got delayed.  The first and only hiccup on our whole trip.  I think someone had got hit somewhere, so fair enough really that their trains were a bit out of whack.

Marshy lake near Griesalp

We were meant to have walked directly from Murren to the next night at Griesalp, but a 2600m pass which was incredibly steep and covered in metres of snow didn't really sound too enticing.  It was too bad though, since that high pass walk would have been one of the best of the holiday I think.

The guest house at Griesalp

Instead it was a much lower down walk along a valley.  I kind of got the feeling if that we couldn't have done the high pass, that we should have spent a night somewhere other than Griesalp, since the walking was definitely not as good as the first few days.

Walking back along the valley towards Kandersteg

It was more of a Heidi feeling with this days walk, lower down, much less steep hills and a lot greener.  This was also the day where my feet really peaked in their pain levels.  I was seriously worried today that we would have to take drastic action, meaning more of a train holiday, rather than amputations.  That's probably why there are hardly any photos of this leg, since I was just in constant pain.  Every step was like walking on lava, and you have to make the decision, do I walk slower, and take more steps, but then each step hurts less, or do I walk faster, so take fewer steps, but they all hurt more.  It was a hard one to decide.  Again there were no blisters, so I'm not sure what was causing it, I don't know if I should get different boots or what.

Looking back towards the mountains, I think our pass is off to the left

We probably had the worst weather of the whole trip on this day, apart from the hail storm on the way to Wengen we had been pretty lucky.  Here the rain came in just after lunch and we basically walked through clouds for the rest of the day.  This was also the only day where we had to carry an overnight pack, since there was no train station at Griesalp.  It was more of a guest house than a hotel, no locks on the door and shared bathrooms.  But since there was only one other woman there, who arrived late, it was more of a private bathroom for myself.  This was by far the most isolated place we stayed at, which had it's own pluses, but then the owners were also the most strange of all we had met, so that was a bit of a negative.

We did speak to some people who had come over the pass we had avoided that day, and they said it was pretty tough and that the snow was metres deep.  And they were Swiss, so I didn't feel so bad about skipping that walk.  It was overnight at this guest house that my feet then mysteriously stopped hurting.  I mean they still got a bit sore at the end of the day, but they no longer kept me up at night with their aching.  Maybe I have permanently damaged some nerve endings or something.  But hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth really.

The next day was also meant to be a high pass, but again the owners at the guest house just said no way, don't even think about it.  So there wasn't much discussion around doing that one in the end.  Again it would have been nice to have been able to do these high passes.  I'm thinking there's going to have to be a mountaineering course somewhere in our future, just because there is so much snow and the mountains are so high, and I don't want to keep missing them.

Valley river

I think we should also go a bit later in the season next time.  Early July is too early to be sure of clear passes.  Of course the advantage with early July was that it was still cool when you got down lower in the valleys.  I have a feeling August could be too hot when you are down low.  Perhaps early September instead is the best time.  Best of both worlds.

The next day was our final hotel-to-hotel walk, to Kandersteg, where we were going to spend a few days.  Since there was no train station in Griesalp, it was back along the same valley for us.  At least the weather was nicer.  And it was here, at a restaurant in the mountains, that we finally came across someone who couldn't speak English.  We had to do the whole pointing at the menu to get something to eat.  There's something so nice about walking hard in the morning, but then stopping for some iced tea and a massive rosti for lunch, before finishing off the afternoon.  It really was so luxurious.

One slightly cool thing here was we were walking along a valley which was known for it's cuckoos.  And we actually got to hear one.  We didn't really see much fauna on our whole trip, I'm not sure why that is, I think you have to camp if you really want to see wildlife.  Maybe next time.

Valley of the cuckoos

Mountain Views to Murren

The Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau in a line

This was a much shorter day, after two massive days my feet were killing me.  It's weird, I didn't get any blisters but the soles of my feet got so sore over the first 4 days, and then suddenly on the 5th day it was like they suddenly realised that this wasn't going to end, and then they were fine again.  I'm just glad they eventually fixed themselves up, otherwise it could have been a very long, painful holiday.

The town of Lauterbrunnen, Murren was on the plateau above

Whilst the day's walk was much shorter, it still started with a killer of a downhill.  We had to drop from Wengen down to Lauterbrunnen, a 500m drop in maybe 3km.  Punishing on the knees.  Though I guess at least we were going downhill.  At Lauterbrunnen we had two choices, we could have either walked along the valley before climbing up to Murren, or catch another cable car and then walk along the plateau before dropping down to Murren.  Since the second option was titled "The Mountain View trail" I didn't think we could go wrong.  Plus it would have saved us from an 800m climb at the end of the day.

This cable car was even more impressive than the one to First on the first day.  It was huge, you could fit maybe 60-80 people inside, plus dogs and bikes.  Incredible!  Though still had the freaky pole feel along the way.

If we were feeling really lazy we could have actually caught the train from the cable car all the way to Murren, that would have been a super easy day.  Even though my feet were really complaining we were on a walking holiday, and it feels better to get to your hotel after walking most of the way, rather than just catching trains.

The village of Wengen, we had approached from the right at the base of the ridge

More flowers

They weren't lying when they said it was the mountain view trail, almost the whole way along you could see the Jungfrau and Monch.  It was time to really soak up the views since we knew this would be our last day in this valley.  It was fun being able to see your route from yesterday, where you came over the ridge.  And even further back to our walk on the first day, that ridgeline was still visible for a bit in the morning.

This was the busiest of all the walks we did, we actually saw other people on the route for a start.  The village of Murren basically has no cars, mainly golf buggies if they have anything.  So everyone has to arrive by either walking or catching the train.  It was definitely my most favourite village of all the ones we stayed at.

It had a really hippy feel to it, and it felt like if you were a vegetarian this would probably have been the only place where you might have been able to get a proper meal.

Cows with the Monch and Jungfrau

Our next days walk was to Griesalp and there were going to be 2 routes.  Either via Sefinenfurke, a 2612m pass, or with a train, cable car, train, train then walk from Reichenbach.  At the hotel that night they were fairly positive that it could be done, but then we don't have the same snow experience that other people in Switzerland have.  I had checked out some of the photos of this pass before heading to Switzerland, and it looked pretty scary, even without any snow.  Basically vertical scree slopes, with chains hanging from walls.  We bought some poles, and then we made the mistake of going to speak to the national parks officer.  This guy was the furthest from positive you could hope to be without explicitly stating don't do it.  Apparently there were only 3 or 4 people going over the pass at that time.  I would have done it if there were lots of people going, then the path would have been stamped in, but with so few going, and it had only been "open" 3 days at that point, I didn't want to risk it.  That would have been a nightmare, walking all the way up there, only to be confronted with a sea of ice and snow, really slick and almost vertical, and having to keep going to get to the next hotel.  We were still on holiday after all.

The poles though were one of my best decisions, I can't believe how good they were.  I'm going to use them on every walk from now on.  Now when I see people climbing up hills without them, I want to stop them and say, what are you doing? Go out right now and buy some poles.  My favourite piece of gear by far.

Wengen - or the highest railway station in Europe

Underneath the Eiger

The next day it was time to walk to our next hotel.  That was it for Grindelwald, it was on to Wengen, at 1300m we would be sleeping a bit higher tonight.  But first there was a long days walk ahead of us.  We had noticed the previous day that the morning was pure blue skies but by the time the afternoon had rolled round the clouds were gathering.  So we thought it best to try and get an early start today to try and take advantage of the clear skies and views in the morning.

It was still a long hot morning, starting at 1000m in Grindelwald, we had to get to Kleine Scheidegg at 2061m first.  On the way there we also passed Alpiglen, for those who are interested in the Eiger summits, this is where most people camped before attempting the climb.  And Kleine Scheidegg was where people would watch through telescopes as the climbers died as they tried.  The whole morning was spent walking under the north face of the Eiger.  It's almost impossible to get a sense of scale, it's just so incredibly big.  It is standing another 2000m above you at this point and those sorts of vertical distances just seem so hard to judge.

Our walk the day before

Looking down to Grindelwald

This was probably the hottest I've been through the whole week, it was just this never-ending uphill over 6km climbing 1000m.  We could see across the Grindelwald valley to where we had walked the day before, even catching a glimpse (we think) of our lunch spot.  This was a much easier walk than the day before, and also a lot greener.  It's hard to capture but all the wildflowers were out.  It was not so much meadows that you were walking through, but more carpets of flowers.

The flower explosion

Again there were hardly any other people on the trail.  We kept leapfrogging with one cyclist, he would have to go round the switchbacks and we would take the more direct route along the path.  It seemed like we had reached the gradient where it was quicker to walk.  He would pass us when we would stop for a drink, but then we would overtake him later on.  Though he would have got down the other side of Kleine Scheidegg much faster than us.

The Eiger in blazing sunlight

When you arrive at Kleine Scheidegg it's a bit of a central train station, which is a bit bizarre since nobody lives here.  It's literally just restaurants and some hotels.  But there are 3 lines ending here, so it was all really busy.  We did take the train from here, it was the train up to the Jungfraujoch.  This is the train line that goes through the Eiger, there are 2 viewing stations on the way up and these are where various rescue attempts were launched for people dying on the climb up.  The trip takes an hour up, which is pretty long, but that includes various halts to let trains going the other way go past.  Jungfraujoch is also at 3454m, so there is a fair elevation gain for the little train.

Jungfraujoch

On the other side of Kleine Scheidegg

Again it was a bit of a shock to us, since this is seriously touristy, compared to walking through wildflowers with nobody around.  Being surrounded by so many people who were losing their minds over the snow was a bit of a shock to the system.  I would recommend taking the trip up though, it's expensive but you don't get many chances to get that high, not without a few years of mountaineering practise and a serious amount of gear.  It is a completely different world that high.  And you are right between the Jungfrau and the Monch, they are only about 500m further above you, which at that point doesn't look that high at all.

The unbelievable north face of the Eiger, looking all the way down to the walking paths below

The ice palace with strange sculptures

The stops along the way are amazing too, you get a real sense of how inhospitable the north face of the Eiger is. It's just a sheer drop thousands of metres, it's incredible people even managed to climb it in the first place, or that they now do it in a bit over 2 hours!  The launching of rescue expeditions from this point must have also been something else, since I'm not sure how you even get the first foothold in.  You also get a feel for how the weather conditions are actually different here.  It's hard to appreciate in Grindewald or walking around, since the sun is blazing, and there isn't a cloud in the sky.  But stopping off at this gallery, you can see that it is in total shadow, and what's more there was just a constant fall of rain, though I suppose it was more the melting snow from above.

Those tiny black dots are actually people heading off down the glacier

Dave at Jungfraujoch

I love that when they started constructing this railway all the way back in 1896, they had the forethought to provide these little intermediate gallery points.  And you think at the time the Swiss government is building the highest railway station in Europe, Sydney was struggling to build a few metropolitan lines.

When you get to the final station you can tell there has been a lot of thought put into containing the tourists.  It's not a normal train station with just an open platform.  Instead it feels a bit like a survival dome built on another planet.  They really try to corral you inside.  I can only imagine the troubles if they just let the tourists wander around where ever they wanted up there.  I guess the Swiss guides would probably get a lot of rescue practise in at least.

So they try and have other little attractions for you, rather than getting outside.  There is this weird mural section, which you travel past on escalator, then there is an ice palace, which are these rooms all made of ice, with ice sculptures. There is also a movie and a little on the history of the construction.  An awful lot of people died whilst building it, the labour relations were pretty bad back then.

More flowers on the way to Wengen

Whilst we were up there we actually spotted a couple of teams of people heading off down the valley.  I'm not sure how long it would take them to reach civilisation from that far up, but it looked like it would have been a lot of fun.  Too bad I don't have any snow skills.

A rougher path than the morning - with the clouds building

The trip from Kleine Scheidegg onto Wengen was a bit of fun, as soon as you leave the train at Kleine you are again completely alone, the trail was a bit wilder in the afternoon as well.  The clouds really started building at this point.  This was the only day we got rained on, at one point it was actually hail, that was a pretty bizarre experience.  It wasn't cold and we were at maybe 1400m, so not high, and the rain suddenly went to little hailstones, before turning to bigger ones and really hammering down.  Luckily it only lasted about 5 minutes, and that my raincoat is quite thick. 

Total walk 18.5km, total ascent 1100m, total descent 850m.

How Swiss is this!