Interlaken Area - Day 2

Today we were out the door by 6.45 so we could use our 'good morning' discounted tickets up to Jungfrujoch which is the saddle between 4000m peaks and calls itself the 'top of Europe'.  The discount was worth taking because a) it was soooooooo expensive and b) it made it a bit quieter, at least when we first got there.  The journey was half of the experience- we drove to Lauterbrunnen - a very popular amazing looking swiss town deep in a valley. Took a train up (and it really was UP) to another station, then another train up again to the top station.  From there we could do the 'discovery tour' and walk around and outside and see some ice sculptures and learn a little bit about the history of building the railway and also buy as many expensive watches as we wanted (we felt a little bombarded by expensive shops actually). We could resist the $3000 watches but we couldn't resist the highest lindt shop in the world! Due to our discount tickets we also had an extra hour than we really needed up there, so we took it really slow and did a couple of laps of the tour and spent some time outside.  

The trip down was much busier but still a lot of fun. Back in Lauterbrunnen we took a quick walk around the town but it was pretty packed with tourists and we were tired so we didn't stay too long.

One thing that is obvious each time I come to Europe is that the things that are spectacular and easy to do (like Lauterbrunnen), are probably going to be too busy to really enjoy, while the things that take a bit of work to get to (maybe by booking a parking spot and getting up really early like we did at Tre Cime), or a bit of sweat (like all our hikes) are the absolute best as they just aren't heaving with masses of tourists (and I acknowledge we are part of the problem in these areas of course).  Orienteering is such a great activity to do to really experience different places as we generally aren't in tourist hotspots but we get to do really cool things and see lots of stuff we wouldn't otherwise.  I think I'm more and more averse to these hot spots unless it's possible to get in and out really early or late in the day when it's less busy

I'll end this post with a couple of photos of our accommodation. We're upstairs in the very swiss style house - it's spacious but the ceiling is really really low - making Jett look like a bit of a giant as he moves around..