2011 Switzerland - Austria Trip

In 2011, Jeff and Theo spent three days in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, three more in Samnaun, Switzerland, and seven days in Soelden, Austria, along with a final day in Zurich, Switzerland. Although it was July, we never experienced summer weather on this vacation. We had rain on eleven of our fourteen days, did one hike during a snow storm and had maybe ten hours of sunshine the whole time. Despite the lack of sun, the vacation was terrific. Hiking in cold, damp weather is not bad at all, if maybe a little slippery sometimes.

This first picture is a view of Lauterbrunnen and the massive granite walls that surround it. Many visitors are reminded of Yosemite, except for the presence of the town in the valley. Some of Lauterbrunnen's charm is dulled a bit by the presence of too many American visitors - so many that the prevailing language seems to be English.



We stayed in a small apartment in one of the homes in Lauterbrunnen. This is a view from our balcony. We shared an interesting late afternoon on the balcony, conversing with a young British couple from the apartment next door. The primary topic was not the beauty of Lauterbrunnen but rather the disfunctionality of American politics and our growing national debt.

On our first full day in Lauterbrunnen, we joined some French friends (Jeanne and Francis Jerome who had come to Lauterbrunnen to see us) on a train ride up to Wengen, which is a car-less town sitting above the granite walls. From Wengen we took a gondola up to the top of Maennlichen, about 7000 feet above sea level. Here's a view back down the valley from Maennlichen.

[Note: you can enlarge these pictures by double-clicking on them. Use the back arrow to return to the blog.]

This is a view from Maennlichen, looking toward Jungfrau (the top of which is almost 13,000 feet.)

None of our climbs during this trip took us up higher than about 10,000 feet.

This is a view of the north face of the Eiger, as seen from Maennlichen gipfel - the highest point on the mountain.

This is a view back down toward Grindelwald and one of the lakes at Interlaken. The haze was substantial, but the view was still fabulous.

Another view of the Eiger.

From Maenlichen, we hiked along the sides of mountains to Kleine Scheidegg, which is where much of Clint Eastwood's movie, The Eiger Sanction, was filmed. Here's a view back to Kleine Scheidegg from along the ridge of the Lauberhorn mountain. Shortly after this photo, it began to rain. We eventually dragged ourselves into a huette at Station Wengernalp for soup and salad, then trudged on down through the rain to Wengen, where we took the train back down to Lauterbrunnen.

Here are Theo, Francis and Jeanne on the way from Kleine Scheidegg. Narrow path, rain, spectacular views of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - or at least parts of them, since it was cloudy.

This is a view of Wengen as we hiked into town from the mountain.

On the morning of the second day, it was raining quite hard. So Francis, Jeanne and we visited the mostly internal Trummelbach waterfall, which was formed by glacier waters carving their way down through the granite walls above Lauterbrunnen. Here's just one of many sections in which you can see the water working its way through the walls. Beautiful!





After the falls, the rain had mitigated and we decided to drive to Stechelberg for an easy hike. Or least Francis said it wasn't too tough. We spent the afternoon climbing up narrow, rocky paths from about 2800 feet at Stechelberg to a huette at about 8400 feet. We had something to drink and then headed back down. The climb down took three hours, as we had to step down from rock to rock, scramble over tree roots, cross six or seven small waterfalls, and traverse along several creeks that formed as the rain came down harder. Nonetheless, this turned out to be a gorgeous hike, as the next few pictures will attest. Also, at the end we ate some fantastic "blue" trout in a restaurant in Stechelberg - the best meal we had on this trip. Well worth the effort to get there....

A peak through the clouds ....

Francis, Theo and Jeanne climbing up from Stechelberg.

A look across the valley, as the clouds worked their way upward.

A look back down to a huette where we had eaten lunch.

Theo, Francis and Jeanne crossing some of the rocks....

Another peak, as the sun came out ....

One of our favorite photos ....

Back in Lauterbrunnen, another view from our apartment....

After three days, we drove across eastern Switzerland to the small village of Samnaun, famed as being a duty-free haven for shoppers. We took full advantage by buying a few
pounds of Swiss chocolate and a few gallons of gasoline. Most of the prices for jewelry, watches, perfume and other items were still outrageous, given the strength of the Swiss franc.


This a view somewhere in the mountains between Zurich and Samnaun. Did I mention it was cold....?

Our first walk in Samnaun was to hike to the top of Palinkopf, which was up about 8400 feet. It was a tough uphill climb through treeless mountains, but the huette on top would have been worth the effort - if there'd actually been one up there. Unfortunately, Jeff hadn't bothered to check before the hike. So, at the top we ate a little bread and water we had packed, then came back down.

Here's a wood carving from along the route.

Here's Theo, near the top of Palinkopf, resting while we decided which way to go. About 40 degrees, windy and light rain ....

This is a view back down toward Samnaun from Palinkopf.

At about this point, we met a Swiss couple and had a long conversation about Samnaun, American politics again, and nationalities in general. Nice people - which is what makes a vacation special.

On the second day in Samnaun, we took a bahn up to Alp Trider Sattel, then did some hiking around the mountain trails up there.


That's Samnaun, down in the valley, just to the right of and below the cables.

It was kind of rocky up on the mountain. Here's Theo working her way through some of the boulders on her way up toward the buildings on the mountain. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and we were a bit tired, so we eventually abandoned this particular route and went a different way.






When it started to rain hard, we hopped on a covered chairlift to go back down to the bahn. Of course, we couldn't get the chairlift cover to come down, so we sort of got soaked. Again.

Here's Theo, waiting for the bahn to take her back down the mountain to Samnaun. She looks a little happier than she did on the chairlift.












After three days in Samnaun, we drove about an hour and a half into Austria to our hotel in Soelden. As they did last year, the hotel people gave us a nice upgrade to a larger suite. For some reason, they like us ....

We did a lot of hiking above Soelden.

Here are Jeff and Theo on a hike sponsored by the hotel. It started with a brief hike to Gampa Thaya for breakfast, then a hike up toward a glacier, then across a mountain for a couple of hours to Sonneck for lunch, and then back down some grassy ski trails. We were joined in the hike by several families, including our friends from Belgium from last year (Filip, Sanne, Simon and Kaat) and some new friends from Germany (Olaf, Ranja and Nikolas).

This is a view of the glacier, as we hiked toward it along the valley walls.

Here are Christoph Holzknecht (our guide), Simon, Filip, Kaat, Sanne and Theo.

This is part of the trek down the grassy ski slopes.










Theo took a rest on one of the days in Soelden, so Jeff hopped on a bahn and went to the top of Gaislachkogel (about 10,000 feet.) Tough to breathe ....

This is the cross on the top of the mountain.

Here's a view from the top toward Karleskogel.













In the afternoon we went into Innsbruck, where Theo bought a nice leather bag. The smell of the chemicals used in tanning the bag's leather will stay with us forever.

Here's Theo at the Marktplatz along the river in Innsbruck.

This lady in Innsbruck fascinated Theo. She is a live person, doing an impression of a statue. However, whenever anyone drops money in a basket near the little dog, the "statue" changes position. It's a way to earn a living, I guess.

On one of the rainy days in Soelden, Jeff took a hike on his own up to Windachalm, then over to Brunnerbergalm, then back down to Soelden.

Here's a view from Fiegl's auf der Windachalm, up toward Gaiskogel.

Here's another view back down toward Soelden, from near Brunnerbergalm.









Our last guided hike from Soelden began in Obergurgl and worked its way up to Schoenwieshuette. Christoph again led us, and Olaf, Nikolas and Ranja came with us. On the way down, Theo, Olaf, Ranja and Nikolas took a bahn, but Christoph and Jeff ran down the mountain and were waiting on a bench when the bahn arrived. Who says Jeff's not in shape?

This is a view back toward Obergurgl (gee, it looks like it's raining).

Here's Christoph and Theo smiling for the camera.

On this hike, we saw a number of the famous Austrian golden horses, pasturing high up in the mountains. Here's Ranja, Christoph, Olaf and Nikolas (getting a ride), heading over to pet one of the horses.










We've blogged before about the great hotel (Castello Falkner) that we stay in in Soelden. Here's an early morning view of the courtyard.

On our last day in Soelden, Theo and Jeff took a hike that started in Niederthai (pictured here) and worked its way up a valley to Larstig Alm.

On the way back, we stopped at a waterfall and asked an Austrian hiker to take a picture of us. He managed to get us, but not the waterfall. I guess waterfalls are no big deal to an Austrian.

Another view of Niederthai as we came back from Larstig Alm. Beautiful little town ....












After Niederthai, we took a bahn up to the Panorama restaurant in Hoch Oetz, ate some lunch, took the bahn back down and then drove to Piburger See, pictured here.

There was a surprising amount of activity on this little secluded lake - boaters, fishermen, ducks. There were also bugs, which we didn't experience much anywhere else on this trip. Maybe it was the cold, wind and rain - but it was great to be outside and not to have to worry about bugs!






We couldn't get out of the hotel in Soelden without some pictures with the hotel personnel. The one below is with Daniela Costa, the Reception Manager - the nice lady who gives us the upgrades each year. She is half Italian and half Spanish, which, I imagine, is why she gets along so well with Theo. You never know what language they might be using at any given time.

Well, that's the trip. We have about 170 more pictures from this vacation. Stop in sometime and you can view them on our 52-inch TV, where you can get a much better sense of the beauty of both Switzerland and Austria.

Until next year ....