Highs and Lows of Switzerland

We arrived into Zurich shrouded in low lying cloud and drizzle on a late Monday afternoon. Following the hustle and bustle of the banking city to we arrived at the Hotel Otter for a one night stay. If anyone must stay in Zurich this is the place to stay, we had a crazy themed Japanese room, the internet was free, they provided croissants for breakfast and most importantly there was a popular local pub on the ground floor. The only drawback was shared bathroom facilities, but if you had the “hover” technique mastered these were quite bearable (Helen would like to point out that I’ve never hovered in my life). We ate out at a popular Swiss restaurant that night, Restaurant Weiser Wind, where a non-smoking table “would be difficult to find”, the goulash was amazing and I highly recommend it. We checked out of Hotel Otter at midday the next day and moved a few blocks down to the Zic Zac Hotel (now referred to as the Shit Shack). When checking in we were told that our booked room had been closed (we didn’t ask why) and we had been downgraded to another room. What a warm welcome that was…pause…not! The room was pretty shit. Then the rain started again, hampering our efforts to escape the Shit Shack. We succumbed and bought an umbrella so we could get amongst it. The next day was a much better improvement, we got up early and took a bus to the Rhinefalls the biggest waterfall in Europe where 700 cubic meters of water passes through it every second. That night, after much organising and missed calls, we met up with Silvana! It was so much fun reminiscing over her year in NZ and having a good old catchup.

Thursday came and we boarded the train for Interlaken, the train ride was spectacular with beautiful views of green mountains with little hillside villages and blue lakes. We arrived into an overcast Interlaken and checked in to the Rugenpark B&B. This was by far the friendliest accommodation we have had since leaving, we were greeted by Ursula who sorted us out and recommended we travel to the Trummelbach falle in the Lauterbrunnen valley. The waterfalls were inside a mountain and were fed by the highest peaks in Switzerland; the Monch (4107m), the Eiger (3970m) and the elusive Jungfrau (4158m). Walking along the Lauterbrunnen valley we came across the Conitki base camp, ah the fond memories of drinking too much. As we headed to the train station to get back to Interlaken we heard a flapping noise from above, quick instincts warned us to look up and when we did there was a guy falling from a cliff directly for us! He released his parachute 50m from the ground and gently floated onto a paddock, we had a brief chat to him and he seemed like a normal French guy, no nervous twitches or crazy eyes, then he packed up his chute and walked off for another jump. He had done 3 - 4 jumps that day of 450 metres…crazy. We went to bed with our fingers crossed that the clouds would lift. When we woke it was still overcast, alas no Jungfrau trip on this holiday, Helen got lucky too, she was going to get her head buried in snow if we made it up there. We went white water rafting instead, the company we went with was run by Kiwis so it felt just like Queenstown. There were some good rapids, and a lot of spills (some on purpose). The water was freezing cold - being only 2 hours off the glacier! I don’t think Helen paddled once, she was too busy holding on. That afternoon our guide Tony told us that we should hike up the top of the Harder Kulm (1322m) for some great views - we bailed on that idea and took the cable car up and walked back down. We nearly regretted walking down - an hour and a half of steep downhill started to take it’s toll. Our leaving day came quickly and the clouds had to lift when we had run out of time. Poos. Goodbye Jungfrau, we will be seeing you again (if i keep my promise to Helen).