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What I Did On My Holiday, By Amy, Age 32
Aug. 9th, 2020 08:23 pmGrindlewald and surrounds, 3-6 August
Day 1: dragged self, Tom Binh pack, and wheely trolley of foodstuffs, to Chalet-Hotel Bodenwald, which is also the 'Camping Eigernordwand' site. In non-corona times they have a kiosk, a restaurant, and a bar, quite a nicely contained set-up: about ten min on foot from Grindlewald Grund station. My route took me to Interlaken, where I changed to the regional line - owned by the Jungfrau Railways company, who also operate the tourist rack railways in that area. Train splits about twenty minutes from Interlaken, taking you to either Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald. Then there's a wishbone-shaped rack railway from either of those places (opposite sides of a mountain) to Kleine Scheidigg, and from there the train up through the Jungfrau to the glacier. I did not take these routes, because although there's a super good value 'coronapass' for swiss residents this summer, a lot of time in tunnels (both the train tunnel and the glacier tourist tunnels) with half of switzerland taking advantage of that pass didn't strike me as Coronasafe TM. Grund IS, however, the first stop on the Grindelwald arm of the Wengernalp route, so I did get to go on its steep rack-rail down from the village to the river.
Hotel operator had misread the booking.com form and thought I had booked two rooms instead of one; I spent some time trying to get on to booking.com help centre to resolve this.
Discovered hotel room had a huge bath, so I trooped off (on foot, the long way around, in the rain) to the village to buy cheap shower gel, desserts, and perishable food supplies. Given the rain, I wanted fondue, but crowded restaurants with closed terrasses also didn't sound wise. Instead I ate chocolate mousse in a bubble bath, and made pilaf. Listened to some of Unwell, started reading A House In The Country.
Day 2: cold, rainy. Called Shiny; stayed in. This counts as a relaxing holiday because the hotel wasn't plagued by landscaping noises, unlike my flat. Read, listened to podcasts.
Day 3: Made myself two servings of wombok salad for two day's worth of picnic lunch. Set off into town, obtaining coffee and a trekking pole on the way to my destination. Took the First cable gondola up to First; hiked from there out to Bachalpsee. The route is a mountain bike trail most of the way, so graded and very easy going, but it still took me longer than the signposts said, and I was glad of the trekking pole. Backalpsee, which is is quintessentially Alpine it's in the Google 'alpine' backdrop theme set, was very pretty: some people were swimming, while there was me in jeans, a compression vest, t-shirt and light jumper. I did push the sleeves up, and got quite a sunburn. Saw many cows; particularly enjoyed the live commentary offered by a group of middle aged English women on the persistent efforts of one young bull to press his suit upon uninterested lady cows.
The cable car broke down on my way down and we were evacuated at Bort. Choice of walking down (about an hour) or waiting for a bus. They HAD a mini-bus branded with the cable car company brand, but didn't seem to be putting passengers from the orderly queue in it (some people, yes, but not people from the queue). There was a lot of waiting for a municipal minibus to come, and be dangerously over-filled with people. I rode down the mountain standing, balancing myself on the roof with my arms, and balancing a little old lady -who was making distressed whimpers and sliding sideways - with my thigh. This was not very Corona safe, but also just... not very safe???
I picked up sugar in town, in order to sweeten the pancake mix I had pre-made and forgotten to sweeten. Pancakes and ice cream were consumed, by me. Dinner I had in town, as it was sunny and the terrasses were open. I was hoping for fondue, but the place I found that still had terrasse space wasn't doing fondue in summer (fair). A delicious steak was an acceptable consolation.
Day 4: Packed up my stuff, checked out without having to dispute my booking again, and proceeded down to Interlaken. Put my luggage in the lockers, and then had a picnic lunch by the Aare canal. From there back up the line to Wilderswil, where I changed to the Schynigeplattebahn, a rack-railway that goes to, well, Schynige Platte. A nice long ridge with great views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. More hiking around here, too, but I was tired, so I limited myself to ambling around the alpine botanic garden they have up there, before coming back down.
On return home I scrubbed the fridge, and tore a nail so far back it bled while unpacking, and then went crash.
Friday, Sat Sun... ugh I'll update you later. Holiday was worth it, but the tail end where I keep trying to re-energise myself for being a Productive Adult is less fun.
Day 1: dragged self, Tom Binh pack, and wheely trolley of foodstuffs, to Chalet-Hotel Bodenwald, which is also the 'Camping Eigernordwand' site. In non-corona times they have a kiosk, a restaurant, and a bar, quite a nicely contained set-up: about ten min on foot from Grindlewald Grund station. My route took me to Interlaken, where I changed to the regional line - owned by the Jungfrau Railways company, who also operate the tourist rack railways in that area. Train splits about twenty minutes from Interlaken, taking you to either Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald. Then there's a wishbone-shaped rack railway from either of those places (opposite sides of a mountain) to Kleine Scheidigg, and from there the train up through the Jungfrau to the glacier. I did not take these routes, because although there's a super good value 'coronapass' for swiss residents this summer, a lot of time in tunnels (both the train tunnel and the glacier tourist tunnels) with half of switzerland taking advantage of that pass didn't strike me as Coronasafe TM. Grund IS, however, the first stop on the Grindelwald arm of the Wengernalp route, so I did get to go on its steep rack-rail down from the village to the river.
Hotel operator had misread the booking.com form and thought I had booked two rooms instead of one; I spent some time trying to get on to booking.com help centre to resolve this.
Discovered hotel room had a huge bath, so I trooped off (on foot, the long way around, in the rain) to the village to buy cheap shower gel, desserts, and perishable food supplies. Given the rain, I wanted fondue, but crowded restaurants with closed terrasses also didn't sound wise. Instead I ate chocolate mousse in a bubble bath, and made pilaf. Listened to some of Unwell, started reading A House In The Country.
Day 2: cold, rainy. Called Shiny; stayed in. This counts as a relaxing holiday because the hotel wasn't plagued by landscaping noises, unlike my flat. Read, listened to podcasts.
Day 3: Made myself two servings of wombok salad for two day's worth of picnic lunch. Set off into town, obtaining coffee and a trekking pole on the way to my destination. Took the First cable gondola up to First; hiked from there out to Bachalpsee. The route is a mountain bike trail most of the way, so graded and very easy going, but it still took me longer than the signposts said, and I was glad of the trekking pole. Backalpsee, which is is quintessentially Alpine it's in the Google 'alpine' backdrop theme set, was very pretty: some people were swimming, while there was me in jeans, a compression vest, t-shirt and light jumper. I did push the sleeves up, and got quite a sunburn. Saw many cows; particularly enjoyed the live commentary offered by a group of middle aged English women on the persistent efforts of one young bull to press his suit upon uninterested lady cows.
The cable car broke down on my way down and we were evacuated at Bort. Choice of walking down (about an hour) or waiting for a bus. They HAD a mini-bus branded with the cable car company brand, but didn't seem to be putting passengers from the orderly queue in it (some people, yes, but not people from the queue). There was a lot of waiting for a municipal minibus to come, and be dangerously over-filled with people. I rode down the mountain standing, balancing myself on the roof with my arms, and balancing a little old lady -who was making distressed whimpers and sliding sideways - with my thigh. This was not very Corona safe, but also just... not very safe???
I picked up sugar in town, in order to sweeten the pancake mix I had pre-made and forgotten to sweeten. Pancakes and ice cream were consumed, by me. Dinner I had in town, as it was sunny and the terrasses were open. I was hoping for fondue, but the place I found that still had terrasse space wasn't doing fondue in summer (fair). A delicious steak was an acceptable consolation.
Day 4: Packed up my stuff, checked out without having to dispute my booking again, and proceeded down to Interlaken. Put my luggage in the lockers, and then had a picnic lunch by the Aare canal. From there back up the line to Wilderswil, where I changed to the Schynigeplattebahn, a rack-railway that goes to, well, Schynige Platte. A nice long ridge with great views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. More hiking around here, too, but I was tired, so I limited myself to ambling around the alpine botanic garden they have up there, before coming back down.
On return home I scrubbed the fridge, and tore a nail so far back it bled while unpacking, and then went crash.
Friday, Sat Sun... ugh I'll update you later. Holiday was worth it, but the tail end where I keep trying to re-energise myself for being a Productive Adult is less fun.