Our trip was carefully planned with respect to trains , accomodation and locations. John agonised over details, connections, emails were sent between Mike and him , Jodie and him , and train/bus/ ship companies. It was planned. Each city allowed for flexibility ,in what we experienced , as you have shared through the blog,  but limited by time constraints. Well , today we threw caution to the wind and decided to do something outside the schedule. We went to Gelmerbahn. This is a verrrrrrrrrrrry steep cable train up to a dam. To get there we went on a local 161 bus. Guess who runs the bus company? I have given you a clue in the photo.

It is the Post Office ,and we are delivered along with the mail and freight. As we left Meiringen, we began to shrink, well we felt like we were. On all sides were towering mountains with tiny houses dotting the hillsides.  

 

Are you feeling dwarfed? It is believed to be the home of dwarves in past times.  We reached the cable car. It has a gradient of approximately 120 degrees. You start off  gradually then suddenly you are going straight up, hurrah you think, it is levelling off. Then up you go again, straight up. It definitely takes your breath away , but I have it on expert authority , our Scenic railway at Katoomba is even steeper. The views at the top aren’t quite the same of course.

 

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 You can see the line of the cable going up the mountain on the right hand side. At the top is a dam that forms part of the hydroelectricity system for the region. It was quite a feat for the dam to be built in the early 1900’s.

From here ,we went down the cable car. A rather uncomfortable feeling as you drop over the edge. Once at the bottom, we crossed over a suspension bridge and down a path through pine trees.

 Now if you catch a bus to a place,you can generally catch one back again ,can’t you?

This can be a bit tricky because you are catching a post bus. Luckily we read the sign that said , ring for a booking ,or we would still be waiting. “The bus is coming! ” Sure enough, a bus arrived. Sent just to get us….I guess we are just like freight after all. The driver said we just caught him on his run, a few minutes later and no post bus.

Back to Meiringen, collect the luggage, buy lunch at the kiosk and look – here is the Interlaken train. Hop on, eat lunch, next stop Interlaken. Change here for Lauterbrunnen.      Now what did we see.

 

  

 Sorry to make you jealous, but this is the view from our balcony. Impressive. Yes, that is a very big snow covered mountain on the top left, and yes , I promise I will go up and visit it for you.

Once we settled in ,we decided we should catch a train to the next town for dinner. It is just over the next mountain.

 We saw Eildelweiss . It was not at its best but it is the end of the season. You will be pleased…we tried different foods. Roe deer with fruit, vegetables, and potatoes dough pasta, all served in a fry pan. It was fabulous!