Rodney woke early and took a photo from our bed of the sunrise just catching the tip of the Eiger.
Then while cooking and eating poached eggs on toast we watched the sun, the clouds, the showers, a little bit of everything, moving around the majestic mountains. We saw the gondola move slowly up to Pfingstegg, the top of the small peak next to us, then Rodney spotted the train trudging up to the Eiger viewpoint at Kleine Scheidegg. Inspired to get going, we took the 15 minute, very steep, footpath up to the village. Rodney managed to get a free bike tyre dust cap to replace the one he left in the lay-by yesterday and then we strolled on down through Grindelwald.
As the day was becoming sunnier and the clouds were small and white with no threat of rain, we took the aerial gondola up to the top of First, which means ridge, not the position that comes before second. The views up there, at 2,168m, were breathtaking in every direction; we were surrounded by some of the highest mountains in Switzerland. I could have stayed up there all day, just breathing in the amazing sights.
We had paid to come back down to Grindelwald by a more interesting route. The first segment we rode on the First Flieger. The brochure description was correct – it’s an exhilarating ride of 800m attached to a cable on which you literally fly down to the Schreckfeld station at 1,955m. Setting off was really quite scary, but watching the beautiful scenery fly past you, takes your breath away, more than the fear. As the wind whistles past your ears at 80kmph, the only other sound you can hear is the bells on the cows below. I hit the bottom first and yelped as the giant spring-brake kicked in; I think that was the worst bit, but we all made it down in one piece.
My dodgy knee then opted to take the rest of me on a ten minute gondola ride down the next stage to the Bort station at 1,570m, while super-fit Rodney jogged below. It took him about twenty minutes, not bad considering he had a heavy pack on his back.
We stopped at the café and ate a plate of frites and drank iced teas in the sunshine before picking up to two Trottibikes. These are basically a scooter bike, with no seat and, unlike Rodney’s bike, no punctured tyres. We shot down the very steep 4.5kms with the brakes on most of the way. By the time we reached Grindelwald our hands hurt from squeezing the brakes and the fear of falling off on to the gravel was more unnerving than the First Flieger!!!
Safely back down in the village, Rodney already had the next part of the day planned. It was 3:15pm and the Wimbledon final had just started, so we found a sports bar and settled in to watch England v Switzerland, Andy Murray v Roger Federer; somehow appropriate given where we are. The sets were long and when the rain delayed play, I wondered how many drinks we were going to be buying in the Sportspub Bar in Grindelwald, but we gave up waiting and toddled back to Eileen to cook up frankfurters and veggies whilst keeping an eye on the score via the computer. So sad that Andy Murray didn’t win, but the Swiss around here are very happy.
The sunset isn’t as spectacular this evening, but hopefully tomorrow will be another fine day, so that we can go get up another mountain and enjoy more of this awesome scenery.
Guten nacht.