18 October 2019.
Sleep came, at last, on our sixth night at home, signifying the end of jet lag: 8.5 hours Tuesday night had me rolling out of bed at 05:00. The first full night of sleep truly puts a trip behind us except for the memories and 1100+ photos to be sorted.
The final two weeks of our trip were spent in Lauterbrunnen in our favorite apartment. This was our fourth stay in James’ and Michelle’s apartment and it felt like home when we walked through the door. We’ve already booked a stay there in Autumn 2020.
Even in our sixth visit to the area we are finding new walks, new experiences, new corners to explore.
Wrapping up this portion of our trip, I have some photos from a few of our favorite hikes in the valley and mountains. We plan to publish an e-book about easy hikes in this area. Updating the Val Gardena book and writing this new one for the Lauterbrunnen area should keep me out of trouble all winter.
The Allmendhubel to Winteregg hike starts at a fabulous playground. The children don’t seem to notice the view.
The Mountain View Trail between Allmendhubel and Winteregg is well named.
The trail from Iseltwald to Giessbach hugs the lake and goes through a short tunnel.
We had a couple of steep climbs on the way to Giessbach.
At the end of the Iseltwald to Giessbach hike, a Victorian Era hotel and a fabulous waterfall.
No matter how many times we do it, always a favorite for us is the walk from Grütschalp to Mürren with a view of the little cogwheel train. Oh, and mountains.
Another fave is Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. Not too difficult and highly satisfying.
We had a surprise snow overnight before our hike on the North Face Trail.
Descending at the end of the North Face Trail into Mürren. The sun came out as we hit town. We hiked alone, encountering maybe half-a-dozen people in 2.5 hours.
Our post-hike view from lunch at about 14:00. The mountain restaurants along the trail were closed for the season.
In Thun (pronounced “tune”), Switzerland, a man surfs in the wake created by sluice gates on the River Aare.
Thun is one of the larger towns in the Berner Oberland. Our walk along Lake Thun included four castles on a bright Saturday.
Spotted on a walk near Wengen. One passes from town to farm in the blink of an eye.
While weather and lighting did not cooperate to make this the stunning shot I had hoped for, it’s still a magnificent view of the Lauterbrunnen Valley and Staubbach Falls.
Another walk near Wengen. Snow overnight made higher elevation walking precarious so we found this nice walk above the valley where we could admire the fresh snow.
Goat pasture with a view, Wengen. In less then 30 minutes we went from touristy crowds crowding mountain trains in downtown Wengen to working farms.
If you are looking for a comfortable, convenient roost in the Jungfrau Region, send me a message and I’ll tell you how to get in touch with James. Pictures are online here but you’ll want to reach out personally rather than book through the site.
Girovaga 
Great pictures, Laurel! Switzerland is on my bucket list so I am taking notes from you. I am curious about how you manage and save your photos. I recently moved mine to Google Photos so they don’t take up storage space on my MacBook Pro and iPhone.
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Hi Kathy. Happy to help when you are ready for Switzerland!
I still keep my pictures on my laptop, backed up to the Cloud (we use Carbonite for all of our data back-ups) as well as to a portable hard drive. I fear losing the pictures as they are irreplaceable. I even scanned all of the old family albums some years ago. I used Picasa for years and loved it (still use it although it is unsupported) but one day I will have to give in and probably use Google Photos as well. I also keep some photos on Amazon Photos so I can watch slide shows of our trips through the Fire TV stick.
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You look fantastic with that picture of you and the snow capped mountains in the background. And Ric looks so fit and trim too! These pictures make me want to sing out ‘the hills are alive’……truly they are magical places and look like paintings. Thank you for taking us along! We are leaving for Morocco in a few weeks so I’ll post on FB when I can.
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Thanks Marcia! Wow, Morocco! I have another friend going there in November. Looking forward to your pictures!
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Wow! Absolutely beautiful!
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Thanks, Jono51!
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I hope you were able to use that fireplace. Do you cook in or are there restaurants close by?
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We cook a LOT, especially in Switzerland due to cost and for healthier options. The food tends to be rather heavy, focused on potatoes, and cheese-laden. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! We did eat pizza once in Lauterbrunnen and it was quite good, and we had several mountain lunches, roesti a couple of times (those are evil!), and sausage. Seafood not so common.
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Gorgeous! We can’t wait for your next book.
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Hey, Susan, thanks! Hope to have it out by late January and I will announce it here!
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Beautiful pictures. What a great hiking trip.
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Thanks, Diana! All 5+ weeks were fabulous.
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What sensational photos! Your surfer capture is prize worthy. Hope to hear all about your trip next weekend!
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And we want to hear about YOUR trip as well! Hope we can make it next weekend. We’ve been running to Portland a lot and that gets old.
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