Family Hike

Today we did a family hike.


Drinking water anyone?
Paraglider with beautiful scenery in the background.
Not sure what this waterslide is doing up here?! Maybe it is a baby schlitterbahn looking for a home in a giant waterpark.
Riaan and Alan take the lead.
Lost now.
Alan doesn't seem to mind.
Back on the trail.
Again the Monch on the left, Jungfrau on the right in the clouds, and the Jungfraujoch in the middle.
Close-up, with the train station at the Jungfraujoch just visible.
More scenery.
Cow with bell. They really do use cow bells. One can hear quite melodious tunes throughout the hills and mountains from all the different pitched cow bells. I almost felt like I was in a fairytale.
Alan on the cable car ride back down.
A river running down inside the mountainside.

Enter Interlaken

I left early Friday morning to catch the train from Brussels to Interlaken. I really like taking trains, sitting and watching the countryside go by. Also, I don't need to deal with the overhead of getting to the airport, going through security, and waiting for the plane, plus the same thing in reverse once you have arrived at the destination.

Though I did have a bit of trouble booking the tickets for a multi-country journey. Depending on which country's website I used I received different options and pricing. For instance, using the UK website I needed a UK based credit card / address to pay. Also, not all of the sites gave me the option of picking up the ticket at the station; some sites only had the option of having the ticket physically mailed to you. Easiest solution - go to the train station and they can take care of everything.


Here is the open field right across from Riaan and Georgina's house. The paragliders use it as a landing area. When I was here in the winter of '05, we landed in the snow! I really enjoyed paragliding and would recommend it to others.
View of the Monch peak on the left and the Jungfrau on the right. The Jungfraujoch sits in the middle, and just above it the mountain station of Jungfraubahn is located, which at an elevation of 3,454 metres is the highest railway station in Europe. The Jungfraujoch is often called the "Top of Europe" in tourist literature.
And here is Alan! ;-)