April Alpine Adventure - Part 3: The Virgin

April 28th:

We had another beautiful morning visiting the Bern Temple. Really, the hours spent there were the best parts of our trip even though there isn't much to say about it on the blog.

After cooking and eating a brief lunch Peter, Matjaž, Lala, and I piled into the car and set off towards the Alps.

We drove past the lakes near Interlaken and then into the green canyons with white-topped mountains on either side. Eventually we came to the town of Lauterbrunnen (pictured above).

Towering above Lauterbrunnen is one of Switzerland's highest and most famous mountains: The Jungfrau!

Jungfrau literally means "young woman" in German, but it also means "virgin."

From Lauterbrunnen we took a cable car and then a small train to the car-less town of Mürren...

Es war wunderschön!

The town of Lauterbrunnen nestled in the valley below...

And a stunning view from across the way...

We arrived at the Mürren main central station...

And went off to explore the village. This was the off-season, there were no skiers and not many hikers, thus most of the little guest houses and hotels were closed. It was almost like a ghost town. Still pretty though...

There were a couple of horses who had a nice view...

Though this one was rather cheeky, trying to ruin my picture :-)

Spring was just starting to spring at this elevation. The only wildflowers out were the snowdrops, but the hillsides were already becoming quite green...

The majesty was majestic...

And I had fun snapping photos left and right. The Jungfrau was smokin...

I tried to do some jump-shots but I realized that I blended in too much with the mountain...

Here I am in action...

So, two Slovenians, an American, and a girl from Madagascar are hiking in the Alps, one says to the other...

I decided that this was a more worthy place for a Swiss rock and so I picked one up here. (The old Swiss rock was from some churchyard in Rorschach)...

We saw some paragliders sailing over the deep valley...

Super!

Nate

+ Peter, Lala, and Matjaž

= Peter, Lala, Matjaž, and Nate

*interesting side note... the guy that took this picture was a young man from India with his wife (we took a photo for them as well). This was their first time in Europe and they were only visiting Switzerland. This is because so many Bollywood movies are filmed in Switzerland that it was their dream to come and visit. They were really nice.

We got back on our train and headed back down towards the valley as the evening light faded on the Jungfrau...

The shadows of the mountains began to tuck the village in for the night...

Here is a very zoomed-in photo of the Jungfraujoch or Jungfrau "saddle." This is where you can pay €100 or something and take a train to "the top of Europe" where you can eat at Europe's highest restaurant and stuff. We didn't go...

Back in Lauterbrunnen we wanted to check out the cool waterfall...

So we did...

Staubbach Falls is nearly 300 meters (1000ft.) high...

We interrupt this waterfall to bring you cows...

There was a spring at the base of the waterfall where we could refill our bottles and drink some of the water from the falls...

We got back in the car and took a final look as the sun cast its last golden rays on the snow-capped peaks...

We drove down the canyon and then found ourselves again near Interlaken on Thun Lake...

We stopped briefly in the lakeside town of Spiez...

It was a pleasant evening and we got back to the temple hostel tired and satisfied with a tremendous day.

Can you find the Nate?

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