Day 11- A Very Alp-y Christmas

Today's post is written 50/50 by both of us so the language, technicallity, and spelling may change

Today's plan was to hike around the Alps, much like yesterday but much deeper into the mountains. Unfortunately, a lot of the fun "ride-a-train-and-then-hike-then-eat-at-a-resturant-at-the-top-of-an-alp-mountain" experiences are either closed for the winter or closed for renovations. Rigi was one of the few open, but it's at the very edge of the Alps. One popular choice is called Schlithorn, which was used in a James Bond movie, but its closed for renovations. There's a very popular one called Jungfrau, but it costs like $350 to just get to and is 100% a tourist trap because there's nothing to do at the top. We considered biting the bullet, but ended up not doing so because it turns out 80% of that cost is literally just the last 2 stations on the train. So you can take the train all the way to the top except the last bit, and save all the moneys.

This morning started with Lauren having her fair share of traveling tummy troubles, which luckily subsided enough to continue on with our (mostly) original plans. Since we didn't make the original train we wanted to, we had some time to kill so we stopped by the Lion Monument in Luzern on the way to the train station.

Then it was train time. Today we took 5 trains and 2 cable cars (all half price!), with the goal of getting to the heart and TOP of the Alps.

First was the train from Luzern to Interlaken. It was neat because all of the tickets can be bought on the Swiss Railways app, but the none of trains we took today are directly owned by Swiss Railways. About halfway through the ride, Nick was actually surprised to discover that the train was narrow gauge (the same as Ardenwood) AND it was also a cog railway! That's right, it went all the way to Luzern central station but has a cog wheel under it the whole time.

The train had really great views, but usually out of the other side of the train care so unfortunately we didn't snap as many photos as usual. But Nick had a pretty good direct route to the doorway and was able to get these great photos. Even with a lack of photos, the Alps vibes were VERY HIGH, and we were still all the way down at the valley floor still.

We then took two additional (also narrow gauge) cog railways up to Wengen, which is a cute ski town in a glacial valley but still very high up. What was very nice is that every single train had a timed transfer, so you never had to wait in the cold for the next train, just cross the platform! They are all different railroads with their own different trains, which made it even more fun.

Once we got to Wengen, we picked up lunch at the supermarket (called CoOp, which Nick thinks is "co-op" and Lauren thinks is "coop"). Then, we took a really steep aerial cable car up to the top of Männlichen. Our plan was to get to the top, walk around a bit (officially its called the "Royal Walk"), then hike up to Kleine Scheidegg then hike down to Wengen again (If we got tired going back to Wengen or it got dark, the train had several stations we could stop at near the train).

Well as soon as we tried buying the cable car tickets were were (politely) informed by the ticket lady that the route to Kleine Scheidegg was closed (ok not politely, she kinda grilled us as to what our purpose for buying the cable car tickets was because we clearly didnt have skis and she suspected we were going to go on the closed trail and be sad). Luckily there were still some winter hiking trials open, but they would pretty much all go downhill and end at a different town than planned, Grindelwald (which luckily still had a train station).

We took the cable car up to at least do the Royal Walk. And uh, it isn't really a walk in the winter, but a scene from a movie where they're on some polar expedition trudging up a cliff. Even with the prepared snow trail, the climb was steep and the air was thin.

We sat down and ate lunch at 7,700 ft elevation (2000 more than Rigi), surrounded on all sides by fellow Alp-horns.

Then the weather changed fast. It went from high clouds to darker, lower ones within 15 minutes. Then it started to rain, then snow, and the wind got crazy. I guess it is the Alps after all. We felt very lucky we didn't spend the extra money to go to Jungfrau because it quickly became engulfed in clouds, meaning anybody up there trying to catch a view of the Alps would see nothing.

We began our slide (literally) down the now windy and wet Royal "you're about to fall off the side of an Alp" experience (which everyone else had already abandoned when we were halfway through lunch). It felt like that movie 2012.

The next choice was to try to do a hike, or just call it off and go back to Interlaken. We found out that the only hiking trail open was also a sledding run, and there were a lot of sledders out today. It also intersected multiple ski runs. Imagine trying to hike while watching your back for not just skiers, but also sleds using the same trail! So we said no thanks and took the (25 minute long!) cable car to Grindelwald. When we got to Grindelwald, we were saddened to find out that 2 of the cable cars were karaoke cable cars with free ricola drops, and we did not get one :(

Anyways, we took the cog railway back to Interlaken and found their sole Christmas market. The theme for this one was "wooden cows."

It was cute, but small, and we are officially gluhwine'd out. So we got a (empty) mug, enjoyed the vibe, then toured the rest of town. We do not recommend Interlaken for hanging out in, its just a big watch store for like 8 blocks. Interlaken is a great hub for the Alps but that's it.

We took the express train home and utilized the rather well priced dining car to get a hot chocolate (which is up for debate as to whether an Ovaltine is chocolate) and beer. In classic us fashion, we ordered the drinks right when the train hit a cog wheel section, so they entire train started sloping. Thankfully the nice waitress helped us bring the drinks back to our seats, all of us grasping on to whatever we could to not fall over or spill. Also, we had tried to strategically sit opposite the side was sat before, but it didn't matter because it was pitch black outside so we couldn't see anything.

When we got off the train, the only logical choice was to go to the train station Christmas markets (again). Neither of us were really hungry (recall said tummy troubles), so we used the time to say goodbye and enjoy the very busy and vibrant life the markets bring around. It's amazing how popular they are and how happy everyone is to be there.

Despite all the issues with closures and renovations, we got to hike and see the Alps super high up! It was super cool to see the glaciers, the snow, and the majesty of the mountains up close and in 5.1 surround sound.

Tomorrow we will spend a little more time in Luzern, then head back to Basel to get ready for our flight home :( Luckily, Basel has some Christmas Markets...

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