In the footsteps of fictional greatness...
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2010
1
28
46
Trip End
Nov 30, 2010
Meiringen, Swiss Alps, Switzerland
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
This morning we rose reasonably early after a somewhat restless night. We both normally use two pillows, and we don't use quite such squashy pillows. You lay your head down, and away it goes! I'm not sure whether this, or the hard lumps of rubber in Rome, is worse. But it made for a slightly difficult night.
Breakfast here is good, although I don't recognise half the things in the cooler section of the buffet. But there are croissants and breadrolls and to my great joy, Ovaltine! Or, as they call it here, Ovomaltine - which just makes me think of Homer Simpson. They don't have Nutella, but they do have a reasonable facsimile *G*
Once we'd eaten, we left the hotel in search of the funicular to Reichenbach Falls. A surprisingly easy trip, all things considered. We walked over the river, and into an area that appeared to be a private hospital, but which shared grounds with the funicular.
On arrival, we realised we were a bit too early. It was 8.45, and the train didn't start till 9. So we took a seat and waited for it to open.
At about 9.10-ish, the woman who had been wandering around cleaning up asked "oh, are you wanting to go up?" - she'd assumed that we were waiting for something else, because we just sat there and didn't pester her *g* It was only after the bus had been and gone that she started to think we might be there for the train. She assumed we were English because we were so polite about it *G*
Once she realised, she sold us tickets, let us into the carriage, and set off. With just the two of us *G* We passed the other train on its way down - they have to send one down as the other goes up, and there's only one spot on the way where the tracks split. There's no room at the top or the bottom for two carriage at once.
The views from the carriage were fantastic. The cloud cover was very thick, but we could see some of the valley, and we saw little paddocks on either side of the track, and cottages and things.
Now, it was raining when we left the hotel, so we took my two umbrellas (the tiny one I brought from Australia, and the one I bought at the Eiffel Tower so I wouldn't burn to a crisp in the line). When we got to the top of the track we were SO glad we had. The waterfall sends off a ridiculous amount of spray, we were soaked!
We dashed past the wettest part and started up the trail to the top. It's not an incredibly strenuous walk, but the air is so thin up there I was panting in moments. I wasn't worn out or sore in any other way, I just couldn't catch my breath for a while. I started to get used to it after a while, and it got easier, but I hadn't expected that.
We kept stopping at the various view points to look out into the valley. Incredible. At one point there was so much cloud at the bottom of the valley that we couldn't see anything down the bottom, only the villages on the other side. As a result, they looked like they were floating in the clouds, like some strange vision of heaven.
The waterfall itself is really impressive, and we're here in summer, when it isn't even at its fullest. Spring, with the meltwater from the snows, is the most violent time. And there's a marker on one of the walls that shows how high the water got in the flood in 2004 - it covered the bridge over the falls!
It's also really LOUD. We had to shout to hear each other *g* And even with our umbrellas, we got quite damp. Even when it stopped raining, the trees still dripped.
We walked all the way up to the road at the top, then went all the way back down and caught the train down again.
At this point we would have gone straight to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, that's in the middle of town, but it doesn't open till 1.30, so we went for a bit of a wander. The vending machine at the Kiosk has Cannabis Iced Tea (as seen on Top Gear *g*), which, of course, we had to try. But neither of us liked it at all, so it was binned very quickly *g*
After wandering up in search of a way to get to some ruins we'd seen from the falls, we ended up going for lunch at the cafe connected to the Parkhotel Du Savauge - the hotel where Arthur Conan Doyle stayed when he was here. Very nice food, but my goodness, the chips! Practically an entire fish and chip shop sized serving each!
Even after lunch, we still had time to spare, so we went and looked at the statue of Sherlock Holmes in the garden, and then went and sat in the square and watched a local orange cat play up to various tourists in the hopes of being fed *g* and several small children attempt to capture a very bright fuzzy catapillar on a leaf.
Finally, the museum opened. They have a free audio tour included, which was quite fun. It explained all the things in the display cases, and then discussed the contents of the replica sitting room that's in the basement.
It's an amazing replica. 221B Baker Street in London is a smaller building than the place Doyle describes, but this place was modelled on details from the books and elements from the illustrations in the Strand. A great deal of cross-referencing and detailed analysis has gone into the production. Everything is period, or a reasonable recreation.
Kel took lots of pictures (as usual), so I'll pinch some and put them up here soon.
The poor woman behind the front desk was having a terrible time attempting to adjust the languages on the audio guides. In the end, I figured them out and helped her set them up for several other people *G*
Even though it was raining and cold when we left this morning, I'm still glad we went out as early as we did. It's quite warm now, and it would be horrible to be doing that climb in steamy heat as well as thin air. The sun has come out and hopefully will be doing its best to dry the laundry I've got out on the balcony (the hotel has thoughtfully provided us with a drying rack out there *g*).
Tomorrow we have a lot more train trips to do. Meiringen to Luzern, Luzern to Zurich, and Zurich to Paris. We leave here on a train shortly before 10am, and we don't arrive in Paris till some time around 6pm. Fortunately, I have the latest Top Gear episode on the computer now, so I'll watch that at some point on the way.
We've tried the meringues now, by the way. Very nice. The ones with the dark spots appear to be vaguely chocolatey, but judging by the malty flavour, it could well be Ovomaltine *G*
Comments
Oh so jealous. If I hadn't just seen Stephen Fry in the same room as me I'd be seething with it *g*
Does Kel have pictures of the museum there?
I'm guessing she doesn't mind us looking at them. I was going to comment on some of the london ones and then didn't because I'm not on her friends.