Lovin' the Life in Lauterbrunnen

Sunday afternoon we drove to Lauterbrunnen.  We stayed at this cute little hotel (above).  It was so fun because it had a skylight above our bed.  We were so stoked because we were hoping to lay there and watch the stars, but, as you might have guessed, it was overcast!  Besides the skylight, it had a balcony that went the length of the bedroom and the sitting room (we were on the top floor and that's our balcony right there on the top left).  It was so fun just to go outside and sit and enjoy the sound of the nearby waterfalls and the birds.  We left the windows open that night so we could continue to hear those same sounds---talk about a lullaby!

There was a fun, intimate restaurant at the hotel run by the family who owns Silberhorn.  Their menu was one of the most authentically Swiss that we had seen.  We enjoyed a walk into town and a fairly late dinner.  Then we headed for bed because we had lots that we wanted to see on Monday.

There are 72 waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen Vallley.  This was the first major one closet to our hotel.  It was the first stop on our Monday adventure.  There is a trail, multiple series of stairs, and a tunnel so you can go about half way up.  I thought we were going to get to go behind the water, but no.  Still was a good hike, albeit slippery.  The spray coming off that thing goes a long ways!

We caught some fun views on our way up and down!

When we got back down, DJ got a drink out of this fountain.  I wasn't that brave.  The base of it is hundreds of years old.

We were headed to Trummelbach Falls which was a 45-minute walk, but we saw a lot of fun things along the way---more waterfalls, awesome mountains, fun farms, smelly farms (smelled those), animals, chalets, vegetable gardens, flowers, streams coming from the falls.  It was a fun walk, wet but fun. 

We made it.  Like the sign says (see below), Trummelbach Falls is a series of 10 waterfalls.  They fall within a huge fissure in the stone of the mountain.  Some falls shoot straight out.  Some fall a pretty good distance, some not so much.  There's one that's named Corkscrew because that's exactly the way the water flows at that point.  The power that comes from this water is incredible----you're really up close and personal.  I mean we're not talking Niagra here, but you're just feet away from this sheer force in a small confined area.  You can see the first two falls along a trail, then you take an elevator up to the point that you can climb more stairs and trails to see 6-10.  At 10, you can see daylight through the top of the mountain.  You retrace you steps back down to 6, and then can take a trail outside headed down to see 5, 4, and 3.  These falls carry the run-off from three huge mountains (glaciers)---Jungfrau, Eiger, and Monch. Not only was the nature of the place remarkable, but the ingenuity and engineering feat of those that first dreamed that they could make it a place to be seen by many is incredible.

P.S.  My head got soaked.

Loved nature's jewelry: 

We stopped at the bottom for a little snack and took these pictures on our walk back to the hotel:



Did you catch the fact that there is a roof over there covered with grass?



We were really likin' lovin' the life in Lauterbrunnen.  The whole Jungfrau region is now on our top five list!