Into Every Life, A Little Rain Must Fall. Although Sometimes It's Waterfalls.

Monday dawned rainy in Lauterbrunnen.  Given that its an outdoors locale, that makes filling a day much, much harder.  Our plan had been to hit Trummelbach Falls and then head up to the top of Jungfraujoch.  Well, there's no point in going to the "Top of Europe" (as it calls itself) if you can't see any  of Europe!

The cameras up top showed nothing but socked in views, so we skipped that idea.  We drove the three kilometers to Trummelbach.  Didn't really know what to expect.  The valley has 72 falls, but this one apparently is inside the mountain. 

Um, it turned out to be spectacular.  We took the elevator most of the way up, and then hiked up to the top.  The whole way, the falls pound and scream inside the mountain, having carved out amazing falls and cascades.  I've never seen anything like it.  The spray kicked up, soaking us at different vantage points.  The water roared angrily, spinning and bouncing and pounding away.  The photos won't capture the sheer beauty of it. 

It is a series of ten glacial waterfalls, carrying the snow melt from Eiger, Jungfrau, and Monch.  It bills itself as the only waterfalls inside a mountain in Europe and yet accessible.  We spent quite a long time (no rush with the weather) enjoying the spray.  With ten vantage points, and points in between, there was plenty to see.

There was one vantage point cut through the rock, and we continually got soaked by the heavy spray.  Torie was only wearing a sweatshirt, and it was soaked through.  The rest of us had some more protection from the soaking affects of the spray.  We hiked all the way down from the top, stopping along side paths to check out the views.

After that, we drove to the end of the valley, checking out the dozens of easily spotted (and some hard to spot) waterfalls cascading down the cliffs of the mountains that hem in the valley.  The rain was spitting on and off -- one moment I'd have to run the windshield wipers, while the next it was clearing.  Each of those clearings were only a mirage, however, as it pretty much rained on and off all day.

We parked by the river and walked a couple of kilometers to check out some of the falls, including Murrenbach, which is the longest falls in Europe.  Maddy went back to the car early, because her broken toe is bothering her again.  Hard for it to heal right when she did swim team all summer and now is walking all over Prague, Vienna, the Tyrolean Alps, and now the Swiss Alps.

There was a laundromat at a youth hostel near our hotel, so Carol got laundry going and we went to the Oberland Hotel for lunch.  We were in Switzerland, so Carol and I had the cheese fondue.  While overpriced (isn't all the food here?) it was tasty -- and compared to other overpriced food, not much different in price.

(Old Guy Rant Alert!)  When I was a college student in 1984 and trained/hitchhiked around Europe, it was actually affordable. I spent less than $20 a day -- after factoring out my train ticket. That includes hotel, food, and entrance fees.  I did stay in Lucerne -- which was the most expensive place I went.  Even with a good exchange rate, Europe would be expensive now.  Where has affordable Europe gone?  Obviously I'm staying at nicer hotels now, but everything is expensive -- no cheap restaurants to be found.  Oh well, there was no internet back then, so some things are better.