Day #11 - Hiking in the rain...

After the wonderful sunny weather we'd enjoyed the day before, we woke up on Day 11 expecting the same...the forecast was for 16° C and sun! But, we wake up, and find...rain and dark dark clouds. :( We went to the Tourist Office and basically found out that the forecast had suddenly changed overnight, and now the next 2 days didn't look good...we had planned to go up to the top of one of the mountains, but with all the clouds, the only view we would've seen from up there would be fog...

So, we took our time getting ready, and went to the town bakery for breakfast. Lauterbrunnen is the type of small town that has a butcher, a bakery, a dairy, a general store...and that's pretty much it. The pastries at the bakery were amazing though!

Even with the rain, we wanted to do something with our day, so Katie and I decided to do an easy hike across the Lauterbrunnen valley. With umbrellas in hand, we set off - but first, had to find the Lauterbach river! Yes, it did exist, and we even found the sign to prove it! (Only it was spelled 'Luterbach', but whatever, close enough.) :) Our walk took us out of town on a one-lane road, past numerous waterfalls and cow farms with wonderful-smelling manure piles. We took a break after about an hour for a picnic lunch by a river - we were definitely hungry after our long hike! It was then only 5 minutes to our destination - the Schilthornbahn cable car, which we nervously took up the 1000 feet or so to the mountain village of Mürren.

So, Mürren...is pretty much smaller than Lauterbrunnen, so you get the picture. It is a lot more resort-y though, since it has a ski resort right by it. The scenery was just amazing - it's right at the edge of a cliff, so you can see down in the valley for so far. We wandered the town for a bit, got a cappucino at a cafe (we're pretty much addicted now), and wandered some more. Then, we went on yet another hike, for 30 minutes downhill to Gimmelwald. We had to stop for a bit to make a snowman though. :) The snow was just sitting there, I just felt like it had to be done. :)

Gimmelwald though - is the smallest village in the area by far...only 100 residents, most of whom are cow farmers. It was very quaint little town - hardly anyone was around and it was like a giant petting zoo, since we first saw some ponies, then the cutest lambs ever!, and then, while waiting for the lift back down, the most unusually friendly cat ever, who just pranced right up to us and demanded to be petted. :) Katie also bought some yogurt - probably the freshest you'll find anywhere - from the one store in town, Esther's Farmer Shop.

The cable car lift back down was probably the scariest thing yet of the trip - imagine a tiny cable car, packed with 50 skiers plus us, dangling on a few lines of cable over a 1000 foot drop...the first 1/3 of the way down seriously felt like a free fall, like on a roller coaster - only there was nothing to catch us. :) But, we survived!

We took the bus back to Lauterbrunnen - no more hiking for us for the day! - and then did some laundry at our hostel's laundromat. About time too. :) Then, we went to dinner across the street at Hotel Oberland, and had a fabulous traditional Swiss dinner of Rosti, which are pretty much hashbrowns covered in Swiss cheese, with extras like ham, egg, bacon, and onions. They were amazing!! After that we just had another low-key night at the hostel. We hung out in the common room for awhile, ate some of our truffles, and made plans for the next day. Little did we know what it had in store, however...