{"id":2888,"date":"2016-06-15T02:30:23","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T08:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2016-06-15T02:30:23","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T08:30:23","slug":"mountain-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/?p=2888","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dreary weather forecast for today, Sunday, was rain for the entire day.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It was our last day in Switzerland, so we just had to take an Alps hike in the Lauterbrunnen Valley despite any inclement weather.\u00a0 \u00a0The valley is part of the spectacular Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland.\u00a0 \u00a0The Lauterbrunnen Valley is like no place we have ever seen; as it has some of the most awe-inspiring scenery in Europe.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0For moutain scenery supreme, Lauterbrunnen and the surrounding towns cannot be topped. \u00a0 It is truly mountain heaven for us.\u00a0 We love the natural beauty of the Alps with its steep slopes, distance snow-covered peaks and small, tidy towns of weathered chalets.\u00a0 \u00a0Cows, sheep, goats, numerous hang-gliders and an occasional helicopter are all part of the Lauterbrunnen Valley scenery.\u00a0\u00a0 This place is truly a cinematic masterpiece:\u00a0 the sun and clouds are constantly changing, the light highlights one ridge or peak, then fog or mist rolls in.\u00a0 This pictorial mountain paradise changes within minutes.\u00a0 \u00a0What really sets this area apart are the more than 70 striking waterfall that line the length of the 2-mile valley.\u00a0 \u00a0These waterfalls are not like any we have ever seen before as they forcefully cascade out of cliff-face crevasses and power down the mountain with massive spraying.\u00a0 \u00a0It is truly a magical wonder.
\n\u001f
\nAs soon as we arrived, it started raining;\u00a0 but, we had our rain pants and jackets, so why not\u00a0climb?\u00a0 \u00a0We trekked the Panorama Spazierweg (trail) which connects Lauterbrunnen with the high mountain-top car-free town of Wengen.\u00a0 Wengen is only accessible by cog train or foot.\u00a0 It is an active ski\/hiking town overlooking Lauterbrunnen and has access to numerous ski runs via a cable car.\u00a0 The climb to Wengen is an almost 2-hour, continuous\u00a0 uphill, switchback trail through forest and fields.\u00a0 \u00a0The views back into the valley are stupendous.\u00a0 You see many of the waterfalls from a completely different perspective.\u00a0\u00a0 The town of Wengen is another Swiss stunner with lots of attractive chalets and small hotels.\u00a0 Summer rentals posted on the real estate offices were very inexpensive.\u00a0 (We are quite certain that is not the case for winter rentals.)\u00a0 \u00a0We spoke to a friendly lady in town and she said that the winter season is the busiest time of the year.\u00a0 It’s hard to believe that summertime isn’t very busy due to the wonderful hiking available.\u00a0 Today, Wengen was very quiet and sleepy with many hotels and restaurants closed. \u00a0 Perhaps, these establishments open during July & August? \u00a0The hike down the steep trail was much quicker but hard on a different set of muscles.
\n\u001f
\nWe then decided to visit another of the three towns in the area, Grindelweld.\u00a0 This is a much larger town than tiny Wengen & Lauterbrunnen.\u00a0 \u00a0It is teaming with cosy timber homes, flower-rimmed guest houses dotted on the lush green snow-capped mountains along with a number of enchanting hotels within the town center.\u00a0\u00a0 This remote town has the Jungfrau and Aletsch mountains looming over it.\u00a0 We can’t even imagine how magnificent this place is during the winter!\u00a0 \u00a0From our perspective, this town should have been where we stayed if we were focused solely on hiking.\u00a0 The access to trails, cog trains & cable cars is outstanding.\u00a0 We are thinking of returning here for Lesley’s 65th next year in the fall.\u00a0 Yes, this is mountain heaven.\u00a0 .\u00a0 .\u00a0 .or should we say paradise?
\n\u001f<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of the 70+ falls that shoot off the top of the cliffs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Great<\/a>
Great mountain scapes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Typical<\/a>
Typical town – this is Lauterbrunnen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Train,<\/a>
Train, falls & fields – couldn’t get any better – this is from our hike up the hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The falls initially explode into mist clouds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"What<\/a>
What can we say?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Valley<\/a>
Valley floor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Only<\/a>
Only partially up the hill (we are still smiling!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Across<\/a>
Across the valley from our hike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Town<\/a>
Town of Wengen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This one spreads out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dreary weather forecast for today, Sunday, was rain for the entire day.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It was our last day in Switzerland, so we just had to take an Alps hike in the Lauterbrunnen Valley despite any inclement weather.\u00a0 \u00a0The valley is part of the spectacular Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland.\u00a0 \u00a0The Lauterbrunnen Valley is like no … Continue reading Mountain Heaven<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Si9J-KA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dltwt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}