Switzerland Day 5
Day 5 (Thursday) - Here comes the rain
Until now, we had been blessed with good weather. Granted, Wednesday saw some rain, but it held off until late afternoon, giving us plenty of time to enjoy the outdoors without getting soaked. Thursday was different, it was raining off and on all day.
The morning was slow and lazy, I flipped through the brochures on the coffee table, copied some pictures off my camera, and just sort of sloughed around, tired from the first four dizzying days of the trip. Kristin got caught up on some work. I was in my own little world so I’m not sure what the others were doing, but I think it was much the same. I know Paul was finding out that this apartment is home to the world’s slowest washing machine/dryer combo. Finally, we all sort of came out of our stupor.
When we decided to actually do something, it was Chris, Paul, and Katheryn that went over to the local mini-golf course, while Kristin and I went for a walk around town, and Lori continued to relax at the apartment. Kristin and I snapped some pics from around town.
After we finished our walk, Kristin and I headed to the mini-golf course to see if anyone wanted to go see a waterfall. Paul and Katheryn demurred due to the rain, but Chris was up for it.
Kristin, Chris, and I decided to go see the great Staubach Falls, a thousand foot waterfall that drops off a cliff on the opposite side of the valley. We caught the train down to Lauterbrunnen and then hoofed it about 10-15 minutes over to the falls. We climbed the switch-backs followed by rugged stairs up the side of and into the cliff. I thought we would come out at the base of the waterfall, but we ended up behind the falls.
This was a little different than I had pictured, I was hoping to see the power of water after falling 1000 feet, but it mostly just bounced off rocks along the way and ended up being a sort of real heavy rain. Also, you couldn’t get to the base of the falls, but looking down at it, I’m not sure it was all that impressive. There was a lot of water coming down, but it all just pooled into a small river, maybe it could even be called a stream - at least that is how it looked from where we were which was, admittedly, a 100 feet or more above it in the side of the cliff. Maybe at ground level it would be more impressive.
However, just getting close to this thing was a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve never seen a waterfall that is even close to 1000 feet. Niagra Falls is just 188 feet - that’s chump change! Here is a comparison:
On the way back from the falls, we stopped in Lauterbrunnen at the Coop to grab some food. Kristin was found giving a lecture to some tourists about all the ins and outs of buying Swiss chocolate.
It was a rainy day but we made the best of it. It probably worked out well as a day to rest in the middle of a very busy week.