Robison Family Swiss Adventure: Luzern and Interlaken

On Saturday, I took Dad and Macy to the beautiful town and lake of Luzern.  My plan had been to take them to another great mountain on the lake called Pilatus, but the high clouds were covering the peak, so we went to Mt. Rigi instead.  We took the same mountain train and cable car as I did with Mom and Steve.

Dad on the train up to the Mt. Rigi summit

Cute family!

Someone was tired of me taking pictures of her

Me and Dad being silly at the top

It was a bit chilly and windy at the top, but the clouds parted for us as we explored around the top.  Dad and I walked down a mostly-safe path from the top to a grassy outcrop.  Macy stayed up top with Lauren and took our picture, which turned out great!  Switzerland is so beautiful!

The great picture of me and Dad by Macy

When we got back to Luzern from our adventure on Mt. Rigi, we found ourselves in the middle of a summer festival!  It had been all set up in the time that we were gone!  We weren't able to explore much of Luzern because the festival, but we loved listening to some of the bands, eating delicious food from the stalls, and watching an air show!

The summer festival we came upon in Luzern

Dad and Macy in Luzern

Me and Macy with the famous covered bridge in the background

The great air show we watched

After spending a little time at the festival, we headed home to get some rest.  On Sunday, we woke up to sunny skies and warm temperatures!  The great weather had finally arrived.  I decided this was the perfect opportunity to go to Interlaken, so after attending church, we ate a quick lunch and drove to the Interlaken region.  

Heading into the Jungfrau region, I think the Mönch is in the distance

As usual, the area was BEAUTIFUL!  I love love the Jungfrau!  This time we did not go into the Lauterbrunnen valley, but went into the other valley, instead, to the resort town of Grindelwald.  We parked at a ski gondola station, got out of the car, and just stopped to admire the beauty all around us!  We then took the gondolas way up to the top of a mountain ridge that separates the two valleys.  One of the peaks on the ridge is called Männlichen, so that's what the stop is called.

The gondola station in Grindelwald that takes you to the Männlichen area up top

There were tons of paragliders out, it seems to be a popular sport with all these mountains

The ski gondolas we took from Grindelwald

The gondolas take you from 3,400 feet at Grindelwald all the way up to 7,300 feet at the mountain ridge!    We arrived at the top and just marveled at the view.  It was so beautiful!  I love it!

Dad, Macy, and Lauren with the Eiger in the background

Looking over the other side of the ridge at Wengen and Lauterbrunnen

I'm in heaven!!

From Männlichen, we took an easy 90-minute walk along the ridge over to Kleine Scheidegg.  You could probably do the hike in a shorter amount of time, but we kept stopping to take amazing pictures.

Some rock towers hikers have built up over the years

Me and Dad on the trail

This little fox trotted right past us with a huge piece of stolen cheese in his mouth

A great shot I got of the reflection of the Eiger

The view from our trail as we were nearing Kleine Scheidegg

We took the train from Kleine Scheidegg back to the Grindelwald Grund station to head home.  Because of weekend traffic, it was stop-and-go to get out of the Interlaken region.  It was around dinner time, so we were hoping just to stop at some restaurant along the way and get something.  But most places in Switzerland are closed on Sunday and we kept passing lots of restaurants that weren't open, so we started to worry.  We saw that a gas station was open and decided that this was our best chance of getting some food.  But this is a Swiss gas station and we were able to get fine Swiss salami (at 54 CHF/kg!), cheese, crackers, and a fresh salad.  We felt like white trash by buying dinner from a gas station and eating it in the car, but it was far from that with our expensive salami, fine Swiss cheese, and the amazing view we had from the gas station parking lot.  It was pretty hilarious how great this meal was even though it was from a gas station.

Our view during "dinner" :)