We both got up about 7am. We discussed what our options were for the day while we drank coffee and Ash fixed some breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with cheese, chicken, cauliflower. The balcony was nice again.

We decided to head back to Grindelwald and head up to the Top of Europe again, just since today was the last day our pass would be good.

We got to the gondola stop before 10am and had to wait until the next train left for the top at 10:15am. This is the gondola car approaching the station at 7600 feet.

One of the things we hadn’t done at the top was the cinema room. All four walls are a movie screen with a variety of angles while a 4 minute movie plays a variety of mountain scenes. Some of it is quick sickening actually! If you have trouble with heights or feeling like you’re falling this might not be for you.

We went up to Sphinx again to take one last look around from the Top of Europe. We noticed the people down below this time; hadn’t noticed them a couple of days before, yet later that day we were down there. It was interesting seeing it from this perspective. There was another spot on the other side of the mountain where you could go outside and we wanted to find that since we didn’t the last time.

This view looked different to us as well because we could spot where we had lunch yesterday on our 10 mile hike. Just below center you see several roads intersecting around some buildings – that’s it.

The glacier still looks like a glacier…but I loved the clouds in the background that were actually lower than us. We’re at about 11,500 feet here.

The Sphinx building is a literal observatory and research lab, not just an observation deck. All kinds of weather data is collected in particular. The average temperature up here is about 20F.

We’d seen these folks from the Sphinx the other day, making this trek up to the peak called Monch. We missed it then but found it today. Still weren’t in the right shoes so passed this time. Next time we’ll be better prepared!

Ash kept wanting me to jump up….asked me to do it 3 times….

….the weird part is that I actually did it….

There was a bar there and to the far right you can see lounge chairs. Folks were just hanging out taking in the incredible views.

We went inside instead for different kinds of treat: hot drinks with whipped cream. Ash got a coffee, I had the hot chocolate which was Amazing.

We were ready for lunch and headed back down around 12:30pm. I took my last shot of Grindelwald valley. It’s been one of my favorite views on this whole trip.

We made our way back to Interlaken and parked in the centrum. We had no goal in mind other than to walk around some and find some lunch. We encountered a food truck in a little spot across from the park which has made an appearance in this blog twice now – once when paragliders were landing two days ago, and again yesterday from above when we were at Harder Kulm. Here’s that Ferris wheel again from a different angle. I love the mountains in the background just right of center.

This was my view of the park and mountains sitting across from Ash.

And the food truck!

Ash had a salmon salad with peaches and tomatoes. And bread with a lemon aioli.

I had the bratwurst with “loaded” fries, with lemon aioli, jalapenos, green onions, garlic, and grated parmesan. Packed a punch they did! And wow, that mustard with the sausage was hot like Chinese mustard is. I wasn’t expecting it At All and paid for it.

This was Ricardo, the food truck guy.

After we ate we were just kinda done and ready to be lazy, so headed back to the apartment. Above is a pretty church with a Japanese garden in front of it we passed on the way back to our car.

Text says: Congratulations! Your site passed 10,000 views!

We sort of napped during Da Vince Code (we’d both seen it). When I got up I had this message from WordPress this afternoon and was pretty excited about it!

The original plan for dinner was Ash was going to cook, but in the end he didn’t feel like it and lord knows I wasn’t going to, so we went for the closest thing we could find.

Turns out the Barracuda Bar is ranked #1 out of 117 Interlaken restaurants on TripAdvisor and was .2 miles away. Perfect! We sat at that table on the far right of this photo.

Looking up the street one way. This was our neighborhood; the laundry place we used yesterday is just behind that first building there on the left.

The view to the right. That little orangish dot just above the hill line in the center is a paraglider.

We both got turkey wraps and they were delicious. Ash got a virgin mojito and I got a ginger beer. The reviews ranked this #1 because of the good feed at decent prices and friendly atmosphere. We agreed.

We noticed as we were sitting there that we could see Harder Kulm from there, where we were yesterday. That ledge sticking out of the top of the hills in the center is where we were yesterday.

Suddenly there were LOTS of paragliders out and about. Something very relaxing about watching them swirl around. Some of them were quite talented.

We stopped by the Coop on the way home for dessert: ice cream bars. We enjoyed them while watching The Fantastic Four, which I had never seen.

This is our last night here. Tomorrow we leave for Zurich. We were supposed to have 2 days there but my flights got changed and am not able to leave on Saturday as planned. They gave me options of Sunday or Friday so I picked Friday because I’m not one of those people who can come back from a trip like this and head to work the next day. So I’m going home on Friday.

Ash is staying for 2 weeks after me, with a friend joining him on Saturday. So let’s see what we come up with for our last day together.

2 Comments

  1. Kevin Downes September 9, 2021 at 1:17 pm - Reply

    Loved hearing about the cinema room, and yes it would be too much for me!
    Again, great photography. Also interesting the variety of architecture.

    • Steve Haas September 9, 2021 at 1:18 pm - Reply

      Thanks! I appreciate the feedback and am glad you’re enjoying!

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