Our last day in beautiful Interlaken. But before we bid goodbye to the beautiful Swiss scenery, we needed to go back to Trummelbach Falls to complete our Interlaken experience.
We packed our bags yet again for the final leg of our trip, checked out from the bed and breakfast, and drove to see the waterfalls. While loading our luggage to the cars, we saw this shop across the street - something like a garage sale. Like instinct for most women, we (my sis-in-laws and I) went there to check out the stuff they have, and they did have A LOT of interesting things. I thought of buying some but later decided not to cause we didn't have that much luggage space anymore, and hubby wanted to rush to the waterfalls location. So we (hubby and the boys) drove to Trummelbach Falls first while my sis-in-laws stayed for a few more minutes to look and shop around.
We heard that around midday bus loads of tourists flock the area. So it was good that we arrived there quite early. There were only about 3-4 cars in the parking lot.
We packed our bags yet again for the final leg of our trip, checked out from the bed and breakfast, and drove to see the waterfalls. While loading our luggage to the cars, we saw this shop across the street - something like a garage sale. Like instinct for most women, we (my sis-in-laws and I) went there to check out the stuff they have, and they did have A LOT of interesting things. I thought of buying some but later decided not to cause we didn't have that much luggage space anymore, and hubby wanted to rush to the waterfalls location. So we (hubby and the boys) drove to Trummelbach Falls first while my sis-in-laws stayed for a few more minutes to look and shop around.
We heard that around midday bus loads of tourists flock the area. So it was good that we arrived there quite early. There were only about 3-4 cars in the parking lot.
We walked towards the entrance gate where the tickets were sold. Good thing we brought along our hotel transpo pass, cause it entitled us to a discount on admission fees. For a family of 4 we only paid CHF 24 (originally CHF 11 for adults, CHF 4 for children).
photo op while waiting for the others to come
the Trummelbach Falls map
the steep ascent inside the tunnel lift which took us between the 6th and 7th waterfalls.
From there, we had to decide whether we go up to the 8th to 10th chutes, or down to the 5th to 1st chutes.
Trummelbach alone drains the enormous glacial walls of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau with up to a spectacular 20,000 litres of water per second. - http://www.truemmelbachfaelle.ch
closer view of one of the chutes
passing thru built-in tunnels to get to the other chutes
finally made it out to get to the other chutes using man-made staircases
going down to the other chutes
view of the surrounding town from atop the mountain
the cork screw chute
look at how small the people were compared to the falling water
reaching out for the falls
the last of the 10 chutes
stopped by to see the map again. Were we able to see all of them? Yes, we were able to!
goofed around at the field before making the long drive to the last 2 cities of Switzerland en route to Germany
ready....
get set....
jump!
all the boys wearing their Brussels Manneken Pis shirts
and doing the Manneken Pis "stunt"
When we were done jumping around the field, we headed off to Lucerne and Zurich, the final legs of our Switzerland trip. It was an amazing drive up north as we saw the alps and the many other water falls along the way.
reminded us of our trip to New Zealand where there were also waterfalls galore
took snap shots of the faraway falls while on a winding road up the mountains
snow-capped mountains
a great place to stop and admire the view
there were pretzel-like roads that we travelled
farewell, Interlaken
we stopped by a gasoline station to pump gas and have lunch at the pizza place next to it.
Plus point for this area was the play ground for the kids.
very big playground the kids enjoyed the whole afternoon
We had lunch and had a good chat while the kids were playing. We almost didn't realize it was already very late in the afternoon and we still had to drive to Lucerne and Zurich before finally checking in to our hotel in Sulz-Glatt! So off we went.
When we arrived in Lucerne, we first wanted to see the Lion Monument. We followed what the GPS was telling us, and got lost! We were wondering why on earth it took us to a dead end, and at the centre of the city. Based on the pictures we saw, it should have been somewhere remote.
We asked around for directions. We didn't get accurate answers and so we decided to look for a parking place and walk from there. From the parking place, we looked for a local map (they have it on the streets) and worked our way from there.
First attraction we saw on the way was....
Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrucke)
built in 1333, is a long and winding wooden bridge which spans the Reuss River in the centre of Lucerne. It includes the landmark Water Tower. -http://www.virtualtourist.com
Rathaussteg
overlooking the buildings at Rathausquai
that's me checking out the city map - we're kinda lost....
swans on the river
We walked over to the other end of Chapel Bridge and traversed the Schweizerhofquai, passing by a Hermes boutique (but didn't get into it) until we saw the church towers.
We took the smaller street of Lowengartenstrasse (to the right of Suva building) then to Denkmalstrasse until we reached the Lion Monument which was inside a gated park (so unexpectedly).
Lion Monument - the Lion of Lucerne
Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti ("To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss"). The dying lion is portrayed impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis of the French monarchy; beside him is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. The inscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers, and approximate numbers of the soldiers who died (DCCLX = 760), and survived (CCCL = 350). - wikipedia
we were actually expecting something bigger in size, based on what we've seen in travel books. We also didn't expect the water feature in front of the monument. We thought we would be able to get closer (again as seen in travel books).
a sculpture designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820-21 by Lucas Ahorn. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. - wikipedia
Now that we've seen it, we were ready to walk back to the carpark, and continue our journey to Zurich.
the kids really enjoyed the huge ice cream cones in Europe
It was already a bit late when we arrived in Zurich. We didn't really have any itinerary to explore the city. We just walked close to the lake, at Burkiplatz, and lingered for a few minutes, soaking in the atmosphere and how the locals spend their after 7pm time on a weekday.
Passing by Zurich
Bidding farewell to Switzerland, we continued our journey to our final hotel at Sulz-Glatt - Privathotel Zur Freystatt am Wasserschloss. We arrived at the hotel very late at night (yet again). We were definitely the last ones to check in.
Day 1 - Gelnhausen, Germany
Day 2 - Legoland, Germany
Day 3 - Heidelberg, Germany
Day 4 - Cologne, Germany
Day 5 - Frankfurt, Germany
Day 6 - Luxembourg then Brussels, Belgium
Day 7 - Day trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands
Day 8 - Brussels, Belgium
Day 9 - Brugge, Belgium
Day 10 - Paris, France
Day 11 - Paris, France
Day 12 - Paris, France
Day 13 - Versailles, France
Day 14 - Disneyland Paris, France
Day 15 - La Vallee Village, France (outlet shops) then to hotel south of Lake Geneva
Day 16 - Montreux, Switzerland
Day 2 - Legoland, Germany
Day 3 - Heidelberg, Germany
Day 4 - Cologne, Germany
Day 5 - Frankfurt, Germany
Day 6 - Luxembourg then Brussels, Belgium
Day 7 - Day trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands
Day 8 - Brussels, Belgium
Day 9 - Brugge, Belgium
Day 10 - Paris, France
Day 11 - Paris, France
Day 12 - Paris, France
Day 13 - Versailles, France
Day 14 - Disneyland Paris, France
Day 15 - La Vallee Village, France (outlet shops) then to hotel south of Lake Geneva
Day 16 - Montreux, Switzerland
ganda ng trip nyo. Hindi ba kayo nagpunta sa Mt. Pilatus doon sa Luzern?
ReplyDeleteThank you po. Sorry for the late reply. Hindi kami nakapunta ng Mt Pilatus. We decided to go sa Jungfraujoch na lang with the limited time we had.
ReplyDelete