You can’t sit there- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch. 1 Jungfrau Region

Hiiiii guysss!!

I know, I know. I have been MIA as I predicted. Also, I realized that in my Rome post I had stated that my next trip would be Napoli, but in reealliitty I did some Milan stuff for 2 weekends then Matt and I went on an AMAZING 9-10 day tour of the alps and southern Germany. Anyway, I am so excited to share it with you! In thinking about everything we did, I have decided that instead of just doing my normal anecdotal post + some fun facts, I am going to split this into about an 8 part mini-series of anecdotes + how-to facts instead (with this first one probably being the longest…. Maybe.. Maybe they’ll all be long..).

Basically, Matt and I struggled a bit with some of the cultural / language barriers, but overall really kicked some ass [in my opinion] and found some relatively accessible ways to have a truly incredible experience. So. I want to share more logistical details than normal just in case anyone happens upon these posts and thinks, “That sounds like fun, but I don’t know if I would feel comfortable wandering through those places.” I want everyone who reads these posts to walk away saying, “Man, I could totally do that.” Because YOU CAN! And I want everyone to experience the heart-stopping beauty and cultural connections that we did.

Moving on.

SO MATT CAME TO VISIT! Ha. On Saturday the 23rd of June 2018, I arose from my slumber at an ungodly hour for a weekend morning to make sure I could shower and get myself on a train to the airport in time. I met Matt at the arrivals area and pretty much cried when he walked out. All of a sudden it reaallly hit me that I hadn’t seen him or hugged him or heard his laugh in real life for over 3.5 months. Definitely too long to be away from this man. We started by going to a cafe in the airport to get some pastries and espressos, and in his delirious state Matt’s eyes almost fell out of his head hearing me order our coffee in Italian haha. It was pretty funny.

After we ate, we hopped on the train and headed back to my apartment, exchanged gifts, and took a nap haha. That afternoon after Matt was back from the land of the jetlagged, we headed into downtown so he could walk by the Duomo and some of the monuments etc. His goal was to have wine and dinner on the streets of Milan, so once I got past my anxiety of, “oh my god, I have to find a good place that has outdoor seating that takes online reservations that doesn’t hate Americans and that has good food and good atmosphere and….” we put our heads and our internets together and found a joint called La Prosciutteria. We went in and ordered their [huge] aperitivo platter and two glasses of wine and sat outside. We did LOTS of people watching. It was delicious and comforting and fun and romantic. It was a perfect example of the fact that he and I can do a lot of things alone, but man everything is better and easier when we are together….

After dinner we ended up wandering the streets a bit and headed over towards the Castello Sforzesca. We stopped at one of the park bars for beer and then happened upon a free concert (slash singing competition?) in the castle courtyard, so we sat and watched a few of the performers. On our way out we passed ANOTHER street pop-up bar with a really good band playing, so we paused there for a minute and listened to that too. So good. At that point, Matt’s jetlag was kicking back in, and we knew we had a big day on Sunday, so we headed back and went to bed.

Sunday was where the fun and struggles began haha. After we finished packing, we headed over to the train station to grab breakfast and an espresso. Of course at the cafe that we stopped in we:

• Sat in the wrong place (twice)

• Spilled my espresso

• Were generally in the way of everyone around us

Love starting vacations with Italian stress :-)

So we get past that, make it to our train, and were already having to convince ourselves to “go with the flow,” and “it will all be fine.” We hop on the train, get to Malpensa airport, and of course take like 20 minutes to find the rental car desk (signs here make NO sense sometimes.. Half of them point straight down and you don’t know if that means straight ahead, downstairs, right in that very place that the arrow is pointing or what…) But, we find the desk and a wonderfully nice man who spoke very good english was behind the desk to help us. Exactly what was needed to get us back to center.

So.

Car details:

• We booked with Sixt rental car agency and had a very smooth experience. They were not the cheapest, but they gave us the comfort we were looking for with added insurances and options available, clearly stated requirements, and convenient interfaces.

• Everything was booked online by Matt (from the US)

• We paid extra for a second driver and they were fine with us taking the car internationally

• Sixt does not require an International Driver’s Permit or an EU driver’s license to rent a car (as long as you have not been in the EU for 6 months or more) but see below for more info

• We booked our car for pickup from Malpensa airport so that we wouldn’t have to drive in the city but could still get to the pickup point by public transportation; I would recommend this decision to anyone who has not driven in a foreign city

• You can travel between Malpensa airport and Milano Centrale by train (~1 hour ride) for 13 euros/person, bookable at www.trenitalia.com

International Driver’s Permit:

• An IDP is not actually a license but a translation of your existing driver’s license to 10 other languages to allow the local authorities to read your license without issue

• Many countries in Europe (including Italy and Austria) require an IDP to drive legally. Most any research will tell you that if you are stopped and do not have one you may face some hefty fines, though, as you will read later, we were not stopped once even at the 4 border crossings we made

• To get an IDP: AAA is one of only two private entities in the U.S. authorized by the U.S. Department of State to issue an IDP.*

You will need to provide:

• An application (Download, print, and fill out)

• Two original passport pictures

• A valid U.S. driver's license.

• $20 USD permit fee

• You can provide the above either in person (and get your IDP on the spot) or via mail which could take 4-8 weeks.

• https://www.aaa.com/vacation/idpf.html

Ok, so after finding our Opel Mokka in the parking lot (which we continued to say as if it were a Pokemon character that would eventually evolve into the Opelus Mokkachino.. “Go Mokka! Go!”), we got our directions set up, music on, and hit the road (safety first, folks).

It only took maybe 1.5 hours to get to the Swiss border. Matt had read something about a Swiss driving sticker and that we would get yelled at for not having one but could buy it at the border. Buuuutt we get to the border and… nothing. We drove right through, no one even looked at us, and there was zero indication of a place to stop or a requirement to do so. Being only a couple of hours into driving in a foreign country, we both panicked juuussttt a little that we would get stopped later and then thrown in Swiss jail. Spoiler alert: we didn’t. I honestly still don’t know what Matt read or whether or not we were driving illegally in that regards, but...we had no issue.

We ended up driving next to Lake Lugano and decided to stop for some photo ops.

We continued north using “Avoid highways” and ended up stopping at a place on the side of the road called “Osteria Tre Vie.” In this part of Switzerland you will hear a mix of Italian and German, so we had a lovely German girl wait on us (she spoke English, though) with a few tables of Italians sitting nearby. We had a beer and a meat and cheese platter and finally felt the start of vacation :-)

Our end destination for the day was set to Lauterbrunnen via the Oberalp and Furka Passes. These passes are beautiful, winding roads through the mountains passing dozens of adorably small towns and giving breathtaking views. Seriously. I recommend BOTH. If you google them you may find them listed as “dangerous roads,” (which of course made me nervous when I saw), but really they are only dangerous if there is really bad weather or you are speeding or doing stupid… stuff. Or maybe on a motorcycle it is probably just inherently dangerous. But in our vehicle driving like a normal person, I didn’t even cringe.

I think we were technically driving it backwards because the Oberalp pass starts at (or or at least goes by) the Oberalpsee (Oberalp Lake), which is actually the mouth of the Rhine River and is marked by a small lighthouse.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/world-s-highest-lighthouse-shines-in-the-alps/28572042

So many cows and so many waterfalls!! We had to keep stopping at lookout points because it was just so gosh darned beautiful.

We then continued on through the Furka Pass (we only missed one turn in this whole process!). The views here literally made me want to vomit it was so beautiful.

Looking back at a road we drove down..

We hit just the smallest bit of rain and fog at one point, and even that just made it more enchanting.

I truly don’t even know what else to say about the drive. It was incredible.

Memorial to the men that died while making the Furka Pass.

All the Wasserfalles!!!!

Brienzersee (Brienz Lake)

Entering the Jungfrau Region

We get to Lauterbrunnen, and while we are trying to figure out if we needed to pay for the parking we decided we were likely going to miss the last gondola from there to Murren for the evening (830pm), so we headed further into the mountains by about 10 minutes to Stechelberg.

In Stechelberg:

• you can navigate to the Stechelbergbahn

• park in the lot that is RIGHT there by the gondola station for I believe 9 euros/day; pick up a ticket when you enter and pre-pay at a machine at the station before you leave

• Buy gondola tickets at www.sbb.ch (or at a ticket counter I think but no one was there when we got there around 9pm)

• The gondola up to Murren runs until almost midnight

View from the parking lot

So we took the gondola up to Murren (a “car-free” town on a mountain overlooking Eiger, Schwarzmonch, and Jungfrau mountains..) and walked to the Eiger Guesthouse where we were staying. To get there we had to walk through town and immediately fell in love. The flowers in the windowboxes, the huge mountain gazing down upon you, the quiet chill of being in the mountains. What. A. Cool. Place.

He looks ready for adventures!

Eiger at dusk

Eiger Guesthouse:

• Aegerten, Mürren, 3825, Switzerland Phone: +41338565460

• More like a fancy hostel

• We booked a private room (with bunk beds! woot!) but there was a common bathroom in the hall

• Everything was very clean

• Everyone was very nice

• Free breakfast

• Good beer selection at the bar

• I think we pre-paid for the room but had to pay the taxes on it once we were there

• Our room looked DIRECTLY out to Eiger Mountain...drool

We didn’t quite know where to go to check in, so we walked into the bar/ restaurant and asked. Well of COURSE you check in AT the bar. Where else would you go? The bartender gave us our key and showed us to the stairwell which led up to the rooms. We dropped our stuff off and went back down for a late dinner and a beer. The kitchen was pretty much closed, but they were willing to make us “the best pizza in the world.” Sold. So we sat and ate pizza and drank beer on a mountain in Switzerland while watching a World Cup game (literally have no idea who it was). The stress from that morning had melted away earlier in the day and by now was long forgotten. I was on vacation, exploring this beautiful world with the love of my life. What could be better?

The next morning we grabbed breakfast downstairs and headed back towards the gondola. We had debated for weeks if we wanted to take gondolas and funiculars etc. over to Jungfrau and take the famous Jungfraubahn. It is an engineering marvel and takes you to the Aletsch Glacier (4,160m or 13,648ft elevation at its highest point) which you can then WALK across. We actually debated staying in a Rifugio which is on the other side of the glacier and the highest altitude hut in the world I think. BUT, the Jungfraubahn is $150/person (ONE WAY, and not including the price of the other gondolas we would need to take to GET to where the Jungfraubahn starts!!!!). So we ended up deciding against it. Weather was a prominent factor in the view you would have and it just did not seem like it could possibly be worth the money. So instead the plan was to take the Schilthornbahn up to the top of Schilthorn and LOOK OUT at Jungfrau then hike the whole way back down to Murren.

Murren in daylight

When we went to the counter to buy our ticket, though, two unexpected things happened:

1. When we asked for one way tickets, he gave us a weird look, so we explained we were hiking back down, to which he said, “it’s not possible.” So we gave HIM a weird look and he explained that there was still too much snow. Crazy, right? So instead he told us to go up to Schilthorn then come back down to the mid-way stop at Birg and hike from there.

2. The tickets to the top of Schilthorn (2,970m pr 9,744ft. tall) were still $50/person.. ONE WAY!! Still saved money compared to Jungfrau, but goodness gracious!

So that was the new plan. Go to the top, explore up there, see the views, take the gondola down to Birg, explore there (there is a bunch of touristy, James Bond themed stuff at both stops because a scene in a James Bond movie was filmed there once.. sigh), and then hike down.

The view from the gondola itself was pretty cool. If you have never taken one up a big mountain, I recommend it. It’s a completely different perspective.

We get to Schilthorn, ignore all the people that just came to see the rotating restaurant (the Piz Gloria), walk out onto the viewing platform annnnddd. Clouds. Everywhere clouds. Everywhere. We could not see a damn thing. We tried to wait it out awhile and wandered around, we even found the trail we were SUPPOSED to have taken (and it looked terrifying), but no luck. We had a few moments were one spot would clear, but that was it. That said, being on a mountain almost blinded by clouds is an incredible experience in itself. It was eerie and almost disconcerting in a beautiful way.

Oh well!

The hike we were supposed to take

Was not expecting flowers up here, but as Jeff Goldblum would say, life will find a way..

.. uhmm....

Well alright then...

We grab the gondola back to Birg and do the “Thrill Walk” there which was actually pretty cool as well. They built a walkway with grating and glass and such where you couldn’t fall through but it feels like you could. I liked it :-)

Then it was time for our hike!! So we go back up the platform to look for a sign for the trailhead annddd.. Nothing. Literally nothing. We walked around for probably more than half an hour and could not find a single sign. We saw what we are pretty sure was the trail, but it was covered in snow and looked a bit treacherous, and we saw NO ONE else hiking it. No one. I was soooo incredibly frustrated. It is one thing to say “that trail is not safe, we shouldn’t risk it.” But it’s another if there are NO trail markings!!! If anyone that sees this has hiked from Birg, please message me because I would love to know where you went ha.

Anyway, our trail safety mindset won out, and we ended up buying a ticket for the gondola all the back to Murren. I was grumpy old man about it the whole way down and probably another half hour beyond that. Matt has the patience and positivity of saint.

So, we get to Murren and decide to do the Northface Trail instead. The trail was not particularly difficult, but it can be reached on foot from Murren (trail starts near the gondola, sign on the building with the map) and has SPECTACULAR views of the surrounding mountains. It also contains many sign posts with information about some of the rock climbers and mountaineers who first ascended some of the mountains you see.

Some highlights of the North Face hike:

• It is completely marked with signs and trail blazes so even if you do not have a map you would be able to find it and follow it from Murren and back

• There's a slide!

• It goes by a rifugio where you could get lunch and a drink (unsure if it was open when we went)

• It goes through fields of some BEAUTIFUL wild flowers

• It has some incredible views of the mountains

• We walked THROUGH a cow herd (all wearing cowbells, which quickly became my favorite thing ever) and had a delightful man legitimately say “Guten tag” to us

• We got to watch many hang gliders take off

• We ended right back in town

https://jungfrauregion.swiss/en/summer/product/track/northface-trail/

Sitting and watching hang gliders

As grumpy as I was when we started, I was giddy by the end. Switzerland is freaking beautiful and my goodness do we want to go back.

We spent the rest of our evening causing trouble haha. We had an amazing dinner at Hotel Alpenruh overlooking the mountains and drinking a bottle of wine, and then went to the bar at Hotel Eiger (the hotel right next to ours) to grab a beer and watch more World Cup. Here is where Matt discovered Schwarzbier which is his new favorite beer in the world and was made in a town just a short gondola ride or hike away. The bartender also told stories about the winter crowds that come through Murren because apparently it is actually more of a skiing town than anything. Apparently summers are calm because hikers are more responsible and regimented, and winters get nuts because skiiers don’t care and will stay out drinking until 8am haha.

View from our dinner table

Nom nom nom Schwarzbier

THEN I really wanted a donut I had seen in a container at our hotel bar, so we went there, bought a donut for $3, watched her throw away the rest of them immediately after, for some reason felt guilty for only ordering a donut, ordered 2 beers that we didn’t finish, and went to bed. Ha.

Nighttime view from our balcony

The day was amazing and beautiful and magical and the most amazing first stop on our vacation.

See you soon to continue our story!! :-)