We arrived in Interlaken just after lunch. We stepped off the train to find the weather beautiful; sunny, clear, with Interlaken surrounded by towering mountains with at least 50 paragliders floating lazily in intertwining circles down from the peaks. We checked into our hotel and wandered down the main street, stopping to watch the paragliders land in a huge paddock next to the main thoroughfare. Most of them were tandem and Rob asked someone about the experience. It was 220 swanks (Swiss Francs), which I remarked was cheaper than a hamburger in Lucerne.

Interlaken is an unusual small town, with ancient, typically Swiss buildings interspersed with ugly, 70’s architecture. The raging river ran, roaring rapidly right past our hotel and we were all lucky enough to have balconies overlooking it.

Shortly after arriving we took a funicular up the Harder Kulm mountain to a viewing platform which gave us panoramic views of the valley containing the two lakes between which Interlaken sits. The funicular ascended at a 68 degree angle and during the journey entered a pitch black tunnel. With no lights in the funicular, we were blanketed in darkness. I turned to Lidia and gave her a romantic kiss. The next conversation is written verbatim:

Scott: I hope that was you I just kissed!

Lidia: You didn’t kiss me.

Scott: In that case, you have very soft lips, Rob.

Rob: That’s what your wife said.

When we reached the lookout at the top, the view was simply spectacular. The two lakes at either end of the valley 750 metres below us bookend the city of Interlaken. Silently standing sentry behind them lay the imposing Munsch, Jungfrau and Eiger mountains, their snow-covered peaks shining in the afternoon sun.  The platform juts out off the edge of the mountain, where you can watch all the paragliders beginning their journeys to the ground far below.

The next day we took the train to a small town called Grindelwald (yes, that is actually its name, for all those Harry Potter fans). This charming little village sits on the slopes of the Jungfrau mountain and is gateway to the highest railway in Europe. Caitlynne’s doctor advised her not to travel to high altitudes, so she elected to stop and enjoy Grindelwald. Rob decided to take a gondola up to Grindelwald First and meet up with Caitlynne a couple of hours later. He decided to hire a scooter to come back down the mountain, which he said was great fun down the winding roads. Lidia and I took the cable car up to the train station halfway up Jungfrau, and then an old cogwheel train up to 3,400 metres above sea level at the “Top of Europe”, as they call it here.

Once at the peak, we took a lift another 172 metres up to the Sphinx viewing station, visited an ice sculpture park which had an amazing ice sculpture of Lang Lang sitting at his grand piano, and stepped out onto the glacier. There was a fun park there and we spent half an hour fanging down the mountain on tubes. Lidia asked me to push her off the starting area and specified not to push her too fast. Of course, I had to push her as fast as I could and then stood at the top listening to her scream “THAT WAS TOO HAAAaaaard!!!!!!!!!” as she tore down the snowy slope. As she hit the first corner she flew up the bank and actually got air, her butt slapping down on the hard ice, like a watermelon on concrete.

I also took a sled down the toboggan run but had no way of steering it, so I had to jam my hands in the snow to change direction. It was like running your hand along gravel and I had tingly fingers for hours afterwards.

After spending a couple of hours at the top of Jungfrau, we caught the cogwheel train all the way back to Grindelwald. The scenery from the train was typically spectacular. The landscape is breathtaking and the visibility on the day perfect with the afternoon sun illuminating the mountains surrounding this idyllic little town. When the conductor came into our carriage, I prepared my tickets for him to scan, but all he did was hand us a Lindt chocolate each and kept walking!  We decided to look around Grindelwald before taking the train back to Interlaken and as we were walking along the main street, we ran into Rob and Caitlynne! We all had a cuppa together at an al fresco café overlooking the magnificent scenery.

When we returned to our hotel, we enjoyed a drink next to the river before wandering off to an ancient Swiss restaurant for schnitzel, sausage and beer.

The following morning, we took three trains to Zermatt. When we arrived, we all fell in love with this quaint, beautiful little town. We wandered up the busy main street where cars are banned. Flags were strewn across the street, stretching from one ancient, timber building to another. We decided to eat our lunch on a bench and looked up to see the majestic Matterhorn looking down on us. The day was crystal clear, and the views of this impressive mountain were uninhibited.

After lunch, Lidia, Rob and I decided to take the cable car up to Glacier Paradise, which sits at 4,000 metres above sea level. We had to take three cable cars to get there. The last one, which is the highest cable way in the world, was moving towards the side of the mountain when it suddenly stopped. We sat suspended, 172 metres above the ground for about 30 seconds. This is apparently a height normally only achievable by helicopters. In that time the cable settled into a position so close to the mountain that when we took off again, we felt like we were travelling vertically up the mountain side. It was a little disconcerting!

When we arrived, the air was so thin that Rob forfeited the next snowball fight, giving me a three-nil lead on snowball fights. He did break this promise by tossing a snowball at me shortly after, however I count that as a disqualification, since he’d already forfeited.

The views of the Matterhorn up here would have been spectacular, but the cloud had moved in, and you really couldn’t see it at all.

That evening we went down to the hotel bar, where they had Guinness on tap, and all enjoyed a few drinks and dinner. The bar was very rustic and had a very cool atmosphere. Some ning nong decided to place an empty bottle right behind my elbow on the table and I turned around and knocked it off. I tried several times to grab it, but only succeeded in juggling it around until it bounced off the floor with a loud clang. Fortunately, with great skill, I had managed to make it land without smashing.

We organised ourselves for the next day, where we intended to take the 9:10am train to Gornergrat for apparently the best view of the Matterhorn. We had our breakfast and headed off with plenty of time to catch our train. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the train station it was bedlam. Clearly, everyone in Zermatt decided to catch the same train and 20 minutes before the departure time they cut off new passengers and we had to wait until 9:45. We were right near the front of the line when they let us in to the waiting room, where sliding doors prevented anyone from standing on the platform. There were hundreds of people standing at the various sliding doors just waiting for them to open so they could rush in and grab a seat on the train, preferably on the favoured right-hand side. Rob virtually had his nose pressed against the glass when the doors opened and rushed onto the platform, heading for the nearest door on the train. During the pandemonium, our very own mild-mannered Caitlynne, who is the gentlest, most polite person I know, jumped onto the train right behind Rob, ramming into another woman, who emitted a high-pitched squeal as she narrowly avoided careening off into a seat. Caitlynne maintains that it was unintentional, but I was right behind her and it was like watching Hulk Hogan pile driving an opponent into the ropes. Thanks to Rob’s speed and Caitlynne’s efforts at taking out all opposition, we successfully secured four seats facing each other on the right-hand side.

The journey took 40 minutes, during which we had the most amazing view of the Matterhorn and Zermatt resting in the valley below. When we arrived at Gornergrat, the views were stunning. The skies were clear, giving us the perfect view of this imposing mountain peak, which is the most photographed mountain in the world. We took umpteen photographs ourselves and had a good laugh at Rob as he walked down the sloping hill to get a shot without any other tourists in it. He was walking in an area where no-one had yet walked that day, and it turned out that there was a thin crust of ice over cavities in the snow. He stumbled and fell as his legs kept falling through the surface, sinking up to his knees. It was all worth it, though, since we got the best pics.

That evening, after drinks at two of Zermatt’s bars, we all went to the local Coop supermarket, bought pre-prepared salads and sat on the balcony of our room where we ate as we looked up at our perfect views of the Matterhorn on our last night in Zermatt.