Swiss Countryside

Perhaps more amazing than the Swiss towns themselves was the stunning Swiss countryside. Unlike the solid suburbia of home, Swiss towns tended to be surrounded by large areas of verdant green.

(Click on an image to see a larger version. Click on the "++" link to see a huge full-size version.)

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Watching out the train window, Switzerland mostly seemed to be a blur of green, dotted with an occasional wood structure. ++
Every once in a while, you'd see several houses together, forming a little hamlet. ++
And in a few places, such as this picture just south of Spietz, the hamlets turn into the suburbs, although still remarkably green.
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Sunlight streams through the clouds over one of the lakes near Interlaken. ++
On Saturday, we decided to hike around the upper side of the valley. This is the view across the valley, ++
And this is a view looking to the upper end of the valley floor below.
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Our hike started with a special train that climbed up the steep hillside from Lauterbrunnen to Grutchalp (elev. 4900 feet). Then we got on a normal train that took us through Winteregg to Muren. This is Muren, where we stopped to warm up over a wonderful lunch. ++
Then we hiked from Muren to Gimmelwald. Along the way, we passed a calf frolicking in his pasture, while his mother looks on. ++
The road meandered along the valley wall... Because it was narrow, we saw many small 4-wheel drive vehicles, such as Suzuki Samurais, in people's barns.
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When our hike ended in Gimmelwald, we took the cablecar down to Stechelberg. Jonathan was pretty much plastered to the window. :-) ++
The cablecar passed some amazing scenery, such as this water cascading down the valley wall. ++
The next day, from the train on the way to Kleine Scheidegg, we saw Lauterbrunnen nestled in the valley below.

Lucas Pereira
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++ Watching out the train window, Switzerland mostly seemed to be a blur of green, dotted with an occasional wood structure.	++ Every once in a while, you'd see several houses together, forming a little hamlet.	++ And in a few places, such as this picture just south of Spietz, the hamlets turn into the suburbs, although still remarkably green.
++ Sunlight streams through the clouds over one of the lakes near Interlaken.	++ On Saturday, we decided to hike around the upper side of the valley. This is the view across the valley,	++ And this is a view looking to the upper end of the valley floor below.
++ Our hike started with a special train that climbed up the steep hillside from Lauterbrunnen to Grutchalp (elev. 4900 feet). Then we got on a normal train that took us through Winteregg to Muren. This is Muren, where we stopped to warm up over a wonderful lunch.	++ Then we hiked from Muren to Gimmelwald. Along the way, we passed a calf frolicking in his pasture, while his mother looks on.	++ The road meandered along the valley wall... Because it was narrow, we saw many small 4-wheel drive vehicles, such as Suzuki Samurais, in people's barns.
++ When our hike ended in Gimmelwald, we took the cablecar down to Stechelberg. Jonathan was pretty much plastered to the window. :-)	++ The cablecar passed some amazing scenery, such as this water cascading down the valley wall.	++ The next day, from the train on the way to Kleine Scheidegg, we saw Lauterbrunnen nestled in the valley below.