Last night the rain stopped, and so we asked our guest house owner for a local recommendation for dinner. She steered us in the opposite direction from the tourist area, about a five minute walk from our room. Well, no sooner did we step out the door then there was a low rumble, and a drop of water hit my head. We walked fast, then ran to Römer Ristorante as the thunder boomed and it started to pour. We got in just in time, were seated on the patio at one of the only sheltered tables as it turned out, and spent an enjoyable evening watching the street flood, everyone except two other tables get washed out and forced inside to dine, and a spectacular thunder and lightning show. Never did hot, bubbly baked lasagna taste so good. Really. That was probably the best lasagna I can remember having. So I told the very Italian owner, in German (he had no English) that we had been in Italy, but his lasagna was perfecto. Am besten. He perked up and asked where we had been in Italy, so I started to tick off places and when I got to Positano, I hit gold. His eyes lit up, and he just launched into it... I had to ask him to slow down; turns out he is from that area. Soon the German photo book of the Amalfi Coast was open on our table, shots of amaretto and fresh baked biscotti appeared in front of us, and we were excitedly pointing at photos of towns and beaches...
Just like that the rains quit and the church bells started tolling. We took it as a sign to head back to the room. By midnight it was thunder, lightning, and the heavy rains continued until morning.
And that is what we did last night in Bern.
Now, however, we are on the train to Interlaken, in the Alps. It was raining this morning still, as we left, so I got us a cab so Gail could keep her hair looking nice until we at least switched trains. Turns out that was all it lasted, as the rain just got heavier the higher we rose into the mountains. We switched onto a little three car regional train, then off that onto a huge, single car gondola for the ride up out of Lauterbrunnen; 2000 feet up to Grütschalp where we boarded a little two car train up another thousand feet to Mürren. So we got out in the train station at 5400 feet elevation, the temperature is about 11 degrees C. and it is pouring rain. We just put our heads down and slogged to the guesthouse.
We have a little three room apartment for the next three nights, thank goodness, as it gives us plenty of room to spread stuff out to dry. It was raining so hard that everything in my pack is soaked, even my passport. Gail's stuff isn't much better. There's a kitchen-dining room, bathroom, and living-bedroom, and we have stuff draped over a drying rack, and all over the place.
We are right on the edge of the dropoff, two or three thousand feet above the valley floor, if we could see it through the clouds. Our cute, stereotypical little village is in the clouds, when they part you look up, up, up eight thousand feet to massive mountains that just rise straight up, just across the narrow valley. As the storm started to break around 18:00 the mountains slowly started revealing their bulk, but we never did see any of the summits. There are glaciers that seem close enough to touch, cliffs, pine forests, and waterfalls everywhere, ribbons of water cascading down, hitting a ledge, then plunging again, then again. The whole scene is pretty breathtaking. But for most of the afternoon we were socked in the clouds, trapped by the heavy rains.
We set out with a load of clothes to wash (they got pre-soaked on the way to the laundry), then we went to a close restaurant for fondue, and did some food shopping at the Co-Op. Interestingly enough, 100% of us eating the fondue agreed that my fondue is waaaaay better (see the SUNNYSIDE UP page of my blog). Restaurant prices here are just outrageous; about $45 US for two if us to just have cheese fondue, and just bread to dip in it. So we are planning to eat in some meals, since we have a kitchen.
We got the clothes back to our room mostly dry, put some stuff away, set other stuff out, when suddenly the sun came out. I ran out and stood in a sunbeam, next to the waterfall shooting out right in front of us, for five minutes enjoying the opening view before it clouded over again. At least the rain has stopped. We walked through our sleepy village as it got dark, then returned to make dinner. I am amazed at all the flowers, the healthy gardens in every yard, the fantastic beauty of it all. Maybe tomorrow the sun will shine.
We have a lot of hiking to do.