ON TO GERMANY

We climb board Frances' high speed train, the TGV early on Sunday morning and head for Basel, Switzerland.  It was raining when we left Paris, so it was a good time to leave. After 2 hours and 50 minutes we arrive at the station in Basel where  we get special greeting. Frank, Hansjorg's son and his girlfriend, Iris pulled out all the stops to make us feel welcome.  Of course Frank got a lot of stares from other people, but we really appreciated the welcome. 

After a short drive from Basel and a stop for lunch, we arrive at Hansjorg and Silke's home in Zell im Wiesental.  Located in the southwest corner of Germany, we are in the Black Forest and just a few short miles from both Switzerland and the Alsace region of France. We will spend a week in Zell and then Cathie and I will go with Hansjorg to wherever he takes us.  Silke must go back to work and will miss out on all the fun.

HOME FOR A WEEK

Like me, Hansjorg is a hiker and in the Black Forest it is about hiking.  The area around Zell is crisscrossed with hiking trails, so on our first full day we took a hike.  We  had a little rain, some fog and some sunshine. As is the norm when hiking in these parts, there are guest houses or hostels at various points.  So you plan your hike for a stop at a guest house for lunch or if walking for multiple days a place to spend the night.  With Hansjorg leading you never know how far you will walk as he usually changes the route as we walk along.

  

The trails are all signposted as are all intersections.  The yellow diamonds are trails in the local area that lead to the Westweg,  a long distance hiking trail in Germany.  The Westweg or Westway is signified by a red diamond and blue diamond trails are major trails leading to the Westweg.  With Hanjorg in the lead, we change routes as we went along and ended up with a great 8.5 mile hike in the Black Forest.

 LADIES PREPARED FOR THE RAIN

 THE GUEST HOUSE APPEARS

 FORTIFICATION FOR THE REST OF THE HIKE

 LEBERKNODELLSUPPE (liver dumpling soup)

Don't knock it until you try it.

 CHAPEL IN THE MOUNTAINS

BLACK FOREST VIEW

With Switzerland just a short drive away, the next day we headed to the Top of Europe. To get there you need to take a couple of train rides on cog wheel railway trains that can climb very steep grades.  So we leave from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland which is in a beautiful valley at the foot of the alps for the first segment of the journey.

After about 50 minutes we arrive at Kleine Scheidegg our first stop and a station about halfway to the top. Here we have some time for lunch and a short walk to look around. We are at 6,745 feet and there are beautiful views all around.

LOOKING BACK

The mountain in the middle of the photograph is Monch at 13,475 feet.  Most Americans have never heard of. this peak,  but the one on the left is the Eiger and at 13,026 is more recognizable to us.  The face of this mountain is a very challenging technical climb and many who attempt it don't make it and some die in the attempt.  

 THE EIGER AND THOSE WHO CHOSE TO TAKE THE TRAIN

On the rocks around this lake are the names of people who died attempting to climb the Eiger.  There are  a lot of names of people from all over the world.

THAT'S WHERE WE'RE GOING

So after a short while we board the second train for the ride on  the highest rail line to the highest rail station in Europe at 11,333 feet.  The train, another cog wheel train climbs, through the mountain in a tunnel that is 5.7 miles long.  This tunnel was build between 1898 and 1912 and the station at the top is inside the mountain. At the station there is a restaurant, gift shops, and viewing areas.  There is also a tunnel into the glacier.  Even here you are not yet at the Top of Europe.  You ride and elevator to the Sphinx, the viewing area at the highest point.  Here you can opt to go outside or to take in the views from the inside.  While we were there the wind was blowing at 50 MPH, the temperature was 27 degrees which made the wind chill a balmy 7 degrees.  Needless to say, we didn't spend much time on the outside.  The view to the north was something to behold, but to the south we couldn't see a thing due to the clouds.

 INSIDE THE GLACIER  

 ON THE VIEWING PLATFORM

 MONCH

THE HALFWAY POINT BELOW

SUNSET ON THE ALPS

On the way down, one of the glaciers calved and it created an avalanche down into the valley.  No photos though as it happened so fast.  As we approached the midpoint station the conductor on the told us that the winds were very strong at the station at we were to hurry to the next train.  She explained that if the wind reached 99 KPH, (60 mph) they couldn't run the train and we would have to stay overnight at the mid point. I don't know how fast the wind was going, but it was blowing pretty hard when we changed trains.  We returned home late and ready for bed, but it was a great day in Switzerland.