Grosse Scheidegg (9/25/1983)

Sunday, September 25, 1983

I went down to Jan & Kirby’s by 8:55 and we soon left, driving to Grindelwald. The fog was lifting and it looked like another great day. We arrived in Grindelwald at 10:45, parked and ran up to the train station. There we saw Hans Rüdi with the kids (6-yr old Mathieu, 7-yr old Michael, and 8-yr old Barbara) and Brigitte following close behind. Hans Rüdi thought a bus left at 11:00, so we hurried over to the bus stop, but one didn’t leave until 11:30. So everyone except me ate their lunches because they were so hungry! Hans Rüdi went to buy tickets, and ended up buying them for everyone. So I don’t know if my half-price pass would have been valid, maybe not. The one-way ticket to Grosse Scheidegg (the Great Divide!) cost 10.40 CHF/$5.

Grindelwald to Grosse Scheidegg bus ticket

The S family and I boarded the bus and Barbara asked me to sit with her. We found that our seats reclined, but would only stay that way if you put on a “brake.” It was a fairly old bus and the aisle was only about 8 inches wide. The driver sat on the right side. The windows curved over the roof line. The bus left a little late and headed up through Grindelwald. Once outside of town, we came to a glacier that flowed down to nearly our level. It looked like pale blue Styrofoam! We left the public road and started up a zigzagging one-lane limited access road (for farmers and park rangers?). Zig and zag, up and up past the tree line with varying views of the glacier and the cliff with a glacier on top, and high thin waterfalls. I think this tremendous cliff was the Wetterhorn mountain. The mountain tops were still covered with clouds. We passed lots of hitchhikers and cows, with a barn here and there. We were dropped off at a collection of wooden buildings, where it was windy and cool. We put on our jackets and started hiking towards First.

View NE from Grosse Scheidegg

Zoom view NE from Grosse Scheidegg

Wellhorn and glacier

We were moving laterally along a mountainside, but still had the ups and downs of hills. It was wonderful being right in the mountains, and it reminded me of Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy. But there we didn’t see any other hikers, and here there were loads of hikers! Mathieu was pushed along in his buggy.

Barbara, Hans Rüdi, Brigitte with Mathieu, and Kirby

We discussed why the glacier was blue. The Swiss thought it was the Föhn/down slope wind. Well, yeah, in that the warm wind melts the snow/ice, which later refreezes/recrystallizes and in its new form it refracts the light differently. After about an hour, Michael decided we should stop and picnic. He was urged to continue a bit farther, but eventually he just sat down. We had finally come out into the sun, so we stopped for lunch. I had crackers and tuna fish with a boiled egg. Kirby found a hair in the tuna fish. Not again! How embarrassing!

Jan, Barbara

Back: Michael; Middle: Barbara, Hans Rüdi, Mathieu, Brigitte;
Front: Jan and Kirby

Then Jan & Kirby decided it was time to start hiking again. So onward.

Glacier

We passed a community of closed wooden buildings with several water troughs.

Michael, Barbara, Brigitte with Mathieu

Looking back at community of closed buildings

Wetterhorn

The views were unbelievable! After a while we came to a crossroads saying it was an hour up to the First station of the chairlift, and about 2 hours down to Grindelwald. The vote was for walking down. The clouds had left the mountaintops and it was really warm in the sun.

Mountain stream

Lesser mountains to the NW

Barbara at a cow barrier

Grindelwald Glacier

Summer barns

Seeing more of Grindelwald Glacier

I saw two yellow PTT buses way off in the distance winding their way down from Grosse Scheidegg.

Two tiny yellow dots just above
the trees are the PTT buses

Wetterhorn

We passed cows and goats (one being very pregnant and sway-backed). We passed tumbling streams, and made a stop for the S family to rest on a rock.

Barbara, Hans Rüdi, Brigitte, Michael

We heard a thundering sound and Hans Rüdi said it was an avalanche, or snow falling from the glacier. When we were sitting, we heard rumbling that reminded me of Meiringen where I heard the echoing reverberations of shots at a shooting stand. No, no, the Ss said. There is shooting only on Sunday mornings. It was rather repetitive, to be so many avalanches! Oh, well. But later as we came into view of Grindelwald, we saw a shooting stand way below us with the targets being raised and lowered. Doch! It was the shooting! But there were also a couple avalanches because the Ss had actually seen some falling snow.
Kirby had stepped into a hole and twisted his ankle. He managed to march on ahead and we lost sight of him. We arrived in Grindelwald and walked along the upper part of town, then down to the main street at the Firstbahn station. There were a couple hang gliders above us.

Hang glider

Grindelwald Glacier

Monch and Jungfrau from Grindelwald

The Ss wanted to stop for a drink, but we had to find Kirby first, at the parking lot near the train station. Kirby didn’t want to go for a drink because he had bought himself a can of Pepsi. The rest of us went to the restaurant at the Sportzentrum/sport center. I had a Pepita and left 2.50 CHF/$1.25 and then Jan and I used the restroom and went to the parking lot. We drove towards home, and it got dark fast. Past Interlaken, the traffic had stopped already. There was a police car sitting on the overpass above us. Kirby decided to make a U-turn and cross the overpass to get to the other side of the lake. As we came on to the overpass, the police stepped out of the car! They stopped us and asked for the driver’s license and car documents. They let us know they weren’t happy with the move we made. We drove along the other side of the lake, and halfway along we ran into stopped traffic again. We inched our way to Thun, then past Thun we kept moving, but slowly. Nearing Biel, we had a vote, which had us get off at the Brugg exit and go into Aegerten to the Trattoria Zia Carmela. I had gnocchi casalinga (ground meat sauce) and a Henniez for about 11 CHF/$5. Kirby had the Vulcana Pizza, hotter than the last time, and a green salad. Jan had a salad and the spaghetti carbonara which was her best ever. We left by 21:00 and drove to Jan & Kirby’s and I walked home.