Our next destination was Gimmelwald in Switzerland, by way of the Schilthorn gondolabahn (cable car).

Here's the roadmap for where we're about to spend two days. Note the black cable car lines and red hiking trails, for the serious hiker (summertime only). This is an awesome place!

Here we go, leaving Stechelberg, almost straight up the side of the mountain, headed for Gimmelwald.

Our first taste of Gimmelwald.

That night at dinner (at the Hotel Mittaghorn), we talked to some folks who'd been up to the top of mountain, where the rotating restaurant Schiltorn. Although it cost about 70 swiss francs each, we decided we had to do it. As you can see from the photos below, it was a wise decision, as it definitely a "high point" of the trip!

This struck me as being the dawn of time. I took several hundred pictures up there. Fortunately for you, I only posted a few of them.

"No slippers". This sign pointed the way to a serious hiking trail!

The temperature dropped about 30 degrees between Gimmelwald and Schilthorn, and wind was howling up there.

I'm perfectly serious when I say that I'd eat off of this floor, as well as just about every other bathroom floor that I saw in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Having had the "cheap" breakfast (included with your gondola ticket), we headed back down.

The next stop was Murren, down the hill...

In Murren, we walked around the local trails for a while. It's is a town of about 600, between Gimmelwald and the top, Schilthorn Restaurant. This scenery is to die for!

When these folks build a house, it's forever. They use high quality materials and construction techniques that ensure that this building will still be here in hundreds of years, just like everything else around here.

Firewood is a necessity here. In the southern US we have detached garages...here they have detached firewood houses.

This is the largest vehicle I saw up here. There's special inclined train that runs up here in the summer, but I think during wintertime it's pretty iffy.

A little cable trivia for the engineers among us. One of the operators told me how much power the electric motors put out. I forget now, but it was an astounding number, like 45,000 kw or something.

The train consists of this passenger car and a flat car. I suspect that just about everything here arrives this way.

Claire couldn't resist thrashing Jordan in a game of chess, despite his 99.9% academic scores.

Here's Walter's Hotel Mittaghorn, where we stayed for two nights.

I walked up to Murren again later using the road, and it was a real treat.

Here's our hotel, the Mittaghorn. It's only open April to the the end of October. I suspect snow and heating is a problem after that. There's a little bar downstairs where some of the locals gather at night.

Don't bother bringing a hair dryer, because anything bigger than about 150 watts will blow the fuse! The black box on the right is to a coin operated water heater for the shower. One Swiss franc will get you five minutes. It's like a car wash....when it quits, it QUITS!

We met some great folks at dinner that night. In fact, that was the thing that made us stay another night.

The trip down was a little less scenic than the trip up, but no less exciting.

Back in Stechelberg, we were treated to some interesting rock formations! I guess the natives have a lot of time on their hands...

Shannon and Brad Cobb from New Orleans were some of the interesting folks we met up at Mittaghorn. Brad should be back from Iraq by now, we hope.

Another example of how smart the europeans are is this radio controlled traffic-sensing light setup for construction areas. No flagman required, and it works 24 hours a day.

Headed for Baden Baden, we pulled off the autobahn for lunch, and found this ancient covered bridge.

The europeans also make good use of the FM signals to present a scrolling banner on the radio, detailing the name of a song and artist, or whatever else they want to show you.

Here's a carbon copy of my Volkswagen GTI, but with Swiss plates.

In an effort to promote recycling (not that they have to), there's a recycling station at every rastplatz (rest stop) on the autobahn, which is about every 5 or 10 miles, rather than every 50 miles as in the US.

Nirvana!

The bath at Baden Baden, although it was a little cold outside for my taste. Jeanie and the kids tried it, and report that the whole thing was quite an interesting experience in German efficiency.

One thing we noticed immediately upon arrival is the lack of fat people. They are few and far between. It's such a dramatic difference that it's acutally noticeable and startling. Their lifestyle simply doesn't allow it to happen. Lots of folks make a point of walking or riding bikes, and there are public trails and walkways everywhere for that reason.

There's more to see on page 5 of 5...