Adelboden Adelboden is only about 30 miles from Grindelwald, where we drove to last summer. However, this year we decided to a) go in Judith’s big, comfy car, and b) drive the whole way in a day, where previously we’d spread it over two days. I’m pleased to report that it’s no great strain driving 680 miles in a day in a suitably large and comfortable vehicle.Once in Adelboden, we stayed in the newly refurbished Solis Cambrian hotel, which was very nice indeed.
Hotel View After driving down French, German and Swiss motorways for most of the day, this was the view that greeted us from our balcony when we arrived at the hotel late on Saturday afternoon. In addition to there being little traffic on those lovely French motorways, the weather had also been fantastic all day.The only negative aspect of the drive was that the currently poor GBP-EUR exchange rate meant that petrol was nearly £1.30-a-litre, which is about 20p-a-litre more than it is in the UK at the moment. On the plus side, it’s only about 95p-a-litre in Switzerland.
Adelboden High Street We knew we were visiting before the summer season had really started, but the place was completely deserted. Only two hotels were open, of which ours was one. Most of the shops were shut, as were the restaurants. It’s a good job we’d booked half-board in the hotel.The first couple of nights there were maybe 20 guests in our hotel. By Tuesday we were the only people there (it was actually quite nice having the entire place to ourselves). For the rest of the week there were no more than a dozen people in. Still, it made for very personal service.
Adelboden Sunday. Our first full day in Adelboden and we decided to ease ourselves in with a walk to the Engstligen-Wasserfalle, which you can just make out in the distance, almost in the exact centre of the photo.Adelboden is at 4,438 feet and the base of the waterfall is only at 4,608 feet, so it's a pretty flat walk overall.
Walking A miscellaneous view on the way to the Engstligen-Wasserfalle. I think the peak in the distance is Fitzer, which is just over 8,000 feet high.
Engstligen-Wasserfalle Approaching the waterfall. Engstligen-Wasserfalle is over 1,600 feet high.
Engstligen-Wasserfalle Me on the way to the Engstligen-Wasserfalle.
Engstligen-Wasserfalle Judith at the base of the waterfall.
Adelboden View A miscellaneous view of Adelboden on the way back from Engstligen-Wasserfalle.
Lauterbrunnen Monday. The biggest disappointment of our Grindelwald trip last year was not getting to see the view from the Jungfraujoch. Not because we didn’t make the effort to go to the top, but because the weather was lousy when we got there. So as the weather was glorious (again) today, we decided to drive the 37 miles to Lauterbrunnen and pay the £75 (each!) to get the train up to the Jungfraujoch.This is Judith waiting for the train at Lauterbrunnen station.
Wengen The view from the train looking back towards Wengen, on the way to Kleine-Scheidegg.
Eigerwand View We’ve made it as far as Eigerwand (9,400 feet) and the visibility is still very good. The last time we were here all we could see out of this window was the inside of clouds.
Eismeer View At Eismeer (10,368 feet) the view is still good (certainly much better than last time), but there are lots of clouds gathering and we’re still about 1,000 feet from the top. The temperature has dropped to about -4C.
Jungfrau View Dammit! At the top and we’re in the clouds again. We hung around and had some lunch, but the visibility didn’t improve. That’s twice the weather has thwarted us at the Jungfraujoch.
Kleine-Scheidegg We stopped at Kleine-Scheidegg on the way back down to take a few photos. It’s an interesting contrast to when we were here last July when this was all green and summery.
Valley Rather than get the train all the way back to Lauterbrunnen, we decided the get off at Wengen and walk down the last couple of miles. The views made it worth the effort.
Wood Nice patterns in this woodpile outside someone's house. I may use this as my desktop wallpaper.
Staubbach Falls A view of the Staubbach Falls in Lauterbrunnen on the path from Wengen down to Lauterbrunnen.
Tree An interesting tree in someone’s garden in Lauterbrunnen. No idea what it is.
Adelboden View Tuesday. Lovely weather yet again. Today we’re going for a walk to Schermtanne, which at 5.018 feet, is a gentle 580 feet above Adelboden.
Trees Walking through the trees on the way to Schermtanne.
Goat Local fauna.
View A miscellaneous view on the path to Schermtanne.
Bridge Judith on a bridge near Schermtanne.
Snow The trail map shows this path as being useable all-year-round. Apart from today when it seems to be covered in seven feet of snow. An avalanche perhaps?
Hotel Pool Back at the hotel and Judith takes some time out to capitalize on us being the only guests in the hotel today. If we’ve had a better hotel pool view, we can’t remember it.
Hotel Spa Judith sitting in the hotel’s spa, admiring the view. Well, reading actually. But I’m sure she admired the view from time-to-time too.
TschentenAlp Wednesday. From the middle of Adelboden there's a cable-car 2,000 feet up to TschentenAlp. Like all of the other cable-cars in the area, this one was also closed. So we thought we'd be keen and walk to the top.As you can see, the walk started with some nice views back down the valley that Adelboden sits near the top of.
Gsur The 9,000 foot Gsur peak towers behind Judith.
Snow After about two hours walking we’d reached 5,500 feet and it was starting to get increasingly snowy.
Snow Not long after that the path was under several feet of snow and it was impossible to tell if we were going to right way. So we had to give up and retrace our steps back to the hotel. Doh! Still, being thwarted doesn’t seem to have dented Judith’s enthusiasm for sitting about in the snow.Just to top off my anguish, I'd been walking in shorts and the bright sunlight reflecting off the snow had majorly scorched my legs. Double Doh!
Lonnerwasserfalle Thursday. The first day we've had that's been significantly overcast. Still no rain though. We're walking to the Lonnerwasserfalle, which you can just see in the left-middle of the picture. It's a bit shabby compared to the Engstligen-Wasserfalle though.You can also just make out Judith in the middle foreground.
Downhill Judith looks please to have finished the uphill bit.
Dandelion Took a nice picture of a dandelion on the way back to the hotel. Dandelions seem to be widely appreciated as alpine flowers here. It's interesting that we generally thing of them as weeds, given how colourful they are.
Daisy Nice.
A Last Look Friday. Another nice day and chance for a last look at the view before getting into the car for the 680 mile drive home.It would be interesting to come back to Adelboden when everything is open and there are more people around to create a bit more of an atmosphere. It's a lovely area and appears to be less intensely touristy than places like Grindelwald and Zermatt. Our hotel was really nice, the food was superb and the staff were excellent.All in all, another top holiday and with the added bonus of an entire week of nice weather for a change.