The weather wasn’t ideal today, but it held out for the important stuff!
We woke up pretty early again today so we could grab some breakfast before catching a bus at 9. As mentioned in my previous post (I think), the hotel we are staying at, Hotel Jungfrau, is managed by folks at the neighboring establishment, Hotel Schützen. This is where the breakfast buffet was. Brandon and I seemed to be the first ones there, so it was quiet and, honestly, a little dark. They didn’t seem to have all the lights on just yet. At the time, it was rainy and overcast, so the natural light was real low. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our breakfast and then worked our way to the bus stop about three buildings down. For context, our goal today was to go up the Schilthorn, which is a section of the Swiss Alps containing Piz Gloria, a VERY COOL building with a 360° rotating restaurant and James Bond “museum,” as the location was used in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” the only Bond film to star George Lazenby as 007. Before we had headed out for breakfast, between the weather outside and the livestream view from Piz Gloria, Brandon was not optimistic about spending the money on the gondola trip to go up the mountain(s). By the time we had eaten breakfast, the weather was clearing slightly and the camera view was improving, plus I am an incredibly toxic optimist when I want to be, so we risked it! Anywho, we caught a bus from Lauterbrunnen to the neighboring town of Stechelberg, which is where we had to purchase gondola tickets to get us up to the Schilthorn. The gondola ride was actually broken up into 4 separate trips/gondolas, the first being Stechelberg to Gimmelwald. Gimmelwald led to Mürren, which sat a little over 5,000 feet in elevation. Mürren took us to Birg before finally riding Birg to Schilthorn. Each set of cables for the gondolas felt like they got progressively more severe in angle of elevation, which makes sense when you’re literally going up a giant mountain….but, we made it to the top about half an hour from when we started, and it was WORTH IT. Schilthorn/Piz Gloria sits at 2970m, or just under 10,000 feet in elevation. Once we were there for a bit, my body started recognizing the air being slightly thinner, so my heart rate ran a little higher than usual. But friends….THE VIEWS! The mountains were absolutely breathtaking (maybe that’s why I struggled lol), and the view of things down below was just so cool. It legitimately felt like you were on top of the world up there! Because we got there around 9:30, we had a lot of time to walk around, take pictures, be in awe of life, etc. Piz Gloria also had a store that we found some good stuff in, and we checked out the Spy World “museum” which went through the major plot points of OHMSS, as well as Piz Gloria’s role in the movie. It was really cool to see the clips from the movie and take notice of where on the mountain and among/along the building they were! It was also quite fun because the bathrooms were on that same floor and were designated for Bondgirls and Bonds lol. Another fun thing about the bathrooms was that it played a line from the movie whenever you flushed, and the sinks were motion-sensored to also play lines from the movie. It was a little disconcerting at first, but very fun! Around 11, we headed up to the restaurant as we had made a reservation for it weeks ago! We had decided recently, based on some reviews we had read, that we may just eat a la crate from the menu instead of the “James Bond Brunch” because it was unclear whether or not it’d be worth it. Let me tell you, our minds changed VERY quickly once we got to the restaurant! We happened to get there right at the point where the breakfast buffet was swapping to lunch foods. There was a soup buffet with 4 options: tomato, beef broth, goulash, and a creamy vegetable (I think?). There were a number of hot foods to choose from, including different pastas and meat options. There was a cold cuts and cheese buffet, as well as a whole bar full of different salads. Also, there were juices, coffee, tea, and several bottles of Prosecco available as drink options. All for the price of 35 Swiss francs per person. ABSOLUTELY worth it! We also continued to have wonderful views out the window while we rotated around, and we were satisfied in spirit and in our tummies by the time we left :) We spent a little over 3 hours up on the mountain before we took the trip back down. Once back in town, we chilled for a little while. From all the excitement of the morning, I took a fairly lengthy nap. It got to be about dinner time and so we chose to eat downstairs at the restaurant attached to our hotel, called The Bell. We both had Spaghetti Bolognese and some chocolate soufflés before heading back upstairs to our room to settle in. The rain came back during my nap and has stuck around. I think it may still be gross for our travel day tomorrow, but that’s okay because it’s another lengthy one. I’ve throughly enjoyed our experiences in Switzerland and I cannot wait to come back again! We told my parents about a campground here in Lauterbrunnen that I think would make a good family vacation stop in a few years, so here’s hoping! Tomorrow, we move on to yet another country, as well as the 5th of 9 places we’ll be seeing on this mini 3-week venture away from Hattingen. Until tomorrow, enjoy this small fraction of the photos we took today!
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