Wengen and the Jungfrau region

 Our visit was perfect: perfect weather, perfect accommodations, and incredible scenery.  From the valley floor, a cog rail train is needed to reach the village; no private vehicles allowed. A short three-block walk to Hotel Edelweiss. The village businesses are essentially on one street, except for the accommodations.  We had dinner at several area hotels as well as where we were staying.

Looking down on the top cable station.  From here, we followed a path along the left side of the near peak.  The beautiful glacier-clad mountains continually dominated every view.

 Our first day, we took the gondola 3000’+ up the mountain and spent the day hiking down.... more than we should have done, resulting in sore leg calve muscles for several days.

     Does it get any prettier than this?  Perfect weather and a well-marked trail.

Every cow had a loud cowbell because they were left unfenced to graze on the mountain sides.

Second day, we hiked, cog train, gondola, until we arrived at a mountain peak, Schilthorn, which was the location for the filming of a James Bond movie.

Photo taken from the peak of Mt. Schilthorn, 2970 meters altitude (about 9800 feet)

Mountain view from the upper end of the valley at Gimmelwald; a very small village at 4500 feet altitude.

Third day, I went tandem paragliding at Interlaken.  Many years ago, I had an introductory paragliding course where we learned paragliding by taking progressively longer solo flights until we were able to launch at the top of a ski slope and glide into the winter Olympic stadium at Garmisch, Germany.  But I was too busy then to pursue the sport (Desert Storm) and would not trust myself after so much time to do the right thing now.  The parawings have improved greatly in the past thirty years. My pilot suggested we do some “tricks” before landing, and he put our parawing into a series of tight spins.  Whoo!  I did not get sick, but felt like a carnival ride, and it took a while for my balance to get sorted out after landing.

How many paragliders can you count in this photo?  I count nine (not including myself).  Again, absolutely perfect weather and great scenery. (You can expand this photo.)

We are coming in for a landing in the large green field ahead in the center of Interlaken Ost.

Photo taken from the cog rail train between Lauterbrunnen (on the valley floor) and Wengen (on the mountain slopes).

Our last day at Wengen we rented mountain E-bikes and made a tour of the upper Jungfrau valley. We stopped at a series of waterfalls from the sheer valley walls as we proceeded up the valley, then put our bikes on a gondola to Gimmelwald; rode our bikes further up the mountain to Murren for lunch.  We bought salmon, bread, fruit, and a drink and had a picnic in a small park.  Then we followed a mainly downhill course to arrive in Lauterbrunnen.  What a great day!

The valley walls are vertical and hundreds of feet high.  This is a waterfall which has worn its way into the cliff-like walls, creating a waterfall inside a mountain.  Note how small the people appear.

 No matter where you are, these rugged mountains provide majestic views.

Mountain E-bikes provided the perfect way to explore this valley.  It is so nice to stay active but have some assurance that the effort will not exceed your endurance by being steeper or farther than expected.