Last Sunday there was radiant sunshine. Around noon time my wife proposed that we should go for an excursion to Lauterbrunnen at the feet of Mount Jungfrau. It’s about 80 km from our home. Already on the highway there was a fantastic view of the Alps. And it got more impressive the more we approached. Lauterbrunnen is famous for a number of high waterfalls, especially the Staubbachfall (literal translation: dust brook falls; nearly 300 m descent). We parked our car directly near the falls – and it was breathtaking. The falls looked like falling light – the spray was radiant white and came down like falling angels.
I was surprised that there were not more tourists but it still was not yet main season – just some Indians, Japanese and Europeans were hiking or biking. We chose a road along the valley forbidden for cars. The air was filled with the sounds of the falls or the bells of cows. Some old sheds stood on the meadows behind which the towering walls of the mountains rose on either side of the valley. Through a side valley one could look up to Mount Jungfrau, the other mountains were hidden behind the promontories. We crossed a river and went to the Trümmelbach falls – a river coming down from the Jungfrau in a steep gorge with a number of waterfalls inside the mountain. We went up half way with a cog railway inside the mountain. And then the road led through kind of a canyon where sometimes the daylight fell down from above. We only had shirts – inside it was quite cold and water was dripping down.
When we came out again the sun already started hiding behind the mountain and the shadows in the valley were fast growing. Cows were grazing near the road and calmly observing the joggers or grazing. Back to Lauterbrunnen we found a camping restaurant where lots of English tourists were staying in the hostel – and finally got our “evening lunch” – pizza and pasta.
Like clouds falling into the valley – or angels descending?
