Our Favorite Swiss Hike, Again

 On Wednesday, September 21st, we had breakfast at one of our favorite haunts, Michel's bakery in Unterseen.  I've recently learned that back in the 1830s or 1840s, Mary Joy's great-great-great-grandfather, a gunsmith, moved down from the Simmental and married a Michel from Unterseen.  One of their many grandsons is now buried in Monroe, Wisconsin.

This was the latest in the year that we'd ever gone walking in the mountains above Interlaken, so we had been a little worried about what sort of weather we might run into.  There had been some light snow the previous week.  But it turned out to be a beautiful day for a hike, in the 60s Fahrenheit.

After four years away, we decided to do our favorite, moderately easy walk, from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg.  There are two ways to get from Interlaken Ost to Männlichen: in recent years, we had taken the train to Lauterbrunnen, then the cog railway to Wengen, then the short cable car ride to Männlichen.  This time we chose the longer but more scenic route, via Grindelwald.

Since the last time we were there, the cablecar line from Grindelwald to Männlichen has been renovated, and joined by one to the Eiger Glacier, where one can catch the Jungfraubahn up to the Jungfraujoch.  Both lines begin at a new "Terminal" station on the railroad just before it gets to Grindelwald.  So, that's where we got off the train, and soon we were on the half-hour-long Gondelbahn ride from Terminal (947 meters, 3,107 feet) up to Männlichen (2,343 meters, 7,687 feet).

At Männlichen, we looked around, then went into the cafeteria for lunch.

Then, on the trail to Kleine Scheidegg, heading straight for the grinning mouth of the Ogre (Eiger), before spinning past the protection of the Monk (Mönch) to arrive at the draped skirts of the Maiden (Jungfrau)!

Kleine Scheidegg, besides being the terminus for trains from Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, is the starting point for the Jungfraubahn, the pricey excursion train up to the Jungfraujoch, the self-ordained "Top of Europe," at 3,454 meters (11,332 feet) the highest train station in Europe, situated on the saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau.  We went up there on our honeymoon, in 1998 (I had altitude sickness) and have never bothered to go back.  

While waiting for our train, we started walking up in the direction of the Eiger Glacier, but didn't get very far.

We shared the train to Lauterbrunnen with two large tour groups, just down from the Jungfraujoch.

For dinner, back in Interlaken, we went to Restaurant Schuh, on the Hohematte, the big flat park that keeps open the Victoria Jungfrau Hotel's view of the Jungfrau, through the gap of the Lauterbrunnen 

valley.  Nowadays, the Hohematte is the principal landing place for parasailers starting at the Harder Kulm and other heights to the north.

We have been to Schuh (a very middle-class Swiss sort of place, with middle-class Swiss sort of food) a number of times over the years.  We would have preferred the Goldener Anker, but that is now defunct, apparently a victim of COVID-19.