Day 11: Reichenbach Falls, on to Vevey

Day 11 was a brief sightseeing day, with several hours of travel to our next region. In the morning, we packed up our gear and left Grindelwald. We took the train down to Interlaken, stowed our belongings in a locker and caught a train to Meiringen.

The train from Interlaken took us past Lake Brienze. This is one of the two lakes surrounding Interlaken. The water was light blue like the Caribbean, but with a Lake Tahoe atmosphere. One of the stops was the town of Brienze. Good living if you can get it.
Brienze.

We got off the train in Meiringen.

The goal at Meiringen: to see Reichenbach Falls -- the waterfall where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes.

The mist coming up from Reichenbach Falls.

We took a funicular up the moutain to Reichenbach Falls.

View from the funicular.

The falls are beautiful and powerful and we can now understand why Conan Doyle would be inspired to choose this as the place of Holmes' demise.
Owen "Holmes" Frazier

The hike from the funicular platform up to the top was steep and a bit scary.
From the top.

Back in the Meirengen town square, we encountered the Sherlock Holmes statue where Scott Manatt once had a conversation with the great detective. April shared a few thoughts as well.

"What should we do about the Final Problem?"

"Who are you cheering for in the World Cup? Seriously, Germany?

After this lively discussion, we took the train back to Interlaken to gather our things and then begin the next phase of the trip. We left the German speaking portion of Switzerland on a train to the French speaking portion.
Should we take him? Throw some food in there, he'll be fine.

Our train went through the beautiful countryside to Lausanne.
Country living in Switzerland.

As we pulled into Lausanne, the views of Lake Geneva and the wine region above were remarkable.
Pulling into Lausanne, with a view of Lake Geneva.

We took our final train of the day to our destination: Vevey. This is a lake town next to Montreaux. Everything is booked in Montreaux right now because of the famous jazz festival. As you can see from our hostel window, the view from Vevey isn't bad either:


The hostel staff recommended a local restaurant for dinner, Le Central. He said this is one of the few restaurants remaining in Vevey that uses traditional French methods to cook dinner. It didn't disappoint. However, it was difficult enough navigating an all-French menu, but it was very difficult with a waitress who only spoke French. April and I reached back to high school French class and stumbled through. The waitress was tolerant and appreciated our efforts to speak her language, poorly.
Le Central, in Vevey.

Walking back to the hostel, we heard a lot of cheering, like in a stadium. Spain and Germany were playing a World Cup soccer game. The entire town of Vevey was gathered in a makeshift stadium watching the game on a giant screen. Wow, these folks like their soccer.
On the street. Our hostel, the Riviera Lodge.

After Spain won, 1-0, the town square was filled with people and those annoying soccer horns. It took a while for things to calm down before we could get to sleep. Another great day.

Tomorrow, Castle Chillon and Lake Geneva.