Switzerland

Lake Brienz

In Meenu's words, 2019The greenest and bluest of the most beautiful lakes in the world.

Our train left Geneva at 11:00. It ran above Lake Geneva and the vineyards on its slopes, and we changed at Bern for the last leg, an ICE that pulled into Interlaken Ost at 13:57.

We spent the afternoon on a boat on Lake Brienz. The water was a bright, clear turquoise, paler than the forest around it. Chalets sat on the slopes above the shore. At Iseltwald a big chalet with rows of wooden balconies stood right at the water's edge, with sailing boats moored in front. A bell hung at the bow, and we took turns at the rail.

Meenu filmed the lake on her iPhone 11 and posted it the next day with no edits, colour corrections or filters.

Wengen

Wengen was our base for three nights. Meenu found us an apartment in Chalet Rose on Airbnb. It's run by Interhome, who kept the keys at their office in the village.

The way up to Wengen is by rack railway from Lauterbrunnen. On the first evening the little yellow-and-green train carried us up, pink suitcase and all.

The village sits high on the side of the Lauterbrunnen valley, and the valley drops away below it between sheer grey cliffs. In the morning we stood at a railing above it, with cloud sitting on the tops. In the evening the Jungfrau still glowed white above the village after the lights came on.

Kleine Scheidegg

On the 28th we took the rack railway on up from Wengen. It climbed above the village roofs and out onto open alp, with glaciers ahead and a small pond holding the clouds.

Kleine Scheidegg sits right under the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau, with cloud catching on their tops. The red Jungfrau Railway trains leave from here for the Jungfraujoch. One was wrapped in a Tissot advert, and Meenu posed beside it.

The next evening, on our way down from the Jungfraujoch, the low sun turned all three peaks gold. We caught the train down to Wengen as the light went.

Grindelwald

From Kleine Scheidegg we came down the other side to Grindelwald. The Wetterhorn showed through the trees on the way. On the main street a yellow hotel had red shutters and flower boxes, and one white chalet had a garden full of yellow and pink flowers.

That afternoon we rode the gondola up to First. Up top the grass had turned gold, and cloud was building on the peaks. We walked out on the Cliff Walk, a metal walkway along the rock with a platform out over the drop, and looked in at the wooden mountain restaurant before the gondola took us back down over the chalets.

On the train back to Wengen, the last of the sun turned one peak pink.

The Jungfraujoch

We were on the train early on the 29th, while the alp was still in shadow. Above Kleine Scheidegg the Jungfrau Railway runs into the mountain. On the way up it stopped at a window in the rock, and we looked out over a glacier split by crevasses.

At the top a blue wall told us where we were: Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe, 3,571 m. From the terrace the Aletsch glacier ran away between the peaks as far as we could see. The Jungfrau rose right behind us against a deep blue sky, and on the other side, far below, lay the green valleys we had come up from.

We stayed until late afternoon. We walked out onto the snow, held a hot drink by the window, and went through the Ice Palace, where the tunnels are cut into the ice and a block of ice is carved with the words Top of Europe.

First and the Bachalpsee

On our last day we checked out of the apartment and went back up to First. This time we walked on to the Bachalpsee, a lake in a hollow between grassy ridges. Cloud sat along the peaks behind it, and we sat on a bench by the water.

On the way back we sat on the rocks above the Grindelwald valley for one last view, then went out on the Cliff Walk once more.

Then it was time to go. We caught the 16:30 from Interlaken Ost, changed at Bern, and were in Geneva at 19:18 for the easyJet flight home.

Geneva

It was a bright summer day. We walked the lakefront, where the Jet d'Eau throws a white column of water high over the lake, and took turns posing with it behind us. A lake boat crossed in front of it, and the bridge into town was hung with flags.

In the park by the water we found the flower clock, its face planted in red and yellow, and Meenu stood beside it. We went up to the cathedral's columned front in the old town, and stopped by the Rhône, where the water ran clear and a swan drifted below us.