On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
BigJimSlade
Continuing on to Schynige Platte. We weren’t exactly sure when the last cog train down was, so we booked it through some beautiful terrain. It would’ve been nice to take our time a bit more, but sometimes the end of a long hike can get to be a slog, so having something to push for helped in a way.
We rounded a bend behind a ridge, and left the Faulhorn-type of terrain, and the clouds, behind. Embiggen
This side of the ridge ended in a meadow of grass and flowers. Embiggen
And just beyond that, we looked back at some tortuous layers of rock. Embiggen
And this is looking ahead toward Schynige Platte. Embiggen
Near the end, there were some interesting flowers. This was growing atop something like an asparagus stalk. There is a botanical alpine garden at SP, but we didn’t have time to explore it. Embiggen
And here’s the station – we made the train in plenty of time :-) Embiggen
This is looking back up the main valley. To the right (basically straight in this picture) it goes to Lauterbrunnen, and mid-picture, hidden, the other valley splits off to Grindelwald. Embiggen
There were 2 short cog trains going taking us down. Embiggen
There was a cultural festival in Grindelwald that night. You can see some of the men who performed in traditional clothing sitting at a table in the middle of this picture. Embiggen
And there were rock bands, too, and plenty of people out for the event. Later in the week there was an AC/DC cover band giving a bigger (and also outdoor) concert, which gave us a good laugh. We enjoyed it from just outside the gate. Embiggen
Baud
Your hike has made me tired.
marklar
Wow. Just wow.
knally
The views are so beautiful they almost seem unreal.
Betty
The picture looking toward Schynige Platte made me think of Heidi. Anyone else that old here?
Meyerman
In my youth, a friend and I rented an attic room in Interlaken with windows looking out to the north and south. I remember the hike to Schynige Platte in June. So beautiful! Growing up hiking in California, my friends and I would always joke about having a cold beer at the top of whatever peak we were climbing. At Schynige Platte, we got to do it. Didn’t seem right sitting there with a cold beer and such amazing views of the Eiger, Jungfrau, and Mönch.
J R in WV
This whole set of photos has been amazing !! From the tiny Alpine flowers, giant stone peaks, cable-car lifts and cog railways, all amazing. I wish I had been able to go there back when travel was fun for me.
Now all my travel is to the Dr. and grocery store. Which has a liquor store attached, thankfully !!!
That distant waterfall in the forth-from-last photo is so cool !!!
Thanks again for sharing… ;~)
PJ
When I embiggen the pictures, they are clear and sharp. But the pictures, as they are seen in the browser in the “On the Road” posts (but it seems like only “On the Road” posts) almost always seem to have terrible resolution. Why is that? Why not post the pictures with good resolution?
Redshift
Hey, I’ve ridden that cog train! But it was in the winter; I got to spend a week skiing in Grindelwald a while back. Neat to see the area in summer.
BigJimSlade
@Meyerman: I think the hike up to Schynige Platte is about 4,000 feet up – you earned that beer :-)
BigJimSlade
@PJ: I think it’s a combination of them just being smaller when they are in the content area of the post, and compressing those smaller images for better download speed and making them a smaller hit on the site’s bandwidth (and total amount of data transferred).
Madeleine
@J R in WV: Amazing, as JR says, and as he describes them.
StringOnAStick
I think the “asparagus stalk” flower is from some wild sedum. There are a few in the western US mountains but I remember lots of interesting sedum types in the Alps.
One thing I’ve noticed in European smaller towns is less age segregation of music than here in the US. I recall going to a small town dance hall/bar and there was all ages there, and songs for each group, and the group not being played to was chill about it .