Alps – Energy and Time

Switzerland day 45: The Climbs of Grindelwald (part 3)

October 3rd: We bade farewell to Grindelwald and headed out. But our 3-day pass was still good, and we had one more mountain to climb. So we drove to Wilderswil and took the 1893 cog railway up to Schynige Platte. (On the first day, we didn’t do First. But on the second day, we did First first.)

The first part of the hike was going from the hotel to the Daube (the rocky peak) and around it to the overlook point beyond it.

The overlook point, looking back at Daube.

At that point, I suddenly discovered that my camera had a panorama feature. What can I say, I’m old and slow.

Looking down at the town of Interlaken (“between lakes”).

From the overlook, we basically followed the ridgeline to the right, towards Oberberghorn.

The ridge part of the trail, with a lake on the left, and the valley below Oberberghorn on the right.

… but the views down the Interlaken side got increasingly spectacular.

Eventually though, the ridge ended at the Oberberghorn.

Oberberghorn. We cut back right at the yellow sign, and headed back by a lower route.

But not before taking one more panorama of Interlaken.

The trail back to Daube. The rest of the hike was somewhat boring, and I was somewhat exhausted, so no pictures.

An hour later, we were back on the train.

Once we got back down, it was time to drive to Italy. The weather was overcast, but otherwise it was pretty scenic.

We stopped for lunch at a famous street-food stand called Sweet Ride, in Bönigen (near Interlaken).

I had the Lachs sandwich (foreground) with a ginger beer, while Carol went for Prosciutto. Then we had ice cream for dessert.

We got to watch swans in the lake while eating.

A bit further down the rod, we heard there was this famous waterfall near Meiringen. We drove close to the top of it, over an incredibly narrow road, only to find that there was no place to park at all, except for guests of a small hotel there. So we turned around and headed back down, without even a glimpse.

Even from the ground, you can barely see any of it.

There was a small car offering rides to the top, but we just missed one, and didn’t want to wait for the next.

So, we left it behind and continued on our journey. As we climbed out of the Swiss Alps towards the Italian Alps, there were lots of scenic views with other waterfalls.

Finally, we crossed the Sustenpass (2224 m) and could start descending.

Finally we made it into Italy. Our lodging that night was at a pizzeria, Della Torre, up on a hill overlooking Como. It was pouring rain and we had a hard time finding it, but once settled we had an excellent dinner in the restaurant.

Carol had the grilled mixed fish (sea bream, salmon, shrimp, prawn, squid, monkfish), while I had a Milanese risotto with quail breast and porcini mushrooms.

Switzerland day 43: The Climbs of Grindelwald (part 1)

October 1st: We had arrived in Grindelwald late the previous night, but it was too dark to see much. Morning light gave a much different impression.

Part of the view from our balcony at the Gasthof Panorama. Left edge center, a tiny piece of the base of the Eiger (“Ogre”) north face. Far left rear peak, Mönch (“Monk”). Center, the Jungfrau (“Virgin”). Below, the village of Grindelwald.

We decided to tackle the biggest challenges the first day, and bought a 3-day pass to (almost) everything in the region. First step was to take the cable car to the Eiger Glacier station. It’s a 45-minute ride; you have to gain a lot of altitude.

Looking up. North face of Eiger on top left.

Approaching Eigergletscher (Eiger Glacier) station. Upper left is the Nordwand (North Wall) of the Eiger, also known as the “Mordwand” (Murder Wall) for the many people who have died attempting it. This is about as close as I got to it.

At the station, we are technically “on the Eiger”. Check off one mountain. Then transfer to the cog railway that goes up through a tunnel inside the Eiger to the saddle between Mönch and Jungfrau.

View from the train before it entered the tunnel.

At Eismeer station, 3160 m, inside the Eiger. There are two stations in the mountain, each with a window looking out. I think the one Clint Eastwood hung outside of in The Eiger Sanction was the other one, but they don’t stop there any more. 😦

The view of the upper glacier from the Eismeer window.

A few minutes later, we are finally at Jungfraujoch, “Top Of Europe”, the highest railway station on the continent. The pass itself is 3464 m, but the station goes at least 100 m higher.

The glacier overview from the station. Note that the cloud tops in the background are well below the mountains (and us).

The top of the station is built on a rock called the Sphinx. (Mountain #2 for the day.) It sports a weather station and observatory, which includes a cosmic-ray muon detector that sends its data down to the Einstein museum (to be compared with an identical one inside the museum). I wasn’t allowed to see the detector, but no big deal, it’s only a raw counter with no ability to measure decay lifetimes.

A couple of alpine choughs (*Pyrrhocorax graculus*) liked the station and weren’t afraid of people. They nest at higher altitude than any other bird in the world.

Looking southeast at the small towns on the opposite side of the mountains from Grindelwald.

The Mönch. In the lower right you can see people and a flagpole; that’s the actual Jungfraujoch saddle between Mönch and Jungfrau. We went down there later.

The trail out to the Jungfrau guest house. We didn’t go all the way, but definitely far enough to be “on the Jungfrau”. 🙂

Carol (and I) on the Jungfrau. Check off mountain #3.

Back inside the station and continuing the tour, it suddenly became like Disneyland.

Switzerland has a serious fetish about big wooden cows. They were *everywhere*.

Then through an ice tunnel to the ice museum.

On the way out, we passed a sign saying that Huangshan (黄山) in China is considered to be the “twin mountain” of Jungfrau. Haven’t climbed that one yet. Maybe next trip to China.

Next up was to hike out to the Jungfraujoch pass.

Me, on the Mönch side of the pass, so technically “on the Mönch”. Check off mountain #4. 🙂

Carol at the flagpole that marks the pass.

Looking back at the station and Sphinx/observatory.

Sadly, it was time to take the cog railway back down. The first leg was back to Eigergletscher, but then instead of taking the cable car back down to Grindelwald, we took a second cog railway down to Kleine Scheidegg.

Kleine Scheidegg station. Eiger in background.

Then we took a 3rd railway down to Wengen.

From Wengen, we took the cable car towards Männlichen town, but got off at the pass. That technically put us on Männlichen mountain (mountain #5).

Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau in background, with Sphinx hidden behind closer peak (Tschuggen). We needed to transfer to the Holenstein cable line (in front of the peak).

We had a little time to kill, so Carol hiked up to the actual summit of Männlichen mountain, while I rested and took photos.

Carol hiking out; Männlichen peak in the background.

Carol took a panorama from the top of Männlichen.

But then we met up at the Holenstein station. This technically put us on Tschuggen (mountain #6).

Switzerland and wooden cows. In this case, you’re supposed to climb in the butt and slide out the mouth, which seems backwards. The black discs are mini-trampolines.

Then we took the Holenstein cable car down.

Approaching the Holenstein station. We passed right through it and continued on down to Grindelwald (visible beyond).

For dinner, we wanted to try a genuine Swiss fondue, so ate at Bebbi’s “Happiness Fun & Food” Restaurant.

The fondue came with bread AND cooked seasoned vegetables.

Switzerland day 42: Bern & Einstein

Bern was where Albert Einstein was working as a patent clerk during his “miracle year” of 1905. In 6 months, he published 4 papers any one of which should have been worth a Nobel prize:

Photoelectric effect (submitted March 18, published June 9)
Brownian Motion (submitted May 11, published June 19)
Special Relativity (submitted June 30, published September 26)
Energy = Mass (submitted September 27, published November 21)

It’s probably the most productive year any scientist has ever had. None of the math was terribly hard, but each paper revolutionized an entire subject by looking at it differently.

September 30th: First target of the day was the Einstein Museum.

I got off to a rocky start in the museum, which restated a very wrong but perniciously widespread misconception.

This is wrong because (1) matter/mass/energy all bend space-time (not just space), and (2) time is always bent at least as much as space. Around the Earth, for slow-moving objects, gravity is more than 99.9999% due to bending of time, and less than 0.0001% due to bending of space. For extremely fast-moving objects it get closer to 50-50. So simplifying to “matter bends time” is OK and sometimes approximately correct, but simplifying to “matter bends space” is always wrong. Yet everyone does it. Jim Al-Khalili. Stephen Hawking.

Other than that, the physics was pretty good. However, a significant chunk of the exhibit was devoted to the rise of the Nazis and the development and use of nuclear weapons. I wasn’t expecting it to be so depressing.