2 nights in Riederalp, Switzerland

We left Wengen and headed to the other side of the Aletsch glacier, to another hilly car-free village called Riederalp.

Bye Wengen! 

We took the train to Spiez, then to Visp/Brig, then to Morel, then took a cable car up to Riederalp.

Spiez (transit stop)

picnic lunch by the Spiez train station

Spiez

Spiez

Heading up the cable car to Riederalp

 We had a short, downhill steep walk to our 2 bedroom chalet apartment.

We had an apartment on the bottom floor

The weather forecast did not look good for the upcoming days, so Jason, Rachel and I went exploring while we had clear skies.  We walked to the next village and took the Bettmeralp gondola up to the viewing area for the glacier.  Rachel fell asleep in the carrier on the way there.

Rachel totally asleep 

Altesch glacier, viewed from the South.  Jungfraujoch is almost visible around the corner.

Eating at a restaurant or a pub with your children is much easier in Switzerland than it is in North America.  At the bottom of the gondola, there was a casual patio area set up with bouncy castles and trampolines for the kids to play while the adults could sit and have a drink or snack.

We took the bus home to Grandma and Ava, cooked dinner in our kitchen, and went to sleep.  Rachel and Grandma shared the room with the bunk beds, and Ava had a pack 'n play in our bedroom.

The next morning it was socked in foggy and misty.  Jason and I went out for a hike/run and got cold and wet (again) but had fun.

No view from the gondola this morning

The glacier viewing area

There's actually a huge glacier right behind us

Waiting for the bus in the rain to go to the pool

Our family decided to bus to the local pool and enjoy riding the water slide for a while.  Then Jason, Grandma and Rachel went to see the circus.  This was probably the highlight of Rachel's whole trip, as she loved watching the clowns and the trampoline jumping and the hula hoops.

Jason explored some more by running in the rain, and before long it was time to head to Zermatt.

Bye bye glacier!

Wengen, Switzerland

We rented a 3 bedroom apartment in a chalet in Wengen.  There was actually also a ski storage locker that we were able to convert into a 4th bedroom and use as Ava's room.  They had a pack 'n play and a high chair in the apartment for us.  It all worked out very well.

Grandma spent lots of time here with the girls while Jason ran and also while Jason and I hiked and explored.

We went out for fondue dinner once and another amazing meal once while we were there.  Otherwise we made breakfast and dinner in our little kitchen and made sandwiches for lunches.

Rosti (traditional potatoes similar to hashbrowns)

Fancy appetizer... cheese or tofu?!

Our cheese plate for dessert.  We laughed and laughed about this because some of the cheeses tasted and smelled HORRIBLE!

One very cool concept about dining out there was that there were children's play areas attached to all the restaurants.  Perhaps this was also because restaurants were attached to hostels, but it was lovely to sit and eat at the table while the girls played happily nearby.

There was one coin-operated laundry machine and dryer in town, which we used a couple of times.  After several days of rain, there was quite a line up for the washing machine and we had to wait.  We hung our clothes all over the apartment to dry before we packed up and left for the next destination.