Jack's visit

The next day after returning from Mallorca, my brother Jack arrived. We went to dinner at the Zeughauskeller on Monday night, one of our favorite places to take guests. Then on Tuesday as Matt went off to work, Jack and I took a train to the Bernese Oberland area for some sightseeing.
The first night we stayed in Wengen. We stopped into the Coop and grabbed some cheese and beers for the road, then hiked around the area for a couple of hours. As is typical weather for the mountains, showers rolled in during the afternoon and we enjoyed our beers while out walking in the rain.
Wednesday we travelled to the opposite side of the valley to the town of Mürren via the gondola up from Lauterbrunnen, which I highly recommend. We were able to get fantastic panoramic views of the Alps on the short train ride from Grütschalp, where the gondola ends, to Mürren. From there we grabbed some sandwiches and embarked upon the hike from hell.
We made it about 45 minutes into the hike and stopped for coffee and Coke at the beautiful Sonnenberg Hotel/Restaurant where the story gets a little grey. Here is where each of us claim that it was the other's idea to try to make it up to the overlook point of Birg. This is a gondola stop on the way up to the famous James Bond peak of Schilthorn. But just so the record is straight, it was Jack's idea to hike there.
And so we started. The first couple of hours weren't so bad, but when we started to hike into the snow, both of us got a little anxious about the terrain. By this point, we could see Birg but what we could also see is the huge snow drifts blocking parts of the trail. We decided to push on with the rational that it would be easier for us to finish the climb instead of turn back and risk the slippery, steep path we just ascended.
There was only one other hiker out on these trails, and he actually held up to consult us as to whether continuing up this path was feasible. As we pushed on, he followed, but he quickly fell behind as we were eager to finish our what was now already a 4 hour hike. We hiked along the edge of the path, trying to find the most secure footing between the loose gravel and snow bank, which took a lot of concentration. There were places on the path where we had to blaze through the snow drifts, which a time or two came up as far as our thighs. Our boots were soaked.
We managed to finish the climb in about 5 hours or so, covering over 1,000 meters in elevation. I was just glad the gondola back down to Mürren was still running!
We travelled back to Interlaken that night and stayed at the famous Balmer's Youth Hostel for the next couple of nights, which was an experience in and of itself. It was crawling with 20 somethings (mostly Americans) on their summer European extravaganzas. While everyone was friendly, there were definitely some spoiled ones that had convinced themselves that backpacking across Europe was "really hard work" and it was a tough job to vacation from one amazing destination to the next.
The Youth Hostel is where we signed up for the amazing canyoning trip I posted about previously. Definitely the highlight of our trip.
When we returned to Zürich, we went on one of Bill Hovey's walking tours of the Old Town area, then before we knew it, it was time for Jack to return to the States.
It was a great visit with my brother. Wouldn't want to jump off cliffs into waterfalls with anybody else :)