Swiss Rail -Finally! (12th August)

So we still feel pretty bad about leaving Urs' apartment without a thorough cleaning, but at least this morning we FEEL better and are therefore able to do a much better job with Michele's. It's been super wonderful to have a place to stay, not just because we've been unwell -but just because it breaks up what would have been a very long time going from backpackers to backpackers. We need to drop the key to Urs' work because Michele is out of town... ironically to do this we have to take trams to within about 200m of the Zoo that we were at yesterday! It's worth the trip however because Urs works for FIFA in the 2 year old, CHF 240 million headquarters. He gives us a guided tour that goes further than the public could see... highlights definitely include the auto-illuminating prayer room and the silver sheeted evacuation staircase! 240 million goes quick when you walk over the semi precious rock, blue lapis lazuli, throughout the foyer -and when features like fingerprint recognition are simple standards. I guess we'll be seeing a lot of opulent cathedrals in the next couple of months -and ultimately this is the headquarters of world football, which many people treat like a religion! A quick look around the ground (which of course include a full sized pitch -but also has gardens from each of the football confederations) and we're off with bags in hand to the central train station. Luckily things go much much better this time and we get a ticket to Lauterbraunnen without needing to show our passports (which of course this time we DO have!) It involves 3 trains and the trip totals just less than 3 hours and goes through some pretty cool scenery (very similar to the Canterbury plains in part) featuring places like Bern and Interlaken. The directions to the camp ground said "head towards the waterfall you can see from the train station"... now this would seem the sort of vauge direction that would result in many people getting lost, until you go to Lauterbraunnen and see the Staubbach waterfall from the train station! Was a pretty easy sign to follow and the only way we'd miss finding our accommodation "under the waterfall" was if we got distracted by some of the other ridiculous scenery this place has on offer. With the exception of the archipelago, everywhere we've been so far has had scenery that is very cool -but doesn't amaze a traveler that's been to Milford and Central Otago etc. Please make a note that the Swiss Alps deserve a little bit more respect and it's fair to say that the Jangfrau area (of which Lauterbraunnen is located) is special. But we'll get to the guts of all the scenery stuff tomorrow -because as we book into the accommodation we also get tickets to Jangfraujoch... aka Top of Europe. Our private room is wicked -it's a caravan with a double bed, kitchen, dining room, lounge and then just to gloat -has a permanently attached wooden sitting room. It's all furnished in Shona's favourite furnishings from the 70s -brown and wood! We make the most of the kitchen and actually cook (this may be the last time for a while) before heading to the waterfall next door, just as the massive spotlights go on to start lighting it up. We get the feeling we're going to like this place!