Located at the heart of Switzerland, the Berner Oberland (Bernese Highlands) region is famed for its natural beauty and alpine charm. We rented a three-bed-and-two-bath-room apartment house at a resort tourist town Wengen for four nights to explore the area.
A young woman (Jungfrau), a monk (Mönch), and an ogre (Eiger), all standing 4000+ meters tall—yes, these are names of the famous triumvirate of peaks in Swiss Alps we went to see, at a summit that's 3000 meters tall itself.
Another bigger name peak, Matterhorn, the one Disneyland emulates at its theme park in Southern California for bobsled roller coaster rides, took us a day trip to its access city Zermatt, where besides seeing the 4478-meter tall big rock from anywhere in town, we also watched a short movie at the city museum that documented how the first ascent to the peak was accomplished in 1865, with tragic ending (some climbers died) and unresolved suspicion (was the rope cut intentionally?).
Back at Wengen, I spent one morning taking a cable-car lift to a 2200 meter summit, then a one-and-a-half-hour hike in the snow with my traveling companion Joseph. Worth every bit of my sore feet later that evening!
There are two major lakes in the region, we managed to visit two cities by one of them. At Thun, we saw people surfing on the river, at Spiez, skiing on the lake with some self-propelling gadgets. Eye-openers for a dude from a Southern California beach town!
It was snowing when we left town. The first of the season, said the driver who picked us up for the train station.
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