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Bring something warm, even sunny days can be really cold up here. We are over 11,000 feet above sea level. The air is thin, anything can happen on the Jungfraujoch. People are skiing in August, I saw some guys hiking down on the glacier And if you look beyond the glacier, you can almost see Italy, we are on the top of Europe.
Many views later we are back in Kleine Scheidegg for lunch. The mountain air and exercise make even a simple picnic a memorable meal. The view gives this grassy perch an atmosphere that no restaurant could match. From there we hike into the less touristy Lauterbrunnen Valley. The 2-hour downhill hike is easy. My gear is some sturdy shoes, sunblock, watchout for the mountain's sun, my jacket, a tourist map of the trails, and lots of film.
Yes, and you certainly got that looking. It's best.
The scenery changes. It’s a slow striptease as new mountains replace the ones we’ve seen. In the distance the haunting sound of Alpines reminds us how comfortably man and nature mix in Switzerland. Two hours and thirty six photos later, we are in the traffic-free town of Wengen. Now this is where we treat ourselves to a cool apple juice, that’s Apfelsaft up here, well we'll wait for the train to take us down to the valley floor. And this rest stop is a good chance to finish up some loose ends on the money talk we had earlier. let’s talk a little bit about the issue of plastic versus cash. Credit cards are widely accepted throughout Europe, they do work. Like here at this restaurant in Wengen which caters to a lot of tourists. A credit card works great for cash advances, major purchases, your splurge restaurant/, and certainly for car rental and collateral, and credit cards give you a good exchange rate, I do use them. But they aren’t accepted by some of my favorite places, the street vendors or a country guesthouse.They're often being passed up. So I also depend on cash. These days bank machines throughout Europe let you withdraw from your account at home in the local currency, these ATMs are the easiest way to get local cash. No one understands the money, the local currency is not funny money. Right away in each country with a different currency takes some time to figure it out. Euros, Swiss francs, and British pounds are all decimalized, like dollars. There is a hundred little ones in every big one, only the names have been changed to confuse us tourists. Then go with a rough approximation, easy to figure it out in your head.
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