Like a pitcher the night before the big game, I anticipated the big show. The Eigerwand. The killer mountain. Tony Kurtz unravelling his goldline rope with frozen finger hanging in front of the train windows on the north face and dying just a few meters from his would be rescuers. Legend upon legend. The wall John Harlin took his fatal fall on while doing the deritisima-the direct route-straight up the face. And I was to see it up close-for real on the train ride through the Eiger with a side trip view out the windows half way up the face.
I woke up at 1AM to the sound of rain beating on the street below. I woke at three to the same sound. "No matter", I thought "get it out of it's system and it will clear by morning". Nope. We were hoping to catch the first train of the day at 7am up the JungFrau. A quick check out the window revealed clouds all the way to the base of the north face. There would be no game today. No tarps to be pulled off the infield. No movable stadium roof to protect the field. The Eiger would not reveal itself today.
But, there is still lots of Europe to see and no use fussing over a wet mountain so "to the trains!" Rothenberg Germany is calling.
We caught the train down from Grindelwald to Interlaken and reported to the train station ticket booth to find our route to Rothenberg. It took the young attendent about ten seconds to print out our itenarary of train rides. We needed to be on the next train to Basal, Switzerland in 20 minutes. A quick run to the grocery store for train food and we were on the platform ready to ride. At Basal we caught a train (5 hr ride) to Ashbach, then to Steinbach, finally arriving in Rothenberg. It is a city entirely enclosed in a wall from some time back when that was important. Kind of like our modern missle defense shield and probably just as expensive to build in terms of labor and GDP. But, we just got here so we will find out more tomorrow.
We are not into making reservations so we began a search for camping. It was about 7PM so we had a few hours of daylight left. Procured a map from a kind shop owner who pointed us in the direction of camping down below the town on the river. I scouted ahead without my pack for suitability. After jogging downhill a long way, I determined that this was too removed to experience the town, especially since I wasn't even to the campground yet.
I was gone 15 minutes in my quest. Meanwhile Sally had found a great room for three at a great price in the center of the walled in city. We signed in, dropped packs, had a great dinner of sausage and sauerkraut at one of the places down the cobblestones streets, then walked along the top of the wall halfway around the town back to our room. I crawled into bed to find sheets damp-Sally found the same. We pulled the sleeping bags out of our packs, crawled in and said goodnight to another day.
Chuck
I woke up at 1AM to the sound of rain beating on the street below. I woke at three to the same sound. "No matter", I thought "get it out of it's system and it will clear by morning". Nope. We were hoping to catch the first train of the day at 7am up the JungFrau. A quick check out the window revealed clouds all the way to the base of the north face. There would be no game today. No tarps to be pulled off the infield. No movable stadium roof to protect the field. The Eiger would not reveal itself today.
But, there is still lots of Europe to see and no use fussing over a wet mountain so "to the trains!" Rothenberg Germany is calling.
We caught the train down from Grindelwald to Interlaken and reported to the train station ticket booth to find our route to Rothenberg. It took the young attendent about ten seconds to print out our itenarary of train rides. We needed to be on the next train to Basal, Switzerland in 20 minutes. A quick run to the grocery store for train food and we were on the platform ready to ride. At Basal we caught a train (5 hr ride) to Ashbach, then to Steinbach, finally arriving in Rothenberg. It is a city entirely enclosed in a wall from some time back when that was important. Kind of like our modern missle defense shield and probably just as expensive to build in terms of labor and GDP. But, we just got here so we will find out more tomorrow.
We are not into making reservations so we began a search for camping. It was about 7PM so we had a few hours of daylight left. Procured a map from a kind shop owner who pointed us in the direction of camping down below the town on the river. I scouted ahead without my pack for suitability. After jogging downhill a long way, I determined that this was too removed to experience the town, especially since I wasn't even to the campground yet.
I was gone 15 minutes in my quest. Meanwhile Sally had found a great room for three at a great price in the center of the walled in city. We signed in, dropped packs, had a great dinner of sausage and sauerkraut at one of the places down the cobblestones streets, then walked along the top of the wall halfway around the town back to our room. I crawled into bed to find sheets damp-Sally found the same. We pulled the sleeping bags out of our packs, crawled in and said goodnight to another day.
Chuck
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