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Local Fall Foliage
We took a look at some of the local fall colors today. We saw some good colors here and there, though overall it isn’t as far along as what we saw yesterday at Catoctin Mountain Park.
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Meadowlark Botanical Gardens and Catoctin Mountain Park
We started out this morning by heading out to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia, arriving a bit after they opened for the day. We saw the full variety of fall colors, including many species that had completely dropped their leaves already and others that were still completely green. After having lunch nearby at Mama Chang and dessert at Matcha Cafe Maiko in Centreville, we briefly stopped by the Leesburg Premium Outlets on our way to Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland. We saw a variety of colors there as well, though it wasn’t quite at peak fall colors yet.
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Downhill Hiking From Eigergletscher and Männlichen
We started out our last day in Grindelwald with the usual breakfast at Hotel Belvedere. After checking out, we went to Eigergletscher to begin the Jungfrau Eiger Walk, hiking down to Kleine Scheidegg and stopping by the artificial Fallbodensee on the way. Afterwards, we took the train to Wengen to catch the aerial tram up to Männlichen. We then followed the Panorama Trail down to Kleine Scheidegg. We had a late lunch at the Grindelwaldblick and then caught the next train back to Grindelwald. From there, we returned to Geneva by train, transferring at Interlaken and Bern.
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Schilthorn
We decided to head over to the Schilthorn today, a mountain peak in the Lauterbrunnen area. It was a long journey involving a gondola, four aerial trams, and two trains. Once we finally arrived, we enjoyed the view from Piz Gloria at the top. After spending some time there, we went down to the midpoint, Birg. We did the Thrill Walk and enjoyed the scenery before making the journey back down to Lauterbrunnen and returned to Grindelwald by train.
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Jungfraujoch
Today, we visited Jungfraujoch, the “Top of Europe,” and the main event of this trip. After breakfast at the Belvedere, we headed out to take the train down to Grindelwald Terminal and caught the Eiger Express up to Eigergletcher. From there, we took the train up to Jungfraujoch. We checked out the beautiful scenery from the Sphinx Terrace and went outside to hike in the snow to Mönchsjochhütte on the southeast side of Mönch. After returning to Jungfraujoch, we visited the Glacier Plateau at the base of Jungfrau before heading back down to Grindelwald to end the day.
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Grindelwald First
After a nice breakfast at the Hotel Belvedere, we walked over to the Grindelwald First gondola and took it up to First. From there, we checked out the scenery from the First View platform and then did the First Cliff Walk. Next, we hiked over to the Bachalpsee, a pair of alpine lakes. From there, we returned to First and took the gondola back down to Grindelwald where we had dinner and ended our day.
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Grindelwald via Interlaken
We woke up early and checked out of the Marriott to begin our trip to Grindelwald. We didn’t have an exact plan as we weren’t sure about the weather conditions. It looked pretty cloudy and unpleasant on the Grindelwald webcams. The weather seemed better around Interlaken so we decided to take the funicular up to Harder Kulm. It was quite nice! We had lunch by the train station afterwards and then took the next train to Grindelwald. Once there, we took the Eiger Express up to Eigergletscher, which was experiencing light snow. We walked around a bit and then took the train down to Lauterbrunnen. We walked around town briefly before returning to Grindelwald by train to end the day.
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Geneva to Yvoire and Nyon on Lac Léman
After an excellent breakfast at the Marriott, we took the tram to Geneva and walked around where the Rhône starts on the western end of Lac Léman. We then caught the next CGN paddle steamer, the Simplon, to Yvoire, France. We had lunch in the small town and walked around a bit before catching a different CGN boat to Nyon, on the northern Swiss side of the Léman. We walked around town for awhile before heading back to Geneva by train to end the day.
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Annecy
After landing at GVA, we checked into the Marriott, dropped off our bags, and headed to Annecy in France. We walked through the Vieille Ville (Old City) and had lunch. Afterwards, we walked through the Jardins de l’Europe before doing the 1.5 hour Grand Lake Cruise of Lac d’Annecy with Compagnie des Bateaux d’Annecy. The weather was getting worse on our way back to town. After disembarking, we returned to the train station to return to Geneva and to end the day.
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Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple #2 Harvested
We decided to harvest our 2nd Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t ripe and may not have ripened even if we left it on for longer, though we don’t know for sure.
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