It was such a great idea to extend our stay in Lauterbrunnen. It definitely would have been too much of a hassle to try and squeeze another city tour into one day. We took the first hour of our day to pack all our bags and triple check for little toys that may have fallen under the beds. We ate our final breakfast at the Chalet Rosa and discussed our morning plans with Malorie and Siraj - a glimpse of the glacial waterfalls that originate from the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains!
We settled our accounts for our lodging and emptied our room. Our host did give us permission to leave our bags in the main lounge, so we dropped everything in the corner and rushed into the rain to catch the bus, heading deeper into the valley; after only a few minutes we reached Trummelbach Falls (wow, that was quicker than I thought!). Malorie and Siraj stayed behind to pack and have Cecilia nap before joining us.
We arrived at the ticket building only to be told that all children under 3 years old are not permitted at all. Melissa took the 3 older kids in (19 Euros) for the hike up, while I planned on taking Katie back into town - no sense in standing around in the rain. I texted Malorie telling her the dealio and that I was coming back, but the bus wasn't showing up! After about 15 or 20 minutes she told me to stay since they were already on the bus coming to the falls, and we would take turns going in without babies. So I kept walking around in the rain and waited some more. Once they showed up Malorie went in, and after another 20 minutes they all were coming back through the gate. Joey and I decided he could show me all the highlights so I bought my ticket and joined him. It was pretty loud, and it was astonishing how much water was flowing through this one cavern.
We bought our train tickets onward, and all nine of us boarded the 1:33 train to Interlaken. Our fellowship was leaving Rivendell. We transferred trains, and after 20 minutes, the hour of our parting had come. We hugged and said hurried goodbyes before the doors of the trains closed, and that was that. We were once again on our own, thrust into the world with little way to communicate. Immersive tourism.
We arrived in Milan around 5:30 but probably didn't get out of the station until at least 6. We kept having trouble buying metro tickets, but we eventually figured it out and travelled to Conciliazione station, the nearest to our AirBnB host. We found the building but were having a hard time figuring out how to access the secured interior courtyard. Luckily a helpful local mother saw us in need and directed us to the correct door, where we called the provided phone number for remote access. And even though we were inside, we still needed to find which door was his. The first stairway we chose was a bust, but the second proved correct. So one flight of stairs to get to his first floor apartment (THEY CALL THE GROUND FLOOR ZERO, weird huh?) we entered a real Italian palazzo! Well maybe not a palace, but definitely worth paying extra money for location and a nicer place sometimes.
We did our laundry and Mary and I walked to a nearby grocery to get some supper. We boiled some pasta, pan-fried some green beans, and hand-cut a baguette for our feast, and then got some well deserved rest. Even though Milan is a pretty big city, we're using our two nights here to get some work done, and relax a little bit more than we have been. We'll see if it all works out that way!
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