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4 September 1899 — Grindelwald | |
Monday. 4th September [1899]. We left Grindelwald by 10.30 train which took us up the side of the mountain to little Scheidegg which we reached in 1½ hours. The Interlaken train came in just as we started & travellers by it got into our train amongst them Mrs & Miss Whelan whom I had lately seen in London. They are Americans & I believe both of them recite well & the daughter is going to make a profession of it. At Scheidegg we lunched & thence went by the next train to Wengern Alp, where Nela & I got out & leaving Knapp to see after the luggage & to go to the Hotel Alpenrose when she got to Wengen, Nela & I walked there. It was a lovely walk mostly through pine woods & over us hung the Jungfrau with its enormous glaciers. Even while we were at lunch we saw avalanches fall with great sound & one saw the snow trickling down like a waterfall. Scheidegg would be a lovely place if it were not for mankind. There were crowds arriving by constant trains from all directions—& one heard people shouting to each other in English, French & German. Some walked to the Jungfrau glacier, some went by train, others sat at the hotel & lunched, others walked about eating food they brought with them or bought at the Buffet. We were not sorry to get away & to walk quietly down the pass. Once we met a gentleman & on Nela asking him in German if we were on the right road to Wengen he seemed taken aback & then answered in English. A great deal further on we saw two Ladies sitting in the shade & without a moment’s hesitation one of them asked us in English whether it was much further to Wengen station. So convinced is the average English woman that her native tongue is the one of the world—for she had not heard us speak. On arriving at Wengen we looked about for our hotel & seeing 3 men passing asked them if they could point out to us the Alpenrose. Their German was so lame that Nela asked if they cd speak Italian & then they answered with alacrity that they were Piedmontese & workers in the railway being made in the inside of the Jungfrau by wh people are to be taken to the top of it. The man said it was horrid work by a small lamp in dust & smoke & he did not believe it would be done in 10 years, if ever & he was going back home disgusted with the work. We got to the hotel abt 3 & were conducted to a dependance where we had charming rooms looking straight down to Lauterbrunnen, the Staubach & across to Mürren—the whole crowned by the Jungfrau. Abt one hour after Cecil & Kate Alderson arrived with Eda & Mary, Reggie & Henry their children. We all got rooms on the 2nd floor. Everything is scrupulously clean—& the whole house made of wood, electric light in every room. We had tea on a balcony outside our passage & talked to our heart’s content. Knapp, my maid, had a sore throat & we had to put her to bed. We dined at table d’hôte at 7 & then sat out on the terrace in front of the house till bed time at 10. | |
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