In any case, this is the story of my little trip to Meiringen, Schweiz.
The idea came to me a couple months ago- whether with influence from my brother or Emily I'm not certain- to visit the site of Reichenbachfall- the famous waterfall from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book "The Final Problem" in which Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Moriarty meet for the last time. (If you are unfamiliar with the story, I suggest going to read it, or reading the cliffsnotes right now!) Sooo, I did a little bit of research and found of that the falls lie in/just outside of the tiny town called Meiringen. It's a valley town, and there are just spectacular views wherever you look. Sherlock Holmes tourism and hiking in the mountains are basically the only things that keeps the place running. There are a few cutsy stores, and B&Bs and a decent sporting goods store.
I discovered that there was an official Sherlock Holmes museum about a block away from the train station, and the fall I wanted to see was about a mile away from there. So, I decided it would be best to stay overnight. What better hotel to choose than "Das Hotel Sherlock Holmes"?!
And so I went.
On Friday night I stayed in Konstanz- very southern German- after the Mainau Island Student Party. That hotel was the best I've stayed at in Germany! The room was art deco style, and the hotel people left two little packs of gummy bears (Haribo gummibaerchen) on the pillow!, and the shower had two skinny doors that opened outward instead of 1 normal size shower door. It felt super fancy. In the morning, I ate a delicious breakfast with hot chocolate, and orange juice from a fresh juice machine- as in a put an orange in the top and I got a glass of orange juice out of it. It was around this point by the way, when I noticed I had managed to loose my voice such as that I could hardly make a sound besides whispering. But I didn't let that get me down, and walked the 20 minutes to the train station and was on my way to Swizerland.
Train tracks! Nearly at the station
...
4 hours and 3 train stations later...
MEIRINGEN
My first stop was to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. It was a very small place- in the basement of what appeared to be an old chapel. But they had some awesome stuff, including and entire room decorated like 221B Baker Street is described. EXACTLY what I picture. It was so perfect! However, it was entirely blocked off with a wall of glass so it was for looking at and not exploring (bummer).
I'm not sure if I was technically allowed to take pictures, but there were no signs that said you couldn't! Usually if you're not supposed to, they put signs everywhere.
Infact, the only sign I saw was this one: giving honorary citizenship to Mr. Sherlock Holmes!!!
Statue outside the museum
Thinking face
The outside of the museum. The post things lining the path are small posters telling about book plots, and leading up to the adventure at Reichenbachfall
Annnnd I have no idea what this creepy statue tree thing is. But it was interesting, and very swiss I guess. ?
It didn't take me nearly as long as I predicted it would to see the whole museum, so I had about an hour and a half to kill until I could check into my hotel and prepare to take a hike. Therefore, I meandered around meiringen for a while.
Restaurant Bear. I ended up eating dinner there. It made me think of Rica, as bears always do.
The Rathaus
Sherlock Lounge
Meringue and some kind of specialty éclair type of dessert with a funny name that I have forgotten, but definitely had the word "wurm" in it, describing the appearance of the dessert
It's Switzerland all right
And finally I arrived at the Hotel
This was the carpet. The only thing in the hotel that carried on the theme of Sherlock Holmes. Interesting, and still probably the most unique and exciting carpet I've every seen.
Pretty boring, non-Sherlock themed room, but nonetheless comfortable.
Then about 20 minutes later, I was off to walk up to Reichenbachfall. I will again remind you that I had lost my voice, which made asking for directions aggravating and really difficult. Thank goodness just about everyone spoke English, because taking into consideration their strong swiss accent against my American-accent when speaking German, with my lack of voice, I'm not sure anyone would have been able to understand me.
It was a very odd path. A tiny paved road that for the most part wound behind some houses up to a little forest, where it continued climbing.
I should also note that the hotel receptionist told me it was a very long walk to the Falls, probably 2 hours and that I would be better off taking the Berg bahn. She gave me a map of all the nature trails, which also had Meiringen on it, and she showed me how to get to/from the Bergbahn station before I left. Despite knowing the hiking difficulty- and mind, I was only wearing gymshoes, no real hiking gear, although I did think to stop and buy insect repellent- I was determined to hike to the fall just as Sherlock Holmes did. 
Baa Baa Black Sheep have you any wool?.... It ended up making a humanoid screaming at me!!!
This was after about 20 minutes of walking, and I ran into a wall. Metaphorically. (I know it's not hard to believe I would run into an actual wall). A little dirt path through a foresty area all of a sudden connected to this paved path, and I was suddenly confused as to which was to go. I was also so tired already at this point that I walked up the path and back twice trying to convince myself that I could make it to the top of Reichenbachfall and that I didn't need to turn around and take the Berg Bahn. BUT, because the path forked and there were no direction signs and the map was absolutely horrible, I was stuck. I eventually started going in one direction- where I saw the sheep and heard cow bells- but then in the other direction I heard Alp horns.
Alp horns won me over in the end, and I trudged onward (unhappily) along the steeply inclined, winding road.
And of course when this path had curved around enough to be parallel to the road I had come from, I noticed a very tiny rectangular sign designating that if you had walked through the grass, directly up that part of the hill, you would be taking the "hiking route" which is what I thought I was following (as I mentioned- the map was terrible) >.<
So next time I was more cautious, and saw once more a tiny "hiking route" sign, which seems to for the most part, cut across some people's backyards. It was very strange, but everyone seemed used to it.
And then I made it to the town(?) Schwendi. All that was there was this little hotel, and about 5 houses. Not even a post office
BUT the view was awesome
To continue onward, you had to go through this gate, once more seeming to haphazardly cross through someone's backyard.
The writing says "Bitte Tor zu! Danke" which means "Please close the gate. Thanks" I suppose there were also sheep or cows living in that area somewhere.
And finally that path let to a foresty area from which you could feel the spray from Reichenbachfall
I made it!
Yes, I understood that it was dangerous to stand near the edge
Pretty! But I wouldn't be satisfied until I had made it to the top, to see where Sherlock pushed Moriarty off the cliff to his death. I mean from this height, I don't know that death would be imminent. Maybe just burst-fracturing some vertebrae (it was about 15 feet high)
So I climbed onward. At this point, I really began thinking about Sherlock Holmes and how in the books Sir Arthur Conan Doyle describes how Sherlock and Watson hike for 1-2 hours or something like that, writing about a long and tiring trek. I could never imagine that when reading the books. Now that I was actually there, I can. I really did hike for over an hour, and was completely exhausted at the end.
looking across the fall, there is the berg bahn for the way down
I did it!!! I made it to the point!
Copy of the note that Sherlock left Watson before he was "pushed off the cliff to his death"
[Spoiler alert: Sherlock didn't die, or even get thrown off the cliff]
So clarifies in part this official plaque.
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Danger. water
Onward, I continued to go up and over the fall. (this is looking down some stairs I had just climbed)
Around this point, my water bottle was empty and I found a tiny stream (probably that connects to the fall at some point) and filled part of my water bottle. Perhaps I should have been concerned about bacteria in the water, but come on. It's die Schweiz, and it was moving water. And Bear Grills probably would have said it's ok.
THE TOP!
bridge over the fall
there it is- the top of the waterfall!
A lovely picture of me looking sweaty, a little sunburnt and exhausted, but at the top of Reichenbachfall!
Beginning the decent to the Berg bahn station
Oh look! It's Sherlock!
On the bergbahn headed back to Meiringen
The little Bergbahn station
And then I saw this. Idon'teven. It was a garbage can that had plastic bags you could tear off to clean up after your dog. Good idea I suppose, but this picture. Just what???
When I got back to my hotel room, I was ecstatic because there was a pool, and what better way to relax and cool off from a 3 hour hiking adventure than jumping in a cool pool?!
It was also the first time I had seen a pool at a hotel here, and my first time swimming in a pool since probably last summer. So excites!
Also the pool was on the 4th floor! It had fantastic views
Those are stickers of birds on the windows. Not sure why they're there. In any case, the mountains were gorgeous. And I saw 2 paragliders!
Swimming! And no one else visited the pool for the entire 45 minutes I was there.
Finally it was dinner time. I was starving. I also did not want to spend more than 15CHF (swiss francs) because that was all I had left over, and I didn't want to take out money from an ATM to not use all of it, and have to go to a bank back in Stuttgart and exchange it for Euro. ( Srsly Swizerland, using your own currency is really annoying. And also expensive for visitors)
Egal, I ended up at Hotel Baer Restaurant. It was so Swiss looking. wood paneling, wooden chairs, but with fancy folded napkins and table runner!
I wasn't exactly sure what I was ordering. I don't even remember what it was called. Probably something like kaseschnitte. I lucked out and it ended up being a cheese fondue (one of the things I wanted to try, but didn't want to have to buy for 20 CHF in a little tourist shop). It consisted of a thick piece of toast smothered in cheese, topped with bacon, pickles, those crunchy fried onion bit things, a tomato slice, and 1 piece of white asparagus.
Before
After
OMG so gooood!
On the way back to the hotel after dinner, I walked past a little town square where they had a polka band set up with a couple of beer and wine vendors. If I weren't out of cash and so tired from the day I probably would have taken a seat and a Mass and enjoyed the Swiss music. I did however stop and listen for a few minutes.
The next morning, I ate another very tasty breakfast, at the hotel, and left for the main train station in Meiringen, where I realized the views were also beautiful.
And despite having to finish lots of research and reading, the train ride back to Stuttgart was splendid. We passed trough lots of other small Swiss towns, and passed a couple large lakes after driving up one side of the valley which Meiringen sits in, and down the other side of the Mountain.
The light is not a ghost orb or a search light. It's the flash of my camera on the window.
So charming.
Good bye Switzerland
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