The top of the Schilthorn features a revolving restaurant so you are constantly getting a fresh view while you eat. As is the custom for IFAJ, we sat down to a great meal following a reception featuring Swiss beer and wine. For the first time since we got here there was no cheese! This was probably a good thing at this point.

We were just slightly dizzy by the time we got to the top of the Schilthorn. We’re up 2970 meters at the top! One of the claims to fame here is that the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secrect Service” was filmed here. If you want to get a feel for what it’s like right now on the mountain, use this link to see their live webcam.

Once we got to the top there was a large terrace around the restaurant and shops. We could wander around and look at the view. It was pretty foggy so our view was limited but every once in a while the fog would clear enough to see the stunning peaks all around us.

This is what it looks like as you’re swinging through space a few thousand feet above rocks. At one point we could see the car we had just departed from going back down to pick up another load. Meanwhile we were on a new section of cable.

Each stop on the way up to the Schilthorn had its own little shops or restaurants so you didn’t have to go all the way. In fact, at one of the stop they had a very nice looking tavern but we had to just keep moving. It’s a process to get several hundred people up since we filled several cars and only one goes at a time.

Did I mention that the Schilthorn is a mountain? After getting to the bottom of it, the only way up is to climb or take cable cars. Not just 1 cable car. It was 4 separate car rides to the Schilthorn. We were packed in and just slightly nervous since was the first time most of us had ridden on one of these things.

I mentioned scenery and Switzerland has a lot of it. As we progressed further into the mountains we could see waterfalls everywhere. I suppose they are active all the time since these mountains have snow on them all the time. I didn’t get the name of the little village at the bottom of this waterfall but it had quaint little houses and hotels and looked like a great place to stay.

The end of the second day at the IFAJ Congress was dinner on the Schilthorn. We had to travel for over an hour to get there. The ride was through absolutely beautiful scenery until we got there.

After lunch on day two it was workshop time. There were 4 workshops on topics such as “New Challenges For Swiss Agriculture Policy,” “New Agriculture, New Technologies,” “Retailers, Consumers and New Agriculture” and “New Agriculture, Cultural Landscape and Tourism.”

The Seepark Hotel where we’re staying here in Thun is located right on the lake and it is beautiful! We’ll be out on the lake tomorrow evening for our farewell dinner and have pictures from that to show you then.