The
famous Grosvenor Hotel can be seen near the top of the map,
next to Victoria Station, from which Holmes and Watson left
London for the Continent
Reichenbach Falls, from the guidebook
at left. Compare this picture to Paget's conception of Reichenbach.
It was on the third
of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we
put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder.
Meiringen—in legend, the birthplace of meringue—was
known for being especially accommodating to English visitors in
Conan Doyle's time. He stayed there several times. Today, there
is a Sherlock Holmes museum in Meiringen—advertised as the
most authentic in the world—where it is possible to buy a
combined ticket to visit the museum and tour the Reichenbach Falls.
Our landlord was an intelligent man and spoke excellent
English, having served for three years as waiter at the Grosvenor
Hotel in London.
A venerable London hotel located near Buckingham Palace.
...with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the
night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui....
Rosenlaui is a tiny village in a rugged gorge of the same name,
and serves as a welcome resting place for travelers between strenuous
hikes.
The
cover of a turn-of-the-century Swiss guidebook
We had strict injunctions,
however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are
about halfway up the hills, without making a small detour to see
them.
Reichenbach Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in the Alps, consists
of five separate cascades down the side of a mountain. Today--an
even bigger tourist attraction because of its association with Holmes--it
can be visited by cable railway. In the terminal is a plaque commemorating
Holmes's "death" at the falls.