Switzerland continued...

09/24/2014 - "Gimmelwald and a "big" hike"

The weather forecast was calling for rain in the afternoon on Wednesday.  So, instead of heading to Jungfraujoch, we decided to walk down to Gimmelwald and then do a hike.  We planned to be done before the rain came, but if not, the guidebook said that the hike we were doing was a good "rainy day" hike.

After our breakfast at the hotel, we headed down to Gimmelwald.  It's only about a 30-45 minute walk from Murren.  It was a nice path, downhill all the way (actually it is a small service road).  Gimmelwald is the Swiss town that Rick Steves absolutely LOVES.  And, I must say, it is a cute and quaint town.  We actually saw a farmer cutting hay by hand as we walked in to town.  The town is tiny.  We didn't meet any of Rick's favorite people there, but strolled through and took some pictures. Then we hopped the cable car back to Murren.

Not a bad view between Murren and Gimmelwald

Hand-cutting Hay

Cheese Hut - full of strong cheese that is up to 3 years old. 

Gimmelwald Post Office

Buildings are set on stilts to keep the mice out of the cheese!

From the cable car station, we walked up to the funicular, which took us to Allmendhubel.  That is where our hike began.  The day was quite lovely and it sure didn't seem like it was going to rain, which made we wonder whether or not we should have done Jungfraujoch, but it was too late.  The hike was along the Mountain View Trail down to Grutschalp and it was a beautiful hike.  Views of the 3 mountains (the Monch, the Eiger, and Jungfrau) were available most of the hike.  As you get closer to Grutschalp, you drop down into a forest.  It's beautiful, but it sure seemed like the elevation drop between Murren and Grutschalp was mostly in the last 30 minutes of the hike.  I was starting to feel like it was the Grand Canyon all over again...  When we were hiking down, I kept thinking I would see the river soon, but it would be just another switchback.  The same on our hike here - I kept thinking I would see the cable car station, but it would be just more trail with big rocks and/or tree roots.  I was really getting tired!!!  We finally made it and we were both so exhausted, we went straight back to Murren to shower and relax!!!  The rain didn't make it until probably 7:00 - just when we were having dinner.

09/25/2014 - "Jungfraujoch"

We woke up to clouds and a lot of disappointment on my part.  However, they cleared.  But, then they came back.  For a "mostly sunny" day, it actually turned out to be a "mostly cloudy" day.  That didn't stop us from our destination, though.  We were following Rick Steves recommended train-cable car-hike-train adventure to the Top of Europe.  We headed down to Lauterbrunnen where we caught the train to Wengen.  Our destination in Wengen was the cable car to Mannlichen, but we got caught on the way by a cow parade.  The cows were all decorated with flowers and they were pretty darn cute!!!  We had read about goat parades - where the goats parade through town at the end of summer when they go back to the barns for winter - but we hadn't heard about cow parades.  We considered it a bonus and we watched our step as we made our way to the cable car.

The cable car to Mannlichen is much like the cable car to Grutschalp - straight up the mountain.  At the top, we had no trouble finding our hiking trail - the Mannlichen-Klein Scheidegg Trail.  The trail is wide, easy to maneuver, and easy to follow.  My only disappointment was was that most of the mountains were behind the clouds.  We had seen the big 3, of course, but this was new territory.  At any rate - a little over an hour later we were in Kleine-Scheidegg.  We had peeks of the mountains and it was fun hiking above and through the clouds at the time, but I was still slightly disappointed.  Joe said he was just glad it wasn't raining.

The train from Kleine-Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch is pretty amazing.  We read quite a bit of the history and we were amazed as we traveled through the long tunnel in the mountain to get to the top.  The journey was definitely part of the fun.  At the top, the sun was shining because we were ABOVE all the clouds.  There are several "places of interest" at the top (it's quite the tourist attraction).  The first is a 360-degree theatre showing a moving about Jungfrau.  From there, you take an elevator to the Sphinx, which is the highest point you can go.  The views were incredible!!!  Of course, we couldn't see down to the valley, but we were there to see the mountain anyway.  After that, they take you through "Alpine Sensation" and the "Ice Palace."  Alpine Sensation is about tourism to the Alpine region through the years.  Ice Palace is just that - an ice "house" with ice sculptures that are cut into the glacier.  The ice sculptures were cool, but just knowing you were inside the glacier was really the highlight.  It was FREEZING in there (needless to say).  Out to the "Plateau" we got one more look before heading down to have a late lunch.

The Aletsch Glacier 

From the Sphinx

Alpine Adventures

Ice Palace

We headed back down to the valley, then back up to Murren.  We took one last look around Murren before heading to our room to get ready for the next day.

09/26/2014 - "On to the Matterhorn"

This morning we got up early (for us) because we were making our way to Zermatt.  The train ride required us to get back down to Lauterbrunnen and then taking the train, with 3 changes.  It was about 3 hours of travel, but we were determined to get there because the weather forecast was glorious.  Apparently, good weather in Zermatt is less frequent than bad weather.  In fact, when we checked into our hotel, the lady kept telling us how lucky we were.

The last train between Visp and Zermatt is the Matterhorn Express.  When they checked our train tickets, they offered to sell us tickets to Gornergrat, and since we had decided that was the quickest, and most efficient way for us to see the Matterhorn, we went ahead and bought them.  After arriving in Zermatt, we stowed our bags at the train station and made our way across the street to the train.

Gornergrat is at 10,132 feet and has views of the Matterhorn and also Monte Rosa, which is the highest mountain in Switzerland.  There are a couple of observation areas and a restaurant.  We lingered, took in the views, and had lunch while we were there.  It was such a beautiful day.  We tried to take some selfies and my favorite ones are the pictures where it looks like the Matterhorn is Joe's hat.  Haha!!!

Awwww...the Matterhorn!

Monte Rosa - the tallest mountain in Switzerland

Nice hat, Joe!!!

My favorite picture from our trip!!!

When we got back to town, we retrieved our bags and made our way to our hotel, the Hotel Romantica.  It was a really cute place just off the main street.  We checked in, dropped our bags and headed to the Matterhorn Museum.  The museum describes the many attempts to climb the Matterhorn and, finally, the first successful climb.  It also describes how the mountain eventually led Zermatt to tourism.  It was a small, but interesting, museum and it was covered by the Swiss Pass.

For dinner we went to Whymper Stube.  It was named after the first man to successfully climb the Matterhorn.  It was another quaint little restaurant, which we quite enjoyed.  We didn't have the fondue, but we smelled it!!  I tried the Raclette this time - which is basically cheese that has been baked.  It was really good - and it smelled a lot better than the fondue.  I even tried the local wine - Fendant.

We found Zermatt to be a cute town, but as the guidebook described, it's a "one-mountain" town.  There isn't as much to do in Zermatt as there is in Berner Oberland, but we were incredibly grateful that we had the weather that allowed us to see that one mountain and experience the town.

The Matterhorn watching over Zermatt.

09/27/2014 - "The Glacier Express"

The reason we could not linger in Zermatt was that we had decided to take the Glacier Express on Saturday to St. Moritz (the reservations we made in Bern).  Our train left at about 9:00 AM.  I was somewhat disappointed to discover that our seats - although numerically numbered - were actually aisle seats, across from each other.  I just assumed that we would be side-by-side - one window, one aisle.  We sat next to a couple speaking German.  They were polite, but not friendly.  Since the Glacier Express is a scenic train with panoramic views, it was fine - as far as the views - that we were sitting on the aisle.  But, if I had to do it over again, I would make sure we were window-window (or at least ask if it was available)!!!

Along the way, the train makes a few stops.  Also, there is an audio guide.  When you hear a "ding" you can listen to the audio (headphones provided).  There were probably about 70 places of interest along the way.  Sometimes the commentary would be about the town you were passing through.  Sometimes the commentary would just be about Switzerland in general.  It was very interesting.

The train trip was almost 8 hours, so we had lunch on the train.  We both opted for Cholera, which was a vegetarian pastry (basically).  It was good, but the name drew lots of snickers from people around us.  Most people, it seemed had purchased a "meal plan" when they made their reservations.  This was not something we were offered, but we were fine with our Cholera.  I wasn't overjoyed with the wait staff on the train.  I ordered a Coke Zero and I never got it.  When I told the waitress I had ordered it, but not received it, she barked at me and asked if I wanted it.  Yea.  I want it - that's why I ordered it.  But, I still didn't get it.  When the bill came, as I suspected, they charged us for the Coke Zero.  They didn't give us a big hassle about it - just asked what we had.  But, it was clear that the waitress went back to the girl who had taken the drink orders and asked her if we had ever gotten it.

Lunch!

Most people got off the train at Chur, so Joe and I were able to switch seats.  As it turned out, the most beautiful and interesting leg of the journey was between Chur and St. Moritz, so it worked out pretty well for us after all.

When we arrived in St. Moritz, we made our way to our hotel - Hotel Eden.  This was another lovely hotel in the "Dorf" district of St. Moritz with views of Lake St. Moritz.  St. Moritz is, of course, the very famous ski resort area for the rich and famous.  There are plenty of high-end stores there, but the major hotels are only open during high season, which is primarily winter and a couple of months in the summer.  This was good for us - it just meant fewer crowds!!!

We walked over to The Hauser for dinner that night and it was very good.  To be different, we ordered calzones instead of regular pizza.  Haha!!!

09/28/2014 - "A Day in St. Moritz and our return to Zurich"

There were only 3 things I had noted that I wanted to do in St. Moritz, so I was fairly determined to get them all marked off (although I added the Berry Museum when we returned home - alas!!!).  Two were museums and then a walk around the lake.

The first museum was The Engadiner Museum, which displays the historic, domestic, and social cultures of the Engadiner region, where St. Moritz is located.  The museum was full of complete rooms that had been moved from other homes.  From The Engadiner Museum, there was a small footpath down to the 2nd museum - the Segantini Museum.  Segantini was an artist, best known as the ultimate painter of alpine life.  His most famous work was the Alpine Triptych - one representing life, one representing nature, and one representing death.

The Engadiner Museum

Segantini Museum

From the museums, we did walk around the lake.  It was very peaceful and beautiful and quite a nice trail.  We made a side trip to the Olympic Stone, which commemorates the two times that St. Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics - 1928 and 1948.  From the lake, we walked through the high-end shopping district and stopped for lunch on a lovely patio.

Our last leg was to hop back on the train to Zurich.  We had stored our bags at the hotel and they were awesome enough to drop us at the train station so we didn't have to drag our bags through town (again).  We took a train that left about 3:00 in order to make it back to Zurich at a reasonable hour.  We checked into our hotel at the airport with no drama and enjoyed a final evening in Switzerland.

09/29/2014 - "Goodbye Switzerland..."

I absolutely loved our adventures in Switzerland.  I can't wait to return some day - and perhaps - re-do our hike in the clouds.  Not to mention there are still many towns that we didn't get a chance to see.  For a tiny country, it certainly packs a beautiful punch!