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Day 3 – Berner Oberland

Isaac Church — Mon, 13 May 2019 22:00:15 +0000

This morning we overslept and woke up later than intended, around 07:10, in Lauterbrunnen – the heart of Berner Oberland, as we began our second day in Switzerland. We got dressed and headed down to our hotel lobby to grab some breakfast. Our plan was to take the first train up the mountain at 07:37, but since we overslept, we took one about an hour or so later.

Breakfast - Hotel Oberland

For breakfast, we enjoyed a variety of meat, fruit, bread, jam, honey, cheese, and more.

Jungfraubahn

After breakfast, we walked to the Lauterbrunnen train station, purchased our tickets, and boarded the train for Jungfraujoch, Europe’s highest rail station. Along the way, the train passed through Wengen, Kleine Scheidegg (where we changed trains), and a few other smaller villages. We couldn’t see much for the clouds.

Jungfrau Railway

The Jungfrau Railway (Jungfraubahn) runs all the way from Interlaken to the Jungfraujoch Station, Europe’s highest railway station. At Zweilütschinen, the railway forks east to Grindelwald, and south to Lauterbrunnen. The railway joins again at Kleine Scheidegg.

The depot at the mountain pass of Kleine Scheidegg (2,061m // 6,762′) is the final train interchange before making the climb to Jungfraujoch. This final stage goes 9km (~5.5mi) in a tunnel through the Mönch and Eiger, finally stopping at Jungfraujoch (3,454 m // 11,332′).

Construction of the railway started in 1896 and took 16 years to complete.

Railway Map

Faith and a blurry train

White out

Kleine Scheidegg

Jungfraubahn tunnel

Jungfraujoch

About an hour and a half later, we arrived at Jungfraujoch. The views were breathtaking. While it was overcast in the valley below, we were now high above the clouds, and the sun was shining brightly. It was not a good day for me to forget my sunglasses…

Aletsch Glacier

Jungfraujoch

Bernese Alps

When viewed from the west, the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau sit from left to right. The etymology is quite fascinating: the Mönch (monk) is protecting the Jungfrau (maiden/young woman) from the Eiger (ogre).

These three peaks lie just a few miles northwest of the Alps’ largest glacier, the Great Aletsch Glacier (Grosser Aletschgletscher), which is over 14 miles long.

Since the Eiger’s north face was successfully climbed in 1858, at least 64 climbers have died attempting to scale it.

We explored the observatory for a while, and closed our journey with a venture out onto the snow for some pictures.

Jungfraujoch Ice Cave

There was also an ice cave…

Jungfraujoch ice cave

Train Ride Down // Lunch

We thought about getting lunch at the top, but after seeing the prices, decided to venture back the valley instead.

Switzerland is very expensive! A small salad like this cost nearly USD$20.

It was clearing up just a little on the train ride down, so the views were a little better. We met a group of four people about our age from Alabama, and had a lively conversation with them on the way down.

Now back in Lauterbrunnen, we stopped at the local grocery store, Co-op, to buy a quick lunch. We got some dried beef and salami, some delicious local cheese, and yogurt.

Berner Oberland

While I’m thinking about it, here’s some more info on the Berner Oberland.

The Berner Oberland, also known as the Bernese Highlands or Bernese Oberland, is the southernmost (and highest) of the five districts of the canton of Bern. The residents speak the Highest Alemannic German dialect, which has many different plurals than Bernese German and has more “n” sounds.

Lauterbrunnen Coat of Arms

The Romans, who used various nearby mountain passes, first settled the area. Three main peaks protrude from the southeastern wall of the Lauterbrunnen valley: the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. These three peaks form a highly recognizable landscape, visible from many miles away on a clear day.

Trummelbachfälle

After lunch, we drove to Trummelbachfälle, a waterfall that is actually inside the mountain. A funicular took us about halfway up; we walked the rest of the way up, and then walked back down. The waterfall was enormous and thundering, and was quite the site to behold. We came out slightly wet from the spray and water drippings.

Trummelbachfälle

A view of the valley from the falls

Funicular

Levels of the falls

Trummelbachfälle

Gimmelwald

Next, we left Trummelbachfälle and drove almost to the end of the Lauterbrunnen valley to Stechelberg to take a cable car up to the villages of Gimmelwald and Mürren. Gimmelwald is a traditional alpine village and has maintained its historic state by getting itself declared an “avalanche zone”, so no modern buildings can be built in the village.

Cowbells

A frolicky horse we met

Gimmelwald

Gimmelwald had several self-service food stations where hikers could buy snacks or locals buy essentials like eggs or milk. We bought a package of beef wurst to eat later.

Alpkäse self-service

The Honesty Shop

Cheese storage/aging hut

You can fill your water bottle at any fountain like this across the Alps

Mürren

After exploring Gimmelwald for half an hour, we took the cable car up once more to the larger, more modern village of Mürren. Locals and workers access these villages by very steep roads, but only when necessary because they are dangerous. All pedestrians and tourists must park at the bottom and use the cable car, often hauling luggage to their hotels high above.

The village, high above Gimmelwald

Downtown Mürren

Dinner - Restaurant Stägerstübli

By this time, we were very hungry for dinner, so we stopped at Restaurant Stägerstübli in Mürren for dinner. I got Rösti mit Käse überbacken (hash browns smothered in cheese), and Faith got Rösti mit Käse überbacken (hash browns with vegetables). We each got an espresso to go with our meal.

Restaurant Stägerstübli

Hiking Down

After dinner, we explored Mürren a bit more, and then hiked back down to Gimmelwald to take the cable car down from there. It was a very pleasant hike; we saw great scenery, alpine farms, and even a wild chamois on the path. We made the cable car with no time to spare (we had to run a little at the end).

Yellow signs like this direct you around the Alps, often including walking time (as clocked by local senior citizens)

Frische Milch

Now back at our car at the bottom of the valley, we started the ~8min drive back to our hotel in the town of Lauterbrunnen. Along the way, we stopped at a dairy farm that had a fresh milk dispenser. You drop in some coins, place your personal container under the spout, and the machine spouts cold milk, fresh from the farm that morning. The milk was deliciously sweet and buttery. We took it back to the hotel, where we enjoyed it while settling down for the evening. It was now ~20:00.

Frisch Milch

Frische Milch

Stechelberg, Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Not exactly a restaurant, but this was one of the neatest experiences we had on the trip – and the best milk I’ve ever had!

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Auf Wiedersehen

Unfortunately, tonight is our final night in Lauterbrunnen and the Berner Oberland. Tomorrow we drive to Valle d’Aosta in Italy. We both agree we didn’t allow nearly enough time for this area, but maybe we can return one day. It is very expensive though, so I’ll be glad to get out of Switzerland for a few days.

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow from Italy (and a little more of Switzerland).

Maps // Subscribe

A map of Berner Oberland:

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Day 2 – Zürich, Luzern, Berner Oberland

Isaac Church — Sun, 12 May 2019 21:35:54 +0000

Our first day in Switzerland started bright and early. Before I get to Luzern and the breathtaking Berner Oberland region, let’s talk about the airport.

Flughafen Zürich

Our flight landed at Zürich Airport (ZRH // Flughafen Zürich) at 07:40 EST. We navigated customs, and picked up our rental car (which apparently had gotten upgraded, so we ended up with a Mercedes-Benz A180!). The airport is in Kloten, a suburb of Zürich a ~20-min. drive north of the city center. We’ll be closing out our trip here, so I’ll wait to give you info about the city.

For now, we’re bypassing Zürich to venture south into central Switzerland. Guided by my iPhone’s GPS, we left the airport and took Swiss Motorway 4 south to Luzern. I was a little nervous at first, but quickly adapted to the Swiss roadways, with the help of some high-tech features on our rental car.

South from Zürich to Lucerne

Löwendenkmal

We parked in a parking garage in the city center of Luzern, and walked about a block north to see the Lion of Luzern (Löwendenkmal). I’d seen pictures of this before, but no picture could do it justice. It was huge compared to my expectations, and the setting was truly remarkable: it was quiet, isolated, and shady – a truly relaxing and thought-provoking place.

Löwendenkmal

Lion of Luzern

The Lion of Luzern (Löwendenkmal) is a rock relief sculpture that commemorates soldiers from the Swiss Guard killed in Paris during the French Revolution, when peasants stormed the Tuileries Palace in 1792. Of the 900 soldiers, only ~100 survived.

Swiss Guards have served at foreign European courts since the 15^th century. The most famous regiment is the colorfully-uniformed Pontifical Swiss Guard, which guards the Holy See (Vatican City), and serves as a bodyguard for the pope.

Mark Twain on the Lion

The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.
Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion—and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.
– Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (1880)

Luzern City Wall

Leaving the serenity of the Lion, we walked uphill (emphasis on ‘up’ and ‘hill’; it was very steep) to the old city wall of Luzern. Faith and I strolled the parapets for at least thirty minutes, pausing to view old mechanical clocks in one of the towers, and turning our legs to Jell-O by climbing the steep wooden stair ladders in the towers.

Luzern city wall

Luzern City Wall

Luzern city wall

Spreuerbrücke

Since the last night’s airplane dinner (which was mediocre, by the way) was long-gone, we decided to find some breakfast. We wound our way down the hill from the city wall to the river, first stopping at the Spreuerbrücke to see the river and stroll across the bridge before we sat down to eat a meal.

Kapellbrücke

History - Spreuerbrücke

The Spreuer Bridge has spanned the Reuss since its construction in 1408. While the paintings in the nearby Kapellbrücke depict the history of Luzern, the paintings in the nearby Spreuerbrücke have a much darker motif: death. The paintings depict a Danse Macabe, or ‘Dance of Death’, which is meant to show there is no place that death will not find man. Of the 67 original 17^th century paintings, 45 remain.

Spreuerbrücke

Breakfast - Mill'Feuille

I’d already picked out a breakfast: Mill’Feuille, a German restaurant on the bank of the river. We split the Mill’Feuille Breakfast, which allowed us to pick three breakfast items to split, and gave us unlimited bread, fresh jam, and homemade chocolate-hazelnut spread.

For our entrées, Faith and I split the following:

Birchermüesli – a Swiss specialty – oat flakes, quark, fresh fruit, and roasted hazelnuts. This was a huge upgrade on oatmeal, in our opinions.
A portion of cheese from the Luzern market with dried dates
A waffle with apple & rhubarb compote

Mill’Feuille

For the bread, we got a selection of house breads, including honey wheat, challah, rye, wheat, and more we couldn’t identify. The jams were apricot-apple and rhubarb-cherry-apple, and homemade Nutella was creamy and delicious.

Faith also got a caffé latte, and I got a cappuccino.

Mill'Feuille

Luzern, Switzerland

An amazing breakfast spread – anything you could ask for on the breakfast buffet, and all exceptional quality. Plus, the view from the riverside seating is breathtaking!

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Luzern

After breakfast, we continued to explore the city. Almost all of the shops in Luzern were closed for Sunday, but we walked through much of the city anyways.

History - Luzern

Luzern (also spelled Lucerne) is the capital of the canton of Luzern, and is the most populous town in central Switzerland, with ~82,000 residents. The river Reuss flows through the center of the town into Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee, meaning “Lake of the Four Forested Settlements”). In French or Italian, the city name translates to “Lake of the Four Cantons”. Two mountains, Pilatus (6,995′ // 2,132m) and Rigi (5,897′ // 1,797m), backdrop the city.

Coat of Arms

Reussbrücke

We walked to the Reussbrücke, just upriver from the Spreuerbrücke.

History - Reussbrücke

The Reussbrücke sits between the Chapel and Spreuer bridges, and offers a view of Luzern’s needle dam (Nadelwehr Luzern). The Nadelwehr is not intended to stop up the river; rather, it is supposed to regulate its flow, and isn’t intended to be watertight. Thin individual “needles” of wood can be added or removed by hand to form a sluice and constrict the flow of the river.

Reussbrücke

Kapellbrücke

Finally, we came to the mouth of river, and the famous Kapellbrücke.

History - Kapellbrücke

Named after the nearby St. Peter’s Chapel, the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), Luzern constructed the bridge in 1365 as a connection between the city’s fortifications on each side of the river. The Wasserturm, which translates to ‘water tower’ or ‘tower in the water’, actually pre-dates the bridge by 30 years. Over the years, the tower has been a prison, torture chamber, municipal archive, and treasury. Today, it serves as the bridge’s gift shop.

Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, and the world’s oldest surviving truss bridge. A fire (likely cigarette-caused) destroyed 2/3 of the bridge in 1993, but the city restored it within eight months at a cost of CHF3.4million.

The guard tower

Legends of giants came from mammoth bones

All but the knots have been worn down

47 paintings that depict Luzern’s history originally filled the bridge’s inner frames. The 1993 fire destroyed 17 of the paintings, which dated back to the 17^th Century.

Extra - Fortified Switzerland

As we were driving today, we often saw metal/concrete doors in the side of the mountain. With Mussolini to the south and Hitler to the north during WWII, the Swiss developed a plan to retreat into the mountains if the country was ever invaded. There are 44 bunkers in central Switzerland alone.

During the Cold War, the Swiss retooled their bunkers to defend against a potential Soviet invasion. Recently discovered documents reveal that both Nazi Germany and the USSR planned to invade Switzerland right before their subsequent downfalls.

Much of Swizerland, as we’ve learned, is “rigged to blow”. The Swiss have planted explosives in mountain passes, tunnels, and even rivers, ready to cause a collapse, rock slide, or avalanche to thwart attackers at a moment’s notice. I guess that explains why no army has successfully invaded the land in the history of the Confederation.

Pilatus (Almost)

After we finished exploring Luzern and I finished fighting the parking validation machine, we continued our journey south towards the Berner Oberland region, but first we stopped in the tiny town of Alpnachstad. Alpnachstad is home to the world’s steepest cog railway, Pilatusbahn. Must to our disappointment, Alpnachstad station was closed today (we’re still not sure why), so we had to find something else to do. I’ll leave a description of of the mountain and the area below since it’s still very interesting. We did at least stop for a nice view of the turquoise waters of a nearby lake.

History - Alpnach // Canton of Obwalden

The village of Alpnach, which contains the ‘sub-village’ of Alpnachstad, is in the canton of Obwalden. Alpnach has a population of ~6,000.

Coat of Arms – Alpnach

The Canton of Obwalden is the geographical center of Switzerland, though it has a population of only ~37,500. The earliest archaeological artifacts date the earliest settlements in the area to around 8,000 BC.

Coat of Arms – Obwalden

Pilatus

Mt. Pilatus is clearly visible from Luzern, and is one of the two dominating tourist attractions in the area – the other being Mt. Titlis and its glacier.

The mountain has several peaks, but the highest, Tomlishorn, stands at 2,812m (6,982′). One can ascend/descend the mountain via cog railway, panoramic gondola, or aerial cableway.

Alpnachstad

Reichenbachfälle

Next, we drove to Meiringen to see some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired scenery: the Reichenbachfälle (where Moriarty met his demise) and the Sherlock Holmes Museum. A very steep funicular took us to an observation deck at the falls; from there we climbed to the top. We spent about half an hour atop the falls, then took the funicular back down and drove a few minutes across the river to the museum.

Funicular

Cows on the way up

Reichenbachfälle

Sherlock Holmes Museum

Downtown Meringen has a Sherlock Holmes Museum, which we visited on a combined ticket (funicular + museum). It included a life-size recreation of the 221B Baker Street apartment, which was amazing – fully of detail and antiquities.

221B Baker Street - Re-creation

Giessbachfälle

Next, we drove [past a yak farm or two] to Brienz to the Giessbachfälle, which drops 391m (1,282ft) into the Brienzersee, which is one of two lakes bordering Interlaken. Rather than hiking up the entire height of the waterfall, we picked a portion where you could walk behind the falls.

Giessbachfälle

Interlaken // Lauterbrunnen Valley

Alpkäse

Now hungry again, we drove to Interlaken to attempt to find some dinner. Everything was either closed or very expensive, so we stopped at a Migros grocery store and bought some cured meat, local cheese (Alpkäse), yogurt, rolls, and chocolate for dinner. We drove about 15 minutes into Lauterbrunnen, checked into Hotel Oberland, and enjoyed our dinner on the balcony with a fabulous view of the Staubbach Falls.

Lauterbrunnen Valley

Our cow friend

Lauterbrunnen flowers

Hotel Oberland

Hotel Oberland will be our home for tonight and tomorrow night. Below are some pictures of the hotel, our room, and our view.

View from our balcony

Hoter Oberland

Hotel Oberland

Maps

As promised, here are two maps showing where we have been today.

Goodnight

Early tomorrow, weather pending, we’ll take the train from Lauterbrunnen up towards the Eiger via Kleine Scheidegg. Hopefully the weather will cooperate…if not, we’ll come up with something else to do.

We’re headed to bed now (actually, just I am; Faith’s already asleep). Goodnight everyone!

Reichenbachfälle

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