Hiking Through Switzerland Day 5

 Day 5: Trümmelbach Falls and Mürren

We finally hit a patch of bad weather. Skies this morning were gray with low hanging clouds clinging to the mountains around Lauterbrunnen. We decided to walk the 2 miles to Trümmelbach Falls, a series of 10 cascading waterfalls found partly within a mountain. On the way out of town, Molly did her now famous ice cream lick, performed in no less than 8 separate countries all over the world.

Along the route we passed several of the waterfalls that Lauterbrunnen is famous for. There are 72 waterfalls in and around Lauterbrunnen, though we only got to see a few.

The rain held off long enough for us to reach Trümmelbach Falls.  They’re a series of glacial waterfalls inside the mountain, draining the  Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau,  nature’s own water-sculpted art gallery, with 10 cascades thundering through rock. They’re accessible via elevstor, tunnels, and paths

As we left, the line to get in had grown from nonexistent when we arrived to at least a 30 min. wait.  Timing is everything.

It was staring to mist a bit, but we still decided to take the cable car to Mürren which left from Stechelberg, a 5 min. bus ride away.  Mürren is a car-free mountain village above Lauterbrunnen.  The cable car goes nearly vertically upward, and today, right into the clouds.

Molly really enjoyed the ride.

On top, we were in a very dense moist cloud and there was a persistent mist that permeated the air. We obviously came at the right time for wildflowers, since they have been everywhere.

The village was charming, and the dense fog made for some nice photos.

The mist and the cool temps in the 50s begged us to find something hot for lunch.  After deciding against the menu at a couple of Swiss restaurants, we found an Asian restaurant  that we could all agree on.  Spicy Tom Yam did the trick.

Then back down the cable car and a bus into Lauterbrunnen. 

We had the same bus driver who brought us to the tram, and he actually remembered us, commenting on the quality of my German (with a wink and a smile). He was quite a character telling us stories about growing up in the Netherlands. We had to stop for a bit while a teenager cow refused to get out of the way of traffic.

The weather did not improve at all and we elected to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing and doing some laundry.  The hotel had 2 washers and driers for use about 2 doors down from our room.  Very convenient.

With the continued rain, we stayed in again and ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. We even had our same waitress, who we now knew by name (Marie). Tonight we kept dinner simple, pizza and salad (still about $50 a couple).

Tomorrow we are off to Lucerne.  Hopefully the weather will improve.

Hiking Through Switzerland Day 4

Day 4: Lauterbrunnen and the Jungfrau Region

The trip this morning from Zermatt to Lauterbrunnen was a lot easier than expected.  We were a bit nervous about having to change trains3 times with less than 10 minutes between trains, but everything went smoothly.  The weather was again beautiful and the route took us past idyllic sceneryof lakes and mountains dotted with classic Swiss architecture.

We arrived in Lauterbrunnen late morning.  Our hotel was only about 30 yards from the train station, as the crow flies, but required the crow to be flying nearly straight up.

It wouldn't have been too bad without luggage, but that was not the case.  By utilizing the road we were mable to manage, though the 30yds turned into almost 1/4 mi.

We checked into the Hotel Silberhorn, but only Molly and Dave's room was ready, so we left all our luggage in their room and headed out for another hike.

We had hoped to take "the train to the top of the world" to the Jungfraujoch tomorow, but the weather is iffy, and it was too late to do this today, so we elected to hike the Panoramaweg, a classic hike in the Jungfrau region. First, we had to return to the train station to catch a train to Wengen.  Downhill with no luggage was infinitely easier.

The train ride was really scenic

but the last leg of the journey, up a tram from Wengen to Männlichen, was stunning.  We had our first glimpses of the three major peaks of the Jungfrau region, the Jungfrau (13,600'), the Mönch (13,400'), and the Eiger. (13,000')

We even got an extra treat, a rainbow over the Jungfrau.

Before starting off downhill on the Panoramaweg, we took a slight uphill (about 400' about 0.6 mi. each way with an average grade of 15%)

Beautiful wildflowers lined the path 

and the views were gorgeous.

We even got to see some parasailers taking off from the edge of the cliff

After our brief uphill interlude, we began our descent from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidigg.

The trail was in great shape and there were constant views of the mountains and adjacent valley the entire way down.

For our anniversary, we reenacted the snowball fight (actually, just me throwing a snowball at Jeri on our first date!

On much of the route we had sweeping views of the Eiger north face, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau.

The trail was about 3 miles of gentle downhill and though the weather was gorgeous when we began, we watched the clouds begin to roll in with threatening rain.  We also heard what we thought was thunder that turned out to be avalanches high in the mountains. Fortunately, the rain held off and, in fact, the weather cleared a bit by the time we reached the train station in Kleine Scheidigg.

We returned to Lauterbrunnen (about a 20 minute train ride) and still no rain. We got into our room and were pleasantly surprised to have a great view of the iconic Staubbach Falls.

We decided to eat dinner at our hotel, which turned out to be the best restaurant in Lauterbrunnen. Since it was Spargelzeit (asparagus season), we shared Spargelsuppe and then schnitzel and trout with asparagus and hollandaise. Dinner was great and the asparagus was exceptional (not as good as George and Hope's though). We had an interesting waitress, a French ultra-marathoner who is training for a 250 km race in the mountains in 6 weeks. And we were whining about our legs hurting. The rain began during dinner, and we all decided the choice of staying in was a good one.

Today was our 51st anniversary, and it couldn't have been much better between the weather, scenery, dinner, and great companions.