Switzerland's Bernese Oberland

Here's the train station in Wengen in 1994. In 1997 when I was here, they were adding on to the left side of the building making it look more modern than the nice building you see here. If you stop here walk up the main street to the church at the far end for the view you see in the picture above on the right. (OK, you see cars and I know I said no cars in Wengen, which is true except for a few small vehicles that carry people from the train station to their hotels - this is one of a number of "traffic free" towns in Switzerland, all the ones I've been to have at least a little traffic - Electric vehicles including small buses and service vehicles even going so far as electric vehicles to deliver construction supplies and heating oil (Zermatt), and small conventional gas driven vehicles like these that never leave town since there is no road out (here at Wengen and across the valley in Mürren and Gimmelwald), and farm equipment, however you can't drive into any of them with your rental car, and neither can anyone else, so there is very little traffic and as a result these towns are quite peaceful and nice for walking).

From Wengen we reboard the train and continue on up to the station at Kleine Scheidegg (or you can pass through Wengen without leaving the train). There's no snow here during the summer, but when I visited in September there was already some snow from an early snowfall on the ground. This is as far up as I went on this trip. On a later trip I continued on up to the Jungfraujoch on this train (this part, through tunnels in the mountain, is very expensive - the ride from here to the top is about an hour one way, including two stops to look out windows cut in the face of the mountain).

This view, looking North from the top is from my October 1997 visit when there was less snow than in September 1994. It shows the valley I just came up from. On the right is the train station at Kleine Scheidegg. On the left you see the Lauterbrunnen valley leading away to Interlaken at the end of the valley in the distance. Far in the distance at the left is Bern. Out of the picture are Grindelwald (right), and Lauterbrunnen (out of view in the valley), Mürren and Gimmelwald (left). Wengen is just out of view behind the ridge in the center of the picture. (Click on the picture for an enlargement to see this better).

At the top there's snow year-round and your final destination is the Aletschgletscher (Aletsch Glacier), the largest glacier in Switzerland. You can hike out onto the glacier, and if you have time you can even do a long hike out to an alpine hiking hut where you can get refreshments (some of these hiking huts allow overnight stays, I'm not sure about this one). I didn't hike very far onto the glacier, I was here in October and it was very cold and windy and the hut probably wasn't open this late in the year. Ordinarily, there are sled dogs kept here that you can see, but they weren't there this late in the season.

If you come here, don't miss the elevator to the Sphinx Observatory where you get the best views, including all three of the mountain top views you see here. Two new high-speed elevators were just recently installed to handle more visitors. To the left of the observatory shown here you can see the peak of the Junfgrau, the highest of the moutains in this region. This mountain trip took me most of a day. While you could do it faster, to really have time to see everything including hiking onto the glacier, and lunch (there are two restaurants up here), you should allow a full day for this trip, including a quick visit to Wengen along the way.

Gimmelwald

There's 2 cable cars up from Stechelberg: One for passenger service, and the other for baggage (and today, Bungee Jumping). Look closely and you can see a bungee jumper in this picture. They say this is the highest bungee jump in the world (the prices looked like the highest in the world too!)

The cable car goes up over that cliff you see in the back, and that's where the towns of Gimmelwald and Mürren are. Gimmelwald has one hotel (shown here), a youth hostel and a pension (similar to a hotel). There's also a post office and a number of farm houses. This is Walter's Mittaghorn hotel popularized by Rick Steve's books and TV shows, and it's always full of his viewers and readers, and sometimes his tour groups. I tried to stay here on my last trip, but it was booked up by a group tour (one of Rick Steves groups, I presume), so I stayed in Mürren. Although Rick really plays up Gimmelwald and this hotel, there are plenty of other fine places to stay, I didn't see anything wrong with staying in Mürren. Mürren is even farther up the mountain than Gimmelwald. Mürren is bigger (more hotels, less farmhouses), but both have fine views, though not always right from your window. Mürren wasn't crowded when I was there in October, but in the busier seasons it might be, so if you're looking to get away from crowds Gimmelwald is probably better for that.

One of the hikes I've read about for this area is back from Gimmelwald or Mürren to the Sprutz Waterfall. After returning from my cloud-obstructed ride up the Schilthorn, I decided to try this hike as a cloudy day activity. I started from Mürren, hiking to the falls then back to Gimmelwald (then, since the weather wasn't clearing, into Bern by train for the rest of the day). It was foggy and slightly rainy, and I think I was the first hiker of the day back here. To the left you see the Sprutz falls. The trail actually goesright underneath (behind) the falls (if you look closely you can see a handrail on the left). In one of the books I read before this trip, the author came across a Chamois at this falls. As I approached, I startled a large animal that I only glimpsed before it disappeared from view. With my camera ready, and approaching as quietly as I could, I countinued towards the falls. As the falls came into view, I spotted another animal (not the same one I glimpsed earlier), this time definitely a Chamois. It saw me and ran up on a high ledge where it stopped and where you see it pictured here. I'm sure it was watching me as I peeked around the rocks on the trail just left of the waterfall. Although this picture was taken with a telephoto lens, I really wasn't very far away. These animals are supposedly quite easily startled and hard to get close to, but this one seemed to feel safe high on its ledge (I didn't approach any closer, and it was still there when I left). One or more of these appears to live at the falls, because there were a lot of tracks all around the area. If you're thinking that this is the same name as the skin you use to polish your car, that's because those skins originally came from these animals (today the Chamois is rare and protected, and the skin you get that is called a Chamois is usually sheepskin). Since these animals are both rare, and hard to get close to, I was quite lucky to see one and get this good, if slightly blurry, picture.

One more interesting thing to see in the Lauterbrunnen valley is the Trummelbach Falls. This falls, beyond Lauterbrunnen on the road to Stechelberg, cuts down through the inside of the mountain. To see it you ride up an elevator that has been cut into the mountain, then walk back down right alongside the falls.

Grindelwald

A short hike from here leads to the Wetterhorn Glacier, shown here about as you see it right from your hotel room window at the Hotel Wetterhorn, assuming you get a room on the front side of the building. There's a blue ice cave carved inside this glacier (blue because that's the color inside after the sunlight filters down through the ice). Other glaciers in the area have similar blue ice tunnels (Aletschgletscher at the top of the Jungfraujoch railway is one - and you don't even have to hike to that one). There's another Grindelwald glacier that I missed because I didn't even know it was there!