Blogs from Mürren, South-West, Switzerland, Europe

The Rick Steves' group left this morning so it appeared that we were the only ones at the Hotel..... It was just the Wong party. After breakfast, we headed out to do First Flyer zip. We went to First by way of Murren-Grutschalp-Lauterbrunnen-Zweilutschinen-Grindewald-Bort-Schreckfeld-First. We were going to do the Lake hike near First but was afraid that we were going to run out of time and sunlight. Plus, I wasn't really feeling that well after the cable car ride. So we decided that we would just do the First Flyer. All five of us zipped down 500 meters at 80 kmph. We essentially zipped from First to Schreckfeld. It was quite fun! After the zip, we hiked down from Schreckfeld to Bort. It was all very steep down hill. My knees are very week and my ... read more

The first day in Switzerland we decided to delay what is supossed to be the highlght of the trip, an excursion to the top of the Jungfrau, until tomorrow in hopes of better weather. Today the weather is cloudy with occasional sprinkles. But its great hiking weather even without the views. So after breakfast we rounded up some picnic supplies (we actually planned ahead and purchased everything we needed, except some cheese, down in the valley the night before) and headed up to Allmenburhl for a couple of hour hike back down to Murren which was mostly downhill. While in Murren it actually started to rain, so we curtailed our sightseeing and popped into a fancy little hotel for a warm drink and some dessert. We had a greaticnic lunch on the mountain but no dessert. ... read more

Today was supposed to be as fine as we could expect for a few days and if we were to go to the Schilthorn, then this was the day to do it. We caught the train to Lauterbrunnen and walked up the valley for an hour or so to Stechelberg. It was a very warm 28 degrees and we were happy to find a shady place for a picnic lunch. On arriving at the Schilthornbahn (cable car that carries 100+ people) we heard that the Schilthorn was in the cloud which isn’t surprising since it is 3000m high. There is no point in visiting the tops of peaks if you arrive in cloud especially if you have paid for the journey. The Swiss Pass covers us to Murren but not up the Schilthorn so we gave ... read more

So we left the best breakfast buffet in Milano 5 minutes after it opened so we could catch our train to Switzerland. On the up side, we stuffed our faces, and our packs, before we left!! We traveled in, and arrived to, rain. We got ourselves some ambitious mountain passes to see the Swiss alps and headed up the mountain to our auberge. It took a train, a bus, and a gondola to get to the town of Gimmewald...then there was a cute 5 min "path" to the auberge...it was more like a decent ski hill of stairs with 30lb bags on our backs. We were more than happy to leave our backpacks in our room and head off to explore the area! Our host sent us off on an "introductory trail" through the valley along ... read more

Left Avignon early and had stopovers in Geneva (meh) and Bern (liked it) on the way to Gimmelwald. Sensational, the pictures dont do it justice. Hiked with some Canadians up into the clouds until the snow was too much to keep going, weather no good for the Jungfrau train or Schilthorn gondola. I was wetter inside my poncho from sweating than I was on the outide from the snow and rain. After getting back to the hostel had a relax in the hottub looking at the mountains. Weather was better the following day (just looked out the window from bed and could see the top of the Jungfrau) so took the train up there, checked things, walked on the glacier, etc. Wasnt too bad so ended up doing it in tshirt and shorts. Back down to ... read more