Of Murren and beyond!

Murren

29 May 2011

The Alpine village of Murren

Our last day in Switzerland! We wanted to have a nice and quiet day, spent in walking leisurely and taking our own time to look at everything. Murren seemed perfect for it! We'd been in Murren the previous day, just to change to a different cable car on our way up to Schilthorn, but what we saw of Murren from the car was enough to entice us!






Murren is a small mountain village in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. Located at a height of 1650 metres, it is a very famous tourist spot and remains so through out the year, sun or snow. This is very evident from the fact that even though Murren has a population of only about 500, it has hotel beds numbering upwards of 2000! The Murren - Schilthorn area is the highest altitude playground of the Bernese Oberland. It features snow boarding, skiing, sledging among many other snow sports, from the 'gentle' ones to ones bordering on the extreme!. Murren in fact hosts the largest amateur skiing races in the world, the Inferno races. So, yes it is pretty 'cool' in the winter, but we were in Murren smack in the middle of summer! Was it just as interesting?

I'd say it was even better!

A view from the Funicular to Murren

Today we used a different route to get to Murren. The Lauterbrunnen BLM station, where BLM stands for Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen Murren, is just opposite the main train station, the BOB or Bernese Oberland Bahn station. From the BLM station, a cable car took us to the Grutschalp station located just above Lauterbrunnen. It is nothing but a station where the passengers from the aerial cable way from Lauterbrunnen get connected to the Funicular ride to Murren. A funicular is a train which uses cables to support itself on mountain climbs. Our funicular was spaciously built, with extra wide windows, giving us a superb view of the Lauterbrunnen valley and the peaks opposite. We reached the Murren BLM station which happens to be a stone's throw from the Murren LSMS station. LSMS stands for Luftseilbahn Stechelberg Murren Schilthorn, the aerial cable way we used the previous day to get to Schilthorn. I am stressing this part because we were really confused about the terms LSMS, BLM, etc, and we had to ask around a lot (a real lot!) before we got on the right track. The otherwise perfect Swiss railway seems to fail a tiny bit on this one issue, but no harm done, now you know!

Built in 1861! The other years are those in which it was
renovated only on the inside

It was a sunny day and the roads were deserted, Murren has no cars. Most of the houses here were more than a century old, traditional Swiss architecture. Earthen flower pots hung outside and the houses were built with strong Alpine wood which now looked weather beaten. But the houses had no plans of giving up in the near future! The houses dated back to the 19th century, as can be seen in the pictures, and over this period, we were told that the outside was not altered at all! We were looking at the houses as they would have been in the 19th century! That would have taken some really good planning on the part of the builders and architects as Murren gets it share of bad weather every year.

Not a professional picture but this one is my favourite! I love the web!
(That's my 'wall' in the background)

In Murren, you look down at the vast Lauterbrunnen valley and also have astounding views of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. I had been fascinated with the huge, steep and blank rocky 'walls' of the Lauterbrunnen valley since yesterday. I now rediscovered my love for them! Staring blankly at Murren, towering over it, stood a gigantic brown wall. I liked nothing better than to look at it and wonder and wonder! What was I wondering about? I don't know! But I did find out that I love heights very much and I was planning on skydiving the next time I got a chance! Murren is a splendid location, one where you can walk into the past, admire the views or just 'chill' in the small cafés by the road. I urge those travelling to Switzerland to pay a visit to this amazing mountain village.

The road to nowhere. My favourite road!

After we toured the entire village, I found us a small mountain road leading to an unknown place. This road, I felt, was enough to tempt the laziest of the couch potatoes to come out and take a walk! Marvellous views, the Alpine wilderness surrounding us and the sun shining down patiently, there was no better way to get close to nature! We trekked for quite some distance on this road before walking back.

Unbearably glorious! 

We made our way back to Interlaken slowly and packed our bags. We did some day shopping and explored what little was left of Interlaken. Our return trip to Eindhoven was a bit longish and involved many transfers because we had booked our tickets quite late. We had to change trains at Basel, Mannheim and at Dusseldorf. At the next station Viersen, Germany, everyone got off the train, we found out that we had to get to Venlo, The Netherlands by bus. It was 24 kilometres away, a 25 minute journey. From Venlo, we had a direct train to Eindhoven. Back home!

Our trip might have ended but this post hasn't! In the next section, I have included all the tips and ideas we've picked up about travelling smart in Switzerland. You can read ahead if you need them, be sure to take a look at the photos in the end!

The best thing we could have done about our trip was the purchase of a Swiss pass. It cut our travel expenditure by a large amount and also saved us a lot of time. The Swiss travel system offers different passes among which we can choose, depending on our family, the number of days of stay and the places we want to visit. It offers discounts at tourist spots and you get to pay half the usual amount there. So I strongly urge anyone travelling to Switzerland to look up this great tool.

Regarding transport, Switzerland is on the clock, trains follow schedules perfectly, buses are accurate to the minute and such. But when on a tour, there's no saying when or where you will be delayed. Train transfers, many times are a tight squeeze, sometimes with less than three minutes between transfers. So you would be at a loss if somehow you miss even a single train! Then at each station you have to search for the next train to the next place and so on, and the end of the journey the delays would have costed you a lot. We do not want that to happen on a perfect holiday, do we?

To avoid this, we took printouts of our schedule and subsequent timings of alternate trains. Its actually very easy! For example look up this timetable. You are given four alternate timings at each stop in case you miss one train. Now this, is going to be your saviour at a time of need! Believe me, we've experienced it and you will thank SBB with all your heart for making your trip!

The next best thing we did would be us finding out about the Myswissalps website. As I had mentioned in my Switzerland Part-1 post, it has a forum which is monitored by many experienced mediators and fellow travellers. You can ask for help and ideas from anything regarding Switzerland, be it food, accommodation or travel. This would be the best way to start your preparation as advice is just a question away!

Collect brochures! We found out that collecting brochures of places is an useful thing to do! It is not very hard, as every train station or tourist spot in Switzerland has plenty of brochures about tourist spots and cities. The phone numbers, the maps, info about public transit and other such thoughtful info included in these would be very helpful to you while you travel. Also when return and decide to blog about your experience, they help to jog your memory, to recollect forgotten details and tongue twisting names!

Don't hesitate to inquire! Problems, however small they may seem, have an uncanny knack of ballooning up! So whatever question you have about anything at all, just ask at numerous help desks available at any train station or tourist spot.

Carry your passport. Even though it is not necessary to carry your passport with you, it is strongly advised to. We were told that we didn't need to take our passports on our trip, yet we were asked for it on the train! Luckily, we'd packed it in a last minute hunch. So passports are a big yes!

Book early. Be it trains or hotels or cruises, book early, because the prices increase if you book late and your train journeys will involve lots of transfers and cost more!

So ended our trip to Switzerland, a perfect trip in an amazing country, one which has given me a lot of memories to cherish.

Eternally beautiful! The Alps! 

A breathtaking view of the Bernese Alps from Murren

Murren! Looks more like one big home than many little ones!

Archaic!

Al-pines!

The sky blue waters of the Thunersee!

That's a cow!

At the Grutschalp station

A view of the Lauterbrunnen valley from Murren

Waiting at Mannheim

Switzerland - Get natural! 

Switzerland Part-2

Interlaken 

28 May 2011

The Bernese Oberland is the area around the Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. It is the most famous destination in all of Switzerland. It is a vibrant countryside speckled by enchanting lakes and flanked by impressive mountains. Three famous Swiss Alp peaks provide a gorgeous background and the region has wooed people for centuries. This region is a must visit for every visitor to Switzerland.

After a good night's sleep and a heartening breakfast, I was ready to conquer the Bernese Alps. We were headed to a peak, whose name I will not reveal now, which is famed for its spectacular views and immensely famous for featuring in a James Bond movie (Gave it away now!).

An amazing view of the Bernese Oberland from the summit

The map showed Interlaken to be just 20 minutes across, so we decided to walk to the Interlaken ost station at the far eastern end of town. If you remember, I never saw the Alps in its entirety yesterday due to the untimely snow and rain. But today, when I did....... it was just splendid! Miles and miles of Alpine mountains surrounded me, white, brown and green, attacking me with a deluge of colours. A winter scene in the light of mid-summer, the peaks were like nothing like anything I've ever seen, so rough, jagged,... natural. I fell in love with this place immediately! The sun was just emerging from the mountains and cast its clear light everywhere. It was just de toute beauté!

Walking alongside the river that cut through town, I sensed something huge behind me. When I turned around, floating noiselessly downriver, was a huge ship! It was as silent as a mouse, perfection was its name! As I watched incredulously at the receding boat, my attention was drawn to two figures falling from the sky. Skydiving!  After coming to what seemed to me, dangerously close to the ground, colourful parachutes were deployed and the duo made a seamless landing in a nearby field, while a trio took up their place in the sky. The helicopter which had dropped them roared away high above me.

Paragliding in the Alps!

The walls of the Lauterbrunnen valley

A panoramic Berner Oberland Bahn was waiting for us on the tracks, to take us into the famed Lauterbrunnen valley. The valley is a narrow strip running approximately in the north-south direction. It is the deepest in the region when compared to height of the mountains adjoining it. The walls are not to be ever outdone! They are amazingly high and form impressive overhangs in places. When you look at them, everything you know about geology retreats and you are left alone staring in awe!


There are so many waterfalls here, originating from the glaciers above, that the area has been named 'The land of the 72 waterfalls'. The streams descending from the adjoining mountains, on reaching the rocky walls of the valley form cascades so high that they are lost in spray before the reach the floor of the valley! Of course many do make it to the to the ground, and of these, the most conspicuous one is the Staubbach falls. Falling from a height of over 300 metres, it is one of the highest in Europe and is dazzling!

The valley is just astounding in its beauty, so awe inspiring. In fact I had even more reason to love the place when I learnt that the fictitious valley of Rivendell, which appeared in my one of my most favourite books, The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien was inspired by this valley. I remember trying to visualize the valley which was described so painstakingly in the book, but I had no idea I would actually see it with my own eyes!

The lonely Alpine house!

We switched to a local Postbus at Lauterbrunnen which would take us to Stechelberg, a small village near Lauterbrunnen. Stechelberg was just the same as Lauterbrunnen, waterfalls everywhere and just as beautiful. As we purchased tickets for our ride on the Schilthornbahn We were calmly informed by the lady in the counter that the next gondola left in under a minute. If we missed this this one we had to wait for half an hour! We ran up the stairs, waving our tickets wildly and got on board just in the nick of time. That was a relief! This gondola took us up at quite a steep incline, close to one of the valley walls. It was amazing, the complexity of the wall. Its asymmetry seemed to be planned! Like it was drawn by an artist! I even spotted an old rickety bridge that was strung across a sheer precipice, looking ready to test the next hiker to his limits!

The lush green slopes!

We finally cleared the overhanging cliff at the top and got to Gimmelwald, a small village at about 1300 metres altitude. We switched gondolas here, this section was going to be almost parallel to the ground. All the steep slopes here were protected with snow fences to prevent avalanches in the winter. But it was summer now and hikers were on the loose, hopping nimbly over the numerous small streams in their way and progressing steadily to unknown locations on hiking trails that spread out in all directions.

The vanishing cableway!

Murren, at 1650 metres was the first proper Alpine village I've seen. It was nice, small and quaint and reminded me instantly of Heidi, who lived in the Swiss Alps with her grandfather and ran wild on these slopes. We'll be coming back here, so I'll tell you about Murren later. From Murren to Birg was my favourite section for it gave us an astounding view of the Lauterbrunnen valley and peaks nearby. All was well, until the fog rolled in and visibility became zero. Birg is at a height of 2677 metres, and it was heavily shrouded in fog which was thicker than I've ever seen. The cableway to Schilthorn is the longest aerial cableway in the world, and it takes a total of 32 minutes to reach the summit.

Stretching to the horizon

On the ride up to Schilthorn, which is at 2970 metres, we mysteriously out rode the fog, and the grandeur of Schilthorn was suddenly in view. Wow! The building was a spectacle in itself! Schilthorn is the site of the world's first revolving restaurant, Piz Gloria, which is as charming on the outside as on the inside. As I got off the cable car, the stylish and famously-common monogram: 007, greeted me everywhere. Upstairs was a big auditorium which had a screen playing the scene, from the movie 'On her majesty's secret service', which was filmed here.  I was amazed at how the Piz Gloria  was portrayed as the evil villain's lair, complete with a helipad! Bond, played by George Lazenby for the only time, infiltrates the building and later skis down the slope, artfully dodging a fusillade of machine gun bullets, and does his fair share of impressive 007 tricks. The shooting process here is said to have been arduous and to have taken a lot of time. (To tell you the truth, I've not seen a single James Bond movie (yet) but am a big fan of the theme music!)

The peaks of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau

A cool breeze struck me as I stepped out on the viewing deck, I was dumbstruck by the scene around me.  Snow capped peaks rose out of the scattered clouds, stretching out to the horizon. It was a scene right out of a fairy tale! The peaks rose above the scattered clouds as if they were afloat! The valleys were far below us now, looking more like tiny green cracks and the towns and villages were hidden by the fog. The other side of the deck had a stunning view of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau (pronounced Yungfrau), the most famous peaks in the region. There are few things that have left a deep impression in my mind and one of them was the beauty of this place, the enormity of it, making me feel very humble before it. The snow tries to play spoil sport and puts up quite a glare from the sunlight, making it hard to see. But what is beauty without hardships? I would seriously recommend Schilthorn to all visitors to Switzerland. You will never forget the experience,... ever! (and pack a pair of sunglasses too!)

Panaromio!

The Piz Gloria

We decided that we shouldn't miss out on the famous revolving restaurant, Piz Gloria, after coming all this way. The restaurant was almost like a carousel, the circular centre was stationary while the outer doughnut shaped platform, with the tables and chairs, revolved around it. We ordered an Indian course, with Dal makhani, rice and curries whose names I've forgotten. Overall it was pretty good and when taken in along with the 360 degree view, it was really satisfying!







We stayed there for some more time photographing and we finally decided to return to Stechelberg. The return trip was a mirror of the first one but that includes the 'awe' too, you never get bored of seeing the swiss locale. We even asked the attendant in the gondola if he ever got bored of seeing this everyday, all the time. He looked us and solemnly said "Never!".

On the way down from Schilthorn

After 32 enjoyable minutes, we were back in Stechelberg. This time were going inside a mountain! The Trummelbachfalle is a series of 10 glacier waterfalls formed by a single river called the Trummelbach. This river drains an immense amount of glacier defiles produced by the Eiger, Monch and the Jungfrau all by itself and the falls can carry up to 20000 litres of water per second! Understandably, the river is quite turbulent at all times, even more so after a rain. It is the only accessible glacier water fall which is inside a mountain in Europe. The outside of the falls is a high and densely overgrown gorge.

The Trummelbach as it gushes out of the mountain

A huge elevator with a glass panelled top took us at an angle to the ground and deposited us high in the gorge. We were now at the top of the falls. The water gushing out of the mountain, carves its way downhill through a series of impossible twists and turns. One of the falls is called the corkscrew falls, it reflects off subsequent walls and forms an exquisite corkscrew. Another one falls down a great height and whips up a mist and a rainbow which unfortunately make photography impossible. The galleries inside the mountain are very sparsely and just about adequately lighted, this is to increase the emphasis on the waterfalls and its natural surroundings. It is impossible to talk here, the roar of the river cancels out everything else! The river is quite coloured due to the minerals it erodes from the rocks, it carries an impressive 20,200 tons of boulder sediments a year! It is an once in a lifetime experience and one that should not be missed.

The magical village of Grindelwald.

We took a post bus (which by the way is covered by the Swiss pass, details in my part-1 Swiss post) back to Lauterbrunnen. We decided to head to Grindelwald, a small municipality at a height of 1034 metres and one that is famed for its timeless beauty. To do that, we had to go to Zweilutschinen, which is halfway between Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen and from there, take a train to Grindelwald. Grindelwald was an out of the world place, the high Wetterhorn peak giving an breathtaking backdrop to it. It is 'literally' an out of the world place! It was actually used as the basis for the view of the planet Alderaan in Star Wars episode 3: Revenge of the sun.

The valley was just as beautiful as the Lauterbrunnen valley. It seemed that beauty was not relative at all! Everything was equally beautiful here! We spent some time strolling down the streets and savouring the famous Swiss chocolate Lindt and looking at the everyday life of the Alpine dwellers. It was very relaxing and calming just to be in the presence of the Alps. It clears your mind as well as your lungs with fresh air and raw beauty!

A new-old house!

Once back in Interlaken, we refreshed ourselves at our room and headed for the shops. I've heard that fresh air and exercise 'improves' your appetite but the case with me was that I was positively famished! We chose a Turkish grill and I ordered a large Shoarma, a Turkish delicacy to which I was introduced on my trip to Paris. I ate till I was full and even further! With my appetite contained, we started shopping for Swiss army knives for my dad and me. We first went window shopping, for quite a long time, till I chose the one I wanted. Mine would be the 'Super tinker' made by Victorinox. My dad went for something which was smaller and compact. My mother was exasperated with us taking an infinite amount of time, I felt compelled to remind her how women take enormous amounts of time shopping for clothes they don't even buy in the end! But I swallowed it, I had lots to lose today! Today I am glad that I took my time to choose it because it has proved to be very useful and suits my needs perfectly. I would recommend that you choose wisely from the hundreds that are available.

In-(In)terlaken

Around 9:00 pm we took a stroll through the deserted streets. We actually had sunlight then! We found Interlaken to be a great blend of the modern era and the olden days. The architecture was splendid. Most houses were preserved as they were in the 19th century and others were brand new, but with the feautures of the old architectural styles incorporated into them. We explored many parts of the town and at around 09:30, we called it a day. It looked as if it was early dusk, the sun was just setting!

We covered a lot of ground today and walked quite a bit, but I was not in the least exhausted! I attributed it to the fresh air and the magic of Switzerland, I would even, gladly, walk 20 miles more just then!

Feeling like I used to feel when I got a new toy car, I went to sleep contented and happy, with a new Swiss knife and a day's worth of wonderful memories. We were to be travelling a lot the next day and I needed to have lots of sleep. I needn't have worried, I slept like a log!

The snow fences prevent an avalanche and are very important!

A map of the Oberland

Grindelwald

Rising from the clouds!- The Bernese Alps

Naturally man-made!

The glacier melts are visible even from this far away!

Inside the mountain-Trummelbach falls

The lower slopes of the  Bernese Alps

The gorgeous slopes of Murren-coming back to that road the next day!

Galleries in the mountain-Trummelbach falls