Day 8: Free Day in the Berner Oberland, Woo Hoo!
Sunrise and Breakfast with a View
Today is our free day in the valley, but we did not sleep in. In fact, Pam woke me up at about 5:30 today to go see the sunrise. It was well worth it! How many times do you get to see the sun rising over the Lauterbrunnen Valley? Then it was off to meet our group to discuss breakfast plans. After checking out the web cameras and forecast, many of us decided to go up to Schilthorn with Martin for breakfast. The views were stunning on the way up, and, despite the chance of rain, it was generally clear with plenty of blue sky. |
Schilthorn
At the Schilthorn observatory and restaurant at the top, we went to our assigned area with our champagne breakfast bar set up for us. We’d never had a champagne breakfast before, so this was a treat! Even better, we had seats on the rotating tables which gave us a 360 panoramic view of the area. Again, the views were so stunning. Breakfast was good as usual, and we decided to make mimosas with the champagne. I guess it seemed more like breakfast to add orange juice!
The Panoramic deck offered outstanding photo ops, and the James Bond bathrooms offered the entertainment. Silhouettes of women and Bond characters adorned the bathroom doors, and music played when we flushed. Images and voices unexpectedly appeared with a look in the mirror or a washing of hands. Yes, it was a bit over the top, but it was certainly entertaining!
Pam and Kerry visited the museum and had fun with a few of those displays like flying a helicopter and the lifting of a kilt. On the gondola ride down, it was just Pam and I in the car, and the driver pointed out some mountain goats and told us the names of the mountain tops—Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. He was like a bonus tour guide just for us!
At the Schilthorn observatory and restaurant at the top, we went to our assigned area with our champagne breakfast bar set up for us. We’d never had a champagne breakfast before, so this was a treat! Even better, we had seats on the rotating tables which gave us a 360 panoramic view of the area. Again, the views were so stunning. Breakfast was good as usual, and we decided to make mimosas with the champagne. I guess it seemed more like breakfast to add orange juice!
The Panoramic deck offered outstanding photo ops, and the James Bond bathrooms offered the entertainment. Silhouettes of women and Bond characters adorned the bathroom doors, and music played when we flushed. Images and voices unexpectedly appeared with a look in the mirror or a washing of hands. Yes, it was a bit over the top, but it was certainly entertaining!
Pam and Kerry visited the museum and had fun with a few of those displays like flying a helicopter and the lifting of a kilt. On the gondola ride down, it was just Pam and I in the car, and the driver pointed out some mountain goats and told us the names of the mountain tops—Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. He was like a bonus tour guide just for us!
A Fine Day for HikingThe Yellow Trail
After the most beautiful breakfast of our lives, we took the train to Winteregg with Kerry and Paul. We got on the train in Mürren and traveled two stops to the start of our hike. The trail back to Mürren was pretty and fairly easy to hike. We took many pictures, had a good time visiting and sharing stories, saw some cows and made our way back past Winteregg and then Mürren. Part of the beauty of these trips is meeting new people and learning their stories. This hike gave us a chance to see the beauty of the valley and get to know some fine people a little bit better. |
Trümmelbach Falls
After our hike, we headed down to the valley to check out Trümmelbach Falls. Although we had been to the valley before, we had never visited the falls and were eager to do so on this visit. The falls ended up being very unique and very powerful. To be honest, we hadn't really researched the falls ahead of time, so we went in with no understanding of what we were going to see. Because it's so unique, it turned out to be nothing like we expected. That was actually kind of fun and brought us the thrill of the unexpected. For some reason, we both thought Trümmelbach would be like a water fall that we could walk behind. Maybe that's because we'd seen one like that in New York. Instead, it was a massive glacial waterfall inside the mountain that carried ice melt from the three main peaks of Eiger, Jungfrau and Monch. We were guided to take a funicular (yes, another one) up the interior of the mountain to view the roaring currents of water that flowed from the ice melt above. It poured down into the mountains, through the rock chutes, and then out the bottom at a rate of up to 20,000 liters per second. Wow! That was a bit intimidating and yet exciting at the same time. Standing by the railings and overlooks, we could feel the power pulse through our entire bodies. |
Laundry and Rest
Back in Mürren and having packed a lot into the day already, we headed for the laundromat. While you might think this could put a damper on a day of travel in beautiful Switzerland, it did not. In fact, this did not feel like work at all. Armed with a couple drinks from the bar upstairs, we hung out on the outdoor patio and enjoyed each other's company and the beautiful evening while our laundry spun inside the tiny laundromat.
Mürren is about 10 degree Celsius cooler than the valley below. While we sat outside that evening, Mürren was in the 70’s (fahrenheit) and very pleasant. Almost unbelievably, rain finally made its way to the valley with some thunder and lightning. We were beginning to think it was never going to rain on this trip (not that we'd complain, of course). When it came, the rain was pretty light, and it only lasted about 15 minutes before clearing out to blue sky. This might be how Swiss weather will be for us, at least in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. We got another dose of rain just as we were finishing laundry. We made our way back in the rain, and it felt refreshing to be caught in it--a nice reprieve from the hot and dry weather we’ve been having.
Back in Mürren and having packed a lot into the day already, we headed for the laundromat. While you might think this could put a damper on a day of travel in beautiful Switzerland, it did not. In fact, this did not feel like work at all. Armed with a couple drinks from the bar upstairs, we hung out on the outdoor patio and enjoyed each other's company and the beautiful evening while our laundry spun inside the tiny laundromat.
Mürren is about 10 degree Celsius cooler than the valley below. While we sat outside that evening, Mürren was in the 70’s (fahrenheit) and very pleasant. Almost unbelievably, rain finally made its way to the valley with some thunder and lightning. We were beginning to think it was never going to rain on this trip (not that we'd complain, of course). When it came, the rain was pretty light, and it only lasted about 15 minutes before clearing out to blue sky. This might be how Swiss weather will be for us, at least in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. We got another dose of rain just as we were finishing laundry. We made our way back in the rain, and it felt refreshing to be caught in it--a nice reprieve from the hot and dry weather we’ve been having.
A ticket to ride . . .
Transportation in and around Mürren often featured gondola rides. Of course, there was also the occasional train ride to keep things interesting!