Travelling with Stabilo #5: Destination - Bernese Oberland , Day 2
We woke up early, to a beautiful day outside. Looking out the window, we could see the snow-covered houses in the quiet township of Lauterbrunnen. Nothing was stirring. It was still early. The Lauterbrunnen fall can be seen from afar, completely frozen. We were planning to go for a short hike from Grütschalp to Mürren, underneath the Schilthorn, opposite the Jungfrau. The Schilthorn, at 2970 meters above sea level, was made famous by the 1969 James Bond Movie “On her Majesty’s secret service”, as the hide out place of the main villain Blofel. We weren’t James Bond fans, but were surely interested in the scenery this hiking track can offer.
After a quick breakfast we headed to the cable car station at Lauterbrunnen, where the cable car took us up to Grüschalp. It was clear that this cable car was mainly for transport only, as it was large and bulky, and the route was not very scenic. However, when we stepped off from the cable car and onto the start of the 2 hours trail, we were stunned by the beauty of our surroundings. Everything was silvery white. We followed the snow-covered path flanked by snow-covered pine trees.
There were small wooden structures dotted on the mountain slope along the path, which looked like stables for horses, sheep and other farm animals that had probably gone into hibernation. As we followed the path along the mountain side we could clearly see the majestic Alps as well as the small mountain towns across the other side of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, like brown dots on a clean white sheet. There was thick, powdered snow covering the track, the mountain side, benches along the path, everywhere! Something that we rarely see back in Australia.
After about an hour we reached the Winteregg station, a ski-lift and train station halfway between Grüschalp and Mürren. Many skiers can be seen waiting for their ski-lifts. It was really cool to see their legs hanging above our heads as the ski-lift passed. We continued on. The path essentially followed the railway track that runs from Winteregg to Mürren, and we were treated with fantastic view at every bend and corner. We saw a frozen waterfall, about 3 – 4 meters high. We saw a leafless tree standing silvery and alone in a field of white. We saw mountains, shimmering under the sun in the distance.
Eventually, after one last bend in the path, the township of Mürren came into view. Mürren is a car-free mountain resort town, with hotels, supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, even a sports centre with an ice-skating rink. It is also the main base for the many ski fields on the west side of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. There are cables cars going up to Schilthorn and Brig, the two famous peaks facing the triplet of Jungfrau, Eiger and Mönch. There is also a cable car that take travellers back down to the Lauterbrunnen Valley.
We chose to ride on neither. We decided instead to hire a toboggan each and slide our way down to Gimmerwald, a tiny village on the mountain side between Mürren and Stechelberg. It sounds extreme but actually it was not. The path between Mürren to Gimmerwald was extremely gentle. At times it was impossible to slide down and we essentially had to either push with our legs, or stood up and pulled the toboggan along. However, when the toboggan did slide it was pretty amazing. There were more farmhouses along the way. In fact, we saw some black sheep having a feed in a fenced area. We were very surprised to see sheep still out and about under this cold weather. There was also a very nicely decorated shed.
It took about 20 minutes to reach Gimmerwald, which was a really tiny village. There were some houses, a hostel called the Mountain Hostel, and a hotel called Pension Hotel. The village can only be reached by the one cable car, and there were no shops and nowhere to stock up supplies. However, it would probably be a very nice place to stay for backpackers who don’t have a lot of luggage and those who love the peace and quiet.
We were going to go back up via the cable car, but we discovered that we lost one of our 3-day travel passes on the way down. We walked half-way back up the hill to try to find the lost pass but with no luck. We got a free cable car ride up, but spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the officer at the cable car station in Mürren to give us a new card. But she was stubborn and after a lot of convincing, the only thing that she could offer was a free ride back to Lauterbrunnen, and told us to go back to the Lauterbrunnen train station to sort it out. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Lauterbrunnen it was dark and the ticket booth was closed. So there was nothing for us to do but head back to our hostel, and spent the night anxiously worried about whether or not we will get our tickets back.
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