Switzerland Day 3
Day 3 (Tuesday) - Schilthorn
The big three mountains in the Wengen area are the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. In the local lore, these are the Ogre, the Monk, and the Young Maiden respectively. The Monk is in the middle, protecting the Young Maiden from the evil Ogre. Also, you may know the Eiger from the movie “The Eiger Sanction”.
Those are the big three, but today we are more interested in a mountain on the other side of Lauterbrunnen valley, Schilthorn. At the top of Schilthorn is a rotating restaurant and spectacular 360 degree views of the Swiss Alps, and that was our destination for this day.
I was told that it can get quite cold on the tops of these mountains, so even though we were experiencing a warm spell in the valley, it was in the mid to upper 70’s (and felt warmer in the sun), I prepared for the top. I packed up my backpack with camera gear, a fleece jacket, a rain jacket, hat, and light gloves. I was ready for anything. I also had my fair share of Landjäger for the trip; you always need Landjäger.
We set out from Wengen and took the train down to Lauterbrunnen at the valley floor. From there we took a cable car up the other side of the valley to Grütschalp. This was great because I had “ride a cable car” on my list of things to do while in Switzerland, however, the actual experience was not exactly what I had in mind. First, you have to understand that we are smack in the middle of the tourist area of Switzerland. I’m still waiting to find someone that doesn’t speak English here. I would say, of all the languages I’ve heard in this area, German is probably the one I’ve heard least.
They herd the tourists into this cable car. The cable car itself is big, and there must be about 75 people packed into it. You need to take your backpack off so that they can pack everyone in. You just can’t wait to get out of the thing. One of the tourists waiting on the platform said, “it looks full, I’ll wait for the next one,” to which the car operator said “The next one’s the same, get in.” The tourist replied, “I’ll wait until one that it isn’t full”, and the operator, without missing a beat, saying this as if he has said it a thousand times, responded, “you’ll be here until 7, just get in”. The tourist finally cooperated.
The cable car arrived at Grütschalp and we poured out of it. From Grütschalp we took a train to Murren. From our condo balcony we can see this same train travelling across a clearing on the slopes on the opposite side of the valley.
Murren is a small village which sits on the edge of a cliff. From our condo in Wengen, you can see the large hotel next to the Murren train station. It actually looks like some sort of cliff fortress or Swiss castle.
Murren itself is a sort of Disneyfied version of a Swiss village. We had to walk through the town for about 15 minutes to get from the train station to the cable car, and every building looks like a classic Swiss chalet, complete with zillions of flowers.
We made our way slowly through town as some members of our party got a little photography-happy, and for once it wasn’t me. We finally made it to the cable car station and boarded. This time, fortunately, it was not packed in. It takes two more cable car rides, stopping briefly in Birg, to get to the top of Schilthorn, and both were pretty spectacular, so my goal was fulfilled. These two rides were much more like what I pictured than our first cattle-cable-car.
We finally arrived at Schilthorn, and it was worth the trip. We walked out onto the viewing platform and found we were looking straight on at dozens of other mountain tops. It was a clear day, and you could see for a hundred miles in every direction. We could even see all the way to the border of Switzerland that joins with both Italy and France, and the mighty Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Western Europe, standing at 15,774 ft.
Mont Blanc is in Italy about 75 miles southwest of Schilthorn, but still visible.
Then there were a zillion other peaks.
After taking in the views, it was time for some adventure, so Chris and I ventured out of the baby proof area and into the danger zone. Keep in mind, this is Switzerland, so when they give you a warning, you know it is for real.
The path we walked was about 3 or 4 feet wide and dropped almost straight down on the left-hand side. I’ve grown more scared of heights, or really scared of falling, the older I have gotten, so this was definitely pushing my limits. By the time I walked out and back though I was feeling pretty good. I guess the scientific types call it exposure therapy, I just call it getting my mountain legs back. At the end of the path, the trail takes a left turn, and goes steeply down, but we passed on going down there, that was a little too much for me, as there is some real danger of falling even if you’re careful. I got some good pics though.
In the photo below, you can sort of see where the trail takes a sharp left turn and heads down.
If you were to continue down there, you would walk along the ridges like the man in the next photo is doing. He might be difficult to see, so I’ll give you a zoomed-in photo below it.
Okay, let me highlight him for you. Here is the zoomed-in picture below.
And below is a picture of a plane.
I’ll zoom in for you and highlight it. It is right in the middle of the frame.
Yeah, this place is big, real big, and it is impossible to understand the enormity of it from a photograph. It is truly awesome.
We ate lunch at the restaurant at the peak, best salad ever, and then headed down, taking a cable car to Birg. We stopped there to do the thrill walk, where you walk along the edge of the mountain on a mesh grate.
The thrill walk afforded some great views.
At the end of the walk there is a tight rope to walk across, and a glass floor to walk on.
While on the thrill walk, Chris decided to grab some rock and I snapped this picture of that crazy dare-devil.
On the way back from the thrill walk, I noticed remnants of what I’m guessing was the old thrill walk - a cable strewn across the mountain side that you could hold onto while you walked on the edge. I can’t confirm this but what else is that cable for?
We descended back to Murren, walked across town with Kristin taking pictures of everything, and then to Lauterbrunnen. From there we decided to take a train to Interlaken Ost and see if we could take a boat ride, but alas, we were too late for the boats.
The water sure has a strange color around here.
It was a long day, and we finally made it back to the condo where we played some Skip-Bo, the new official game of Switzerland trips, and went to bed.
