SWISS-ITALIA Part 9

Soooo.... in Part 8 I said our next spot to explore would be Murren, WRONG! It would actually be Gimmelwald. My only excuse is that it's been 8 months and my memory fails at times! Luckily my photo's are in order and kept me straight.

After an outstanding time at Schilthorn we did take the cable car to Murren and then caught a connector cable car to Gimmelwald. By the way our Swiss Rail pass gave us 50% off of the gondola price to Schilthorn, ching ching! Gimmelwald sits at 4472 feet.







Gimmelwald and actually everywhere we visited on this trip was so what we had hoped to see and experience and more. Seriously, I always wonder if the photos I see of interesting places truly reflect the actual surroundings or just the select primo spots, well the Swiss Alps are the real deal! The country/mountainside atmosphere was really amazing. There were a few people with us on the gondola, but most if not all simply stuck to the main town, we on the other hand love to wander. Once on the outskirts of town we were all alone and enjoying the peace and quiet of a narrow country road surrounded by all things alpine. We were amazed at how colorful and healthy the flowers were after the recent snow and every chalet and outbuilding was accented with wonderful flower arrangements. There were small productive flower and vegetable gardens all over the place and a couple locals were out and about tending to things. Even more amazing to me, since I chop and burn a lot of firewood, is how meticulously they cut and stack wood here, even the kindling was perfectly cut and stacked and I truly believe the effort they put into it is nothing short of pure rustic art, amazing!















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We noticed a small crafty sign next to a hillside farm that offered self serve fresh milk etc, OK, let's check it out! We walked up to a barn where a sign welcomed us in and we found an "honor bar" of sorts, only this one was serving up fresh cheese, meats and milk surrounded by farm equipment! A sign stated that they were probably working in the fields and to help ourselves to what they offer, cool. We happily grabbed some cheese and smoked sausage, paying the listed price and we actually brought this home to enjoy in Virginia, it was fantastic!
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Over the hill we discovered a wonderful place called Mountain Hostel circa 1563. It was originally a homestead and in 1939 it began its life as a hostel which it continues to be today. This type of lodging is not for everyone, but I think there is a stay here in our future! It's very rustic and comes complete with bunk beds, showers and a billiard room! It is remote, but the views are outstanding. Unfortunately we didn't grab lunch here, but they make the best hot chocolate and coffee we have ever had! May have just been the surroundings, but it was very very good!

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After a little more trekking we caught the gondola back to Murren in search of a pub. Another really cool thing about the places we visited in Europe in general was the availability of fresh spring water taps that can be found everywhere, we filled up our bottles everywhere and experienced no problems!. Along the way we decided that there were so many little shops and side hikes here that we would return the following day to really hike the countryside.

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After a glorious day of wandering we found ourselves back down the mountain in Lauterbrunnen . We didn't want the day to end so we hopped two separate trains to Grindelwald, gotta love the all inclusive Swiss Rail Pass! The trains meandered across and up the beautiful mountain pass to the ski resort town of Grindelwald. The Fall colors were amazing. The sun was starting to set so we simply walked to the far end of the quaint village and back to the train station. There were plenty of restaurants and pubs to grab our attention, but we thought it prudent to head back to Lauterbrunnen after just an hour of exploring this slightly more commercial and populated town.


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Once back to home base we decided to eat dinner at our hotel. The food and atmosphere was outstanding and the waitress, who I think was from Germany? was very personable. Maybe her spirits were up because it was their last dinner of the season and they were heading home! We once again felt very lucky to have inadvertently timed our visit to the Swiss Alps perfectly!

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To be continued......Beautiful hike to come!