SWISS-ITALIA Part 8 (OCT 2015)

We woke up early at Hotel Oberland in Lauterbrunnen. We always wake up early and it has proven to be a benefit to beat the crowds at any location! I went down stairs to the lobby around 6:30 and was able to grab a cup of good coffee. From our balcony I could see that Lauterbrunnen likes to sleep in, nobody was out. It was fairly cool and so peaceful looking out over the sleepy town. The mountains were still covered in a blanket of white clouds and our plans were to venture up to Schilthorn to possibly get above the clouds! The hotel price included a nice breakfast, still amazed at the amount of cheese offered at breakfast in this part of the world. The best part of breakfast was the homemade jellies and fresh bread!!










I can't remember for sure, but I think the first gondola leaves at 6'ish and we left around 0730 from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp . The gondola ride alone is worth the price of admission. We started at 2624 feet and climbed quickly to 4875 feet in Grutschalp, which is basically just a transfer stop from what we saw.








From Grutschalp we boarded a small train heading up to Murren. We hate to breeze past a new area if time allows, so we hopped off at a small station between Grutschalp and Murren to see what we would see, the train immediately took off leaving us in very quiet surroundings, but we knew the trains ran every 30 minutes or so. Only one other person chose to jumped off, a young lady with small backpack simply looked at her map and started trekking down a narrow road and where it lead I have no idea, she's a fellow wanderer! The area was so remote looking we decided not to start hiking, instead we checked out the restaurant, which wasn't open for business. The restaurant was very nice and I'm sure in season it's a hot spot. We mozied around the Spielplatz or "Playground" for a while before the next train arrived, interesting rustic structures and carvings here to keep the kids entertained.








The next train stopped within 30 minutes and we continued on to Murren, which sits at 5413 feet in elevation. Murren was absolutely beautiful all covered in snow. We walked around a little and knew we would have to explore it more later. For you skiers, we found a monument for Sir Arnold Lunn who apparently designed the first slalom run in 1922 and organized the first downhill/slalom world championship in 1932, cool.

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From Murren we caught another gondola/cable car to Birg, altitude 8783 feet. We made a quick stop here to check out the increasingly HUGE views. We walked out onto their "Skyline Walk" and attempted to see Jungfrau's peak which unfortunately was hidden in the clouds, but the thrill was when I kicked the snow away from the platform and realized there wasn't much between me and a looooong drop. The skywalk is cool because the railings are made of glass and the views were thrilling. Birg also has a Bistro that served up a nice cup of hot chocolate, perfect considering the temperatures were in the high 20's here.

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With our bellies warm with chocolate we jumped in the next cable car to Schilthorn, which sits at a breath taking 9744 feet! What an amazing feat of engineering it must have taken to complete this entire gondola/cable car project. We immediately headed for the view. All I can say is that we literally felt on top of the world with this incredible panoramic view! We were above the clouds yet we were under a second blanket of clouds with blue skies sparsely showing through..... are we in heaven? We really enjoyed the fact that we enjoyed this truly majestic experience with very few people, but we loved sharing our space with a local pup!

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After spending a substantial amount of time just taking it all in we headed inside to the warmth of Piz Gloria. Piz Gloria is a large revolving restaurant that is most famous for its role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In the movie Piz Gloria was the headquarters for James Bonds supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld played by Telly Savalas. The restaurant is very nice with of course the most amazing view from any table because the restaurant revolves 360 degrees every 55 minutes. We had our pick of window tables and had fun slowly rotating around while we enjoyed a nice lunch of Beef Goulash, fresh bread and Rugen Brau Lager...perfect! After lunch we looked through the nice gift shop, yes it was overpriced but where else you gonna shop!

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The architect, engineers and laborers who built this place were true adventure seekers and probably a little crazy! We hated to leave the peacefulness of the views of the Bernese Alps and Lauterbrunnen valley they created, but there was definitely more to explore down below heaven. So back on the cable cars and down down down we went. Murren will be our next place to explore....stay tuned we covered a lot of ground!!

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So glad you have some time to finish this wonderful adventure! As always - the stories are pictures are great!

Thanks Tom, but it's not finished just yet, probably 2 more parts! I'm gonna change my user name to LONGWINDED <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> I'm enjoying going through the photos, get to relive the trip again <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />