In the mountains you never take the weather for granted, so we really felt privileged to have wonderful weather for the last day of our hike.
Andy saved us a trip to Grindelwald station as we could send our luggage from Grindelwald Grund station to Murren ($14). The challenge of the day was that the hike would take us 11 hours, and Murren station closed at 17:45, so we would have to start hiking at 06:00, and we would have the time pressure of getting to Murren in time to get our luggage, or, alternatively, pick it up the next morning!
The day before, we went to the Tourist Information to get a hiking map, and were given some good advice, which made us decide to take the cable car from Grindelwald to Holenstein, which saved us 1.5 hours hiking 500m up a (boring) road, and so we did. Our laziness cost us $23. We chatted with a nice German couple in the cable car, who had come to hike for the day as it was only a couple of hours drive away. Distances are short in Europe.
Along the way, Andy got to play the alp horn, which is made of wood and it is believed that the alphorn was frequently used as signal instruments in village communities since medieval times or earlier, sometimes substituting for the lack of church bells.
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And I got to 'milk a cow'. Nice with some entertainment along the way.
The 2 hours, 500 m hike up to Mannlichen followed right under the cable car, and we huffed and puffed our way to the top at 2,225 m, accompanied by cow bells, but, boy, was it worth the climb.
We could see all the way to Murren (the village on top of the cliff across the valley and to the left),
and the route we had to take to get there, and it looked quite an ordeal for the legs. Luckily due to Swiss efficiency, we had the option to take a cable car down to Wengen in stead of hiking the 900 meters down, which would have been like hiking down the Grouse Grind, but worse!
So, with that decision made, we had time to enjoy the majestic view and have lunch. Two Swiss men started talking to us after they saw Andy's Canadian flag on his backpack; they had lived in the US for a while and visited Canada. They also told us that the Swiss army was headquartered in Grindelwald during the Second World War, as the Germans could neither get into the valley with their bomber planes nor could they attack by foot due to the mountains. Interesting.
The cable car ride down to Wengen felt like a private ride, as we were the only people on board. We must have hit the early season in Switzerland, since we didn't see many people hiking or on public transportation. Or maybe the strained European economy makes people choose to vacation in cheaper countries. We mainly met Swiss and German people.
Wengen
Wengen is a popular skiing resort, and it had a nice feel to it. We found the trail, which was a gravel road leading down to Lauterbrunnen at the bottom of the valley. It took us about an hour. Then we took another cable car up to Grutschalp, as it would have been Grouse Grind hike up there. We had a ice cream, enjoyed a well-deserved view from this side of the valley and had a rest.
The last leg to Murren took us about an hour and we were tired by then despite all the cable car riding. All in all, it took us 5 hours to hike the 16 km!
Mürren is a traditional Walser mountain village in Bernese Oberland at an elevation of 1,650 m above sea level, has a population of 450 people, 2,000 hotel beds, and is unreachable by public road, and thus car free.
The James Bond movie 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' was filmed here, and you might remember the scene of 007 fighting Jaws on top of a cable car.
We picked up our luggage at the train station,
and checked in at Hotel Regina, where we had another wonderful view of the mountains from our room ($140/night incl. b'fast).
We had a nice roesti with egg, cheese and salmon for dinner, and a half a bottle of Swiss rose. We bought another half bottle of the rose and enjoyed it at our balcony watching the sun set over the mountains.
Trust me it was not easy to get the legs going the next morning - they were so stiff it felt like walking on telephone poles! We had breakfast on the patio, and Andy finally got to taste Birchermuesli (the famous Swiss muesli).
We had decided not to go up to Schilthorn, as we were too tired to hike up, and it would cost $70 each, and we had been looking at these mountains for 3 days now. Instead, we walked around Murren, bought postcards, and had a fresh chocolate croissant at the bakery.
We bought lunch and dinner at the local supermarket, and enjoyed both on our balcony, as we wouldn't get a better view anywhere else in Murren.
