After breakfast, we piled into the car (which after paying
for parking would still be cheaper than a bus ticket for all of us) and drove
to Stechelberg, where the cable car stations for Gimmelwald and Murren would
be. Xiaoqin and I were planning on doing the North Face walk, which we had
happy memories of doing during past visits to Murren. Once in Murren, however,
Boen decided that he’d had enough hiking, and elected to wait at Murren for us.
The North Face trail doesn’t go over the North Face of any
mountain. What it does is to give you a view of all the North Face peaks that
are visible from the Murren/Gimmelwald ridgeline. In the past when staying at
Murren, we’d just hop onto the Almendhubel Funicular to get to the start, but
since we weren’t actually staying at Murren, and none of us had a half tax card
except for Mark, that funicular wasn’t free so we opted to hike.
Leaving the village (which at this point was big enough to
really be called a town—so furious is the construction of new hotels), we
walked along a steep road that advertised real Murren based beef and milk and
cheese, and then once above the village successfully navigated the signs
towards the playground, passing a couple with kids who admitted after chatting
with us that they had thought the hike to the playground was supposed to be
easy. I told them that the hiking times indicated on the Swiss trails were
based on a fit 25 year old park ranger that never stopped for photos, didn’t
need food or water, and was fully acclimated to the altitude. Arturo, Mark, or
I if we were determined and well equipped (i.e., camelback) could probably
match or beat those times, but if the scenery was any good at all we wouldn’t
be motivated to.
At the playground, we took some pictures and reminisced
about how Bowen had use to sit in those kiddie swings and we had to push him.
Now he was too much of a teenager to even want to swing!
With that, we started on the hike proper, which on a sunny
day was glorious, even in drought-stricken Switzerland. Every so often there
would be a placard explaining what peak was in front of you, who first climbed
it, how many attempts were made, and a short write up. But to be honest you
weren’t doing the hike for the placards. The views were simply amazing.
The trail had plenty of people, but it was never enough to
be bothersome, and there were plenty of mountain inns where you could stop for
refreshments or breaks, but we were early enough that some of them were closed
and we didn’t feel the need to stop for snacks—the weather and views were too
nice not to take photo breaks!
After the Schiltbach crossing, we turned off the North Face
trail, following signs for Sprutz. This was Xiaoqin and Mark’s first time
visiting Sprutz, which I had taken Bowen to back in 2012. Of course, he wasn’t
even a year old at that time so he would have no memories of the hike or
waterfall, but I remember enjoying the waterfall. The approach was a pain,
since it would go down steeply on to come back up, but I wanted a photo of
Bowen at the same waterfall I had carried him to when he was 1!
This visit was a far cry from the 2012 visit—not only was it
sunny and warm (though in the forest surrounding the waterfall, but the shade
also provided plenty of protection from the sun). Of course, those conditions
also meant that the waterfall drew a lot more visitors than just Bowen and I!
In fact, some of them even brought towels and swim gear and proceeded to take a
shower at the waterfall! What makes Sprutz special is that just like the Staubbach
falls in Lauterbrunnen, the hiking trail takes you behind the waterfall!
Past the waterfall, we had a choice—hike to Gimmelwald, or
hike to Murren. I wanted to hike to Gimmelwald, since I’d never actually been
to Gimmelwald, but Xiaoqin was worried about Boen being all alone at Murren, so
she elected to hike to Murren to pick him up. The two villages are connected by
a cable car so it would have been a short ride by cable car anyway.
The hike down to Gimmelwald was steep but manageable, though
once out of the tree and exposed to the full sun it became a lot less pleasant
than the waterfall hike had been. I worried that there wouldn’t be any food,
since Google didn’t identify any restaurants or supermarket there, but I
figured that Murren would have food even as a last resort.
I needn’t have worried. While heading towards the cable car
station we spied The
Honesty Shop. Next to it was Pension Gimmelwald, which
advertised a lunch and also bragged about its unique Schwarz Monch beer. The backyard
terrace where meals were served also had fantastic views. We sat down, ordered,
and texted a picture to Xiaoqin, who had met up with Boen and after seeing the
photo, talked Boen into walking from Murren to Gimmelwald! I ordered the beer,
breaking my “no alcohol” rule. I reasoned that by the time I went to bed, the
alcohol would have been metabolized and I would have rehydrated enough to the
point where I wouldn’t be awake at 2am. I wasn’t confident enough to order the
flight of beers as a tasting platter, but Mark did, and reported that all the
beers were good!
Boen and Xiaoqin arrived (I’d ordered food for them while
they were enroute), and had their meal. Boen refused to hike back down to
Stechelberg, which the rest of us were planning to do, so we walked him to the
cable car station, bought a download ticket for him, and sent him off.
We then hiked down to Stechelberg following the signs. I had
low expectations for this hike, but to my surprise after an initial boring
wooded section the hike walked us past waterfall after waterfall along the
Lutschine river (which gave the train station ZweiLutschinen its name!), more
than justifying the effort. Mark was
still frisky, and went on ahead. At the bottom, we followed signs for the Schilthorn
Bahn, which was the name for the Stechelberg cable car, but I had neglected to
tell Mark about this and so he missed the turn and ended up walking on the main
road back to the cable car station.
The trail then gave us one last waterfall before crossing
the bridge and then had us hike on the shadowed side of the valley, shielding
us from the sun. At this point, the trail became wide and paved, and there were
plenty of people on rented bicycles, some of whom asked us to take photos of
them.
When we got back to the car, Mark and Boen were there and it
was only 4:00pm. On the way back to the AirBnB, I spotted Staubbach falls and
decided we should stop there and walk up. There was quite a bit of drama
figuring out how to pay for parking, but pay I did, and then when I walked up I
was shocked. The drought had diminished the water flow on Staubbach falls to
the point where at the end of the trail where you normally looked out onto the
valley through a veil of streaming water, you saw the entire village free and
clear, not a drop of water to be seen. The drought had taken its toll on the
most iconic of Lauterbrunnen’s attractions.
After that disappointment, we drove to the Coop to buy
dinner and breakfast, but the parking lot was full. We dropped off Xiaoqin and
Bowen and then parked next to the train station, and then went back to pick
them up when they were done shopping.
We had dinner and did a final round of laundry before going
for our after dinner walk, hiking up the road that the car was parked at which
would lead to the Winteregg train station. That train line was closed for
infrastructure upgrades until July 10th, which meant we couldn’t use
it, which was why we were forced into the Schilthorn cable car instead. Evening
in Lauterbrunnen cooled down quickly from the afternoon heat, but we could see
high up on the opposite wall Mannlichen was still bathed in sunshine.
