Switzerland: Gruyere to Lauterbrunnen

Along the Way to Lauterbrunnen

Changing Trains

We hiked back up to our hotel in Guryere, checked out, then hiked back down the hill with our luggage to the train station in Prigny. It was to be an afternoon of trains across the foothills of the Alps. We passed town after scenic town along the tracks. Changed trains along the way, and headed up the beautiful Saane River valley. Climbed up through Gstaad (I always remember Gstaad from the Pink Panther movie, and now I've seen it) where they already had the city skating rink up and iced. Chalet style homes on the hillsides were the norm, and the fields still held the browsing Swiss cows.

We had another one of our travel lunches as we watched the rivers and mountains pass. We were well prepared, with a fresh loaf from a local bakery in Gruyere, Gruyere cheese of course (and several others, including some of our precious Vasterbsttensost), bars of Swiss chocolate, and bags of pistachios and toasted almonds. We ate well.

Typical Lunch on Travel Days

Ann Watches the Scenery

Near Interlaken

As evening approached, we descended into Spiez and turned along the indescribable shores of Lake Thun as we made our way towards Interlaken. The views from the train across the lake in the soft evening light were fantastic, with low golden mountains in the distance, blue skies above, small cities nestled against the shoreline, boats reflected out on the water amidst pastel shades of mountain and cool shades of sky.

A Swiss Lumber Mill - Man these Folks are Neat

I had the pleasure of seeing a Swiss lumber mill along the tracks. Always interested in infrastructure, I was again taken by the general neatness of industry here, especially in the German section of Switzerland. So little debris, such neatly stacked product, everything in its place, painted and maintained. Along railway tracks where you see in most countries the industrial underbelly. Hardly that in here.

Interlaken is wonderfully situated on the waterway at the junction of Lake Thun and Lake Briez. I would love some day to explore Interlaken, but this trip we're headed away to the high Alps. We made our last train change of the day Interlaken, and headed from the lakes up the Lutschine River towards Lauterbrunnen.

Swiss Town at Dusk

From Interlaken towards the mountains is a broad plane. Night was imminent now, and in the towns the lights were coming on. Car headlights flashed by on the evening commute. The sunset outlined the shadowed peaks behind the fields as we approached. By the time we reached Lauterbrunnen, it was full dark.

Heading up the Valley to Lauterbrunnen

Here we had our one and only public transit snafu in Switzerland. At Lauterbrunnen you enter a long, fertile canyon. We were to take a cable car  from the train station at Lauterbrunnen out of the glacial canyon to the sloping hillsides above where we would catch another train along the rim to Murren, a resort community where we would spend the night.

Leaving the Cable Station at Gimmelwald

But it was early November, the off-season between summer hikers and winter skiers, and they'd closed the lift while the upper train was in for repairs. But our trusty guide Kim quickly got us on a postal bus up the valley to another cable car to Gimmelwald, with a transfer there to a cable to Murren. We missed the spectacular valley in the dark, rode the cable cars up the sheer faces in the dark, then walked the empty streets of Murren under the streetlights to our guest house at the other end of town. Arriving cushioned in darkness would make the views next morning all the more unexpected and spectacular.