Piz Gloria and Lauterbrunnen hike

Murren to Schilthorn

I woke at my usual time of 0600 and was out the door an hour later for Lauterbrunnen by train.  I walked across the road to connect to the large intermittent cable car up to Grütschalp which then connected to the train to Murren.  The Murren train ran along the ridge giving a nice view of the valley down below.

View from the Murren to Schilthorn train.

At Murren I had to walk to the large intermittent cable car starting from another station about 10 mins away.  That took me to Birg (2677m) around 0820.  Instead of connecting straight to the top, I took the time to explore the viewpoint outside but didn’t bother going down to the skywalk along the ledge.  Really, it wasn’t any different looking down from a platform vs the skywalk except that the skywalk had a short jiggly netted portion.

After about 30 mins, I continued up to Schilthorn (2970m) or Piz Gloria as it was called in the Bond movie On Her Majesty Secret Service.  The place was set up to capitalise on the very old movie which many people younger than me would probably not know anything about. There was a cinema, an outdoor walk of fame etc.

From the viewpoint I could see Eiger and Jungfrau together.  On the otherside, we looked down towards the lowlands.  Again, I was lucky with the sunny weather and fine dressed in shorts and sandals.

After less than an hour at Schilthorn, I descended back down to Birg and then Murren.

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Allmendhubel to Gimmelwald

Back down at Murren, it was a short walk to the funicular station that goes up to Allmendhubel.  A friend had suggested that I go up and then hike down to Gimmelwald.  But I thought I’d just go up and back down and then hike to Gimmelwald.

As it turned out there wasn’t anything of interest to me at Allmendhubel.  There was a play area and some plants on display.  It was probably a waste of time and money.

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I was back down in no time around 1045 to start my hike down to Gimmelwald.  The walk was all downhill along sealed paths.  As we zig-zagged, the view of the valley changed a little.  The green of the countryside was truly beautiful.  Perhaps the grass is greener in Switzerland!

After 35 mins I reached Gimmelwald where I took a large intermittent cable car down to Stechelberg.  As it was midday, it seemed appropriate to rest and eat up before the hike to Lauterbrunnen on the valley floor.

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While my pizza bread lunch was a rather standard price, my bottle of Coke was awfully expensive compared to what I normally pay at the Co-op supermarket.  More than triple the price.

Stechelberg to Lauterbrunnen

I restarted around 1220 on the flat unsealed hike that first ran alongside the river.  We diverged from the river a little later but had the cliff and a few waterfalls always on our left until getting close to Lauterbrunnen.

The valley floor here was largely residential and agricultural.  Again, it was very green.

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Reaching Lauterbrunnen at 1340 I could have caught the next train around 1400 back to Wengen.  But I recently realised that the CHF100 notes that I had got from a friend who visited four years ago are now obsolete.  I had to change them at the bank for the latest.  And the bank closes for lunch until 1400.

I killed the 20 mins by buying dinner at the Co-op supermarket before changing my notes at the bank.

I got back to Wengen around 1445 after a busy outing.  My fake Keens sandals from Nepal had served me well on today’s easy hike.  I had my shoes in my bag as a backup but didn’t need to resort to them.