The choice of an excursion from Lauterbrunnen was either Mürren or Wengen. My choice was Wengen as we did not visit it last time. However SC wanted to go back to Mürren. I was glad we did!

Two popular car free towns on the cliffs above Lauterbrunnen. While Wengen has a stunning view of the valley, Mürren has more dramatic views of the cliffs from across the valley. Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau stand like guardian angels of this pretty village, watching over them night and day, across seasons and for thousands of years.

After seeing Zermatt bustling even in the off season, Mürren appeared to be still sleeping in spring. Not many tourists around. Many restaurants were closed. However this suited us just fine. It was so quiet and peaceful that it felt like we had the entire village to ourselves along with the locals! The downside is that many restaurants were closed. Nevertheless I was still able to find a shop that sold memory cards and that certainly helped restore normal oxygen levels!

We rode the cable car up from Stechelberg, with a change at Gimmelwald, after parking our car in the large carpark. We walked along the Main Street from the Schilthornbahn looking out over the valley to the viewpoint and beyond. It was cloudy so the top of the mountains across the valley were hidden mostly. There were also clouds floating around along the cliffs and there were some low enough to give a mystical feel to the whole area. That, with the quiet town, felt we had arrived at a different village from our earlier trip!

If the weather had been good riding up to Almendhubel would have been a good way to spend the day. In this weather, however, it was not worth spending the additional money. So we decided to walk down to Gimmelwald instead.

The hike to Gimmelwald

I had looked this hike up before the trip and this was one of the easiest hikes in the area, even with a stroller. It is completely paved and is a scenic walk downhill to Gimmelwald with some of the fantastic views you could get in Switzerland. 

It took us about 30 minutes to reach Gimmelwald. Past some pretty wooden chalets, colourful gardens, green meadows dotted with wildflowers, occasional glimpses of the valley floor, numerous milky white falls from across the valley, a gushing stream that would soon run over the cliff and become one of the 72 waterfalls of the valley, pecks of floating clouds and the distant ringing of cowbells from the cows grazing the meadows. The walk was indeed magical and I highly recommend this even if you aren’t big on hikes!

It did rain for a bit while we were walking down but it wasn’t pouring like it usually does in the UK and it made for an enjoyable hike.

Gimmelwald

Gimmelwald was sleepier than Mürren. There was hardly anyone around. The honesty shop in this village is a big tourist draw. An unmanned shop where merchandise is displayed with prices. You are expected to deposit the price of the merchandise you picked into the cash box. The Mountain Hostel here is several centuries old. It has some of the best views in the area.

After wandering around the quieter Gimmelwald, we arrived at the Schilthornbahn and tried to purchase our tickets to get back to Stechelberg from the automatic machine. It wasn’t working just like the one at Stechelberg. So we paid the warden operating the cable car in Euros as he wouldn’t accept cards and we did not have any Swiss francs on us. It was a shame to see some riding down ticketless as tickets aren’t checked on this ride.

As we arrived at Stechelberg, the sun started peeking out. We got back into our car and started our drive towards Lucerne.

We already missed the high Alps as we crossed Lötschberg tunnel into Bernese Oberland. Now we were leaving the Alps for good. It did make us feel sad.

Alps is what many visit Switzerland for. Whatever the weather, the Alps never disappoint!