Switzerland Part II: Bernese Oberland Region
photo cred: @drubin83
The second half of our Switzerland trip was the outdoorsy part, complete with hikes! The views here were unreal and we lucked out with beautiful weather. Dan and I stayed in the town of Murren for three nights at Hotel Eiger. The location of the town made it easy to travel in between the surrounding towns and the hotel itself is right across from the train station. I realized I did not take any pictures of our James Bond suite (yup, 007!) but you can get a tour of it in my Switzerland highlights reel on Instagram.
One thing to note is that most of the small towns do not allow cars. We had a rental which required some pre-planning on our part. Dan found an overnight garage in Lauterbrunnen where we parked our car for three nights (it was just under $50) and from there we took a train to Murren.
RESTAURANTS & COFFEE SHOPS
The first night we arrived to Murren, we were pooped. Instead of going out to a restaurant, we ordered Chinese take out and ate it in our suite while lounging in our pajamas. I had been craving Asian food (must be the pregnancy cravings kicking in!) and this place had really great reviews. I have to say, it was as good as the Yelper's say it is. It was a relaxing night in.
After returning from one of our hikes, we stopped by Cafe Liv for sandwiches to go and of course, a few of their pastries. It's the cutest little cafe and the items we purchased were delicious!
While we were in Lauterbrunnen, we stopped into Airtime Cafe for an afternoon snack. We had walked by in the morning and the breakfast people were having looked really yummy. Since we stopped by in between meals, we settled on sharing on a cookie. It was so good we stopped by again on our last day, right before we went to get our car. I needed sustenance for the car ride.
One night, we ventured to a neighboring town - Gimmewald. For dinner we popped into Pension Gimmewald Hotel, Bar & Restaurant. What we did not know was that a reservation is needed. That's because they cook enough meals so that there is no waste. The host checked with the kitchen and they were able to accommodate us. We were seated on the terrace in the back and enjoyed another lovely warm weather evening. The food here is homemade and seasonal, as such, the menu varies daily. The theme of dinner that evening was Thai (my pregnancy craving was very excited about that!). They also brew a specific type of beer but was completely sold out. Poor Dan was bummed about that!
On our last night in Murren, we dined at our hotel's restaurant. We sat outside and as the sun went down and the temps started to drop, they handed out some heavy duty blankets to stay warm and cozy. To start, I had the tomato soup which was incredible. For my main meal, I had the tiger shrimp with red curry, coconut milk, veggies and rice. Are you sensing a theme here regarding my meal choices? I cannot recall what Dan had but I'm pretty sure it was some meat dish. Our tummies were full and satisfied.
HIKES
North Face Trail
For our first hike, we decided to take the North Face Trail, a recommendation by our hotel concierge. The trail itself is rated as a moderate level of difficulty with an estimated 2.5 hours to complete. It took us about 3 hours 15 minutes, since we stopped to eat our packed snacks and for Dan to take some drone footage. This was my most favorite trail and you'll see why in the following pictures.
During our walk, we'd come across a number of cows resting and grazing. They were not bothered by us at all. Honestly, though, can you believe this view?? I was obsessed with the beautiful wildflowers.
The wildflowers grew as far a the eyes could see! We were also informed that we caught them at a good time because in the following weeks more cows will be brought back into the mountains and they graze on all the wildflowers.
The town down there is Murren, our home base. Another thing to note is that we only passed a small handful of people while on the trail. That's because there are so many trails to choose from that even when it's busy, people are spread across all the various trails. If you are nervous about hiking, don't be. Using our map and the trail markers, we were able to get through without getting lost.
Mountain View Trail
The second trail we chose was the Mountain View Trail which was similar in difficulty and time to complete as the North Face Trail. And yes, that is snow you see. Because there's so much snow from the winter and the temps staying so cold, snow is still melting. In fact, some trails wouldn't open for another month or so because of the snow.
Not as many wildflowers on this trail but the views were still just as magnificent.
We took plenty of breaks to take in the views and most importantly (for me) to eat my snacks. This trail took us a little over 3 hours to complete.
After completing the Mountain View Trail, we decided to embark on a shorter hike (45 minutes one way) to check out the Trummelbach Falls. We took the bus one way to Stechelberg to see the falls and walked the trail back to Lauterbrunnen.
About Town...
As I previously mentioned, one of the towns we visited was Gimmelwald. While there, we stopped by The Honesty Shop. It's an unmanned storefront where it's all based on the honor system. You pick out what you want to buy, write it on an envelope, put your money in it and place it in a lock box. As we wandered around the town, we noticed a few other types of honesty shops. Do you think something like this could ever work in Boston??
On our way out of Switzerland to Italy, we stopped in Grindelwald. We arrived right around lunch time, which meant a lot of stores were closed. I was a bit bummed since there were a few places I would have liked to have popped into. We wandered through town a bit then grabbed some snacks at a bakery before heading out to our next stop - Interlaken.
While in Interaken we stopped by The Funky Chocolate Club. We had read about this while planning our trip and boasted of amazing hot chocolate. Since it was so hot out, we went with the iced version. It was pretty decadent and am glad we decided to split one. It's a pretty cute shop and we ended up picking up some chocolates there as gifts to bring home.
We didn't have too much time in Interlaken since we had a long drive ahead of us to Italy. But what I saw in my short time there, it seemed like a very cool city. A number of people commented on my IG how much they loved it here. If only we had more time! That's it for Switzerland. Italy is up next!