Monday 14th September
The superb weather so far has been broken by overnight rain and low cloud this morning. We have breakfast overlooking a damp Murren, it might even have been drizzling.
To take stock of the weather, which appears to be clearing, we decided to have a walk around Murren on the circular route. As we passed the bottom of the funicular to Allmendhubel we thought a one-way ticket to Allmendhubel followed by a walk down would be the order of the day. Jo was particularly keen as a 'Flower Trail' at the top of the funicular was one of the attractions.
We meandered slowly back to the hotel, stopping for hot chocolate at one of the cafes (Hotel Blumental?) on the main street, opposite the Coop. Our timing was awful. It seems that, like Chilson, Monday morning in Murren is 'bin day'! We were enjoying our drinks at a table in front of the cafe (now in the sunshine) when a mini bin lorry drew up and reversed into the road beside the cafe, where it proceeded to make a deafening row emptying bins while we drank our drinks. I can now reveal that it takes almost precisely the same time to empty bins next to the cafe opposite the Coop as it does to drink a cup of hot chocolate!
Bins emptied and drinks drunk we ambled over to the Coop to buy provisions for lunch (basically grapes, cream cheese and biscuits), then back to the hotel to sort ourselves out before heading up to Allmendhubel. Allmendhubel consists of little more than a cafe and a children's playground. In winter I think it probably acts as a base for a number of cable cars, but in summer probably nothing much more that a place to start a walk back to Murren. The 'Flower Trail' was well executed, but of course in late summer there weren't many flowers out, a few alpine pansies and some eidelweiss.
There are two main routes back to Murren from Allmendhubel, an upper route and a lower route, both starting off by joining the North Face Trail we walked on Saturday. None of this was obvious and fellow walkers were also confused! However, I recognised part of the North Face Trail so we headed for that. It was further down that trail that there was a three-way choice, an upper route going under the funicular, a lower route also going under the funicular, (but lower down!), and the North Face Trail itself which just headed straight down to the village, which from experience we knew was a very slippery gravel path. We chose the upper route but decided it was lunch time after finding a suitable bench! Fuelled by lunch we started off going uphill, and once the other side of the funicular continued to climb through woods. We continued to follow the path until we eventually came into Murren from the Winteregg direction passing behind our hotel. Strangely I had remarked only earlier in the day that perhaps we should explore that road.
I think we were back at the hotel around 3:00pm. Jo wanted to make sure we were back by 3:45 as she had a massage booked for then. I caught up with an afternoon snooze whilst Jo underwent her 'treatment'.
Both thoroughly refreshed we had one last walk around Murren for the day, during which we met a couple who greeted us like long lost friends. We had previously bumped into them at Allmendhubel, where we and others were debating which of the various paths led back to Murren. A short chat revealed that this couple turned out to be from Montana and were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. Like all the other Americans we met they were thoroughly pleasant people. I think the PR department for the US could do with a re-think! Back at the The Eiger we had a pre-prandial drink on the hotel terrace.
After the initial rain this morning the weather has been mainly clear skies with occasional clouds. It is amazing what a difference being in the sunshine makes; moving from sunshine into shade, either the shadow of a building, mountain or clouds feels like walking into a fridge, and vice-versa into an oven!
Yesterday afternoon Murren was thronging with people; today there are far fewer. Whether it is because the weather isn't the clear blues skies of yesterday, or because it isn't the weekend we don't know, but the difference is very noticeable.
