Sunday 13th September
Another sunny start to the day and to make the most of the good weather we decided we would have an excursion to Lauterbrunnen in the valley below Murren. There are a number of ways of getting to Lauterbrunnen (other than being air-lifted like a cow!); the reverse of the way we came up on Thursday using the mountain railway to Grutsalp and then the cable car down to Lauterbrunnen. We chose the alternative of walking through Murren to the cable car that goes down to Stechelberg; this is the world's steepest cableway, and my goodness it was steep, going down almost vertically. One side effect of this is that it doesn't take long! One other possibility we quickly discounted was to walk the whole way down, definitely downhill, but quite probably just a little scary.
Our plan was to walk to the cable-car station, buying lunch at the Coop on the way, go down the cable-car to Stechelberg and then walk along the bottom of the valley to Lauterbrunnen, about 3 miles or an hour and quarter's walk, then catch the cable-car back up to Grutsalp and walk back to Murren. This plan had the advantage that the walk along the valley bottom would be reasonably flat, and the walk back from Grutsalp also about 3 miles and again fairly flat.
The sun rises at the eastern end of Murren peeping around the Eiger. The Hotel Eiger is one of the first buildings in Murren to benefit from this, and yesterday the sun made its blinding appearance part way through our breakfast, sometime around 8:30 (although sunrise is actually about 07:30 here at this time of year). The 'sunrise' then travels west to the other end of the village where the cable car goes down to Stechelberg. Today we had finished breakfast before we saw the sun, but it was out by the time we left the hotel. It wasn't long, though, before we were back in the shadow of the mountains as we walked to the cable-car station. The sun on ones back makes an amazing difference to the apparent temperature. It was definitely time to put jumpers back on part way through the village.
The descent to Stechelberg is truly spectacular. Being relatively early in the morning there were only two other couples in the cable-car, so we were able to move around to get the best photos, although hanging onto something or somebody was compulsory.
We were definitely in the shadow of the mountains once we arrived at the floor of the valley. Coming out of the Stechelberg cable-car station we crossed the river and headed along valley floor following the course of the river in the direction of Lauterbrunnen. Eventually as we headed north east we slowly moved back into the sunshine.
The Lauterbrunnen valley is a wonderful U-shaped valley, with lush meadows and contented cows. Somewhere I had read that it is the valley of 100 waterfalls, we hardly saw any waterfalls that could claim to be anything other than trickles. It appears Switzerland has also experienced a drought, although the lushness of the meadows would argue against that!
Walking into Lauterbrunnen we became aware of how pleasant Murren is without cars, eventually arriving in the centre of town where traffic avoidance was a top priority. Morning coffee/hot chocolate is becoming a tradition and we ventured into a 'pub' that advertised 'Free beer tomorrow' (and topless waitresses!). It was much nicer than it sounds!
We continued through the town to the station/cable-car station and caught the cable car back up the mountain to Grutsalp to start our walk back to Murren. For the first half of the walk the track was apart and higher than the mountain railway, but at Winteregg they came together and we walked alongside the track the rest of the way, stopping for a lunch of grapes, biscuits and today hummus.
Back to Murren and the hotel for a bit of rest, and for Jo to try out the pool. Later we have another walk through the village and a drink at a bar with sheepskin rugs over the chairs. The choice was limited so Jo had a 'multivitamin' juice and I an alcohol-free beer.
More rest before dinner in the Tachi bar (dinner, not the resting!) Entrecote steak with bearnaise sauce for me, melted goats' cheese on toast and salad for jo. Tiramasou for pudding to Jo, Creme Brulee for me. Another hard day's holiday!
