Wengen (Jungfrau)

Eiger (Ogre).  Mönch (Monk).  Jungfrau (Virgin).

We finally bought a car and took our first road trip!  It was difficult to find something decent in our price range (cheap), that was also an automatic (seriously, they’re few and far between here).  We settled on a Renault station wagon and it’s working out very well so far!  It has proper tires, plus winter tires (not like some of the clown-tires on the other cars we test drove….I did not like those), and it’s diesel - so better mileage.  We picked it up on Thursday, and headed to the Bernese Oberland region on Friday for a weekend of hiking in the alps. We based ourselves in Wengen, an uber-cute town with no cars.  After we dropped the car off at the park & ride, we took a cog-wheel train up 1,500 feet to reach the little village of Wengen.  The hotel was just a few minutes up from the station and we were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was on the top floor, fit with A-frame wood beams, just like our cabin at Lake Kachess!  It had a balcony with stellar, panoramic views of the Jungfrau and the surrounding peaks (we thought the hotel had made a mistake and were not expecting such awesome digs for the weekend!)  So cute and so "Swiss".

What a view!

  Saturday morning, we started the day with a gondola ride 3,000 feet up to Mannlichen. 

This peak was the start of our 13+ mile, 6 hour hike (Matt’s idea)!  From here, we walked to Kleine Scheidegg on a nice path that was more akin to a nature trail.  We passed a *ton* of cows, kitted with huge bells, so no, that is not a Swiss myth. The bells actually create a pretty, tinkling sound you can hear throughout the mountains – it’s very cool.

Yep, pretty sure this is the cow shed!

We ended this part of the hike at the Eigergletscher (7,600 feet), and found a nifty man-made pool where they placed lounge benches with buttons to activate whirlpools for people to soak their feet!  Why  oh why don’t more hikes have this?  The benches were full (of course) so we continued on a  more rigorous hiking trail along the base of the massive Eiger (popular climbing spot, but we didn’t see any).  This was like the energizer-bunny of trails and kept on going, and going, and going . . . after a few hours, we ended at Alpinglen, where we caught the train back up to Kleine Scheidegg. 

We enjoyed the rest of our lunch at this beautiful mid-way point (total Bobovski-move, where I made sandwiches ahead of time), and then continued on to Wengen by foot (at least it was downhill).  We hiked 13.6 miles, and needless to say, we slept well that night!

On Sunday, we took the train back down to the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and then went by gondola up the other side to Murren.  It’s an even smaller town, perched higher in the mountains than Wengen!   I was a bit sore from Saturday’s hike, so we took it easy and just walked to the next town over, Gimmlewald (population 100 or so)!  These towns are so dang cute! 

Murren (on the cliff across the valley)

Gimmelwald

We had lunch back in Murren and enjoyed watching the paragliders sail across the mountains and down to the valley.  We stopped counting, there were so many!  Crazy outdoor adventure enthusiasts.

One the way home, we were flagged to stop the car and pull over so a traditional “cow parade” could walk by.  What the whaaat?  All in all, a great weekend and we are looking forward to heading back soon and hitting some different trails!

Wow, that's a big bell!