After Lucerne we boarded the train and headed to the Jungfrau region of Switzerland which is in the Bernese Oberland area. We visited Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Brienz and Schilthorn on our trip. We stayed in Wengen at an Airbnb. Each of those areas was easy to get to by train, cable car or gondola. It was also really easy to walk to each area as the trail systems were well marked and there were over 300 miles of trails from Wengen. The town was neat because it was a car free village 1,310 feet above Lauterbrunnen valley with views of the Alps. Because of its location it is the sunny side of the mountain with more daylight. We also had amazing views of Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch mountains. The town looks like a traditional Swiss alpine village with all of its timber chalets.
Every trail all over Switzerland was marked with these signs.
Wengen had a fun challenge around town called kugelblitz challenge that was similar to a marble run but with regular sized wooden balls. Each business built a run. It was a great way to get to know the town.
We did a lot of hiking while in Switzerland. Our first hike we headed to First by taking a gondola from Grindelwald. The gondolas were fun to ride. The views were amazing and there were always cows or marmots below you.
There is a great cliff walk you can do here. The views of the mountains were beautiful.
A perfect lunch spot. It was fun to watch the paragliders take off from here and soar into the valley below.
We decided to ride another gondola to the top and take the mountain carts and trotter bikes down to Grindelwald. You ride the carts on the first portion and then pick the trotter bikes up on the last section. I enjoyed the mountain carts more as the terrain was very steep but both were fun. The last portion with the bikes was great because you got to ride all the way into Grindelwald town.
We saw so many cows on this trip, they roam the mountain sides for the summer. Everywhere you go you hear the cow bells.
On this day we headed to the top of Schilthorn for 360 degree views of the mountains. We took a series of trains and gondolas to get to the top. The train ride was one of the prettiest we were on. It left from Murren which was on the other side of Wengen. Most people go the Jungfraujoch but we did a little research and realized that Schilthorn had a way better view and is less crowded. We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the top and saw there was a restaurant with a rotating floor so you were able to see the mountains while you ate.
The restaurant was featured in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a James Bond film. The food was great and it took about an hour for it to rotate the full 360 degrees.
This was the bathrooms in the restaurant. Everything had a James Bond theme.
The views from the top were breathtaking.
We decided to hike down from Birg after we took the gondola from Shilthorn. Birg to Murren is about 6 miles. It was a relatively easy hike down. On the way we saw a park perched on the mountain so we decided to detour for some fun.
You can see the park on the plateau below Alia and Scott. The park was called Allmendhubel and it had underground tunnels, and a timed water course.
We took the cable car from Wengen up to Mannlichen. We came back here a few different times to play at the park, hike back down to Wengen or hike over to Kleine Scheidegg. In this picture Avery is looking down at Wengen. Those are snow fences in front of him.
The park at Mannlichen was fun. Switzerland had so many parks all over the place.
This restaurant and hotel was also at the top of Mannlichen. It was easy to go for a hike and find a place to eat. Those were some well earned fries! I think we ended up having fries and dessert for dinner on this day.
The hike from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg is an easy 3 mile hike. We did this hike once in the rain and once in the sunshine. Both hikes were beautiful. The flowers really popped in the rain.
Kleine Scheidegg had a great gift shop. Speaking of gift shops, make sure and look up words you don't know even if it's just soap. We couldn't find a regular bar of soap in any of the stores so we went to a gift shop and picked up a goat milk soap that had something else in it. We assumed the something else was just a fragrance. It ended up being weed soap!
The pool in Wengen had great views. That's Scott jumping off the high platform.
Rock climbing in Grindelwald on a rainy day.
Alia loved all of the animals in Wengen. They had chickens, cows, and rabbits in town. There were also cats everywhere. She made friends with the cat that kept showing up at our Airbnb.
The snails had really pretty shells.
We took the train to Brienz Switzerland to visit an open air museum called Ballenburg. It's a 200 acre area that displays buildings and architecture from all over Switzerland. It was neat to see how each region's architecture was influenced by the country it was closest to.
Switzerland had these drinking fountains everywhere.
We had to head to Zurich a day early to catch our flight so we decided to check into our hotel and rent a car and drive to Zeiningen. It was an hours drive on country roads. Zeiningen is the town Ignatius Wunderlin (1806-1878) emigrated from to Pennsylvania and then to Southwest Wisconsin, settling there to farm 40 acres. It was fun to see the town. There are still many Wunderlins there.
A winery Gerard Wunderlin owns.
Church Ignatius was baptized in.
The area looks so much like the area he finally settled in in Wisconsin.
If you ever find yourself in Zeiningen we highly recommend Pizzeria Due Maestri, it was the best food we had on the whole trip. Ordering was a little tricky as there was very little English spoken there. Scott tried to ask for dessert in German and the owner gave him a weird look. I glanced at Scott's google translate and his poor spelling got him once again....he was asking for desert!
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