After being treated to amazing views and snow on the ground for our first afternoon in Mürren, we were all excited for the the start of our few days in the mountains. Unfortunately, Anto was up all night throwing up, the first to succumb to a virus that was going to knock around all of us, one by one. He was not enjoying the start of his Swiss Alps adventure.

Beautiful breakfast views…..

The rest of us were treated to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains, enjoyed from our deck. It was a very mild morning of around 3 degrees and highs of 6 were expected during the day. As we became used to during our stay in our Swiss chalet, the train from Grütschalp and Winteregg comes in regularly from around 6am bringing in workers. While it isn’t overly loud you can hear it snow-ploughing the tracks, making for interesting morning viewing for the kids.

Our chalet in the Swiss Alps has amazing views! Even though this is the third visit to the Alps for Astrid, Anto and I (and second for Soren, first for Zinnia) you have to see these mountains to appreciated the scale of them.

While Anto was trying to feel well enough to face the world, the kids donned their snow gear and head outside to play in the snow. They enjoyed more sledding on their bums and making snow balls whilst patting every dog and cat out and about.

There was a reasonable amount of snow on the ground but a fairly warm day was forecast and it was predicted to start melting. There was some serious snow forecast the next few days so we were hoping that would be the case as we wanted to enjoy some snow activities.

Snow hikes to Winteregg and Grütschalp

As it was going to be a mild day and Anto wasn’t feeling up to sledding quite yet, we thought we’d take a scenic snow hike.

It was 5km between Mürren and Grütschalp via Winteregg. The trail mostly follows the railway track that we had come in on the previous day. We had thoroughly enjoyed the views from the train as it snaked along the edge of the mountain, giving amazing views across the Lauterbrunnen Valley.

It was 3 degrees when we set off, and with no wind we were getting pretty warm once we started walking. With the snow on the ground we needed our snow boots but the gloves didn’t take long to come off.

We enjoyed watching the train going back and forwards every 15 minutes or so. This was a pretty good hike to do as it wasn’t super steep and you could bail and catch the train back at any of the towns along the way. We did plan to walk through to Grütschalp but there are longer walks all the way back down to Lauterbrunnen too.

As the temperatures had been swinging back and forwards above and below zero, the snow had been melting and refreezing. Making for plenty of ice patches on the path, which were not super fun. The ice falls on the rocks and in the trees were, however, prettier.

The kids made plenty of snow balls and played in the snow while we enjoyed spotting the mountain villages along the way. You could see down the Lauterbrunnen and across the valley to Wengen. We were feeling fortunate that Mürren had plenty of snow as the snow looked quite patchy in the lower villages.

The slope down from Mürren to Winteregg is relatively gentle and there wasn’t too much ice in most sections so we made fairly good time. It’s only around 30-40 minutes walk even when sauntering through snow and stopping to take photos and make snowballs.

Winteregg

We decided to stop in Winteregg for a morning tea break and the kids played in the snow park while we watched the skiers coming down from their runs. Winteregg seemed a popular place to ski as we’d shared the train the previous day with many skiers coming up from Lauterbrunnen and hopping off in Winteregg. They had quite a few lifts running and the restaurant was open, although not overly busy at 10.30am.

We sat outside with a coffee enjoying the views while the kids played in the snow covered park. Anto wasn’t feeling the best still, and Zinnia had a sore leg after falling over one too many times in the snow.

It was certainly a park with a view! Back home it was one of the last days of school for the year and look where we were instead. Totally magical and having already had 2.5 weeks of adventure in 4 countries.

We pretty much had to drag the kids away from the park. It was too much fun playing in the snow, with those views!

Off to Grutschalp…..

The second half of our hike took us through to the train station of Grütschalp, where we’d arrived on the cable car from Lauterbrunnen the day before. The trail continued, for the most part, beside the railway line.

As we were leaving Winteregg we happened across our first ‘self-service cheese fridge’ of the trip. We’d loved these while doing some hikes back in 2016. You can pick up some local Swiss cheese while out and about.

The section of the walk between Winteregg and Grütschalp was more forested, and there were quite a few sections that had melted and re-frozen which caused some inadvertent ice skating, and made for some slow going.

The views continued to be great and we enjoyed the mild temperatures and views across the valley. The kids continued to pick up plenty of snow and turn it into snowballs (and load their pockets up with it, seemingly!).

We made it to Grütschalp just after 12 and with Anto not feeling well, decided to catch the train back to Mürren rather than walking back. When we tried to buy tickets for the return trip, the staff were rather confused as to how we got there most people seem to catch the cable car up from Lauterbrunnen. We probably could have just have hopped on as the tickets only seemed to be checked at the bottom station.

When we got off in Mürren we saw the snow ploughs parked there, ready to use when there is snow piled up on the tracks.

Afternoon adventures…..

When we returned from our walk the kids pestered us into heading into the village and renting sleds for the rest of our time in Mürren. We weren’t sure if there was enough snow to make good use of them but we weren’t getting out of sledding while here, so we got 4 sleds between the 7 of us.

They of course also wanted to ice skate again. The rink here is rather pretty and we did promise we’d do some skating during our visit.

The sleds had to make it back to our chalet so the kids tried them out on the walk through town. Like her older siblings on previous trips, Zinnia thought that getting to ride on a sled while being dragged by a parent was an excellent idea.

It was lunch in the chalet of toasted sandwiches (and salad for the vegetable deprived kids). Soren now wasn’t feeling super well and was requesting a rest.

Unfortunately the same viruses are still circulating between us all. Anto was definitely under the weather and Alan and Kim were also not feeling well. It appeared we all rotated germs from Tokyo onwards. I got Anto’s Tokyo virus and started to feel unwell on landing in Paris and was still coughing 2 weeks later. We also managed to infect those who were currently off on the Christmas markets cruise, who would likely improve by the time we meet up with them again in Basel, in time to get the latest version of the virus. With all the unwell people some afternoon rests were in order before I finally succumbed to the girls desires to go sledding.

While we were eating lunch we got to watch some minor avalanches across the valley. Definitely a different lunch spectacle to what we are used to.

Finally the sledding…..

We weren’t going to hold them off sledding any longer. The excitement was real!

I decided going up the funicular to do the long sled runs while half the group was sick wasn’t wise. Instead we did some sledding from our chalet back down to the train station. The same walk that was a pain with bags worked quite well for sledding down.

Astrid, having sledded plenty of times, took off and we didn’t see her much. Zinnia took a bit to get going and needed a little help at the start and then we couldn’t stop her.

Soren and Anto woke up from their rests, and even though he wasn’t feeling well, Soren couldn’t resist a sled.

I did get one go when I wrestled the sled off them for a minute. With a bit of practice we could get all the way from our chalet and around the bend down to the train station. There were a few kamikaze efforts over the side and around the hairpin but we all had fun.

There were definitely some patches that needed additional snow but with more forecast, and hopefully less sick people, we were hoping to head up the funicular and do some of the long runs we’d enjoyed on our previous trip.

Some training at altitude….

The sledding had lifted everyone’s spirits and the kids were keen to try out the pool. The exorbitant city taxes gives you free access to the Mürren indoor pool and outdoor ice rink. The kids hadn’t been near a pool for a few weeks so we thought while we had access to a pool it would make sense to use it.

An altitude session with an amazing view was in order.

The pool wasn’t exactly busy and we enjoyed some laps while watching the sun set over the mountains and people take to the ice on on rink.

Everyone had worked up an appetite with all the walking, sledding and swimming so Anto whipped up another feast in our chalet. We were not keen on dragging any of that food to our next stop!

We were hoping an early night would have us all feeling more chipper the next day. Everyone was keen for more sledding and some ice skating. We also had our fingers tightly crossed for snow. A good amount was forecast for the next day. We were yet to actually be out in the snow on this trip, and it’s the small things that amuse Aussies!

Up next…..

A magical day full of sledding, skating and plenty of snow! The Swiss Alps really delivered 🙂