After a fun 4 days in Strasbourg and the Alsace region of France, which we’d thoroughly enjoyed, everyone was excited for our next stop the Swiss Alps! We’d visited the alps before: in 2012 with a 1 year old Astrid; and 2016 with Astrid, Soren and Alan. On the 2016 trip we’d stayed in Lauterbrunnen and visited Mürren and fallen in love with. This time we were staying in Mürren and the excitement was high. There had been many weeks of watching webcams to monitor snow fall!
A very long day of traveling was ahead but with a reward of amazing views at the end!
Farewell Strasbourg….
We were all up early, well before 7am, and much earlier than we needed to be for our departure from Strasbourg. This meant plenty of time for our some freshly purchased pastries and croissants from the patisserie that was a 30 second walk from the apartment.
We had a lot of extra bags to move today, filled with all the supplies we’d purchased for Switzerland. The 350m roll to the tram station over cobbles at 8am wasn’t grand, but better than the 4 winding flights of stairs down from the apartment and what was to come later in the day when it was bags vs snow.
The 5 degrees (feels like 3 degrees) wasn’t a problem with all those bags as we were all hot and already tired by the time we made it to the Universitie tram stop. Our last tram through the beautiful city of Strasboug and we made it to the main station with more than enough time.
While we were waiting around for our platform to appear on the board, the kids used the station piano to do some piano practice and entertain some travelers. Soren got quite a few applause for his recent exam pieces and it was the only practice the did in 7 weeks 🙂 We did send video evidence to Grandma 😉
After 30 minutes of waiting around, our platform number finally appeared and it was outside in the cold to wait for our train.
The first train of the day from Strasbourg to Karlsruhe, Germany was a short one, but a nice TGV train with some actual luggage space and big tables. Sadly we didn’t have a lot of time to pull out all the devices, so used it to consume our last French pastries.
We were super stressed about the first change, with only 6 minutes, lots of bags and needing to change platforms. If we missed it we may not be getting to the Swiss Alps today as there weren’t many other options for traisns. Somewhat fortunately our inbound train (which had come from Berlin) was delayed. So even with broken lifts and escalators and having to haul bags up and down stairs we made it with plenty of time.
Relieved that was over and we were Switzerland bound, the next train was a more relaxing 3 hours as we whizzed through Germany and into Switzerland. With this train now running very late, we thought we were definitely going to miss our next connection (although we had other options there) but some lunch of glühwein and currywurst improved our spirits.
Hello Switzerland…..
Onto second train, and we had more space for bags. Always a bonus and it makes us less unpopular if we don’t have suitcases in the aisles! It was a 3 hour journey through many Swiss stops but soon we started seeing the but beautiful villages and snow on the hills.
The train got progressively emptier at each stop, and we had a cabin to ourselves by Bern. As we crossed the river in Bern, we enjoyed our views of the river and reminisced about our cold day there back in 2016 and our visit to the Bern bears.
Soon it was onto Lake Brienz. The lake was sparkling with the huge snow-capped mountains behind and the pretty villages whizzing past our train. At this point Zinnia emerged from her tablet, which she had been engrossed in, and gasped when she saw the mountains and snow!
The spectacular views continues and we had no one else in our cabin to annoy so we ran from one window to another taking in the stunning scenery.
During the past couple of hours our train had picked up time, and after resigning ourself to missing our connection and waiting around for an hour or 2, it appeared we had 4 minutes to make the train change in Interlaken. Sadly pretty much everyone was running for one train or another and we again had to change platforms and deal with stairs with all the bags.
Up we go!
We made it by the skin of our teeth, and all collapsed in a sweaty heap for the scenic ride up to Lauterbrunnen. Pretty soon the train clicked over to the cogs and up we went, the kids transfixed by the views of snow which was gradually appearing as we climbed higher……
The magic of Switzerland never fails to impress. The scale of the mountains and beautiful villages!
Once we made it to Lauterbrunnen we had to get our cable car tickets to get up to Grütschalp and then Mürren. We were again rushing to get on the cable car, not realising the guy checking the tickets was also the cable car driver, so was going to wait for us. He did however refuse to let me in claiming 2 adults had already gone through with the kids, thinking Astrid was Anto’s wife. Given she keeps getting handed cups of glühwein at markets obviously everyone here thinks she is older!
Since our last visit in 2016, the Latuerbrunnen and Grütschalp stations have been upgraded and we hardly recognised them. The cable car is just as steep though. That cable car is always impressive, straight up and the views are breathtaking. My vertigo does not like cable cars but, it’s hard not to appreciate the scenery as you whizz directly up. Lauterbrunnen is at 802m elevation and Grütschalp at 1487m elevation. It’s a short cable car ride but straight up.
Off the cable car and we then had another cog train from Grütschalp to Mürren, winding along the edge of the mountain. Mürren is at 1,650m elevation, at the foot of the mighty Schilthorn peak, and perched on the side of a mountain it has stunning views across the Lauterbrunnen valley on a clear day like it was today.
Mürren magic….
Almost 3pm and we’d finally finished with the trains for the day! Once we arrived in Mürren and finally sorted out the keys for our chalet and paid our exorbitant city tax, it was the unenviable task of moving all the luggage the 350m from the train station to the chalet. A 350m walk with bags sounded blissfully short. The only catch it was a very steep hill and there was a lot of snow!
It might have been only 350m and one hairpin bend but the slightly icy snow was pretty but not conducive to heavy suitcases. It was too hard to for the kids to manage the bags on the gradient and snow so Alan, Anto and I did a lot of trips and worked up a giant sweat. I was powering up that hill, glad my cycling legs were still in shape, although doing it at 1700m altitude wasn’t super fun.
We were here though and there was snow! The views from our chalet were amazing. It really is a a magical place and the photos just don’t do it justice. The sheer size of those mountains is hard to capture.
We had been regretting bringing all that extra food and ski gear with us when dragging the bags around on all those train changes during the day….. and then the snow drag but we were rewarded with amazing views from our chalet. The kids were beside themselves with excitement and had their ski gear on quick smart and were straight out to play in the snow, even though it was almost dark.
Anto and I made a quick dash into town to the CoOp to pick up fresh milk and bread. We checked out the village and it had changed a bit since our last trip in 2016. There were lots of new hotels and upgraded facilities. We were very keen to explore more over the next few days but for now we were happy to just wander around and check out the amazing views and all those mountains.
It was the 17th of December and very early in the season, so a lot of the restaurants and hotels were just opening up for the Winter. We were lucky there was a decent cover of snow already, it’s far from guaranteed in mid-December even at this altitude.
The snow wasn’t too thick yet, and patches were quite icy so we were making good use of our snow boots when wandering out checking out the cafe and restaurant options, and of course sled and ice skate hire. The kids had plans for plenty of sledding over our Alps time.
It was now getting rather dark, and despite the temperature being 2 degrees when we arrived, it was now zero so we head back to the chalet, watching all the lights come on in the hotels and houses. A
Winter wonderland!
We arrived back to our chalet to find Soren ad Astrid in their ski gear body-sledding up and down the hill opposite our chalet. Pick the Aussies very excited by snow!
Meanwhile inside a feast was prepared. I’m not dragging all that food back down the hill! Anto whipped up some risotto and lasagne for dinner while we chilled our wine in the snow on the deck.
The views from our chalet were amazing. It was the single most expensive accommodation on the trip (even beating Paris) but had stunning mountain views and snow piled up outside the window of all our rooms. There wasn’t a bad view!
Before the trip the kids were most excited about the ‘snow’ places and Astrid and Soren had very fond memories of previous visits to the Swiss Alps and Innsbruck, Austria (still to come on the trip). They were finally here and there was snow with the forecast of plenty more to come during our stay. We were all looking forwards to our snowy adventures over the next few days…….
Up next…..
Sick people, snow hikes and plenty of sledding and some swim training at altitude. Our first full day in Mürren was certainly full of adventure!
