We didn't stay for very long, we were just switching trains. From Interlaken, we took this tiny train into Mürren. This city was built up into the mountain, so in order to get to it, you had to take a train to Lauterbrunnen and from there a gondola. From the gondola, we had to take a train to the city. There were 2 other cities that were set up on the mountain next to Mürren, and it was the last stop. From there, we had to drag our luggage to the hotel. And there were no cars in the town, although the hotels had little golf carts to shuttle to and from the gondola station. Once we finally checked into our hotel, it was time to go explore!
We took two trams to get to the bottom of the mountain, where we could have taken a bus to get into town, however we decided to walk. It was weird walking, it was mostly just green meadow, with trees scattered here and there, and two walls of straight mountain on either side. I would say it was only 3 or 4 miles from wall to wall. While we were walking towards town, there was a water fall on our right side that ended up running into a river.
We were walking to Trümmelbach, is a long waterfall that comes from 10 different glaciers and it is completely inside the mountain! The waterfall carries 20,000 liters of water per second! The walk from the bottom of the mountain to Trümmelbach was about 1.3 miles and I felt like it took us forever! When we finally arrived, we just caught the last elevator ride up to the top, after that we would have missed seeing the falls entirely!
It was pretty dark, cold and wet inside the cave that let us view that waterfall, honestly, I was super afraid of dropping my phone into the water.
After walking down 9 flights of stairs to get back to the bottom, it was another 2.1 miles back to Lauterbrunnen. We walked by several sheep farms and Megan and Josh were able to pull some weeds up and feed the sheep. The sheep in the farms all had bells on, so that it was a constant noise while we were walking. At some point on our walk to the city, someone kept shooting a gun, which wasn't too bad, but the close proximity to the mountains caused it to echo, until it sounded like a huge thunderstorm where we finally collapsed at a restaurant and had some much earned dinner.
Dinner was pretty tasty and we were able to eat outside and listen to the lovely sheep bells.
After dinner, as we waited for the tram to come pick us up, JH was looking in the vending machine and found candy that he really liked while he was in Spain. Of course he had to buy some and get the rest of us hooked, so throughout the rest of the trip we were hunting for this candy. Now I'm not sure what the name was, but it was a Galaxy Mix of Fini (not sure how you spell it), but to sum it up, it was almost like a Sour Punch Straw filled with marshmallowy goodness. And fortunately it's not sold in the US, or I'd be an extra 20 lbs.
We finally made it back to our hotel room where we were able to crash with the windows open of course and listen to the sheep. Dad read us a story from his weird book and then we went to sleep.
The next morning (June 4) we woke up early to head to the top of the Schilthorn to have breakfast. In order to get to the top of the mountain, we had to take two gondolas for about 10 minutes each. During the ride up, we were crammed in with a bunch of Asian tourists. This one lady, had a selfie stick and the camera that she had on her stick kept making this ridiculous beeping noise! Once we arrived at the top, we were able to go to the rotating restaurant for breakfast!
Now this restaurant is somewhat famous, one of the many Bond movies was filmed in this restaurant! (Don't ask me which one, I have no idea) But they had a buffet style breakfast with a couple different meats and cheeses, bread, cereal, juices and tea (drank by yours truly).
The only annoying part was while we started by the buffet at the beginning of our meal, we had to walk quite all the way around the restaurant by the end.
After breakfast, we went out on the viewing platform, where the annoying camera Asian lady was again and took in the amazing view.
It was super bright!
After spending time on the deck, we went downstairs from the restaurant and went into their Bond museum, where they had relics from the James Bond movies and some fun activities!
MH and I looking super 007y
We couldn't spend too much time on the Schilthorn because we had another train to make that afternoon. We left and had to stop at our transfer gondola halfway down the mountain. This stop was called Birg and while it wasn't as great as a view as the Schilthorn, they had a glass observation deck, so you could walk out and feel like you're just walking on air. It was such as weird feeling, looking down and seeing the ground a couple thousand feet beneath you.
Once the gondola arrived, we headed back down the mountain and took a bus to get back to Lauterbrunnen. From there we all piled into a train to take us up the mountain. We made several stops and transfers, one of them was in Kleine Scheidegg and Wengen (we will come back to these), until finally, about 90 minutes later, we had made it to Jungfraujoch or the tallest mountain in Europe that you can take a train too!
The mountain was surrounded by other mountains covered in snow and lots of glaciers. It was set up so that you could not only get to see the observation deck, but also get to do some cool activities. On one side of the mountain they had a large sledding hill along with a zip line. The snow on this side of the mountain was very fresh and we enjoyed throwing snowballs at one another. JH got it into his head that it would be funny to throw snow at some unsuspecting sledders, and he almost managed to hit someone! It was pretty funny to watch the snowball land and have the sledder whip his head up at us.
On the inside of the mountain, they had a room full of ice, and I think we all slipped at least once. Dad was the only one who managed not to slip and fall on his bum.
There were a few ice sculptures, but Scratt was the best.
There was an observation deck that was built on the top of the mountain and there was an observation deck that allowed you to walk on the snow cliff to look around. The snow was pretty dirty and wet there, but we ate gummy bears and tossed them to the birds that were handing around. It was so bright we had to wear our sunglasses otherwise we couldn't see anything!
As much as I hate the snow, it was all pretty cool to look at!
We stopped in the Lindt Lindor shop where the chocolate was very cheap and they were giving out samples along with free samples if you bought anything. (Once we left the shop, Dad decided that we hadn't bought enough, so we got to go back and buy some more!)
It was another long trek down the mountain. We stopped in Kleine Scheidegg for some souvenirs while we waited for a train and again in Wengen for some snacks (Which we were unable to find). By the time we finally made it back into Lauterbrunnen, it was close to dark and we were starving! All of the shops in Mürren were closed, so we had to suffice with dinner in our hotel. Let me say that it was very expensive and we got scolded because we didn't order any water, but kept drinking sips from our water bottles we already had. I don't remember what I had exactly, but it had asparagus and strawberries in it and it was delicious!
