Mürren was our second stop in Switzerland. We walked around town briefly on our last trip to Switzerland 13 years ago. I didn’t think it was a huge town at the time. I didn’t detect that many tourists. Times have changed. As with Venice last year, I heard more English spoken. We also saw many Asians and observant Muslims (judging by the number of hijab-clad women) in town.
Our hotel in Mürren was the Alpina, five minutes from the train station. Our room was small and on the second floor. (In Europe, the ground floor is designated as floor zero.) This did not make my knees very happy. The hotel employees were friendly and helpful. Many of them were from Portugal. The food was excellent. We took a walk around town and found the gondola station to Schilthorn, our first side trip.
Schilthorn has a rotating restaurant and visitor center. Its main claim to fame is that a James Bond film, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service“, was filmed here. (Don’t remember it? It was the only film that starred George Lazenby as 007. Telly Savalas was the villain, and Diana Rigg was Bond’s love interest.) We had the breakfast buffet in the restaurant – excellent. Julian walked around the observation deck and took photos. The visitor center has an exhibit devoted to the movie.
After we got back to Mürren, we took a gondola to Allmendhubel for lunch, We started out on a hike on the Mountain View Trail from Allmendhubel, which was billed in the guidebooks as an easy walk. My knees thought otherwise. Root- and rock-hopping aren’t as easy as they used to be. We had to proceed very slowly, and managed to catch the last train to Mürren from Grutschalp.
The next two days were spent recuperating and visiting Gimmelwald and Lauterbrunnen. The former is a tiny town just below Mürren. The locals sell homemade cheeses, eggs, and other farmstead items on the honor system. The latter is the main access point to Mürren, Wengen, and other cities in the Bernese Oberland. As you can imagine, it was clogged with tourists. The following day we went to Bern, the Swiss capital. Bern has arcades of shops large and small. I bought some tea at one store and had a nice conversation with its clerk, a Vietnamese woman.
Our last attempt at hiking was the Panorama Walk from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. We learned before we were about to board the gondola that the trail was closed due to landslide risk. We wandered around Männlichen. On this day it was Julian’s turn to suffer an injury. He fell while taking pictures and sprained his dominant wrist. We were able to get ice for him to put on the wrist at the Männlichen cafeteria and when we got back to the hotel.
Will we return to Mürren again? Probably not until my knees are made of titanium.
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