K1. Murren to Stechelberg hike 4 Oct

Another brilliant blue sky day enticed us back to the mountains. This time we chose to go back Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen and up with the Gondola to Grütschalp and along on the little mountain train to Murren. This is our 4th time in Murren and the view is just as spectacular every time. Here are photos from the centre of the town one looking down the street and the other looking up.

 

After a quick look in a souvenir shop we set off down the sealed road to Gimmelwald. The cable car to Shilthorn passed over our heads.

 

 

I have an interest in the ways that the Swiss stack their wood - here are two more examples

 

 

 

From Gimmelwald the track is gravel and steep. You arrive at a bridge at the bottom of the valley and think you are close to Stechelberg but the track winds back up past lovely waterfalls before descending back down to the village and the waiting Postbus. We decided to continue walking towards Lauterbrunnen enjoying the scenery on the way.

 

 

 

Beautiful old house near Stegmatte. We caught the bus from Trummelbach back to Lauterbrunnen and the very full train back to Interlaken.

 

From Interlaken to Spiez and on to Thun where we had a well deserved coffee break before the bus trip up to Heiligenschwendi and Goldiwil. Looks like there will not be a good sunset tonight. Yeah I won't be tempted to climb back up the hill to my vantage point!

J2. Thun 3 Oct

Up early to catch the morning sun on the mountains showing above the fog with the city down below.

  Spent today with a Canberra friend who is also visiting Switzerland. The weather was perfect. We firstly walked along the river to Schadau castle and wandered around the grounds. Surprised to see the swans eating the lawns.

 

From here we walked back into town over the covered bridge and up to the church and castle - enjoyed listening to the pipe organ being played in the recently refurbished church.  

 

 

After lunch we took the bus up to Heiligenschwendi and climbed Vesuv to look at the view over Thunersee from up there.

And to end this day in a super way I have just huffed and puffed my way quickly up to a vantage point above our accommodation to catch the sunset looking out to the mountains over the village of Heiligenschwendi.  

J1. Bern Jodler Matinee 2 Oct

If we wanted to experience Swiss Culture then that was what today was all about. The Berner Jodler-Matinee was a concert performed in the Kulture Casino Bern - fabulous venue! It had not been well advertised and I found it by chance as I scrolled through all the local Jodler Club websites looking at their events calendars a few months ago. Despite some email correspondence we were unable to find any info on price, duration or content. Therefore we were delighted to have free seats on the balcony that faced the stage and a wonderful selection of typically Swiss entertainment that lasted about 3 hours. The choir costumes were really beautiful when seen up close.  

 

In the evening we went for a walk with our Airbnb hosts in the forest near our favourite little chalet. Later they shared their yummy vegetable pie with us and then we got onto the subject of Swiss choir music. Our host produced an old song book and Geoff photographed the songs which she played on the recorder.

I2. Kerns Alpabzug 1 Oct

Having missed a number of Swiss Alpabzug events (cows returning from their summer in the alps) last weekend we were pleased that the forecast rain held off and we were able to travel to the village of Kerns in Canton Obwalden. We arrived ahead of most of the crowds and secured a good vantage point where we stood for more than two hours while the farmers with their animals, bands, alphorn players and choir groups made their way around the village. I will let the pictures show the story.

In the afternoon we walked back to Sarnen station and around the station area where the interesting buildings are.   

Next we caught the train up past Giswil, Kaizerbuhl, Lungern and two lakes (Sarnersee & Lungernsee) to Brünig-Hasliberg at the top of the pass and got off to have a look in the antique/second hand shop which we had seen from the train many times before. Fortunately we were only tempted by a few inexpensive items as souvenirs of our holiday.

From here we took the bus down to Brienz and transferred directly to the waiting boat for the return trip to Interlaken Ost and then train to Thun and a quick sprint saw us onto the bus for home.

I1. Eriz 30 September

After keeping up a fairly non stop schedule we decided to have a late start and use the free 'Panorama card' to explore a bit more of the local area. We took bus 42 from Thun station to Schwarzenegg Post. Here we spent a pleasant hour walking in the forest. We then caught the next bus ti Innereriz and followed the river wanderweg back to Eriz Linden. Superb weather and the ever present mountains and farm houses made for a great day out.

 

H2. Griesalp Wildwasserweg 29 Sept

Bus 31 to Thun and a quick change to the Regiexpress Lötschberger for the 18 minute trip to Reichenbach I'm Kandertal. The train was full of 'mature age' people like our selves and older all equipped with strong boots and walking stocks. There were so many waiting to catch the post us to Griesalp that they added an extra bus.this is the steepest post bus route in Europe with a gradient of 28% and you can see some of it on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzsmMmy9BFM

This is one of the bridges it crosses

There are a variety of walks down from Griesalp and we chose the Wildwasserweg and the Talweg. 

The track leads through the Griesalp Canyon down to Tschingel. It passes a variety of waterfalls and whirlpools. One of these is called the Hexenkessel a deep bubbling hole worn into the rocks with a great force of water travelling down through it.

Tschingelsee is an lake which formed in 1972 after bad weather but has subsequently filled in with gravel and rocks. It looks quite impressive from above.

  One of the delights of the day was seeing lots of Autumn crocus not to forget the towering mountains and the first of the Autumn leaves.