a blog about faith, marriage, health, travel, family: Switzerland...Part Four

Our last day in Switzerland was my very favorite. I feel like we really did save the best for last, even though we had no clue of it. We spent our time wandering through little villages on our way up to the Schilthorn.

We got on the train at Wengen and rode down to Lauterbrunnen. We then jumped on a bus, which our Swiss Travel Pass covered. The bus dropped us off right in front of the cable car station of the Schilthorn...door-to-door service! Our ticket up to the top was covered by our Swiss Travel Pass as well.

We waited in line and jumped on the first cable car to go up to Gimmelwald. The Schilthorn is only accessible by cable car. They really pack those cars so they can get as many people up the mountain as possible. Gimmelwald was the first stop. Everyone got off the cable car and got in line for the next one. However, we're a little rebellious. It was not stated that we had to get directly in line. So we decided to walk through the town of Gimmelwald.

Rick Steves says that this is where he likes to stay when he visits, and I can totally see why. This was a quaint little village that is 100% car-free. It's only accessible by cable car and it is quiet.

Mürren was the next stop up the cable car, which only took 3-4 minutes. Puts it into perspective if you would have hiked it!

The bells for the happy cows!

Switzerland is known for their clean water. It was fun to just fill up and not worry!

The completely unmanned Honesty Shop.

How you were to pay.

Probably one of my most favorite pictures from the entire trip.

We caught the next cable car up to Mürren. It wasn't near as crowded since we stopped off in Gimmelwald and went exploring. We also got to see out the window, which was so cool!

Mürren is also a 100% car-free village. It's only accessible by cable car as well, and it's slightly bigger than Gimmelwald but still cute. We stopped here to explore the little village, too.

Our next stop up the cable car was Birg. This is where there were a little more adventurous things to do. For those of you reading and don't know, the Schilhorn {Piz Gloria} is where a 007 movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service was filmed. Everything at the top is 007 themed.

Anyway, back to Birg. This is where the Thrill Walk is located. We got off the cable car and were both excited to try it out. Y'all...it was scarier than I thought it would be. It's basically a see-through metal sidewalk that is bolted on the side of the mountain. Yes, you can see all the way down. But we were there and we had to try it.

I don't really know where else you'd go...

They had things like this that you could cross.

I was a little bit of a chicken, but we did both make it across. But we had to go back across it to get back to where we had come from. The views were stunning, and it was very thrilling! It was totally worth it.

We got on one more cable car and finally got to Piz Gloria. That's the name of the revolving restaurant at the top. Once you get up there, everything is 007 related. The views were still incredible, and Tyler and I both agreed that this was better than the Jungfraujoch.

We didn't stay all day up there, and in fact, we didn't even eat lunch up there. We decided to head back down to Lauterbrunnen and grab some lunch at the grocery store. Y'all, just to give you an idea, two sandwiches and a dessert usually came to around 16 SF (approx. $16). So that's just an example of what you can expect to spend there. We ate a lot of sandwiches, and I'm not a lover of them like my husband is. However, I did know that we would eat something different in just a few days.

Once we got our lunch, we hopped on the train and went over to Grindelwald. It was a bigger village and more touristy. It was a town on my list of places to stay, and after visiting, I'm really glad we didn't stay there. It reminded me a lot of Breckenridge, Colorado. It was a ski-town. We walked around the little town but didn't stay long. I just wanted to make sure that I saw it at least.

This was yet another picture I sent my dad because if you squint really hard, you can see what looks like a ski lift over some farmland. I was trying to convince my parents to move to Switzerland the entire time we were there. I even sent him pictures of tractors to let him know they had them, too!

We headed back to Lauterbrunnen and took some last minute pictures since we had to leave early the next morning. My heart was truly sad to leave.

Before we got to Lauterbrunnen, we had to transfer trains. This was a station where the train split and where it would come back together. This fascinated me so much that I got a little video of them coming back together. How cool!!

These are the falls that I had been looking at for months and I couldn't wait to see it in person. It wowed me every time I saw them.

Tyler's time to fill his water bottle!

I fell in love with the German culture while we were there. My family heritage is German, and I cannot wait to someday visit Germany. But I also cannot wait to come back to Switzerland.

That evening, we decided to splurge on fondue at the hotel restaurant. We both really enjoy getting fondu at The Melting Pot, so we thought we would try out authentic Swiss fondue.

The fondue actually tasted too much like the wine they used in it. We much preferred the Melting Pot. HA!

As we were packing our things and talking with my parents via facetime, we heard these bells in the street. As we looked out the balcony, we saw cows being taken up the mountain. It was so cool! It made our trip complete!

One of the things we liked about this hotel was the fact that we got to drink the beverages in our mini fridge at no additional cost. They had beer, sparkling water, and these sparkling apple juice drinks. We had these apple juice drinks every day! They were so delicious. I wish they would have replaced all the beer with them. HA!

One last picture out our balcony for good measure. ;)

Y'all...if you EVER get the chance to go to Switzerland, go! I promise you won't regret it. I seriously left part of my heart there.

Other Posts in this Series:

London #1