Murren

This is the post where, upon reading it, you book your vacation to Switzerland.

Jason took Tuesday off work and we decided on an adventure. We headed to the town of Murren. In order to get there we used the following public transportation:

Tram from our stop to the train station
Train from Basel to Spiez (SBB train)
Transfer to a new train to Interlaken Ost (BLS train)
Transfer to a new train to Lautenbrunner (Berner Oberland-Bahn)
Cable car
Transfer to another train to Murren
Ride a Furnicular up the mountain.

Then we did everything in reverse to get home (except for the Furnicular--we hiked down).

I know this doesn't sound thrilling to you, but it was. Largely because we sprung for FIRST CLASS train tickets. Lest you think these are like airline first class tickets, let me explain. The seats are nicer, and there are fewer people there, but otherwise, they are pretty much the same. Sarah, however, who is terribly susceptible to marketing, thought this was the best.thing.ever.

This is Sarh in her luxurious first class seat

Daniel decided to spread out and take a nap in his. We are grateful for this.

There was a children's adventure trail, which Sarah found (after much whining). It was awesome. However, this did not sooth her mother's nerves which were still on edge after all the whining. I spoke with a friend today who said, "Oh, you are just like the Von Trapp Family, hiking in the alps." I agreed, but with the caveat that if we were the Von Trapps we would have been captured by the Nazis because they would have been able to hear the whining all the way from Salzburg.

The cows are kept in with electric fences. The electricity isn't that strong. I know this because I forgot it was electric and grabbed at a fence to catch my balance. It felt kind of like stinging nettle. Unpleasant, but not deadly. Thankfully.

I hate to admit it, but this was actually the second time I've done this. Not on the same trip, though. I'm only stupid enough to do it once per hike.

This is Jason on the trail.

This is a close up of Jason on the trail. Notice his Nordic Walking Sticks. We rented those. This resulted in people thinking we were actually Swiss and speaking in Swiss German to us. Heh.


This is on one of the train rides home, but it's of Daniel's favorite hiking activity: Drinking from the camel back. He loves it. Loves, loves, loves it. In fact, he have to forcibly stop him from drinking--or chewing. Unfortunately, my mouth piece currently has a big bite mark in it.

This is Daniel in his backpack. It's all kind of high tech. The only problem is when he goes to sleep, he kind of slumps down and it looks like we're hiking with the headless baby.

My camera is lousy, so I don't have good quality photos of the Alpine meadows, but they are amazing. It is so stunningly beautiful, we can hardly stand it. We did ask ourselves why anyone ever leaves Switzerland.

We'll probably be able to answer that once winter comes.