A Hiking Adventure in Switzerland, Take Three

If you have ever asked me what my most favorite hike I've ever done is, then you've already heard me talk about this hike in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland. The area has become well known for its “Top of Europe” pass that includes trains, funiculars, gondolas, and lifts to some pretty spectacular sights. The first time we discovered this area and the joys of hiking it was way back in 2011.

Rewind back to 2011 when Jim and I first explored this area. There was zero information on the web and most of the bookings had to be done by phone. It gave Jim an opportunity to practice his German. He also had a chance to perfect his map reading skills since there was no AllTrails app or similar information on the area back then.

Fast-forward to 2017 when we did the hike for a second time—this time joined by my mom and Kel. It was just as magical and still felt relatively undiscovered. There were sections where we saw other people, but we had the trails to ourselves more often than not.

We had such an amazing time, we thought, why not do it again?

Man has covid changed the world! Or maybe it’s Instagram, TikTok, and other social media that have opened up these previously hidden spots of beauty to the world. In either case, we've noticed these changes around the world. The hike was fantastic: it didn't go quite as planned (weather, covid, and a bad knee), but the landscape continues to be magnificent and the people friendly.

Day 1: Chilling in Interlaken

We decided to recover from the long flights and a two-hour train ride with a day exploring and soaking in the beauty that is Interlaken. We had a ten hour redeye flight from Johannesburg while mom and Kel had two layovers in the US before catching their own redeye flight from Boston to Zurich. All that travel wears us out in a way it didn't use to, so the day in Interlaken was nice to have!

Mom checking out our view from the Airbnb in Interlaken. It was actually cheaper to rent the Airbnb for the entire time we were there instead of just the three nights we were staying there. This made it extra convenient so we didn’t have to carry as much stuff or figure out where to stash the stuff we didn’t need hiking.

Day 2: Schynige Platte to Faulhorn

This is probably my favorite part of the hike and we really lucked out and had great weather for it. Actually, it would be the ONLY nice weather we would have! But as my sister-in-law always says, the best memories are made in ponchos!

We took the cog railway from Wilderswil up to Schynige Platte and started our 6.5-mile hike to Faulhorn from the train stop there. We grabbed the first train up so the train was pretty empty. The pictures speak for themselves as far as the scenery goes!

Off we go! Our Airbnb was less than a five minute walk to the bus stop in Interlaken.

The hike from Schynige Platte to Faulhorn starts off with a gentle, pleasant incline and doesn’t start to get steep until after lunch. One of the things I love about hiking in Switzerland is all the restaurants along the trail. They always seem to be at the most scenic, idyllic spots.

After a tasty lunch of sausage and bread, it was time to start the real hike. Steep, but the scenery always has me pretending to be Maria, twirling and singing something about hills being alive.

This was our third time spending a night at Faulhorn Hotel. It's a beautiful location and the food is tasty. The first time Jim and I did this hike, all the private rooms were sold out and we ended up sleeping in the dorms. That was our first and last dorm experience. Fortunately, on the last two trips, we've been able to get private rooms. There is not a bad view from there! Even the cows are scenic up there.

Day 3: Faulhorn to First

This is when our original plan got a bit sidetracked due to potential yuck weather- rain and cold-and the slow recovery from covid for my mom, and some knee pain for Jim.

Normally we would have hiked from Faulhorn, past First, to Grosse Scheidegg, and down to Grindelwald to spend the night. It's a mostly downhill hike with a loss of something like 6,000 feet in elevation, over about 13 miles. Jim is 💯 a fair-weather hiker and the last time we hiked it, all of us had pretty sore toes from the constant downhill. We considered hiking just to Grosse Scheidegg, grabbing lunch there then taking the bus down from there, but in the end, we decided to just hike to First and take the gondola down to Grindelwald. This is one reason hiking in this area is so enjoyable: absolutely no stress or feeling like you have to hike every bit of a trail since you have trains, buses, gondolas, funiculars, lifts, etc, if the weather turns or you just aren't feeling the hike (of course, as long as you don't mind the cost of said alternatives! At $32/person for a ride on the gondola from First to Grindelwald, it's definitely not the cheapest option!).

You can see the clouds moved in and made for a moody atmosphere—a180 from yesterday's blue sunny skies!

Jim, mom, and Kel hiking down from Faulhorn.

First has a really cool metal walkway that stretches out off of the cliff. I'm not afraid of heights, but even I feel a little bit of vertigo when I go out there. Needless to say, mom and Jim stayed behind while Kel and I explored it.

We made it down to Grindelwald in time for lunch and to do some exploring and window shopping in town (and eat Gelato!). Switzerland has always been expensive, but we had quite a bit of sticker shock on this trip. I don't think we had a meal that cost less than $100 for the 4 of us-and that's without any alcohol!

Day 4: Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg

Today was another day of letting the weather decide our hiking for the day. We woke up to overcast skies with drizzle. At this point, we started seeing snowflakes in the future forecast! Brrrr! The clouds were low in the valley like they often are in the mornings in fall.

A view of the valley from our hotel Alpenblick

Since it was cold with a chance of a lot more rain, we decided to take the cog rail up to Kleine Scheidegg instead of hiking the 3,000 ft in elevation up there. We could tell it would have been mostly a hike in the clouds with lots of rain and figured we could drop of our packs at our hotel and do a few short hikes hoping that maybe we would be above the clouds. We checked into our hotel, dropped of our stuff and did some exploring around an alpine lake. The clouds were continously rolling in hiding most of the views and pretty much all of Grindelwald in the valley below us.

Jim decided to hang back in our room due to his knee, while mom, Kel and I hiked up to Männlichen.

The hike to Männlichen is an easy, beautifully scenic, five miles round-trip. Even as we hiked in and out of the clouds rolling through, we were treated to the beauty that is Switzerland. We were surprised to find so many other people hiking along the trail in the sometimes drizzly, sometimes rainy, sometimes sunny afternoon. Lots of friendly hellos and big smiles though.

Day 5: Kleine Scheidegg to Stechelberg

We woke up to another day of cold, drizzly weather. Mom and I decided to hike back up to Männlichen … mostly because she lost her wallet and we thought maybe, just maybe, it fell out of her pocket while we were hiking the previous day. Spoiler alert! It HAD fallen out of the pocket it was in… but it got stuck between the bag and the netting on the back of her pack! So Mom and I had a nice hike just the two of us while Jim and Kel took the train from Kleine Scheidegg to Lauterbrunnen. Mom and I hiked back to Männlichen then took the funicular to Murren, then the train to Lauterbrunnen where we met Jim and Kel for lunch. Again, not the original plan, but fun to do something different!

Since there were still clouds and rain showers blowing through the valley, and it was still quite chilly, we hopped on the bus to the end of the valley instead of hiking. We spent the afternoon in our suite at the hotel playing cards and watching movies. But then, with views like this, we can't complain!

Day 6: STECHELBERG back to Interlaken

We expected to wake up to snow on the ground, or at least snow flurries since that's what the forecast was calling for. Luckily there was no snow on the ground (or if you are me, unlucky since I was hoping to see Switzerland blanketed with snow. I mean think about it, I'm never going to convince Jim to go to Switzerland in the winter, so this was pretty much my only chance to see a snow-covered Switzerland!).

After breakfast, back in our rooms packing up, we heard cowbells… lots and lots of cowbells. We went out on our balcony to find the street full of cows being headed down the valley. Apparently, in spring and summer, the herdsman and cattle move in stages from the lowest pastures to the highest-level pastures. In autumn, the cattle are brought back down through four stages to their winter quarters in Stechelberg. The herdsman and cattle move eight times in a period of three or four months. My nomadic soul mates! The Swiss claim this is the reason Swiss cows make all the best cheeses and chocolates. The alpine pastures have a lot more variety of plants vs the lower pastures.

Quite a bit more snow on the mountain tops than a week earlier!

It wasn't the trip we had planned, but then as much as we like to think covid isn't a thing anymore, it continues to mess up our travel plans all too frequently! We made adjustments and had fun anyway.

All four of us made our way to South Africa to continue the adventure. Stay tuned for that tale (and how covid just keeps getting in the way of stuff!).