Europe ’24 – Switzerland – Wright Around the Bend

It has been a lifelong dream to hike the mountains of Switzerland. It took about 5hrs of train to train connections from Paris to the car-free tiny mountain village of Wengen. Heading from Paris to the border town of Basel (the corner of Germany, France and Switzerland), we hopped on another train to Thun, another train to Interlaken, which took us up into a dead-end valley called Lauterbrunnen, and finally a small tram up a 1,500ft gain in 10mins to Wengen.

Wengen is situated on a ledge above the Lauterbrunnen Valley and below large hiking pass called Kleine Scheidegg. Being a car-free village, it was always quiet and serene, only with mountain cowbells to break the silence. Our little apartment was a steep uphill 10min walk from the station, and right around the corner from the main street that had a couple little restaurants, a tiny little movie theater, and the cable car up to the tip top of the valley. I highlighted some photos below, but the whole Swiss catalogue of photos are here.

Wengen, Mürren, and Lauterbrunnen

Our first hike took us to the opposite side of the valley into the even more remote village of Mürren. The only way to get there is a steep cable car followed by a small tram. We had great weather and stunning views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.

Kleine Scheidegg and Grindelwald

From Wengen, we took a steep cable car up to the top of a mountain. At the top, you could see across two valleys; Lauterbrunnen with its dozens of waterfalls and Grindelwald at the base of the treacherous Eiger peak. Once at the top of the cable car, we joined up with a small tour group that took us to the top of Männlichen (a steep point at the top of the valley). Afterwards, we taste tested some locally made Swiss cheeses and chocolates.

Oeschinensee

A 2hr one-way train ride meant we had to get on the ‘road’ early and get back later, it would be a long day out. Oeschinensee (which means Lake Oeschinen) is a high alpine lake surrounded by steep mountain peaks. The lake is fed by mountain water that keeps the water bright blue (and very cold). To get up the the lake, there’s first a 15min steep cable car and then about 5miles roundtrip of well maintained trail.

Fondue! We couldn’t leave our little mountain paradise without a classic fondue dinner. Simple cheesy goodness paired with bread, what more could we ask for?

Zermatt and the Matterhorn

What better way to end our adventure through Switzerland than staying in Zermatt and hiking around the base of the majestic Matterhorn peak. We made one crucial mistake that I’ll call out first before getting to the good stuff… we should have left the majority of our luggage in the train station in Zermatt before walking up to our apartment on the top floor. Since Zermatt is also car-free, we packed all our 5 pieces of luggage into a glorified golf cart taxi (remember, we had an extra suitcase filled with Paris Flea Market goods). Then, we schlepped up a steep path and 4 flights of stairs all while carrying our heavy luggage. By the time we got to the top, we were seriously doubting this would be all worth the one night stay before our flight out of Geneva the day after.

Alas, we rested up for a couple hours and walked around town to lift our spirits. Later in the day, we collected some local raclette cheese and found a cool original painting at an antique store in town. Zermatt was much bigger and touristy than Wengen, which made us happy with our decision to stay in a small village.

Our apartment had a window looking out that perfectly framed the Matterhorn. First, we stayed up late to see the mountain among the stars, and then we set an alarm for sunrise and woke up just in time to see the sun perfectly kissing the tip of the mountain.

Our last day in Zermatt took us on the 5 Lakes Trail with nonstop views of the Matterhorn. To get there we had to take a tram up into a mountain that went up 2,000ft in 5mins, then another 10mins on a cable car. By the time we reached the highest point of the hike, we were at 10,000ft elevation and nothing but blue skies along the way.