POW…Gimmelwald!

The next stop on our journey was the small alpine town of Gimmelwald. I didn’t really know where we were going or what the town had to offer but Matt insisted that with how much Rick Steves’s raved about it, it was going to be worth the trek to stay there. It took us four trains, a bus, and a cable car ride to get there but the moment you step out of that gondola, take a deep breath of that mountain air, hear the gentle chiming of the echoing cow bells and get a glimpse of the jaw dropping view…POW…you are surrounded with true pristine picturesque beauty and know instantly it was worth the trip!








Not far from Interlocken and just a cable car ride from Mürren, Gimmelwald is perched high atop the edge of the cliffs surrounded by the breathtaking Swiss alps. Unlike Mürren though, Gimmelwald has been fairly untouched by tourism. It was saved from becoming a ski resort when someone back in the day got the bright idea to have it declared an avalanche zone. Since then no new buildings or structures have been built and because of this it has a feeling of a town locked in time. The people who live there stay there year-round farming grass, raising cows and making cheese.There are no busy roads, no noisy cars, no high-rise expensive hotels, not even a grocery store and the only way to get there is by foot or cable car.
When we first arrived we checked into our hostel and asked them where we could find something small for lunch. They gave us a map of the town and directed us to a place down the street that sold locally made meat and cheese. That sounded great so we took off to explore the little town.

   


What I thought was going to be a small shop or store turned out to be a small fridge in someone’s shed with a box of change inside. It was stocked with fresh milk, eggs, locally made hard alpine cheese, and dried meat sausages. Now keep in mind these are the only items you can purchase in this town minus the food served at the Mountain Hostel Restaurant (oh…and the candied sugar almonds sold by a man a couple of houses down). Although not what I was expecting, It proved to be one of the best and most beautiful lunches of the the trip. 

One of the best things about Gimmelwald is that all of the cows wear bells. The bells range in all shapes and sizes and they all make different sounds. The chimes of the different bells echo off  the distant hills almost giving the town a constant but subtle soundtrack. I asked the man who owned the Mountain Hostel one night why they put the bells on their cows, me thinking it might be a way to track them or scare off predators but he just said, “Nice Swiss tradition!”

There are only a few seasonal B&B’s, two restaurants, a small honesty shop, and the Mountain Hostel. Since we were there in the off season, only the hostel and the restaurant in the hostel were open when we were there. But fewer travelers made it worth it.
That night we stayed out as long as we could, watching the sunset and taking in the view as much as we could until it got to cold. We then went inside and warmed up with a hot homemade pizza and Heidi's Hot Chocolate complete with a touch of peppermint schnapps.

This was painted on the wall of the Mountain Hostel. Note the four places….Portland, OR! What! No Way!

  

The next morning we rode the Schilthorn cable car. It is the longest areal cable car in the world! And for all you James Bond fans out there (like Matt and myself) it was where they filmed in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) with George Lasenby. The cable car even played the James Bond theme song when the doors closed. 



A top the Schiltorn cable car is the Piz Gloria rotating restaurant made famous in the movie for being Blofeld’s secret research facility. The panoramic views are jaw-dropping with over 200 peaks and countless lakes and glaciers. We got there early in the morning so there were few visitors on the observation deck and even though it was icy and cold we took our chances and basically had some of Switzerland's most beautiful views all to ourselves.






Once folks started arriving, we decided to visit the newly opened Bond World 007 interactive museum. I really wasn’t expecting much from this and was honestly expecting it to be rather cheesy. But to our surprise it was really well done and we had a blast!

















   

I got a chance to be a Bond Girl (well…kind of) and Matt got to talk to “M” on the famous red phone

Matt taking flight in the helicopter simulator

One of the best things in the museum was this photo kiosk that let you put your face in classic screen shots from the movie. We laughed so hard! My favorite is the last one…00Matto!

  
  

Chasing down Blofeld in the bobsled simulator

Although it’s not my favorite movies of the Bond franchise, if you haven’t seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service and you are in need of a mindless 60’s corny action movie some night, pop it in. It would defiantly make these photos much funnier.

After way too long in the museum we tried to have lunch at the Piz Gloria restaurant but it was packed and looked a bit out of our budget so we headed back down the mountain to see what we could find in Mürren.













Looking down Main street in the village of Mürren









We ended up at a cute little Swiss restaurant overlooking the valley where we had lunch.

Enjoying the view and a Dunkel

  

I had spatzel and Matt had what I call breakfast…a bed of hash browns, eggs, and bacon

If we hadn’t have been on such a tight budget at this point in our trip or known to budget it in before we left we would have defiantly gone parasailing in Gimmelwald. I’ve always thought it would be fun but seeing them do it here moved it right up to the top of the bucket list. There could not be a more beautiful place to fly like a bird. If anything, it gives me a reason to come back soon.






















To finish the day we hiked back to Gimmelwald from Mürren. Of course we made sure to pick up a few bars of Toblerone from the Co-op to munch on on the way back. We also hiked the Sprutzweg trail where we walked behind the waterfall, talked to a few of the local cows, and grabbed some more meat and cheese from the honesty fridge to take back to the hostel with us for later.

A view from our hike of the tiny town of Gimmelwald perched atop the cliffside

The  following day we took the cable car, a bus, a train, and another cable car to Mannlichen for another day of hiking and beautiful views.

A view from our train car. It is said that this valley was Tolkien's inspiration for Rivendell

If you haven’t already noticed, there are quite a few mountains in Switzerland. Thus when hiking you are usually either going up or down. We thought we’d make it a little easier on ourselves and just hike down the Mannlichen-Kleine Scheidegg trail around the back of the mountain back down to Wengen. This seemed like a great idea until about an hour into it. After going down for so long you start to notice muscles hurting that you didn’t know you even had.

Our view for lunch

A view of Grindelwald

Our lunch companion

This diagram shows the most common ways to mountain climb to the top of the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe. No thank you!

The the station at Kleine Scheidegg and the train to the top of the Jungfraujoch. We opted out of this train trip as it was the most expensive and a bit out of our budget.

Just stopping to take in the view

The town of Wegen

We then decided for the sake of our calves we’d take the train the rest of the way from Wegen back to Gimmelwald. We finished the night with a delicious homemade pizza and great conversation with some fellow hostellers from Los Angeles.



The next day we woke up pretty sore so we took it easy and hiked the small Talweg trail around Gimmelwald. We saw some more waterfalls, an old water powered sawmill, and talked to a few more cows along the way. 








  



We chatted with our new LA friends, ate Raclette for dinner, and planned for the next part of our journey. It was a pretty mellow way to spend our last day in Gimmelwald but it seemed like that was what we were supposed to do. As the clouds rolled in and covered the mountains and the spectacular views, it was as if Switzerland was saying goodbye and wishing us well on the rest of our adventure. I couldn’t have hoped for a more pleasant stay!