To Murren Switzerland

 July 3 Sunday

The alarm goes off and it feels like we just went to sleep. Oh well. Crawl out and catch that 6:55 train. Last night Christina showed us just where to go to catch the train which made it easier to find when we were still a bit groggy. They changed the train platform on us but with Christina’s trained eye, we weren’t tricked.

We take this train to Zurich and have a whole 30 minutes to change trains to Bern. Cristina’s app is saying one thing of where to change trains and Nick’s is saying a stop earlier. They both get to Interlaken at the same time. We opt to change at the earlier stop. Whichever place you change, the connection is crazy short. We run. Cristina is in the lead and holds the door for us. There are lots of empty seats and plenty of room to store our suitcases. Next stop there are hordes of people trying to be get on. Bot did we play that one right!

From Interlaken we make the short change to Lauterbrunnen. This is working like clock work. Must be because we’re in Switzerland. 

The next part is a cable car!  The scenery is beautiful but we can’t stop to take it all in as we’re concentrating  on making sure our baggage isn’t in someone’s way or rolling away. Last leg  is from Grutchlap ( or some sorta similar spelling that I can’t hold on to) to Murren on a narrow gage railroad.

When we start at Munich, it is flat and pastoral. Christina points out the fields of hops. 

I’d really never thought about what hops were or where they came from. Just knew that some beers were hoppier than others. Side note…. On beer menus we would see alk.We figured that was alcohol content but there was also a column with ibu. That is international bitterness units and tells you how hoppy the beer is. We decided some people have higher ibu than others too. They aren’t fun to be around. Back to the hops fields. They look like a vine growing up strings. I have no idea how they would harvest them.

Then the landscape gets a bit more rolling and we can see snow capped mountains in the distance, I’m not paying much attention and suddenly we’re in the middle of them. Or so out seemed to this Iowa girl,   The train goes right along the lake as we get near Interlaken. Lots of small sail boats and people out enjoying the sun and water. ( of course when I go back and look at my pictures,I don’t have one V with the sail boats😜

I don’t think it can get any more scenic than this. But oh boy does it ever!

From Lauterbrennen we take a cable car and then catch a narrow gauge train to Murren. Wow!

We’re totally dwarfed by the jagged peaks soaring above us. The blue sky and puffy clouds behind…It almost doesn’t look real. It is so spectacular that the closest I can relate to is a painted background.

Using GPS, we find our Airbnb. We pull our suitcases up the narrow gravel path that turns into a narrow tromped down grass path up to our place. Oh the View is breath taking. Yes, we can stay here for the next 3 nights.

After settling in, we head out in search of lunch. It’s after 3:00 which is that awkward time between lunch and dinner when many restaurants don’t sell cooked food. We got a recommendation from one place that was only selling desserts at this hour for a good place just down the hill. It has a view too! The waitress was one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Joking around with everyone. A relaxed, homey atmosphere emanated from her. I’m sure she has never met a stranger. The food was excellent too. I had pork schnitzel with a creamy mushroom sauce and really good fresh vegetables, Nick and Christina both had sausage and sides.

Food up here is ridiculously expensive. we find the little grocery store and get things to make racette. New to me but Cristina saw the special apparatus in the kitchen to make it. You have whatever you want and special Swiss cheese that you melt and put over potatoes. We had red pepper and garlic. It was fun and good. Need to see if  we can get one of those to be able to make it at home.

 For dessert we had fresh strawberries on little waffles and Toblerone chocolate that we had gotten at the grocery store. Biggest box of these that I’ve ever seen!

We take an evening walk to the other end of town and beyond. This is pastoral but. A very different way from around Munich. Cows and va sheep grazing on the hillside. Cowbells clang incessantly. The hills are definitely alive with the sound of cowbells.