Bernese Alps, Swizerland

 I doubt we'd have done this trip without the invitation from friends, Doug and Dot, to join them at a chalet in Gimmelwald in the Bernese Alps for a week in July 2022. They had travelled in the region for many years and so they knew the transport system, villages and local walking routes.

We stretched the holiday out for a two week period and travelled by train, bus and cable car from our home in Devon to St. Pancras and then by Eurostar to Brussels where we stayed for two nights before moving onto Basel via Koln. We spent a couple of nights in Basel and then went further into Switzerland to Interlaken for a night and then completing the journey to Gimmelwald, a village at 1363 m with a view of the main ridge of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains.

We had decided on a land route to reduce our carbon footprint but because of the on-going Covid pandemic (both of us in our 70s and triple vaccinated) we decided to wear ffp2 medical masks on all public transport as a further precaution. Apart from Germany, this is optional and indeed in England, Belgium, Swizerland and France (on our return journey) we were in the minority with probably less than 5% of passengers  wearing any type of mask. Medical grade masks were mandatory in Germany and the vast majority of people wore them but a few used lower grade masks. Anyway, make of it what you want but I'm writing this nine days after our return and neither of us have experienced Covid symptons.

I prebooked most of our rail tickets by mobile Apps and reserved seats on Great Western, Eurostar and Deutsche Bahn and on our return via Paris, on French railways, SNCF. I used the Swiss railways App, SBB Mobile, but you can't reserve seats on the Swiss network. I purchased the "half-rail ticket" for one month and then the journeys through "point to point" tickets, e.g. the Basel to Gimmelwald ticket covers the whole journey from Basel to Interlaken and then to Stechelberg to then change to bus to Lauterbrunnen and the final stage by cable car to Gimmelwald. I did take hard copies of the tickets as backup.

Totnes to Brussels.

This went smoothly, the rail ticket to St Pancras from Totnes worked on the underground connection. The Eurostar terminal was crowded but once on the train there was sufficient luggage space and the train was on time. On arrival in Brussels at the Gare du Midi (Zuid or south station) we took the metro line 6 to Rogier which was a short walk to our hotel, Hotal Indigo,  in the Place Charles Rogier. This was a very pleasant stay with breakfast and a forest theme to the common areas with plenty of space. We tried the "chips and mussels" for dinner and the next day did tours on the TOOT bus (hop-on and off city tours) catching it at the Rogier stop on the square opposite the hotel. There are two loops and we did one in the morning and the other after waffles for lunch.

Typical street scene in central Brussels with lots of electric scooters available and also in use on the streets and cycle lanes. Seemed to be picked-up and dropped-off anywhere.

I haven't been to Brussels for over 20 years, the last time was when I worked on EU research projects and it has very much changed, especially the transport and abundance of electric scooters and cycles. We enjoyed a stroll around the Grand Place, the central square and adjoining streets back to our hotel. I can recommend the bus tours to give an overview of the city and the royal palaces. We did notice a lot of homeless in the central area.

Brussels to Basel.

After our brief stay we caught the train from the Gare du Midi to Basel going by Koln (10.25 h arriving at 16.47 h). The change in Koln was hectic with a crowded station and we had some difficulty getting to the correct carriage as the train was very long and we had probably miss-understood the diagram of the carriage locations given on the platform. Luggage space on the trains was good and we made it to Basel SBB station on time. On arrival, the tram station was immediately outside the front of the SBB station and the times and transits of the trams are well electronically signed. We looked for the number 2 tram to Wettstein Plaz (our hotel Wettstein was just off the square) and as one drew-up we boarded. Our hotel reservation was our ticket although we were not asked for a ticket (it seems they do random checks). Anyway, from the map I expected the tram to cross the Rhine to get to our square but it didn't and came to a stop. Anyway, it transpired that we had got on the tram going in the wrong direction so we stayed on and returned to the SBB station and then continued to our correct stop. The hotel was different and once we had mastered the blinds, the room was pleasant overlooking the garden with a much needed fan as the temperature was over 27 C. We had breakfast in the large garden and helped ourselves to coffee and hot chocolate drinks from a machine after our evening meals. The hotel is in "small" Basel on the German side of the river. During the first evening we had dinner outside in the square and did a brief walk along the river. This was very pleasant with wild flowers along the bank and pathway and a few people floating with their dry bags down the river. This seemed to be a popular pastime during our stay, probably helped a lot by the relatively high temperatures. 

We found that Basel was very modern with an excellent transport system (you get a tram pass with your hotel stay) of trams and buses and also lots of cycle lanes that were used by cycles, electric cycles and some scooters. It was clean and pleasant to walk around and the centre was a size that you can manage. They do have bus tours but the times were not convenient for our stay so we explored both sides of the Rhine bridges by foot. We found cafes and places to eat easily and looked around the older part of the town overlooking the river.

A view across the Rhine with some floating people in view.

Basel to Gimmelwald.

After this is was a short hop on the train to Interlaken, We grabbed an Indian curry just outside the train station (the east station, Ost) and found our ways by foot to Walter's hostel in the backpackers area south of the river. We had a large room, it was self catering and cool, so after a break we made our way back into town and strolled towards the western side of town. This is a busier area with lots of tourist including many Indian and Arab families. We had some difficulty getting an evening meal because many of the better places were completely booked with up to two hours wait. However, we did find a very nice restaurant and excellent service with a good view of  Jungfrau (4166 m) from our table. 

Jungfrau peak taken from close to where we had our evening meal

In the morning we decided to go onto to Gimmelwald as Interlaken was very busy and too commercialised for our taste and we were looking forward to meeting up with our friends. We went by train to Lauterbrunnen (802 m) and then changed to a connecting bus to Stechelberg (922 m) and finally by cable car to Gimmelwald (1363 m) where we stayed for one week as our base for walking in the nearby mountains and valleys.

The glacial river Aare running through Interlaken Ost. 

The view from our chalet looking down towards the Lauterbrunnen valley.

Our first relatively short walk (2.7 km one way) was to get some supplies from the village of Murren (1638 m) that is 275 m above Gimmelwald connected by a single track road and also by cable car. Gimmelwald and Murren are traffic free apart from use by the locals as there is no road connection to the valley. There is also a 2,2 km  via ferrata that connects the two villages. We met a few farmers moving hay between fields and storage. The year round population of Murren is 450 and I guess most of these work in the tourist industry or are closely connected with it. Murren has a Coop shop and plenty of ice cream for hot days! and is the destination of many of the tourists coming up from the valley on the cable cars.

The first longer walk we did was to perhaps typical of others we did in the coming days. We were very lucky to get splendid weather during our stay with sunshine and temperatures above 25 C at height and sometimes reaching over 32 C in the afternoon. First we descended to the valley and the bus to Lauterbrunnen and from there a train to Wengen followed by a cable car to Mannlichen (2343 m). Needless to say these all connected and led to a coffee in a cafe/restaurant before a climb ("The Royal Walk") to a view point with spectacular views.

View down the "The Royal Walk" to the cable car station and restaurant at Mannlichen with the North face of the Eiger, Munch and Jungfrau mountains in the background.

The rest of the walk (about 6.5 km) was called the Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg a Wanderweg/Panoramaweg so nice and easy and mostly downhill taking about 1 1/2 hour but for us much longer as we stopped to see the views and also have our sandwich lunch. This is a spectacular walk as you pass in front of the North face and can see the Jungfraujoch, a saddle between Munch and Jungfrau, that has a railway station! 

This is the best photo I have of the North face as earlier it had been in full shade even tough we had sun and quite a blue sky. Munch is to the right.

At Kleine Scheidegg we got the cable car down to Wegen, did some more shopping before returning back to our chalet.

The following day we did another spectacular walk, this time starting and finishing in Murren, the village above our chalet. This walk is called the "North Face Trail"  an easy hike showing the north faces of the Bernese alps and has plenty of information boards describing the views and also a wild flower meadow area with information about the range of flowers seen in the meadows and pastures in the area. Also there are cafes/restaurants along the walk and, as ever, plenty of finger-posts indicating the different walks from the station.

The flower meadows at the start of the "North Face Trail".

The route back was through some woods and past some cabins with people making hay. What a log store!!

The route was also through pastures with cows grazing in the summer sunshine, a few yellow billed choughs circling, and wending our way through some welcome tree shade to some cabins and hay meadows before returning to Murren.

The next day we did a different type of walk starting in Gimmelwald and following the road towards the path down to Stechelberg but continuing on along a track to become a narrow footpath to a cirque at the head  of the valley, Chilchbalm at 1631 m. It was again a hot day so a dip in a glacial river was welcome before we went to the head of the valley to see a waterfall cascading from icefields above.

Waterfall near the head of the valley at Chichbalm.

Cairn at Chilchbalm looking into the cirque

We only saw two other hikers all day and so it was a real treat to have the cirque to ourselves for our lunch stop. I was thinking at the time how this would be a major tourist attraction in any other place, a wild meadow in a giant amphitheatre. Also, as we left we heard a loud crack and looked around to see an avalanche above the cirque flowing down the cliffs. We had never seen one before apart from the induced ones in Canada triggered by shots to keep the slopes safe near roads. We had noticed at the cabin that on the opposite cliffs the snow was disappearing fast to reveal the grey/blue glacial ice underneath and also the remarkable volume of glacial water flowing down the mountains and high  river levels. After we returned home we heard that some high alpine walking routes had to be closed because of the fear of rock and ice falls caused by the receding glaciers partly caused by the high temperatures but also aided by the low winter snowfall and the darkening of the snow caused by the desert sand that swept across Europe earlier in the year.

Another walk was via Grindelwald and a bus to Gross Scheidegg (about 2 hours journey from the chateau). The bus stops near Feldschosschen cafe, convenient for a stop and views from the mountain pass.

Another hot day with clear views of the peaks.

We followed route 6, the Mountain Panorama trail to get to the terminal First and the cable cars down back to Grindelwald. There are viewing platforms at the First terminus but they were very busy at the time of our visit so we gave this a miss.

Platform with views down to Grindelwald. The area gets busy because of the easy access and facilities here for eating with spectacular views.

The next day we got the little train to the Schynige Platte from Wilderswil (the stop before Interlaken on the train). This is a 7.3 km cogwheel track that climbs 1420 m and takes about 50 minutes. This started in 1893 as a steam railway and was electrified in 1914.

Looking down at the Bergstation, the start of our circular walk on the Platte.

There are several circular walks on the platte and include labelled wild flower gardens near the station.  We did route 2, the Panoramaweg that gave us great views of the valley towards Interlaken and the lakes. Again it was a hot day but we found a cool place under some pines for our lunch stop.

 I haven't mentioned much about this but I did get hundreds of photos of wild flowers, probably to the annoyance of my walking companions!. These I have stored on iNaturalist (an App I have being been using for several years now) and tried to identify, mostly with success.

As seen on every walk, the Great yellow Gentian, (Gentiana Lutea).

An example of the footpath 

Lots of finger posts for the various walks. This is at one of the peaks at Aussichtspunkt Daube (2076 m) with great views of the lakes in the valley.

View down to Interlaken on another clear day.

Our return was by the same route and sadly our last night before returning home via Paris and the Eurostar to St Pancras.

The first step was back to Interlaken and then Basel where we had lunch and plenty of time to get the 16.34 train to Gare du Lyon (about 3 hours travel). Our hotel (Lucien & Marinette) was close to the Gare du Nord ready to get the Eurostar to London the next morning. Meanwhile we had a day to see Paris again and decided to walk to the central area (about 20 minutes) and find a boat trip along the Seine,  Vedettes du Pont Neuf.  Of the cities we'd visited, Paris seemed very busy and noisy and certainly, like London, the car still dominated the transport. Anyway, we had a relaxing day finishing at a bar/cafe watching the city life pass us by.

Sorry..this time a view from the boat on the Seine!!

The rest of the journey went OK although there was a delay at the Eurostar terminal caused by some problems in the tunnel earlier in the day so the terminal was very crowded. It didn't help with the passport stamping that we now need caused by the madness of Brexit that still inflicts our country.

Overall it was a short but great holiday thanks to our "guides" and the excellent weather and scenery in the alps. It has given us more confidence in European rail travel that we started earlier in the year with our trip across Spain to return home after the winter. If you love mountains but don't like 1000 m hill climbing, the Bernese Alps offer an easy way to experience the higher altitudes without having to carry a lot or have navigation or survival  skills. Maybe this year it was not as busy as normally because of the fewer visitors from China and Japan caused by the restrictions in those countries caused by Covid . The only down-side is that Switzerland is quite expensive so we were not eating out as much as we usually do in Spain and France but of course there are other compensations.

I have to add another note about the trip and my first impressions. Compared to many other mountain areas, some of which I know well, e.g. the Spanish Pyrenees, this area is really geared up for mass tourism and the Swiss have planned this for many years and have been successful. However, this does take away from the experience of the effort of getting to altitude and "finding your way" and also the solitude that normally comes with mountain landscapes. The mountains here have been opened up through the transport system and cable cars that serve tourists well in the winter and summer. I recall J.B Morton in "Pyrenean" (1938) on passing from the Val d'Aran to Luchon by a footpath "...And then I began to wonder why no broad road ran over the mountains here for the Luchon tourists, and shuddered at the thought of what would happen to the Val d'Aran if ever maniacs started to "develop" the district. Several years ago I tried to do what Morton had done and found the old path out of Spain but on the French side there was no way but to trundle down a "broad road", it did seem a disappointment. I think it was once the same in Switzerland when many valleys were isolated from each other and they developed to some degree their own culture and language.