Day 9: Bond. James Bond.

Food and Beverage of the Day

Swiss wine

Spatzli

Practicalities

City: Lauterbrunnen

Weather: Miserable, Chilly, Rainy

Hotel: Oberland

Sights: Schilthorn

Trummelbach Falls

A WOW Moment

This was the day of my most perfect moment of the trip. It was cloudy with negligible visibility going up the Schilthornbahn. Couldn’t see anything in Gimmelwald. Couldn’t see anything in Murren. And then we ascended to Birg, and all of a sudden we emerged from the clouds, and there they were – spectacular Swiss Alps spread out all around us. WOW! WOW! WOW! All the way up to Piz Gloria, and then we had a great breakfast in the revolving restaurant enjoying the panoramic view. But I will always remember that emerging from the clouds moment.

The plan today is to get up and see whether the web cam shows any visibility on top of the Schilthorn. The weather does not look promising out of the window. The valley is socked in, but the web cam shows clearer skies on top of the mountain, and the weather forecast suggests that this might last for a couple of hours. We decide to go for it and exit the hotel without bothering with breakfast. We catch the 7:35 bus to Stechelberg, finding that four other members of our My Way group have decided to do the same. The hotel conveniently provides time tables for the buses and lifts.

We purchase tickets that include breakfast in the revolving restaurant at the top and board the cable car with a large group who turn out to be a Rick Steves Best of Europe Tour, so we trade tales going up. They seem to be having a good time. We ascend through Gimmelwald and Murren with limited visibility.

Limited visibility on the mountain

And then we ascend to Birg, and suddenly there are mountains.

At the top we have a memorable meal in the revolving restaurant before moving on to the outdoor views.

Then it's back inside for the James Bond exhibit. We watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service just before this trip, so the film is fresh in our minds, and Piz Gloria is still recognizable as Blofeld's hideout, really everything a supervillain could want. The production was a big deal around here; most of the cast and crew stayed in Murren, and there are interviews with some of the locals who remember as well as props and interactive experiences, like a simulated bobsled run. It's quite fun.

A recognizable railing

Cool bathrooms

Bobsled

By the time we are finished cloud cover has descended over the peaks, and visibility is down to negligible. We head down to Murren and take the funicular up to Allmendhubel, where it is raining hard. We stop for lunch at a convenient restaurant before attempting to do the wildflower walk around the top of the funicular station. But it's raining too hard even for a short walk like this. We brought light rain gear, but it's not enough. We are soaked in short order and decide to return to the hotel, so we retrace our steps down the mountain and take the bus back to Lauterbrunnen. After a couple of hours, the rain lightens, and we have dried out, so we decide to walk over to Trummelbach Falls, the waterfall inside a mountain. It's a pleasant walk through the valley, past other falls and rushing glacial melt. (See panorama at top of page).

At the falls we encounter half our tour group coming out as we take the elevator up and then wind our way through the tunnels. Photos cannot do justice to the falls, which are extremely impressive, both to see and listen to. I suggest watching a video instead. Rick's book gives them one triangle, which underrates them in my opinion. I was feeling disappointed to be doing this instead of an alpine hike, but that feeling quickly dissipates.

View of the valley from the falls

Trummelbach Falls exiting the mountain

As we walk back out we encounter the other half of our group coming in. It appears to be the thing to do today. We take the bus back to our hotel and make reservations at the hotel restaurant for 7:30. At the appointed hour we enjoy spatzli, a German dumpling, and some wonderful Swiss red wine, possibly the best meal we've had on this trip so far, and that's saying something.