Breathtaking Mürren
Mürren in Switzerland is a lovely village only reached by gondola from Lauterbrunnen or Stechelberg in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Once on top, several more gondolas and funiculars bring you elsewhere on the mountain to hike, so very nice. This is the summer map although the main season is winter for skiing, of course. But the village also offers ice-skating, curling, snow-shoeing, cross-country-skiing and other activities. The highest peak is Schilthorn where the Restaurant Piz Gloria, featured in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the James Bond film with George Lazenby, was completely demolished in the movie.
Several gondolas and funiculars bring you all over the area: everyday somewhere else to hike
Mürren seen from the Sky Line walk at Birg with the massive Eiger as backdrop
Our good friends Keith and Alison informed us about Wengen which they visited several years ago and that led us to a similar town in the area albeit a bit less visited … Mürren. A short train ride connects the two villages, but we had so much to do here that we never left our small corner of the Alps until we took the gondola back to Stechelberg where we parked the rental car for several days in a lot at the base of the mountain.
This was our first serious attempt at hiking on our vacation. There would be hiking hotspots sprinkled throughout our trip, but none so majestic as here in Mürren.
We breathed the wonderful Alpen air, enjoying comfortable warm days and cooler nights, never cold though. And the best part was the lack of mosquitos! We were too high up for those pesky insects to follow us.
The town of Mürren is definitely overrun by tourists, but mostly during the winter skiing season. We encountered groups, many of whom came only for a day trip up on the gondola like a tide that ebbs at night as the town clears. Fewer stay for multiple days, and our four days on the mountain were definitely too short. We absolutely want to come back. What a pleasant surprise. We loved every minute of it.
The view of Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau from our Air B&B in Mürren
A collage of mountain views from Mürren.
Edelweiss on a walking trail near the restaurant at Allmendhubel
We bought a four day lift pass to hop on and off the gondolas. This way we did not have to queue up to buy a lift ticket on the day we headed up a gondola to Allmendhubel for lunch and some wandering.
At the Panorama Restaurant, we learned about Appenzeller Alpenbitter from a lovely elderly gentleman savoring the drink at the table next to ours. We couldn’t hold back inquiring about his drink, a golden liquor in a whiskey glass with a large ice cube. The golden liquid tasted of mint, anise and licorice with a pleasant herbal finish. This was our go to after dinner digestive while traveling through Switzerland.
Yes, yes - you know it! We continuously had lots of fun with the app "Seek" to identify new plants that we encountered, so us.
We had fantastic opportunities to hike! Nearly every day we took advantage of our surroundings. One day it rained, so we visited the rec center in town and swam in the new, large public indoor swimming pool (on the mountain!).
Here are some of the pictures we took on our hikes around Mürren!
Since our Air B&B was at the far end of town, we parked in Stechelberg and rode up that gondola. We switched gondolas at Gimmelward and rode on to Mürren. It was only a short walk to our Air B&B Chalet Sunnerain.
View of the moonrise from the deck of Chalet Sunnerein while sipping glasses of wine
Mürren at night
Randy taking a selfie at the outdoor deck of Piz Gloria on Shilthorn peak
After four glorious days in the village of Mürren, we headed back down to Stechelberg with our belongings and packed up the rental car for our next destination - Lake Lugano.
However, we weren’t completely done with the area. We were passing by Trümmelbachfälle, Europe’s largest subterranean glacial water falls that are accessed via galleries, tunnels, paths and platforms. Carved by the runoffs of the Jungfrau and Eiger glaciers, this was a destination not to be missed.
We definitely look forward to more opportunities exploring this area and the many hikes and local foods.
Thank you Keith and Alison for making us aware of this amazing part of Switzerland!
