The village of Murren!
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| Walking to town! |
Murren: We started out the next day at a
decent time and headed across the valley to the little village of Murren.
Several people had told us that Murren was the most beautiful place in the
area, so we had great expectations. Murren was a quaint little town but not
really what we expected, and at the end of the day we all decided that Wengen
was our favorite. We took a funicular to a flower garden that had the coolest
playground that even Dad enjoyed! After playing for a while, we were all very
hungry so we headed down the mountain to find something to eat. While we ate we
came to the decision that our next destination would be a waterfall that was
situated on the opposite side of the valley. Dad, Caroline, and I would again
walk, while the rest of our family spent more time in Murren and then took a
gondola down the mountain to a bus that would take them right to the waterfall!
As soon as we finished eating the three hikers headed for the trail while the
rest of the family meandered through the shops situated all over town.
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| The gardens in Murren and the funicular ride up the mountain! |
After we
left the group, we found a big map of all the surrounding mountains and while
we were studying it, a man walked up to us and asked what hike we were doing. When
we told him, he sounded interested so dad invited him to join us and he
accepted. As we walked we learned that Roland (his name) was visiting
Switzerland for a work meeting with several of his co-workers. We were
surprised that the trail was heading up the mountain instead of down (the
direction we were supposed to be heading). Eventually the trail headed down the
mountain and after about ten minutes of slipping and sliding downwards we began
to miss the steady uphill climb we had been experiencing a few minutes prior.
At this point we were walking right next to cows who watched us with
questioning glances. Dad says that we were on a trail but I think we were
actually following a cow path… When we had been hiking/sliding for about two
miles Mom called us and told us that the waterfall closed at 6pm. We still had
two miles to go before we would reach the place where the bus would pick us up
and take us to the waterfall. We ran the last two miles and finally arrived in
the town where the bus stop was. We arrived at the town at 5:20 and when we
asked the bus driver when the bus would leave she told us 6 o’clock! We knew
that would be too late so we started running again. At this point Caroline was
tired so dad was carrying her and I was carrying the backpack. I am sure we
looked ridiculous running down the road in the middle of an alpine valley with
soaring cliffs. After we had run another mile Dad told me to flag down a car
for a ride because if we didn’t, we weren’t going to have any time at the
waterfall. I didn’t want to so dad tried but he had no success. Finally I gave
in, waved, and a car stopped. We told them where we were trying to go and they
gave us a ride. We arrived a few minutes later at the waterfall. The time was
5:45 and we had plenty of time to see it before we headed back to where the bus
would take us to Lauterbrunnen where we could take the train back to Wengen.
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| Lizzy with the Swiss flag at the waterfall! |
The
waterfall was beyond amazing. Imagine a torrential river going vertical through
a carved canyon, the water whirling and pounding with forces beyond
measure. The adventure doesn’t end there
because when we got to where the bus was supposed to pick us up, it had just
pulled away! It would be another hour before the next one came and our entire
family had just left on the last one. We sat down to wait for the next one.
Roland, who stuck with us the whole time, said that his friends had a car and
they could take us to Lauterbrunnen when they got there to pick him up. They
ended up having two cars and when they arrived they all got out of their cars
and waited for the drivers to take us to Lauterbrunnen. So we arrived about the
same time as the bus! Needless to say we were exhausted that night! We felt
blessed to hike, run and get to know Roland that afternoon. My dad said that it’s often the case that you
meet neat and interesting people when you travel and Roland fits that description
exactly!
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| Mary slacklining in Wengen... |
