Auf Wiedersehen Switzerland...

   The village of Murren!

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.

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.

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!

Mary slacklining in Wengen...