Mürren ➡️ Wengen

“Traveling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battula

What a glorious sight and sound‼️

*Seeing these chamois in the high valleys – a type of mountain goat – was always a bit of a thrill.*

*“Well, check out this band of renegades – looking for trouble?!”*

*Oh! Or maybe for a stuffed animal as a souvenir.* 🤭

*When we saw that we could ride atop the cable car up to the top of the mountain we both said, “Oh, heck no!”*

*And, you know what? It was a VERY cool* *thing to do!*

*We rented bikes a couple of times in the Lauterbrunnen Valley – our first time* on ebikes. I have to stop here and say to my girlfriend and gardening partner – “Annie-Bo-Bannie, I get what you’ve been saying! Maybe not this year but definitely in our future.” Anyway, the rides were just amazing – deep in the valley, surrounded by high mountains and waterfalls abound!

*While riding through a village, I spotted this on the side of the road and I had to take a pic – Swiss vending machines sell cheese & eggs – pretty cool.*

*And I just loved the cows with the fuzzy ears – so sweet.*

*We traversed up and down steep mountains in these cog rail trains, propelled by…*

*One trip took almost an hour to climb 7,000 feet to Schynige Platte, in this open air car that was also driven on cog rails.*

*This is a very common sight in the mountains. Paragliders everywhere, floating high above the mountains, into the valleys below for bird’s eye views.*

*It’s all fun and games until* a *strong breeze comes up or the “jumper” miscalculates how close he/she is to the face of the mountain. This guy had to hang from his ropes, hundreds of feet above the ground*,
*for about an hour until…*

*he was airlifted to safety. Of course, we were concerned and asked around. A woman at the TI (travel information) told us*, “*Well, we heard sirens so that indicates he’s still alive.” Turns out it quite a frequent occurrence around here!*

Bringing the cows down from the high meadows into the lower ones calls for a parade. Not quite as melodic as the cow bell video I posted a few days ago – but worthy of a look.

*I don’t know what you think, but she looks to me to be a bit embarrassed to have this ridiculous headdress on.* 🤷🏾‍♀️

Bernese Oberland – Jungfrau Region

Mesmerizing Mürren

“You know how every once in awhile you do something and the little voice inside you says ‘There. That’s it. That’s why you’re here.’ …and you get a warm glow in your heart because you know it’s true? Do more of that.” – Jacob Nordby

When people ask us where our favorite place in the world is we always say Switzerland and when we say that we mean – Mürren, Switzerland. This car free village hangs on a cliff, overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley. We’ll be staying in two different villages while in this region but the very best view of “the big three” is most definitely in Mürren. Do you see the 3 snowy peaks? The one on the left is the Eiger, the middle one is the Monch and the large peak on the right is the Jungfrau. The story goes that the Monch (or Monk) in the center is protecting the Jungfrau (*or young girl) from the Eiger (or ogre) on the left.*

*This is around sunset and the range takes on different looks depending on the time of day and amount of light. However, they are always spectacular.*

*Wonderful hiking paths like these to enjoy the amazing views.*

*Most people hike in some sort of boot except…*

*this little guy that I spotted! It was lucky that I could get my phone out of my pocket in time to snap this shot.*

“*The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” –* Robert Frost

*Obligatory pic – and family “joke” – GOATS!!!*

*Ok, this is definitely worthy of an internet search – do me a favor and go to YouTube and search Mürren Via Ferrata Experience/ Guided Tour from Mürren to Gimmelwald*. *It’s both fascinating and terrifying.*

*We talked about it frequently while we were on hikes like this and wondered how much money we’d have to be offered to take up this crazy challenge!* 🤷🏾‍♀️ *(spoiler alert – Murph said he’d do it for a surprisingly low amount of money.)*

*This was pretty cool to see – tree trimming or thinning out – Swiss Alps style!*

Here’s hoping that this short video I made works for you. 🤞🏽

Do you wonder?

“So Barbara, we saw that England has a lot of flowers – but what about Switzerland?”

“Life is a journey that’s not measured in miles or years, but in experiences.” – r.i.p. Jimmy Buffet

*Even their man-made flowers are gorgeous – look at the view the kids have while playing here – amazing!*

*I’ve never seen such a full sunflower – pretty.*

*I don’t know the name of this flower but this is how it looks in the summer and*

*this is what happens to it in the fall –*

*Uh oh – pumpkins on the vine. Time to head for Michigan*‼️

Lusty Lugano, Switzerland

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life.” – Michael Palin

*After a few hours on the Bernina Express we arrived in Tirano, Italy. A short layover before we hopped on to this bus.*

*Three hours later, we were going down narrow roads with views of Lake Como and Lake Laguno – our next “home”.*

*We walked from the train station up to this pretty cool hostel that Murph found. (They also had private rooms, so* *that was good!)*

It was a bit of a shock to be surrounded by palm trees. This part of Switzerland is very Italian so it was also an adjustment to go from hearing mostly German to everyone speaking Italian. Also, the food choices most definitely had *an Italian flair!*

*The place we’re staying didn’t offer reasonably priced breakfast so we headed for the markets. The watermelon was at peak season and delicious.* 😋

*We found a bakery that had avocado & arugula on pretzel rolls! Oh, and the view wasn’t bad either. I think I’m gonna like it here*‼️

*Remember how bundled up we were in Pontresina just yesterday???*

*The main draw here is floating around the lake on boats, in the sunshine, looking at the surrounding mountains.*

*The boats docked at many villages where people could hop off or on.*

*This is a typical street scene – looked VERY Italian.*

*This funicular carried people up to the train station or down to the lake, and main street* *in town. It was very popular with locals and tourists alike.*

*One morning we took a boat across the lake to Gandria –*

*where we walked the lovely Sentiero dell’Olivo (olive grove trail).*

*I really liked this “fancy” restroom sign/light.*

*Floating by this post, we realized we were on the boarder of Italy and Switzerland.*

*Another trail, this time from Mont Bré down to the village of Bré.*

*This was quite fascinating – a version of a “street cleaner”* – *except it was designed to clean the flotsam and jetsam from around the lake. Switzerland is a very clean and, I’d say perfect, place!*

*Lugano has a wonderful lakeside public park. Great for strolling and smelling the flowers.*

*Did I mention that* *they have a beautiful waterfront that encourages la passeggiata* (*strolling in Italian)?*

*Evenings were so relaxing on the lake.*

*All in all – Lugano was a hit with us!*

Bernina Express

“I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’” – Kurt Vonnegut

*Leaving Pontresina, we head southwest* *on this scenic train heading up and over the Bernina Pass.*

*A most difficult photograph assignment yet for my trusty assistant. Lots of glass for viewing was wonderful but for shooting through – not so much!*

*As you can see, the windows are designed for ultimate views (and everyone was enthralled* 😂).

*The terrain was varied – sometimes we were above it all*, *with nice views of the mountain rivers,*

*Sometimes the villages were easy to see and imagine a life there.*

*At other times the villages were barely a rumor.*

*As the train wended its way through the countryside* *it took* *twists and turns.*

*Up and over this circular via duct and back again, thus enabling the train to make a tight turn without a cog rail. (More on cog rails to come, please stay tuned)*

Pontresina, Switzerland

“You’re off to great places. Today is your first day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” – Dr Seuss

*We arrived via train on a rainy afternoon.*

*The wonderful sound of water rushing down into the valley.*

*The following morning, we took a train to nearby St Moritz and took a cable car up*

*They said we might spot Ibex like this guy…we did not!*

*This is the sun terrace but not a lot of sun this day.*

*From up above, this was our view down to St Moritz.*

*Once down off the mountain, we decided to train to another nearby village – Samedan.*

*Pretty little town, even if it was raining!*

*See the terraced hills behind me? Those were from the 1500’s when Celtic people farmed here.*

*We had heard that it was going to get cold overnight – cold enough for snow, we wondered*? *We were pretty excited when we woke up to this!*

*We dressed as warm as we could and then we took 2 funiculars and a cable car to get up to the paths above Pontresina. Following the signs to Alp Languard.*

*The red and white trail markers let us know we were on the right track!*

*Someone made this section of the path quite easy to traverse.*

*Here’s my fearless leader, crossing a waterfall!*

*Beautiful mountain flowers – so tiny yet so resilient.*

*We walked through a short tunnel in the mountain and I thought this was a fun pic.*

If you’ve never seen a kestrel, it may be worth a google search…we had a couple soaring over our heads as we hiked and they are so much fun to watch. They hover while looking for prey and you’d swear they they aren’t moving, even though they are high in the sky. Every so often they spread their tail feathers as a type of rudder. Just fascinating.

*After hiking for four hours we took a chairlift – down, down, & down into Pontresina – terrifying!*

A Touch of France — Alsace-Lorraine

“Travel while you’re ‘young’ and able. Don’t worry about the money, just make it work. Experience is far more valuable than money will ever be.” – unknown