Gimmelwald

Hiking is easy with signage like this.

It is really hard to put into words the immenseness of the Berner Oberland region.  Picture our famous Yosemite valley with a village at the bottom (Lauterbrunnen).  Now imagine being able to get to the top of El Capitan and when you get there you see more villages (Wengen, Murren, Gimmelwald, etc.) and above them you see the Grand Tetons (Eiger, Munch, Jungfrau, etc.).  That is what this place is like. We are nestled in this enormous valley, guarded to our East and West by mostly sheer cliffs that go up for thousands of feet.  Everywhere that green grass can possibly grow there are farm houses and many more summer sheds/barns used by the dairy farmers throughout the grazing season.  This is farm country - in the valley and above the valley.

Waterfall season.

And what is interesting is that when you come here, despite the fact that tourists come here a lot, you feel fully integrated into a "native" community of farmers and country-folk.  Everyday Swiss working class life is all around - dairy farmers, cows, goats, sheep, hay, manure, split wood (everywhere!), and pristine little farms with these "outbuildings" all over the place.  In the US, we usually have a farmhouse (white) and then a barn (red) and then a silo (grey) and maybe another big shed (metal).  But in Switzerland, the farm houses and barns and sheds all look the same.  And they are distributed equally around the landscape.  Most of the buildings are only open in the summer to be used by the dairy farmers as they move their cattle up to higher and higher grass.

Farm sheds everywhere.

So most of the buildings we pass on our wanderwegs (walks) are empty.  Since the snow has just melted, the farmers are just now getting prepared for the grazing season and the outbuildings are not being used.

After doing some laundry in town and walking around by the river for an hour, we made our way (via the gondola right next to our hotel) straight up from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp (not much there but for the gondola and train station).  I wish I had taken a picture, however, of Wengen, which sits opposite the valley from Grutschalp.  You can see it great from Grutschalp.  It is way up high off the floor of the valley surrounded by dairy farms.  It looks like it can barely fit between the high mountain cliffs behind it and the sheer valley cliffs in front of it.  But there is grass there.  And, therefore, a town.

Waiting for the Grutschalp gondola.

We were immediately on a train to Murren which is a cute ski town that was bustling with activity.  It began to drizzle when we were there (and continued to the rest of the day).  This meant that while we could see across the valley, we could see nothing beyond that.  Eiger, Munch, and Jungfrau where under clouds all day.  Too bad, because the views from this side of the valley are supposed to be insane.  Oh well, another good reason to come back.

Shelby in Murren

View of the Schwarz Monch from Gimmelwald

Murren, although it sits 3200 feet above Lauterbrunnen, stares at a massive black wall of granite across the valley.  The Swartz Monch rises at least 1500 feet above Murren and sits beside, but in front of, the Eiger.  Of course, we couldn't see the Eiger today, due to the clouds, but it was there.  The Swartz Monch was omnipresent and somewhat ominous - despite the fact that it sits far across the valley.  You feel a bit claustrophobic because of it - especially on a cloudy day.

Gimmelwald in the foreground.

Snow melting.

From there we made our way to a much less touristy town - Gimmelwald.  While the name sounds like something out of Harry Potter, it is really just a small Swiss farming town.  The famous travel writer Rick Steves wrote about Gimmelwald in one of his Switzerland books.  If not for that, this town would probably barely make the map.  But it was awesome and I want to come back.  We had hot cocoa in the only restaurant in town and were the only customers (probably all day).  After that we walked up a street.  The town was prepping for the grazing season - people milling around here and there.  We stopped at a house and bought some cheese from a woman who had a sign on her door.  She let us into her home where we tried some samples.  There were wheels of cheese curing on shelves in the basement of her house.  She probably sells some cheese throughout the year to some tourists, but I got the impression that this was a primary food source.  The whole experience felt like a story book.

Gimmelwald farm - right next to our hike.

Apart from the farmers and the restaurant, Gimmelwald has a gondola.  We hopped on that and made our way back to the valley floor to Stechelberg - some 1500 feet below.

Heading back to Lauterbrunnen.

From there we walked back to Lauterbrunnen, about an hour and a half away on foot.  Along the way we got to take it all in - the valley, the waterfalls spilling over the rock faces from thousands of feet up, and the river, flush with alp water, making its way from the valley of the alps to Interlaken downstream.

It was a wonderful day.  4 hours of walking in drizzle and never a single complaint from our kids.  They have grown accustomed to this way of travel.  If we are not on a beach or at our cabin, we are generally "on the go."  It is fun to see them spend time with each other.  No cell phones.  No internet (to speak of, anyway).  No soccer practices or homework.  Just laughing and fighting.  Aubrey caught up to me and Quinn on our final leg back to Lauterbrunnen.  She reached her hand into my pocket an grabbed my hand.  And then she reached over and held Quinn's hand.  We all walked down the path - in between the cliff walls and waterfalls of the Berner Oberland, with the sound of the rushing river beside us.  If this is anything like heaven, let me die today.

Heaven