Second visit to Switzerland, detailed report

Last year when I visited Switzerland i visited St Moritz, Zermatt via Glacier express, Chillon castle, Berne, Lucerne with Pilatus and Titlis and stayed in Wengen for 3 days visiting Murren, Lauterbrunnen and Jungfrau so I wanted to do something different this year.

Day 1 a week ago landed at Zurich airport from Prague, had already bought the BO pass and collected it at station, bought tickets to Lucerne, then train to Schupfheim, bus to Sorenberg,cable car to Brienzer and the Brienzer rothorn to Brienze. bit foggy up at the Brienzer but it cleared up when descending to give us wonderful views. then the boat to Interlaken and stayed at Hotel Du Lac right near the boat dock and station. wonderful family run hotel. took half board, food and views were great.

Day 2 took train to Grindelwald, gondola to First and hiked to Grosse Scheidegg, a hike which took a hour and half. saw some foxes on the way and had great views. took bus to Meiringen and went to Aare Gorge which we loved. thought of going to Reichenbach falls but couldn't fit it in. then train back to Interlaken and after dinner went to Harder Kulm which is very nice too

Day 3 checked into Hotel Derby right at Grindelwald station. great views from hotel room. took half board. took gondola to Mannlichen and then hiked to Kleine Scheidegg, a hike which we did last year but loved again. didnt go to Jungfrau as it was overcast and took train to Lauterbrunnen and hiked to behind the waterfall. took train back to Grindelwald

Day 4 took gondola to First, hiked to Bachalpsee lake, beautiful beautiful lake. took us almost 3 hours as we stopped to take plenty of pics and also played in the snow. went back to hotel. considered doing Trotti bikes but wife was not keen. went up to Pfingstegg via gondola and did the toboggan run there (free with BO pass). walked to Grindelwald gorge or Gleterschlucht and took bus back.

eveything was included with the BO pass except gorges which were discounted and the bus ride to Meiringen which was discounted. the local bus rides were covered through hotel.

Day 5 took train to Zurich. bought a supersaver ticket as the 4 day BO pass had now expired and got it printed out at Grindelwald station which was somewhat difficult as they apparently had never printed out a super saver ticket before. took boat from Banhof to hotel and then walked the old town including Fraumunster and Grossmunster. walked via Bahnofstrasse to the Banhof.

took train to Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall and did boat ride with the rock. in retrospect would have just seen the waterfall from Schloss Laufen viewpoint. the boat and rock were fun but the rock was especially so crowded with people jostling for position that I personally would have skipped that part.

in the evening with our whole day 9-5 weekend ZVV pass went to Uetliberg, tad disappointing after seeing the majestic views in the Bernese Oberland /the entire tower area was cordoned off for a party and well there were a lot of well happy teenagers there.

Day 6 walked around old town in the morning again. went to airport and flew out.

wonderful vacation. Swiss people for the most part from Willie at the Brienzer Rothorn to everyone in the hotels and transport were all so helpful and nice. we love hiking so its perfect for us. I hope this helps anyone planning a trip. ill attach some photos as well.

For some reason I'm finding it difficult to post any pics .any recommendations?

Hi vikicork,

Thanks a lot for your wonderful report! You managed to do a lot in those 5 days. Your detailed description is great. It easily allows others to base their itinerary on yours. Uetliberg is a nice place if everything is accessible, but you're right in that it's not an Alp. It's more like an appetizer, before seeing the "real mountains".

Regarding the pictures: their file size might be too large; 1 MB per picture is the maximum. Most cameras produce larger files, so they have to be resized before uploading. If you can't upload them, feel free to e-mail them to our Contact e-mail address and I'll post them here.

Thank you for your very nice trip report, vikicork. You have done a lot of wonderful things!

Olga

The pictures have been added to your original post. Thanks for sending them! It looks like you had a great time, and you were just in time to still see some snow fields along the trails.

Thanks a lot for posting the pics Arno .this site has been a help in planning my trip and it was easy to buy the passes through the link from the website .

Thanks Olga .half the fun is in planning the trip and its great when it all comes together .

Thank you for posting your report. I am putting the final details together for our family visit in mid June and am curious how long the bus ride was to Meiringen to see the Aare Gorge? We will be staying in Murren. Did you catch the bus from Grindewald. was it a full day trip? thank you very much!

I took the bus from Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen which was a 45 minute ride ,the bus leaves every hour ,30 minutes past hour except between 12.30 -2.30 .I remember as i was bring to make the 12.30 bus and was trying to make my family be in time for the 9,05 departure from Interlaken to Grindelwald to then catch the bus to First Bahn and gondola to First so we would have a 2 and half hour time for walk which I was told would take 2 hours but the walk took less time than I thought even with photos so we ended up having lunch at Grosee Scheidegg before taking bus .

you can also take bus from Grindelwald

i reached Meiringen at about 1.15 pm and took train to Aare gorge to station called Aareschucht OST MIB and then train back to Interlaken from Aareschlucht West .I was back in hotel by about 3.30 pm and I had left by 9 am so not quite a full day at least to me .

hope that helps

Thanks for the very interesting and descriptive report

Ty Mike