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Hi Slowpoke
I’m working on the minute details on my plan at the moment, had a few questions, you could answer them whenever you have some time.
1. Would there any provision to buy some food / cup of coffee on the train from Zurich to Wengen. I’d need to get refreshment after the long 24 hours flight or would you recommend picking up something from the airport?
2. In one of the posts, someone recommended buying the Salt mobile sim. Would that be available on the airport or somewhere outside?
3. My plan in Wengen still looks sketchy but I hope to cover the following treks:
– Mannlichen to KS , Grutschalp to Murren , Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg
4. Would there be time with those treks to visit any lakes in Interlaken?
5. You mentioned that you had a friend, an American expat, who’d be pleased to meet me for a cup of coffee. Would I have the honour to meet him?
6. Will I need to make an appointment to visit the Emmental Show Dairy?
I’ve managed to get through our notes till the Dairy, will write to you again as I proceed.
Thanks
Monica
Hi Monica,
I will answer #2 as I have direct experience. There is a Salt Shop at Zurich Airport.
If you look at the Salt website you will find other locations. See http://www.salt.ch/en/store-locator/. You need a shop, not one of their partners (unless things have changed since I was last there).
My standard answer to SIM questions is:
For the best value data SIM you can’t go past shop.salt.ch/en/plans/ prepay/
The actual offer may be hidden behind a 50% discount pop up which you have to dismiss to see the real deal. Hit the “X” at top right hand corner of the pop up.
It is not officially endorsed by MySwissAlps but I used this SIM when I visited last year and found it great value. We have reports of another member sending weather reports to the forum from the top of Schilthorn using that SIM.
CHF19.95 (when I used this SIM in 2017 it was only CHF10 but still great value) gets you 10 days unlimited high-speed data (assuming you use it only for data and not calls as well).
Make sure your phone is not locked to your home provider. If it is then the Traveller’s WiFi is the go. See http://www.myswissalps.com/si mcard.
Hi Rockoyster
Thank you for your prompt response. I just checked with my home provider, I’m not locked with them so it should be good to use the salt SIM, though I won’t need it make any calls but would definitely require it for whatsapp. Hope it’d be good to use whatsapp?
Monica
I used WhatsApp extensively. No problem.
That’s awesome, thank you Rockoyster.
Hi Monica-
Here is a start:
1′- There is an extensive food court on the street level floor above the train station at the airport.
On the train. Yes, as far as Interlaken. Unless you sit in the restaurant car, you might have some concerns about luggage. The train will stop at Zurich main station, then it will take about 56 minutes with no stops to get to Bern, where you change. During that time no one can get on and off the train, so I usually don’t worry about my luggage during that stretch. From there on it is a mountain railroad with no food.
You can tell by entering your journey in the SBB time table. Assume that you leave the airport at about one hour or a bit more after your plane lands. Pick one of the journeys displayed.
Click on it.
A vertical time line will open showing each stage of the journey. The symbols indicate services. Scroll down to the bottom for an explanation of the symbols. See attached screen grab.
3 and 4 – I don’t know. The SBB timetable will tell you travel times. I’m guessing that you will not, but, I don’t recall how much time you have in the area. Those hikes look good.
5.- I’ll contact him. He is on the forum occasionally. His wife may or may not be in Switzerland during your September; he usually is. You might meet both. You’ll have to work out communication details….not sure the best way, but, sometime Arno will send an e-mail for you with your e-mail address if you want friend to contact you. It is up to him if he wants to do e-mail, or some other process.
6.- No fee
Happy planning!
Slowpoke
Attachments:Thanks Slowpoke, that was really helpful.
Monica
Hi Monica –
I have contacted my friend who lives in Sachseln. His nom de plume on the forum is “fredch.”
Here is what he wrote to me:
“I will be back on 7 Sep. If this lady wants, I could meet her in
Sachseln after that. If you have an email address, I will contact her
with a phone# etc.”
It usually takes him ( and me) a couple of days for the jetlag to go away….not sure of your dates.
I’d suggest that you contact Arno
as noted at the bottom of these comments:
http://www.myswissalps.com/co ntact/email
and ask him to send your e-mail address, if you wish to do that.
Slowpoke
Hi Slowpoke
That was very kind of you to get in touch with your friend. I’ll email Arno to pass on my email address to him. I will be in Sachseln from the 12th-14th Sept, it’d be lovely to catch up with one of the forum members, if he’s got over his jet lag and finds it convenient.
Hats off to all of you in the forum for answering our queries! I couldn’t have imagined this trip without your guidance.
And, yes, before I forget, a very Happy Independence day!
Monica
answer to your Q1:
Once you are through customs and into the terminal, look for the Migros supermarket in the area before you go down a level to the station platforms. I have been frequenting Migros since I was a babe in arms (and I’ve just had my 59th birthday!). When I land at Zurich airport I do two things: go to Migros for provisions, then get down the escaltors to the station platform to get away in to Switzerland as soon as humanly possible!
Migros will have all the food you need (nothing alcoholic though as Migros has never sold alcoholic drinks as a matter of principle) for a ‘picnic’ on the train and it will be a lot cheaper than using any on train food provision.
“3. My plan in Wengen still looks sketchy but I hope to cover the following treks:
– Mannlichen to KS , Grutschalp to Murren , Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg
4. Would there be time with those treks to visit any lakes in Interlaken?”
None of those three walks is particularly long, Mannlichen to KS is the longest and at the highest altitude so should be treated with respect, but still less than 2 hours’ walk on average
Grutschalp – Mürren isn’t really a ‘trek’ – its an amble along a quite easy footpath parallel to the BLM railway and its little brown railcar
Likewise Lauterbrunnen – Stechelberg is about 1 hour of fairly level along the valley floor.
Interlaken, as its name suggest is between the two lakes (Thun and Brienz). You will see the Thunersee from your train in from Bern (sit on the left in the direction of travel and you will see the lake from Thun onwards). One of the best lake excursions is to take the train from Interlaken to Spiez, walk down a steep hill to the castle and then the lakeside and get the boat back to Interlaken
Hi Monica-
That is a good idea from 1960man and an accepted practice.
<<“for a ‘picnic’ on the train and it will be a lot cheaper than using any on train food provision.”>>
And, you will have no issues with being near your luggage.
I had forgotten about the Migros, because I always stay in Züri for a couple of days at the beginning of each trip, so I rarely seek out provisions at the airport.
Slowpoke
Hi 1960man
Thank you for your suggestions, I’ll make a note about Migros and also about the treks and the lake excursion. I also would need to get the Salt SIM before I board the train to Wengen.
A very Happy Belated Birthday! I too recently celebrated my birthday, a wonderful milestone to remind us to celebrate life and live in the moment.
Monica
Yes, I agree with you Slowpoke, little tips like these are so valuable.
Hi Slowpoke
I just emailed to Arno, as well, about passing on my email address to your friend.
Hi Monica,
Just a thought on WhatsApp. I had a dual SIM phone so effectively kept my same phone number but added the Salt SIM for data. Therefore my phone number didn’t actually change.
If you only have a single SIM your phone number will be different to you normal mobile number so you may have to tell WhatsApp. Have a look at faq.whatsapp.com/en/an droid/27585377/?category=5245246 for more “guidance”.
Hi Rockoyster
Thank you for your guidance. I think I’ll use my own Australian SIM, it would only cost me an extra A$5 per day as per my service provider. I feel it’d be one less thing to worry about!
Hi Monica,
Wow! Who is your service provider? Most Aus telcos charge fearsome roaming charges for overseas data. Either that or they have small daily quotas. See attached for Telstra. Scary stuff only slightly ameliorated by their $10/day International Day Pass.
Maybe you struck it lucky and if so I’d like to know who you are with because I could sure use some of that action for my next trip. 🤓
Attachments:Hi Slowpoke
I was able to get in touch with your friend and hopefully I’ll be able to see him in Sachseln. It was good to hear from him.
2 questions from me:
1. In order to visit Mt.Titlis, where do we disembark? Is it at Engelberg (Talstation Titlis) or Titlis?
2. Do we have to board a boat to get to the Transport Museum or can we use any other means of transport as well?
Monica
Hi Rockoyster
I’m with Vodafone, their service is pretty good and I have 50 GB data with them, which I hardly get to use in a month.
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