Swiss Heartland Untour, Summer of 1986
by Doris & Bob Miller, Kingsport, TN
This was our first Untour although we had visited Switzerland three times previously, all on hiking or walking tours. To the best of my knowledge, Trip Logs hadn’t been "invented" in 1986, but we kept a travel diary and are using it to do this story. In those days Swiss Untours lasted for three weeks.
We learned about Untours from our daughter-in-law’s father, Dr. Bill Schotanus of Atlanta. The idea sounded so good that we began a program to take each of our four children, their spouses and our ten grand children on Swiss Untours, one family at a time. On this tour we took our eldest daughter, Betty Anne Smith, her husband Henry and their children, Mike and Emily. They flew in to meet us in Charlotte, NC, and from there we flew to Boston. The Smiths hadn’t thought to check their baggage through, so we had to lug it over to the Swissair terminal. With 6 hours to kill, we decided to go to downtown Boston and visit Fanuel Hall. We were back to the airport by 7:00PM and began loading on to our Swissair DC-10. It finally took off about 9:00 and shortly thereafter we were served a nice dinner of steak, potatoes, salad, dessert, wine and coffee. By 3:00AM Boston time dawn arrived as did also a nice continental breakfast. On arrival in Zurich, we quickly cleared immigration and easily found our Idyll representatives. Our 12:30 train took us to Brunig Pass via Zug and Lucern. From there it was a short bus ride to our destination, Goldern, where we were met by our hostess, Frau Negli. It took two loads in her station wagon to get all the luggage to her home which looked out over the Aare valley. After dinner in a Goldern restaurant, we walked over to Reuti to learn where the lift station was. This is only a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Then home and to bed. We slept soundly.
Thursday, June 19
Recovering from our jet lag, we slept until 9:00. After breakfast we walked over to Reuti and took the cable car down the mountainside to Meiringen. From there we walked to the west entrance to the Aareschlucht, a gorge carved through the mountain by the Aare river. We had lunch at a restaurant there before walking through the gorge. The path is either through tunnels (with windows overlooking the river) or on catwalks suspended from the walls of the gorge. The path is about 1500 feet long and from the east end we hiked on to Innertkirchen where we caught a bus back to Meiringen. Bought groceries at Migros before taking the cable car back up to ReutiFriday, June 20
Although we could catch the postal bus in Goldern, the Reuti terminal was just a bit closer and there was a good sidewalk. Using the Goldern bus stop would require us to walk along a narrow roadway and dodge traffic. As we rode the bus to Brunig Pass, we noted a number of children, including kindergartners, using this means of transportation to school in Hohfluh. From Brunig Pass we caught the south bound cog railroad down to the next stop which was Meiringen. There we met the Idyll staff at the Sherpa Hotel to get our orientation, mostly on how to read the transportation schedules. Once the system was explained, it turned out to be fairly simple. Orientation was interrupted for lunch and afterwards we had individual orientation with Rosemarie Pasdar Later we visited the basement of a local church where there was excavation of areas dating from 1100AD. Then grocery shopping and back up the cable car to Reuti.Saturday, June 21
Today we ventured further afield. Went by bus to Brunig Pass and then by train to Interlaken Ost where we changed for a narrow gauge train on to Lauterbrunnen. Then steeply up the mountainside on a funicular to Grutschalp were we caught another one car train (I called it the Toonerville trolley) to Murren. Murren is a town without automobiles which sits high on a mountainside shelf above the Lauterbrunner valley. On a clear day it provides an unsurpassed view of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. Today was hazy. At the western edge of Murren we took a two stage cable car up to the Schilthorn. It was fairly clear as we ascended, but by the time we reached the top, thick clouds had moved in. We had lunch in a revolving restaurant there which was featured in an earlier James Bond movie. When the clouds had not cleared after two hours, we gave up and returned home.Sunday, June 22
This was the day for an optional Untour outing. When we got on the train at Brunig Pass, we were surprised to find that there was a car reserved for Untourists. Our group traveled via Interlaken Ost to Spiez where we changed trains for Schafhausen. (Note that this name has only one "f" and it is located in the Emmental, not on the Rhine River.) Today this small village was hosting a schwingenfest. Schwingen is the local name for a form of wrestling in which local lads don a pair of canvas shorts over their other clothing and then grab the shorts in an effort to throw their opponent. The match takes place on a 10 foot circle of wood shavings. In addition to the wrestling, there were alpenhorn, flag throwing and yodeling contests. All participants were dressed in colorful native costumes. At noon we dined in a huge tent that must have housed a thousand persons. Our group was warmly greeted on the PA system. The afternoon became unbearably hot, so we caught the train back to Interlaken Ost where we boarded a lake steamer and zigzagged up Lake Brienz to the town of Brienz and completed our journey home by rail and bus. After dinner we walked over to Reuti and had ice cream at the Victoria Hotel.Monday, June 23
Being a teacher, Betty Anne was anxious to visit a Swiss school, so she and Henry got off early to Giswil where they met Agnes who took them on a tour of a local school. We and the children decided to walk down to Meiringen which surprisingly only took us about 50 minutes. We had planned to buy groceries but I had forgotten my wallet. However, Doris had enough change so that we could buy a few items that were unavailable at Goldern. That evening we took the bus to nearby Wasserwendi to dine at the hotel there and attend a yodelingfest. During the meal there was a short but violent thunderstorm and torrential rain and hail. As a result the yodeling contest was cancelled. It had been our intention to walk back to Goldern, but it was still raining moderately and we had no umbrellas with us. A nearby group heard our plight and offered to drive us back to Goldern. This was a group of Americans from the Univ. Of Tennessee at Martin who were visiting in the area and had a van. A few hundred yards from our apartment we encountered a raging stream blocking the road. About 50 local residents were out feverishly working to correct the problem. Using hand tools, trucks, back hoes and cranes, they were able to clear the stream in about an hour so that we could pick our way through the debris on to our apartment.Tuesday, June 24
This morning we took the bus to Twing to start on the Idyll cheese making outing. Although the storm of the night before had knocked out the cable car system, the staff had assembled private autos to take us up to Kaserstatt from where we walked the short distance to the cheese makers hut. The cheese was being made in a 350 liter solid copper cauldron heated over an open wood fire. (Now what ordinary tourist would ever see a sight like this?) Using cheese cloth (what else), the maker pulled out three lots of curds. After draining each briefly, he placed them in a wooden cheese hoop about 18 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep. A board and heavy stone were placed on top to further expel whey. The whey ran down a gutter, through a hole in the wall into a trough from which pigs fed. (Ah there was going to be ham to go with the cheese.). Following the demonstration we went to the restaurant at the nearby Kaserstatt lift station and lunched on kasekuchen, a wonderful cheese treat that resembled pizza but in my opinion was much better. Afterward to work off some of the calories, we hiked about 45 minutes to the Magisalp lift station and rode down to Reuti.Wednesday, June 25
Today we traveled to Luzern to visit the fabulous Verkehrhaus, the Swiss Transport Museum. There is an extensive and excellent display of locomotives, trains, planes, boats and any equipment that had to do with transportation. It is a great museum for everyone, but particularly boys (of all ages!). We walked over to a nearby wharf to catch a lake steamer back to down town Luzern. En route to the wharf we observed several topless beauties basking in the sunlight.Earlier in the day we had run into Rosemarie Pasdar on the train and she said she had had a call from one of our sons trying to get in touch with us. This put us in a high state of anxiety, so we managed to find a phone and return the call. It was to inform us that the new grand child expected in November was going to be twins! Hurrah!
Thursday, June 26
Today we decided to go to Zermatt. This required transportation changes at Brunig Pass, Interlaken Ost, Spiez and Brig. Total travel time was four hours, fifty minutes. Through Idyll we had made reservations at the Tennis Star hotel. The hotel was well appointed, convenient in location, the rooms were spacious and clean and the "continental" breakfast next morning was fabulous. That afternoon we window shopped and checked schedules and for prices for tomorrow’s outing.Friday, June 27
Following a bountiful breakfast we walked up to the lift station and went up via Furi to Schwarzsee. Using a telescope we were able to spot several climbers about 2/3 of the way to the top of the Matterhorn. Later we did a looping hike of several miles down to the Furi lift station. It was a clear, gorgeous day with the temperature in the 60s, but it got warmer as we descended, in fact, in Zermatt it was down right hot. We checked out of our hotel and went back to Goldern by the reverse route.Saturday, June 28
Today we took it easier. After breakfast we walked over to Reuti to visit a flea market being held in the Victoria Hotel. Got so interested in it that we missed the lift we had planned to take down to Meiringen, so we had lunch at the Victoria. Again we missed the lift so hiked down. There we caught a postal bus across the valley and up the mountainside to Zwirgi near the top of the Reichenbach Falls where Sherlock Holmes allegedly met his death. There was a huge volume of water thundering down several hundred feet. We hiked steeply down to the bottom and then had to hurry back up to catch the return bus to MeiringenSunday, June 29
We and quite a group of Untourists got off at 9:30 for a trip to Zug via Luzern to attend a yodelingfest. Doris and I spent much of the day with fellow Untourists, Eileen and Hiram Johnson of Chester, PA. It was lunch time by the time we reached Zug. Afterwards we walked down to the lake front where the parade was to occur. There were 44 floats and/or groups in the parade with everyone in colorful native costume.Monday, June 30
Today we went to Ballenberg, the Swiss open air museum. It covers several hundred acres and in various areas has groups of homes from specific areas of the country. These homes had been dismantled and brought to the site. Many of them were 2-300 years old, which is not really too old for a country that was founded in 1294! In some areas old trades were being practiced like pottery making, bread making, charcoal burning, bread making and smoked sausage making. We were able to buy bread and sausage for later meals. That evening we returned to Wasserwendi for dinner and a band and yodeling concert. This time it didn’t rain.Tuesday, July 1
This seemed like a good day to visit a glacier, so we took the bus to Brunig, the train to Meiringen and another bus to Rosenlaui which is just beyond Zwirgi. Had a snack at the hotel there and then hiked up the Rosenlaui schluct toward the glacier. It was very steep. Doris gave out and rested while the rest of us went far enough to see the face of the glacier. Had a picnic on the way back to the bus line. Rode another bus up as far as Schwarzwaldalp before returning home.Wednesday, July 2
Today we started an overnight trip to Geneva. At Interlaken Ost we were able to catch air conditioned, high speed trains for the rest of the journey. These were very welcome in view of the heat. We quickly found our hotel, the Strasbourg, which was located near the station and the center of town. After lunch we caught a sight seeing tour of the city. We had a German and English speaking female guide for the 2 hour tour. However, in some areas of the old city the streets were too narrow for the bus and we had to walk. Also the bus was supposed to be air conditioned, but the system was unable to cope with the very high temperatures. After the tour we walked along the water front and watched the famous Jet d-eau, the 450 foot high fountain in Lac Lemans. I wanted to take a picture but thought the light would be better the next morning.Thursday, July 3
Because Geneva was so hot, noisy and crowded, we took a fairly early train back toward home. Alas, I was unable to get a picture of the Jet d-eau. It had been shut off to conserve energy. En route home we stopped for several hours in Bern and liked it better than Geneva. We strolled the covered arcades along the streets down to the bear pits where we viewed the famous bears of Bern. They were very large brown bears and real hams. Vendors were selling suitable food (carrots) which the tourists tossed down to the bears. They almost never missed catching the tidbit in mid air.Friday, July 4
Today the women went to Alelboden to visit the Girl Scout Chalet while the men took a different excursion. We took a postal bus via Inertkirchen to Engstlealp. From there we hiked up to the Jochpass where we caught a one seat lift down to Trubsee. Then around the lake and down another lift to Engelberg where we caught the train back to Brunig Pass via Hergiswil.After supper we walked over to the Victoria Hotel for ice cream with Emily proudly carrying an American flag she had made. Later we lighted several sparklers on our balcony for our own private celebration of Independence Day.