Swiss Heartland Untour, Summer of 2003
by Doris & Bob Miller Kingsport, TN
This was our l0th visit to Switzerland and seventh with Idyll. It was also a semi-family reunion with two of our four children, their spouses and five of our ten grandchildren. We stayed in Sachseln. Doris and I were in the immaculate, and well-equipped Schalin apartment. Daughter Nancy Pollard, her husband Ed and son Austin were in the Britschgi Chalet. Son Henry Miller, her wife Terry, sons Jon and William, daughter Elizabeth and Shane Pollard were in the larger Britschgi Spycher apartment. Both of the Britschgi apartments were more than 100 years old. - They had been transported by Herr Britschgi to Sachseln and re-erected in his spacious back yard. The exteriors retained their ancient patina, but the bathrooms and kitchens had been nicely modernized.
June 30
Drove up from Kingsport, TN, to the home of our son in Vienna, VAJuly 1
In midafternoon a van picked up us seven and our mountain of bags to go to Dulles Airport, about 20 minutes away. There was a long line to check in but it moved along fairly rapidly. Our Swiss Airbus A330 got off on time at 5:45PM for our 7 hour 40 minute nonstop flight to Zurich. Doris and I had a pair of seats just opposite the lavatory , convenient but a bit noisy.July 2
The Zurich Airport is apparently being enlarged continually and was a bit confusing, but we soon found Agnes Moser and the rest of the Idyll staff. Following validation of our Swiss travel passes, we got off by train at 10:34 via. Zug and Luzem for Sachseln. There we were met by our host and hostess, Nikalus and Luise Schalin. Our ground floor, one bedroom apartment was light, airy and tastefully decorated.. Among it's facilities were a hi-fi, a large television set, a phone and a generous supply of towels. We were very comfortable. The Pollards, coming from California, got in in midafternoon. Wean went to the Bahnhof Gasthaus for dinner under their outdoor arbor.July 3
Orientation took place in a church hall in Meiringen, about 45 minutes away. There was a huge crowd in the large auditorium but the acoustics were less than ideal. Later the "alumni" went to an adjoining room for a session by Madeline Thoni on outings available during our stay. Following lunch in a nearby cafe, we took a postal bus across the valley and up to the Reichenbach Falls where Sherlock Holmes allegedly met his demise. Doris and I only walked to the top of the falls and back to the bus stop while the others hiked down and took a funicular back to the edge of Meiringen. After grocery shopping at Migros, we took the train back to Sachseln. Nancy invited us to their place for dinner.July 4
Although it was U. S. Independence Day, we didn't do much celebrating. We had planned to go hiking, but because of unsettled weather, we went instead to the Transportation Museum in Luzern. The wealth of trains, planes, cars, buses and boats was almost overwhelming. One of our favorites was a Rube Goldberg contraption that carried a steel ball through multiple modes of transportation from the top of the exhibit to the bottom. It took 3-4 minutes for the journey. On the grounds was a short miniature railway system with a real steam engine. Austin wanted to take a ride but the engineer was having so much trouble getting up a sufficient head of steam that we had to go on. Elsewhere was a huge and elaborate model train exhibit with multiple trains operating through a model of the Alps. Nancy and Terry again had us over for dinner. How nice!July 5
Initially we had planned to do the Creme de la Creme hike today, but low hanging clouds made this inadvisable. Instead we went to Murren via Interlaken Ost and Lauterbrunnen. At Lauterbrunnen we took a funicular steeply up the mountainside to Grutsalp and from there a one car train to Murren. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe overlooking the valley some 1500 feet below. The views were spectacular. After lunch we strolled to the western edge of Murren and took a two stage gondola down to Stechelberg in the valley below. From there we hiked over to Trummelbach Falls which are actually inside the mountain. Following this we caught the postal bus back to Lauterbrunnen and returned home by reverse route. We fixed our own dinner tonight. Later in the evening we were invited to have drinks with our host and hostess. Nikalus is an architect by trade but is also a superb builder of model airplanes with wing spans up to 8 feet. Some are powered by miniature gasoline engines while others are sail planes. All fly with radio control. His work is of such high quality that several of his planes have been exhibited in the Transportation Museum in Luzern.July 6
Today was a bright and sunny Sunday. Berit and Albert Greutert (our close neighbors) had invited us to ride with them up to the nearby Middle of Switzerland where there was to be a Catholic service including the Blessing of the Alps. It is apparently an annual event. Also, Albert's mens choir was to sing a mass. The service was in German which we didn't understand but it was impressive and the a capella singing of the choir was superb. Afterwards we had dinner at a nearby restaurant. The road up and back is so narrow that traffic is restricted to one way depending on the hour, and there are no guard rails. In more ways than one, it is a breath taking rideJuly 7
This was "cheese making" day. Because of our preference for the Oberland cheese making tour, we got special permission to go with that group to Griesalp. There was a group of 38 Untourists on hand for the tour. Because of the steep grade (28%) and very narrow roadway of the last two miles of the journey, special short wheel base buses have to be used. This was our fourth visit to this charming location. Early in the season while the cows are getting used to the lush grass available, a cheese called mutchli ( sp ?) is made. It does not age well and must be eaten within a few months. Later in the season alpkase is made. It must age for at least three months and may age for several years. As usual, we got to watch the cheese making, visit the storage area and buy some of the cheese. If one buys some of cheese sealed in plastic (which was available), it is permissible to bring it back to the States and this is what we did. Afterwards we had lunch on the outdoor deck of a nearby restaurant. Following that, many of us took the steep two mile hike to the base of the mountain along a roaring stream with multiple water falls and cascades. The area was a riot of beautiful wild flowers. For details, see Hike 9, page 7 of the H & B Guide.July 8
Today was hazy .We decided to do a hike on the Hasliberg. Took the train to Brunig Pass and the bus to Twing where we caught the cable car up to Kaserstatt. From there we hiked about 1.5 miles over to Magisalp. There the younger members of the group decided to rent and ride scooters down to the Bidmi gondola station where they rejoined Doris and me for the ride on down to Reuti. Took the bus there and stopped in Hohfluh to visit the bakery shop and sample their goodies. Doris and I continued by bus to Brunig Pass and home by train. The others hiked to Brunig Pass. Had dinner with the children and then they came to our apartment for dessert and drinks.July 9
All 11 of us went to Thun today to visit the castle there. There were many steps up to the castle and even more inside. The castle was begun in the 1100s and enlarged in 1429. The walls are 12 feet thick at the base. The castle is now owned by the Canton of Bern and serves as a museum. After our self tour, we had lunch at a pizza restaurant on the banks of the Aare River . During lunch we were entertained by numerous white and black swans swimming in the adjacent, fast flowing Aare River. After lunch we strolled the down town streets and were pleased to discover that the edges of the streets were thronged with vendors of all sorts ranging from food to jewelry, to clothes. For variation on our trip back to Sachseln, we took a lake steamer from Thun as far as Spiez where we resumed the fast train route.July 10
Nancy and her family and the teenagers chose to sleep late, but Henry, Terry, Doris and I went to Brienz for the alumni tour of the wood working school there. Madeline Thoni ably led the tour. We had a short tour of Brienz architecture as we walked to the school. Many of the houses were 3-400 years old and made of timbers which have blackened with age but are still sturdy. At the school we first visited the wood storage area. They prefer bass wood which is semi-hard and has a fine grain. The wood is dried naturally for several years. Initially blocks of wood are sawn to rough size. Then these blocks are mounted (8 at a time) in a milling machine which follows a master item and ""carves" the pieces to rough proportions. Finally the items are finished by hand using a variety of chisels. A six inch high carving made this way may sell for $120-150. We didn't buy any. Following the tour, we took a lake steamer across Lake Brienz to the Grand Hotel at Giessbach. Somewhat unintentionally we wandered into the hotels top dining area which is located on an awning covered terrace overlooking the lake. It was very elegant and the lunch ran about $50 each but it was worth it. That evening we made a call to our daughter in South Carolina to wish her a Happy Birthday. She was thrilled to get such a call from Switzerland. Incidentally, such calls are easy to make, the connection is quite good and the cost surprisingly low. We made at least two overseas calls and multiple local calls during the two week stay and our phone bill was $6-7.00.July 11
Doris and Terry decided to take a day of rest. The rest of us took the train to Giswil where we caught the Panoramstrasse bus over the mountain to the Sorenberg gondola station. There we took a cable car steeply up the north face of the Brienzer Rothom. After turning right and ascending the nearby peak of the alp, we reversed ourselves and started south. This berweg leads along the borders of the Luzern, Bern and Oberwalden cantons frequently along sharp, narrow ridge lines. The views are magnificent particularly of Lake Brienz far below. There is considerable up and down, too. After a hike of about 5 miles, we reached the cable car terminus at Schonbuel and started our descent to Turren where we caught an even steeper gondola down to the edge of Lungern. After a rather long and hot hike around the end of Lake Lungern, we made our way up to the bahnhof where we enjoyed ice cream and coffee, complete with cream in a tasty chocolate pitcher. This hike is described on page 22 ofthe H & B Guide.July 12
Today we went to Meiringen to walk through the Aareschlucht. Since the walk to the northern terminus was a bit more than we wanted to do, we took the single car train toward Innertkirchen getting off at the south end of the tunnel and taking a newly constructed suspension bridge across the Aare to the west bank. It turned out to be a steep climb up to the Aareschlucht gateway and a somewhat less steep walk back down to the river's edge. Most of the 1500 feet journey is on cat walks bolted to the canyon wall 10 or more feet above the rushing water. A shorter portion of the walk is through tunnels parallel to the river with windows cut in the side walls. It is hard to image how many millions of years it took water to carve so deeply through the rock.This evening the Britschgi family (Mr. & Mrs. Britschgi, son Hugo, daughter Dorothy, son-in-law Thomas and 4 week old grandson Jeremy) had invited all ofus to a raclette supper in their backyard. They had set up two large tables under the shade of a huge tree. The raclette was prepared on a special electrically heated device. Wheels of special cheese had been cut in two and the 2 x 10 inch broad cross section placed just under the heater. When the cheese had become hot and melted, a thick layer was scraped off onto delicious boiled potatoes. Also served was bread and salad finished off with scrumptious ice cream sundaes. Following the meal, Herr Britschgi presented each one us with a small Swiss army knife. What a delicious meal and what splendid hospitality.