Swiss Oberland Untour, Summer of 2003
by Bud Stein, Ann Arbor, MI
Following are several highlights from our just past Swiss untour. If you feel any are worth using any parts of in any Idyll publications, please feel free to use, or just enjoy reading yourself.
After several days of long train rides, it was decided to take a day of relaxation. We had noticed a poster at our Frutigen bahnhof advertising a cirkus (circus) on this afternoon right here in our hometown. I am a circus “nut” and Annie having married me some 55 years ago has also learned to enjoy a circus.
Two years ago, when our family of four were together here in Switzerland, we had trained to Langenthal to attend the Knie Circus which is the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey show of Switzerland, but still just a one ring circus. The circus here in Frutigen was the Gasser-Olympia “Dinner Circus.” It was advertised as the only “Dinner Circus” in the world. There were no bleachers to sit on; the arena was set up with small tables, folding chairs and small, lighted lamps on each table. The menu listed all Swiss specialty dishes and was quite extensive.
It was all quite pricey but was very well done and the performers were of “Olympic” quality. This was an event that a visitor would have the opportunity to see only if traveling and seeing Switzerland the Idyll Untour way. Thanks, Idyll!
We are on a roll now. Once again we woke up at our Frutigen chalet to clear blue skies. It looks like a good mountain viewing day. One of our yearly favorite daily trips is to the mountain village of Murren, high above the Lauderbrunnen Valley. The Schilthorn Mountain peak is above Murren and on the opposite side of the valley are the big three mountains, the Eiger, the Monch and the Jungfrau. By now we are getting used to these train routes; Frutigen to Spiez, to Interlaken Ost, to Lauterbrunnen. Then off the train and on a waiting postal bus for a ride down the Lauderbrunnen Valley to the Stechelberg telecabine that takes us up the mountain to Murren. This all sounds simple but the popularity of this area sometimes makes it difficult to get a seat on the Lauderbrunnen train.
One of the nice things about Murren is the peace and quiet once you arrive. Where the crowds of people from the valley have gone we do not know, but it is delightful to be in Murren. This is one of those places where internal combustion engines are allowed only in the emergency equipment, so most of the vehicles being used are electrically powered. Bicycles and foot traffic are the predominant means of transportation. Sitting on a hotel restaurant patio under brightly colored sun umbrellas, ordering from Swiss specialty menus and looking across at the beautiful Alps, is a setting difficult to duplicate. Viewing the great mountains from across the valley is so much better than paying about the equivalent of $100 and going to the Jungfrau summit to look down in the valley far below. All that this trip will cost us using our companion rail passes is the lunch that we purchased and enjoyed while looking across at the picturesque Alps.
Finishing our walk through Murren, we come to the Murrenbahn terminal where we board a small train that takes us to the funicular to go back down the mountain to Lauderbrunnen in the valley. To complete a perfect Swiss viewing day, instead of just training back to Spiez, we board a ship at Interlaken West that takes us over the Thunersee to Spiez, where a bus is waiting to take us up the mountain to the Spiez bahnhof. Then it is off the bus and on a train to get back home to Frutigen. It is daily trips such as this that keeps us coming back to Switzerland on Idyll Swiss Untours, year after year.
When you have a valuable document such as a Swiss Companion Pass in your pocket, it is difficult not use it on any given day. Today we trained to Bern (forty five minutes) and changed to a Geneva train getting off at Nyon in the French speaking section of Switzerland. We walked through Nyon and on down to Lake Geneva, Lac Leman. It was about 11:00 a.m. and most of the eating establishments were not yet ready to serve. We had to settle for some not so great bakery products and a soda or water to take with us on a boat ride.
We boarded a side paddle-wheel steamer to spend at least a couple hours of delightful cruising on Lac Leman. The weather could not have been better for cruising and the same goes for all the vineyards we saw along the lakeshore. This area is perhaps the largest in Switzerland for vineyards and wine production. It was in the Vallis canton where we first fell in love with Switzerland, “From the vine comes the grape and from the grape comes the wine.”
We debarked at Ochy, rode the Metro funicular up the mountain to the Lausanne gare (French for bahnhof), boarded a train down the Rhone Valley to Montreux where we switched to the MOB, Montreux Oberland Bahn. This next train ride from Montreux to Zweisimen is considered by many as the most beautiful train trip I Switzerland. However, as quite experienced Swiss train patrons, we have to say that we have seen other sections of the country that, in our estimation, are just as beautiful. From Zweisimen we trained directly to Spiez and then on home to Frutigen, arriving at 6:45 p.m. Another great low cost Swiss travel experience.
Would you like to try something just a bit different on perhaps a cloudy or rainy day? We did this and enjoyed it greatly. From our base in Frutigen in the Bernese Oberland we trained to Brig by going up the Kander Valley, through the nine mile mountain tunnel and down to Brig in the Rhone Valley. From Brig it was a short train ride to Leuk where we boarded a waiting bus to go up the mountain to Leukerbad. Most of the village of Leukerbad is composed of hotels, clinics and arthritis rehabilitation centers. There is also the village bath, the Burgerbad, and that was our destination.
We had our own bathing suits, towels and lunch with us, so all we had to pay was the entrance fee of 21 SF or about $15.75 per person. This may seem high but in the next 3 - 4 hours it will prove to be worth the fee. When we paid our entry fee we each received a plastic entry card that got us to the locker room area. The lockers are not divided for males and females; we are all together, just one big happy family. The lockers are not large and have open air wire doors. You choose an empty locker and by inserting the entry card into the back of the door lock, you can pull our your locker key. The key has a safety pin attached to it. If your bathing suit is large enough so that you can put a pin in it, you are all set. I saw some suits it would have been hard to hide a key in or on, even with a safety pin.
Inside each of the locker rooms there are four small changing rooms, about the size of a public rest room stall. You can complete your clothing change in one of these rooms for privacy or if you are European, "What the hell, let it all hang out!" Well, maybe it is not that bad, but if nudity of others bothers you, just don't wear your glasses.
Everyone showers before entering the pool area and again you can go for privacy or not. How they can keep so much water so warm/hot is unbelievable. We started at the main pool and by going along the side of the pool we went through a succession of powerful water jets at varying heights. The jets start at your ankle height and work up to your shoulders. There are signs on the wall that light up to tell you to move on to the next jet in rotation. Just as we finished the jets, and instructor on the pool deck directed exercises for the probably fifty people in the pool. The exercises were very thorough to say the least. I am sure that tomorrow we will know that we did something different with our bodies today.
We then exited the main indoor pool by swimming directly out into a very large outdoor pool. In this pool there are two Jacuzzis to spend time in, waterspouts to stand under and let the hot water just splash down over you, and underwater benches all around the edge of the pool to just sit on and soak. There is more than one soaking to take advantage of. The warm water of course, but to just sit there in the warm water watching the other bathers and looking out over the surrounding snow clad mountains, it is really something different. Something that makes you want to come again and another reason why we have come to Switzerland with Idyll multiple times.
Next we go up some steps to an area of even warmer water where we can relax on under water lounges, again with air/water jets on you. There are overhead waterspouts and a large shower mushroom to relax under. For the circulation in your ankles and calves there is a station where you walk very slowly though very hot water and then return walking slowly through ice cold water. At each of these stations there are tubs in which to put your arms to get the same treatment as your legs. There is still another pool for swimming laps and one with a big water slide in it for "kids" of all ages.
I don't remember who, but someone with some sense suggested that perhaps we'd had enough and that we should leave before we all turned into wrinkled prunes. We reversed our procedures, changed clothes, rinsed out and extracted the water from our suits, left the Burgerbad for the bus station, bused back down the mountain to Leuk and then trained back home to Frutigen. We had to hurry upon arriving in Frutigen as we could see a storm coming over the mountain and really, we'd had enough water for one day. I think we all turned in early that night.