Day 8 - Switzerland - hike #3

Today we walked to the train station in Wengen and went to Lauterbrunnen. From there we took the cable car to Grutschalp where we walked to Murren on a flat trail through farm fields and along the railway line. The weather was cool, rainy and unfortunately still rather foggy. From there we continued on another trail that was supposed to be fairly flat. We were headed to Allmendhubel. It was supposed to be a fairly flat trail, but it wasn’t. It was uphill through cow pasture and shale rock. Extremely challenging for Bob’s knee. Sadly, he even managed to break his hiking pole along the way, but Sharon found him a stick. When we arrived at Allmendhubel we were able to get a coffee and some snacks. It was also a nice warm place for us to sit and dry out a bit. From there we took the cable car back down to Murren and then the train back to Lauterbrunnen. We were going to take the train back to Wengen but decided why not walk back like we did before. It was only one and a half hours so why not. Sharon and Steve went ahead as they walked faster. They were stopping at the Coop for supplies again before going to the apartment. Janet and Gary decided to walk with us even though we were going to be going slowly. While on the trail (which remember we did before and we knew where we were going), we met some local older gentlemen who pointed a direction and said it was easier. We looked at the trail and it was flatter, so we thought why not. Well after about 15 minutes the trail changed – it was known as the ‘hard’ trail, and it went straight up over logs and rocks and very slippery and muddy conditions. We carried on, found more walking sticks for Janet, Bob and me. We were not happy, but we kept going up. We saw an option that we thought would get us onto the train tracks so we could catch the train, but we were not in the right spot. The train conductor was not impressed and waved his hands at us in a very negative tone. We then went back on the hard trail and continued going up over bad trails. We came across an alternate trail, but it was through a farmer’s field with electric fences. We scrambled along and FINALLY found a road with a marked trail pointing in the correct direction. We were about 1 KM from the apartment – of course directly uphill. We finally arrived and boy where we tired.
Tonight, we decided to try a local restaurant, The Taverne Restaurant, we all tried some traditional dishes and did lots of sharing. Was a wonderful meal with great service.Read more