Mürren: Breakfast in the Clouds

The early bird catches the worm!

In this case, the early birds at least got a brief glimpse of sunshine and views on the way up to Schilthorn … and even a bit from the terrace.

Schilthorn, at 9,744 feet (2,970m), is one of the ‘shorter’ peaks in the Bernese Alps. Yet, it is quite well known … for two things mostly. The instantly-recognizable building at the summit is one of them. Its connection to “Bond, James Bond” is another … it was here that some of the scenes in the movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” were filmed, starring George Lazenby as the world famous spy.

Our breakfast-included-reservation at Hotel Alpenruh came with the option of enjoying one of our morning meals at Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant at the summit of Schilthorn. We had read that the food was so-so. Nonetheless, we wanted to see the view anyway, we decided to take the hotel up on the offer. Since we’d be departing Mürren today, we requested a reservation for 9:00a. We figured the 8:10a cable car from Mürren to Schilthorn would take us up some 4,300 feet (1,310m) and put us at the top around 8:30a … giving us ½-hour to wander around to enjoy the views before breakfast.

The tickets that were included with our hotel package covered the roundtrip ride up to Schilthorn via Birg, so we did not have to purchase tickets. Alas, there was nothing but thick fog/low-lying clouds ahead of us as the cable car left Mürren. Sigh!

Just as we were resigning ourselves to another day of having the summits cloaked by clouds, our luck changed. In an instant, the clouds started to part. High up in the distance the sky was blue and there was sunshine! The jagged peaks of the Alps became visible … as did Piz Gloria at the tippy top of Schilthorn. The question now … would these conditions last?

At the Birg station (elevation 8,790 feet [2,677m]), we hotfooted it to the cable car that goes up to Schilthorn. With no one else in line, and the next cable car not expected for another 15-20 minutes, the operator left Birg early, giving us a headstart. The scenery was spectacular … the green vegetation covering some of the mountain landscape looked like velvet … the white clouds were brilliant … the black rocks of the Alps stood in stark contrast against the blue sky. Below us, we passed over a couple of lakes and patches of snow, and even saw a ‘haloed’ reflection of our cable car. It was quite surreal.

When we reached the Schilthorn Station, we quickly got our bearings and headed up to the Skyline View Platform on floor 0 … oddly the arrival level at the station is marked -3. We negotiated a few detours along the way due to ongoing construction to upgrade the cable car system and the facilities and found the right door to get us out onto the terrace, part of which was also closed due to construction.

It didn’t take us long to figure out that the clouds were moving back in. We walked around the terrace, photographing the view before it was veiled completely. Five minutes later we were surrounded by clouds in every direction. The “Swiss Skyline” — Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau — and the 200 other peaks of the Bernese and Valais Alps were all gone. The view was still in hiding when we left some two hours later. Time for breakfast.

Piz Gloria takes about 45 minutes to revolve 360° on its axis; thus giving everyone a chance to see the views from every direction … no need to fight over tables. In the 007 movie, the building served as the infamous villain Blofeld’s hideout and was named Piz Gloria. After the filming was completed, the restaurant simply retained the name. Why not? The movie was a free promotion of the locale after all. It claims to be the first revolving restaurant of its kind, but I read that Eye of the Needle in Seattle actually predates it by seven years or so.

At 9:00a, there were very few others having breakfast/brunch. We presented our voucher and were escorted to reserved seats by the window … with a view of … nothing but clouds. So our “breakfast with a view” was actually “breakfast in the clouds.” Not even a break in the white wall as the restaurant took us around to different views. Oh well … at least we got a peak at the view first thing in the morning. I checked the webcam a few times later in the day and the cloud-cover seemed to be constant.

Breakfast was fine … buffet style, and we helped ourselves to everything, including champagne. It was weird to have a buffet station next to us one moment, only for it to be replaced by another as the restaurant floor with the tables revolved continuously. As it did so, signs attached to the roof pointed the direction of major cities and distances.

There are a number of attractions at Schilthorn … including the Walk of Fame, described as “… where cast and crew members of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” leave their traces at the legendary Bond film location.” We skipped this one, and the Spy World and Cinema … the latter two were still closed. We would have walked out to the Piz Gloria View observation deck on the ridge, but … well, you know, those pesky clouds were hiding even the restaurant from view. Instead, we decided to head back down. We had a drive ahead of us and different views to enjoy … weather willing.

When we got to the Schilthorn cable car station, we hopped on for an immediate ride. There would have been a short wait at Birg, but the operator allowed us onto the next car going down with a staff member … sans driver, operated remotely. Getting off in Mürren, we went to hotel, collected our bags, and completed our check out. Then we took the cable car down to Stechelberg to collect our car.Read more