Weekend in the Bernese Alps

Fall is a wonderful time to visit the mountains in Switzerland.  They are absolutely beautiful and the perfect temperature for hiking.  This past weekend, we visited the Bernese Alps, which are a mountain range of the Alps located in Central Switzerland, about three hours from Geneva.  We went with our good friends, Chris and Katie, who recently moved from Lakeville to Geneva with their three girls. Their girls are around the same age as ours, so they have a great time together.

We left early Saturday morning and arrived at the Trummelbach Falls, which are located near Interlaken, in the Lauterbrunnen Valley.  I had read that they were a must-do in the area, so we wanted to definitely check it out.  Unfortunately, in my pre-visit research, I never read that you have to be over four to visit the falls.  So, Eliza and I were not able to see the falls.  The Trummelbach Falls consists of ten glacier-waterfalls inside a mountain.  The Trummelbach Falls are the only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside a mountain that people can visit.  According the Chris and Adalyn, it was amazing to see and hear the water flowing- up to 20,000 liters of water per second.  While we were there enjoying a picnic, we also witnessed two base jumpers and a cow being pulled by a helicopter, the cow must have been wandering in the wrong pasture!

After visiting the falls, we drove to Stechelberg and boarded a cable car to a mountain village, Murren.  From there, we took a funicular up to Allmendhubel, where we discovered a playground 2000m up in the mountains.  The kids all enjoyed playing at the park, especially the underground part of the park where they could pretend they were gophers.  There were tunnels underneath that the children could crawl around in- at one point we lost Eliza underground!

Playground- 

Underground tunnels- 

Cable car ride-

"We are on top of the World!"

After a busy day, we drove to another mountain village, Grindelwald, where we stayed overnight.

Sunday morning, we woke up and the kids had heard us talking about a pool in town, so that was on the top of their priority list.  After swimming, we took a cable car up to another playground in the mountains in Bort.  After enjoying some time at the playground, we decided to hike down the trail instead of taking the cable car down.  The hike was about five miles with spectacular views of the glaciers and mountains.

Lunch time!

Unfortunately, we had to head back to Geneva Sunday night to get ready for the week.  We had a wonderful weekend with great friends.  We definitely want to visit this area again and discover more along the Bernese Alps.

Now we are looking forward to the arrival of Chris' aunt and uncle, Roger and Jeanie, who arrive in ten days.