Steps in the Right Direction: Leaving Murren heading to Geneva for our next adventure

This morning we pack up after breakfast and get everything arranged in our suitcases so we can leave them outside our door at the chalet, go hiking, and then return to haul them off to the train station. It seems rather strange to just leave your bags sitting out on a step, but after all we are in Murren, and we are the last house in town. Anyone passing by would be walking either downhill to Gimmelwald looking at the mountains or uphill from Gimmelwald in which case they would be looking down at their feet as it is a steep walk. The bags are fine.

Today's hike we are hiking the North Face trail. This is a favorite hike in an area. The hike starts with a funicular up from Murren to Allmendhubel and then you follow the signs for the North Face trail. Hmmmm we did not start there. We were pretty sure we saw some signs for the North Face trail yesterday on our way up to Schilthorn. After 30 minutes of hiking we were less than pretty sure we saw a sign, at 40 minutes we were wavering down to sort of sure we saw a North Face sign. At 45 minutes when when we arrived at the sheep crossing location from yesterday we found a North Face sign! Yeah! Here we also meet a couple hiking up to Schilthorn. They live in Interlaken and were up for a lung cleansing hike for their Sunday Entertainment. They were a delightful couple and talked about so many different subjects from food to politics of Switzerland and the U.S. I was rather sorry we did not have more time to chat, but we did chat for about twenty minutes. People we have met so far on our trip seem so knowledgeable and speak multiple languages.

The North Face hike goes past several beautiful farms in the valleys framed with spectacular snow capped peaks the whole way. You wind through the views of several mountains "north faces" and along the way read historical facts on when the mountains were first climbed. There are several great views of Murren and the opportunity to experience a stop at the little farm houses along the way for a cup of tea or piece of pie.

This is a pretty easy hike and one that fits well into the whole Sound of Music "The Hills Are Alive" song. We did stop for some pictures and did our best to make Julie Andrews proud.

As we worked our way around this hike, we found ourselves experiencing lots of different pasture gates. Some just wooded with a circle of rope tossed over the top and a few metal ones that were a bit like a puzzle. We would look at the opening possibilities and try different solutions until we found the magical solution. I had read a few blog entries on this hike and found one where the lady just crawled through the gate as she was unable to figure out the special opening trick. When I saw the picture she posted of the gate, I knew exactly which gate it was. A tricky one for sure!

We returned to our Murren Chalet to find our bags safe and sound, picked them up and headed off to the train station. Our goal was to get to the train station before 12:36. The BLM trains system shuts down for a lunch break at 12:36 for one hour. Our return time gave us twenty minutes to get our bags pulled up the paths and over to the train station on the other side of Murren. By the time we wheeled into the train station we are dripping wet and have six minutes to spare.

Today is the second day of train travel on our Swiss train pass. We purchased a Swiss transfer ticket so really it is like you use it for two days. The way into Switzerland and the way out of Switzerland. We also purchased a half price ticket which allowed us to ride all of those other trains for half price. After today we are done with the train pass.

We have the whole train thing down to a system now. If the U.S. could operate train travel like the Swiss, it would really change travel around the U.S.! I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but sometime during every train ride a ticket inspector or conductor comes through the cabin and looks at everyone's ticket and gives it a little paper punch. Since we were using a Swiss Transfer Ticket /Half-fair Combi ticket this meant for every train or cable ride, we had to show all of our paper work. I learned to keep all of the papers handy, they like to look at all of it, every time.

At one of our train transfers we had a pretty good distance to transfer from one train to the next. Basically we have to jump off the train at our arrival platform, find a ramp to go down under the station, and then come back up to the correct departure platform. The trains run on tight arrival and departure schedule. In this transfer we had six minutes, that means six Swiss minutes. Swiss accuracy is very precise! For your best chance at achieving a successful train change one must be standing with your bag, and close to a door. When the door opens, move! If you stop to be polite to let ladies or elderly pass, you will only be left behind. It reminded me of the kids standing in line at school. With kids, there is never a line, just a pack of kids squirming and wiggling to be next.

At one stop we had a particularly long distance to make our transfer. We jump off the train, head down the ramp, walk from the second platform to the seventh platform, go up the ramp moving as fast as one can pull a 40 pound luggage bag, and jump into the first open door. Whoom, doors close, the train starts moving. Nice, looks like first class... A few other Americans had slipped through the other door just before the train started to move. The ticket conductor starts with first class and of course none of us are holding first class tickets. Swiss train ticket inspectors do not like this mingling of first and second class... so the whole lot of us are curtly asked to find second class seating... Well, that seems silly to me, no one else is using those seats, but we apologize for the mistake. Now all of us silly Americans have to go from train car to train car as it is moving to locate new second class seats. Doing this is not impossible, but it makes for an interesting moment or two while stepping across that connecting piece to the next car. You can see the ground zipping by..... Well, it does not require crawling on your hands and knees, but it does require some attention to detail.

It took us about three hours to travel from Murren to the Geneva train station. The train station and airport are connected, so we scoped out where we will meet our REI group the next day. We are then off to locate a shuttle to our hotel for the evening. We found the hotel shuttle does not run on Swiss accuracy. The every fifteen minute shuttle was thirteen minutes late. The driver must need a new watch!

We are in Geneva on a Sunday night... There is nothing open, so we have to order in pizza, but can't order until after 7 pm. When we go to the lobby to pick up the pizza, the delivery man has a motorcycle helmet. The Pizza delivery man drives a scooter! This hits my funny bone.

Hiked 5 miles. We should get bonus points for running our luggage up the hill in Murren and making the train on time!

Learned Swiss do not like people riding in first class unless you paid for first class, not all Swiss are on time, people like to eat late, and pizza can be delivered on a scooter.