I had been planning on switching back to normal retail posts, but I finally seem to be in the swing of things when it comes to these travel blogs, so I guess I'll just keep going for now...
We'll start where we left off, in Murren. We stayed in a hotel right on the edge of the valley cliff, and this was the view from my parents' room (I had a cheaper room on the non-view side of the hotel). The hotel itself wasn't particularly nice, being incredibly 70s inside, but even with the clouds, the view was amazing.
Since Switzerland is so expensive, we decided to get dinner from the grocery store. I've talked a few times about the grocery stores in the most scenic locations, from Leavenworth to Pacific Palisades to San Francisco -- the last of which I previously considered the best view I'd ever seen from inside a grocery store. Well, that title has now been taken in spectacular fashion by the Coop in Murren! It isn't right on the cliff like our hotel, but it still has an amazing view of the valley (and presumably the mountains if the clouds weren't there). I dare you to find a more spectacular toilet paper/paper towel display anywhere!
The next morning, things weren't looking any better...
... But my parents still wanted to ride the cable car up the mountain anyway. Since this is Switzerland, it was somewhere over $100 per person for the privilege, which I thought was way too much money, but I was told that since I wasn't paying for it, my vote didn't count. 🙂
The cable cars from Murren to Birg (and from Birg to the top) have been replaced in the last few years, and it seems that the new ones are still a bit glitchy. After walking through what's still a construction site from one cable car to the next, we got on the second one with the few other people crazy enough to pay this amount of money to see nothing, the doors closed, and... nothing happened. These cable cars are new enough that they're supposed to run unattended (with workers at the terminal stations using goofy-looking industrial remote controls to start them), but there was an attendant on board this time, who just kept poking at the touchscreen control to no avail. She tried opening and closing the doors quite a few times before just leaving us for quite a while. I, being nosy as always, went over to check out the control panel, and was able to piece together the few words of German I know to figure out that the computer was complaining that the doors were open even though they were closed. I'm not sure how long the problem actually took to fix, but in the end we sat there until the next cable car from the bottom arrived so they could stay in sync.
- Countries visited: 2
- Modes of transportation broken: 2
But eventually we did manage to leave Birg behind...
... and head on up to Schilthorn itself, completely buried in clouds.
I wasn't particularly impressed by this. Most of the building and surrounding area was closed off due to a combination of construction and weather, and the whole place is a bit tourist trap-y due to its association with an old James Bond movie (you know I have little interest in movies).
But my dad was thrilled since he loves the snow, so that's something. I fully expect he's going to want to come back here if we return to Switzerland next winter for his birthday.
Back in the construction zone, they had a nice map with profile drawings of all three segments of the cable car and opening dates for the six new cable cars (four of which were operational when we were here). The building renderings look like something I would have drawn in Sketchup when I was in elementary school!
It's amazing to think how all of the construction materials here had to be brought in either by helicopter (we saw helicopters with cargo nets flying in the valley the night before, but I don't think I got any pictures) or by cable car (one of the workers in this picture rode the cable car up with us, hand-carrying some of those copper trim panels that they were installing during our visit.
I should also mention the restrooms here -- the mirrors had display screens behind them that showed James Bond clips and played sound effects when the sinks are in use! Obviously I didn't get any pictures of that, not just because it was in the restrooms but also because it's hard to be anonymous when you're taking a picture of a mirror. 🙂
Down at Birg, we found that the outside area had been cleared while we were hanging out up top. No skyline to be seen, though!
My dad was the only one willing to walk out on the Thrill Walk, though! I might have except I find see-through stairs disconcerting at the best of times, and there were a lot of stairs down there from the station.
From the cable car station, we could see this old Ben & Jerry's-branded car being used as some sort of employee shelter. I wonder what the history is there!
The closed half of the Thrill Walk includes a suspended tube you can crawl through. These things always make me think of an old McDonald's PlayPlace!
Otherwise, this was our view for most of the way back down to Murren.
But Murren isn't the base station here -- there's a third cable car (as seen on that drawing earlier) going down to the valley, the town's primary connection to the road network. Historically this was another two-part trip, detouring to Grimmelwald (a really cute little town that I wanted to stay at, but was unable to find a hotel in)... but in 2024, this new direct cable car opened.
While I wasn't interested in heading up the mountain in the fog, this cable car was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Murren. At a slope of 159% (now the title finally makes sense 🙂), it is not only the steepest cable car in the world, it is (as far as I have been able to figure out) the steepest mode of transportation anywhere in the world. (Specifically, I have seen it referred to as the steepest cable-driven transportation in the world, but the steepest rack railway -- also in Switzerland, but sadly only open in the summertime -- only has a 48% slope, and I can't think of anything else that might compete. Meanwhile, elevators have been running at an ∞-percent slope since the 1800s, but I guess that doesn't count!)
I suppose I should explain percent slope, since even my science-minded dad couldn't grasp the idea of a slope greater than 100% at first. Even I, someone who works with percent slopes every day at my job (yes, I know that sounds weird, but anyone in my industry knows exactly what I'm talking about!), couldn't quite visualize it at first -- in my line of work, slopes greater than around 10% are a rare sight! I had to dig out my old graphing calculator to run an arctangent before I could conceptualize it. Percent slope is a simple concept -- rise over run -- but I think the name makes people think it refers to the "percent" of the way to vertical. In reality, 100% is a 45 degree angle, and a vertical line is infinite percent (as I joked about previously), not 100%. So as impressive as 159% sounds, it's actually just a little bit past 45 degrees -- specifically, not quite 58 degrees (sounds a lot less impressive that way, doesn't it!).
The base station here is unlike any other cable car I've ever ridden. Normally you come into the stations close to horizontal, but here you drop directly down into it! It really is like being in an elevator, but out in the open instead of in an enclosed shaft.
The weather was definitely not great, but we did walk up to the base of the waterfall, the Murrenbachfall (or as close as you're able to get, which sadly isn't very close).
The original two-part cable car is still running, still using the older cable car system that has since been replaced on the upper cable car runs.
But we went for the new one, watching it drop down into the station.
By the way, the new stations themselves are quite nice, with lots of copper on the outside (which I imagine won't stay this shiny for long!) and exposed wood structure on the inside.
And up we go! I absolutely love the middle picture; while it isn't the greatest in technical terms thanks to the wet window in the way, it's one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. I don't think I even realized how cool it was when I took it, since I never looked at it until just now!
Back into Murren, and back into the fog. I wonder how the people in these houses feel about the new cable car running overhead -- can't forget what happened in Portland!
That's it for this post, but this isn't the end of the unusual, pioneering infrastructure for this day!
That is quite a picturesque display of tampons! I'm sure I saw some beautiful supermarket exteriors in Zermatt, CH and Innsbruck, AT, though I can't remember specifically...though I do think I shopped at a Spar in Innsbruck.
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