Saturday, July 4

We had to be up early the next morning, as we had reserved seats on the Goldenpass Express to Interlaken. We checked out of the hotel and were soon on our way toward the Alps.

When we arrived in Interlaken, we stored our luggage and then got on a bus to Iseltwald on Lake Brienz. LS immediately found a friendly cat and we walked alongside the lake, stopping to take photos intermittently. We ate lunch lakeside at Seegarten Restaurant, then took the ferry back to Interlaken. After retrieving our bags, we got on a train to Lauterbrunnen and headed into the valley.

Once off the train there, we had to take a bus to Stechelburg, which dropped us off at a cable car station, where we rode the world’s steepest cable car directly up to Mürren, our base for our stay in the Alps. All of this was still covered by the Swiss Travel Pass.

We rolled our luggage to the other side of the village to our lodging, Hotel Edelweiss. We checked in and then headed up to our room. This room felt large, by European hotel standards, but I think it was mainly due to the open design. It had a bed, as well as a pullout for LS, a desk, table and chair. A halfwall separated the bedroom from the bathroom where there was a large tub, sink, and shower. A separate door led to the toilet and a second sink. A large balcony overlooked the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains. Our room was directly above the hotel’s restaurant, so we could hear the chatter from the diners eating below, but it didn’t really bother us. The restaurant closed around 9:30pm each evening, around sunset, so it was never loud at night.

Once we had unpacked, we headed out to explore the town and menu browse to find something to eat. We landed on Restaurant Stagerstubli, which was one I had noted down. I ordered the Kaseschnitte nature, which is just cheese on bread (I had to try every cheese dish), and Mr. Strange had the chicken. While mine was good, Mr. Strange’s chicken was divine! LS had her usual dish of fries and ice cream, and this is where she discovered her love of the Coupe Dänemark, which is just a sundae of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. She would end up ordering this at pretty much every restaurant in Mürren. 

Our bellies full, we went to bed, ready to start our adventures in the mountains.