May 8 Switzerland

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there among our faithful followers.

Also, Happy Birthday to Adam on his birthday!

This morning we left the boat.   We went through a series of canals during the night and were docked in Basel, Switzerland before 2:00 AM.  Someone on the boat had to leave by 4:00 AM to catch their flight home.

We made arrangements for a taxi to pick us up at 9:30 AM so we had a leisurely departure from the boat.  We had to be out of our cabin by 9:00 AM.  We went to the sun deck to wait for our taxi after leaving our cabin.

This is the view of Basel, Switzerland from the top deck of the Viking Helvetia. Once again we were blessed with a beautfiul day.

Switzerland has an amazing public transportation system.  Our taxi took us from the dock to the train station in Basel.  We then took a train from Basel to Bern.  Transferred in Bern to another train.  Went from Bern to Interlaken.  Transferred to another train in Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.  In Lauterbrunnen we transferred to a cable car right at the train station.  The cable car took us part way up the mountain to Grutschaip.  In Grutschaip we transfered to an electric narrow-gauge train car that took us into Murren where we are staying for two nights.  We left the boat at 9:30 AM and were checked in at our hotel in Murren by 1:00 PM.

This is the ticket counter at the train station in Basel.

This is the train we took from Basel to Bern.  It is one of the high speed trains, ICE.

Here we are on our first train of the day.

The train from Bern to Interlaken took us along the entire south shore of Lake Thun.

Mary at the train station in Interlaken.

From Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen we started climbing and the scenery changed.  We followed this little river for quite a while.

 The view of the Lauterbrunnen train station from the cable car that took us from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschaip.

 Looking down on Lauterbrunnen from the cable car.

 In Grutschaip we transferred to this narrow-guage train car.  This car took us from Grutschaip to Murren.

 Mary on the narrow gauge train car on our way into Murren.

We arrived in Murren!  Note, the elevation: 5,361 feet.

We are staying two nights at the Eiger Guesthouse.  This is a picture of the Eiger Guesthouse.  It is located directly across the street from where we arrived on the narrow guage train car.  There aren't any motorized vehicles in Murren.  It is similar to Mackinac Island in that respect.  It is a pedestrian town.

 This is our room.

 The view from our room when we checked in.  This is the opposite side of the valley from Murren.

Murren is a big down hill ski village.  They don't have a ski resort as such.  There are several ski lifts in the area and it appears people ski down the mountain into the village.

We took a walk around town.  There are several scenic overlooks in the town.  This is looking down on another little village in the valley below us.

 Another picture of the same view overlooking the village in the valley.

 Here I am on our walk around Murren.

As soon as the snow melts, then Murren becomes a center for hiking.  There are several trails that take off from Murren through the countryside on the side of the mountains.  After our walk around the little town of Murren, we took a walk on a trail labeled "easy".  There were several streams and waterfalls along our walk.

This is a transition season for Murren.  On our way up the mountain there were people with downhill skiis.  They can still ski at the top of the tallest mountain, Schilthorn.  There was also a young man with a mountain bike on the cable car.  He got off at an intermediate stop on the last leg of getting to Murren.  There are several mountain bike trails in addition to the hiking trails in this area.  People take the cable car and train up the mountain and ride their bikes down the mountain.  The people we saw had full gear, with helmuts, shin guards, etc.

Many of the hotels and shops are closed in Murren from the end of the ski season until the start of the summer tourist season.  The snow has melted around Murren and it is green with lots of flowers, both wild flowers along the trails and planted flowers in the town.  Many of the hotels and shops stay closed from the end of April when the skiing ends until the end of May or even the beginning of June.

It was cloudy when we arrived in Murren but it cleared up as the afternoon went along.  This is another view across the valley from Murren.  There are glaciers on these mountains.

 This is a telephoto view of a farm across the valley.

This is another picture from our room at the Eiger Guesthouse.  The train station is the building on the right.  The farm in the picture just before this is way in the distance just to the left and below the steep rocky mountain in the center of the picture.

This is the dining room in the Eiger Guesthouse.