May 9 Murren

We woke to an absoulutely gorgeous day and it stayed that way all day. We are in the mountains and we saw them at their best.  This was the view from our window when we staarted our day.

This is the view from our balcony looking up the street into town.  This was taken about 7:30 AM.  The train station is on the left.

 After breakfast at the hotel, we walked through town to start our hike on the mountain behind the town.

 There were lots of wildflowers on our walk.

There are several trails behind Murren that connect to other trails.  There is an extensive trail system for hiking in the Alps.  Greg is pointing the way we were headed.  Notice we are going up!

We hiked through the woods and through pastures and along the ski slopes.  This is Mary on one section of the trail.

 This is one of the pastures we hiked through.

Looking up to the top of this mountain.  It really isn't the top but it is all you can see from this vantage point.  If you look closely on the top left of the mountain, you can see a little building.  The building is called Birg.  The elevation of Birg is 8783 feet.  That is where the cable car will transfer you to another cable car to get to the top of Schilthorn Mountain.

We walked through this little group of buildings.  Most of them are stables for cattle in the summer.  The ones with chimneys are either lived in or are rented out to skiers in the winter.

These are three of the mountains across the valley from Murren.  The mountain peak on the left is Eiger at 13,026 feet elevation, the middle peak is Monch at 13,449 feet, and the peak on the right is Jungfrau at 13,642 feet.

 This is a waterfall in one of the valleys we went through.

 Mary on the trail on the way down. Mts Eiger and Monch are in the background.

Mary on the trail.  We encountered patches of snow in the higher elevations and the north facing slopes of our walk.  Sometimes the trail would be completely covered in snow.

 We came back to the Eiger Guesthouse where we are staying for lunch.

 The view of Mount Eiger while we were eating lunch.

They have window boxes almost everywhere.  This window box is in one of the windows of the Eiger Guesthouse.  Pansies are one of their favorite flowers for window boxes in Murren.

After lunch we took a cable car up to the top of Mount Schilthorn. The top of Mount Schilthorn is 9,748 feet.

 Looking down on Murren from the cable car.

We transferred cable cars at Birg.  This is the building I pointed out in an earlier picture looking up while we were hiking..

This is the top of Mount Schilthorn, 9,748 feet.  They filmed part of the James Bond movie, "On Her Majesty's Secrect Service" at this location.  George Lazenby was James Bond in this movie.  I think it was filmed here in the late 1960s but they still play it up as a 007 film location.

 The view from the top.  This is looking at Mounts Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

 Another view in a different direction.

Mary at the top.  It was almost 40 degrees colder at the top of Mount Schilthorn compared to the temperature in Murren.  Lucky for us it was almost 80 degrees in Murren.

 Greg at the top of Mount Schilthorn.

While we were inside the building at the top, a hang gliderer went by. This picture was taken through a tinted window.

After dinner at our hotel we took another walk.  We came across this animal.  It is called a shamway.  I'm just guessing at the spelling.  We showed the hotel clerk our picture and he told us what it was.  Apparently is a sort of a cross between a goat and a deer.  It looks more like a goat to me.  They are a wild animal.

 I don't know if you can see them but he has two curved horns.

This was our last full day in Murren.  Tomorrow we head down the mountain and take a train to Lucerne.  We are staying at a Movenpick Hotel near the central train station in Lucerne.  Then on Wednesday we fly home.  On Wednesday, we take a 6:00 AM train from Lucerne to the airport in Zurich.  We are flying on Delta Airlines.  We are scheduled to depart Zurich at 9:50 AM on Delta flight 67.  We are scheduled to arrive in Atlanta at 2:20 PM Atlanta time.

We will go through United States Customs in Atlanta.  We are scheduled to depart Atlanta at 5:15 PM Atlanta time on Delta flight 1257.  We are scheduled to arrive in Minneapolis at 7:03 PM on Wednesday, May 11.  Our car is parked at the E-Z Park lot.  Then we drive home!