"Don't Listen to What They Say - Go See."
Welcome back to the 6th blog of our trip to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Switzerland
Hope you like my previous blogs on "Wengen" and here we are going to continue to spread our footprints in the Suisse landscapes.
Grindelwald
A magical town that is filled with gingerbread house even though Christmas is over, the air of Christmas is still lingers in the air when we visited few days after Christmas... well 12 days of Xmas!!
This is an old town where tourism started since 18th century where mountain guides were engaged by tourist to show them around the very first village in Grindelwald that welcome foreigners. Grindelwald is under the administrative of Interlaken and is connected to Interlaken by rail.
Grindelwald is located more than 1000 meters above sea levels, the oldest traces of settlement in the area was from Neolithic era
There is an estimated population of 1000 resident in Grindelwald, a handful of the residents here are foreign nationals., the principal language here is German followed by Portuguese. Today, almost the entire economy in Grindelwald is contributed by tourism therefore it is rather commercialized here.
The whole town is surrounded by mountains which means every corner you go, every street you walk, there is always mountain views, it is always pretty.
Do you know ? : The installation of air conditioner is banned here in most mountain villages in order to save energy and every resident is required to comply the law. Special permit is required if you want to install one. Anyway, the air and weather here do not need to have an aircon as the average summer is about 23 degrees Celsius.
There is a direct 36 minutes train ride from Interlaken OST to Grindelwald station.
For us, we visit Grindelwald from Wengen so we need to transit at Lauterbrunnen & Zweilutschinen.
Though Zweilutschinen is a small station, but it is a busy interchange with super clear signs and instructions.
Alternative, from Wengen, you can reach Grindelwald via Mannlichen but Swiss Travel Pass(STP) did not cover this trip, we need to pay. So we choose to go to Zweilutschinen which is cover in the STP.
Grindelwald Railway Station
We were literally smacked within the moments we alighted the train in Grindelwald station, with the stunning mountain (If I am not wrong, it is Schwarzhorn) acting as the backdrop of the town.
Located in the heart of the town, it serves trains to Interlaken, Wengen, Lauterbrunnen and Kleine Sxheidegg which is where visitors transfer up to Jungfraujoch. There are also 8 other railway stations within Grindelwald like Burglauenen, Grindelwald Terminal, Schwendi, Grindelwald Grund, Brandegg, Alpglen, Eigerwand and Eismeer. so you can see that Grindelwald is a big town compared to Lauterbrunnen. Grindelwald is also good base for those who want to explore the Jungfrau area.
There is also a bus depot located next to Grindelwald Railway station. so it is easy to access around with the public buses.
The transit gate to Kleine Scheidegg is located in Grindelwald Railway station as well.
So, this is how the Grindelwald Railway Station looks like.... Finally I am here.
A simple small building that had been standing here sending and receiving guests from all over the world.
Eiger Grindelwald Viewing Platform
Just walk along the Dorfstrasse Main Street from the railway station, after few minutes of walking, on the right-hand side, you will be greeted by the awe-ing view of the mountain which I suppose is Eiger.
Many people love to gather at this point to take photos, enjoy the " WOW WOW WOW" view, chilling up with a takeaway coffee and etc
We are just so little... so humble... so microscopic right in front of such big mountain.
Dorfstrasse AKA The Main Street
A true blue Swiss Alpine village that is full of Gingerbread's houses dotted along the street, these houses or buildings are well decorated with fresh colours of paints and decorations. Hotels, restaurants, cafes, souvenirs, fashion, bakeries, butchery and supermarket are found here.
To complete the whole street, you need at least 2hrs on foot, starting from the building of Grindelwald railway station which is the start of this street.
On the day we came, there was no snow, so it is easy to move around.
Lunch Hotel Hirchen
It's time for fondue again. The place was so packed during lunch hour, and we are lucky to have a corner table.
Most of the customers here ordered fondue so it must be good, and we ordered as well.
The fondue come with minced mushrooms and bacon that go along with young potatoes and bread.
The staff here are friendly and nice, I noticed a young male staff was serving payment to a customer. When the customer was keying in the pin, the staff turned away. I like this attitude and manage to chat up with him who is a true-blue villager in Grindelwald. He even gave us some insights of Grindelwald that really helps us on the trip.
Love the words on this bench : NO BORDERS NO NATIONS
Grindelwald Church
According to the local, the whole main street needs at least 2hrs to complete by foot per way.
Usually the heart of the town start from the train station all the way to Grindelwald church.
Once we reach this church, we u-turn back and slowly walk back to the railway station while spending more time to explore the place again.
Last few photos of Grindelwald here....
Our happy times in Grindelwald shall end here with lots of fun.
Well, the end of this blog meaning the start of another; coming up next will be on the beautiful Murren. The remaining blogs of Spiez, Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, Iseltwald, Colmar and Lucerne will be in the queue for publishments.
Here are the shortcuts to the blogs on our trips in Switzerland:
We visited Europe recently like The Netherlands & Belgium recently : Amsterdam, The Hague , Rotterdam , Kinderdijk , Naarden ,Muiden , Haarlem , Nijmegan, Brussel, Bruges
and Antwerp.
We even moved to stay in Denmark during the peak of Covid : Relocation from Singapore to Aalborg, Denmark
At the time of writing this blog, I am in Denmark as my husband is here for a short outstation and we already booked air ticket to Tromso at the start of February. Hopefully we are lucky to catch the aurora.
Meanwhile we will still be driving for short trips to nearby Malaysia especially gourmet trips to Johore.
Feel free, you are most welcome to browse through my other blogs to France, Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia and cruises etc. I will be deeply blessed if you can like my facebook page:: followblueginger
"I travel because seeing photos in books and brochures was not good enough for me, To be there, that was everything"
