"Sometimes we wander to find ourselves rather than to find place."
Welcome back to the 7th blog of our trip to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Switzerland
Hope you like my previous blogs on "Grindelwald" and here we are going to continue to spread our footprints in the Suisse landscapes.
Murren
Murren is a beautiful traditional mountain village at an elevation of 1638 meters above sea level, right above of Lauterbrunnen valley.
An exemplary Swiss colony that is considered as one of the least polluted villages in Switzerland.
Mürren is called the “chocolate box village” because of its picturesque and charming appearance. It is a small and car-free village located at 1638m above sea level in the Bernese Highlands of Switzerland. The village is surrounded by beautiful nature and has majestic views of the Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch mountains.
Similar like Lauterbrunnen, the village is filled with alpine hotels and chalets, retails shops and F&B outlets.
There are around 500 residents staying in Murren but the ironic is, there are more than 2000 beds for tourists.
Do you know ? : Switzerland Is Prepared for Nuclear War and is well equipped with nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate its entire human population,
From Interlaken OST, we took the regional train to Lauterbrunnen and change to cable car that head for Grutschal and then change into BLM train to Murren. Along the way, we were being greeted with pretty scenery.
Here is the journey from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschal via big cable car.
Grutschal Station
Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen-Murren (BLM) is a small train that is control by hybrid transportation system.
As Murren is located high on the mountain, this is the only way for people and villager to move around.
The journey is 20min and you can literally feel the steep ascend and the view is beautiful.
Murren Station
Before the construction of Murren station, villager moved around via horse drawn tramways during 1894 to 1930s. There is a mini display on the second floor of Murren Train Station.
After the completion of Murren station, it become so easy for everyone to commute about.
Sir Arnold Lunn
Right beside Murren station, there is this important memorial of Sir Arnold Lunn, a Bristish man.
On the memorial, it stated: "It was here in Murren that Arnold Lunn set the first Slalom in 1922and organized the first world championship in downhill and Slalom racing in 1931".
So, what is Slalom racing? It is a sport that involves skiing, snowboarding or skateboarding in a zigzag course between upright obstacles. The racer tries to get through the course with the fastest time, while knocking down the fewest obstacles.
Murren Main Street
The street starts from Murren Station, I think it is so great to enjoy the Swiss Alps and zero traffic.
Though retail shops are not as much as Lauterbrunnen but at least there is a supermarket here to feed the basic needs.
As for F&B choices, there is quite a selections of fancy cafes and home-grown eateries serving classic local dish in such picturesque and peaceful mountain atmosphere.
Here are the photos of the street at various points.
ViewPoint at Cafe Liv
I am not sure what is the name of this viewpoint therefore I use Cafe LIV as the landmark.
This viewpoint is located next to Cafe LIV so it will not be missed at all.
Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche Mürren
Beautiful and elegant old church adding into the skyline of Murren.
Surrounded with local buildings in such snowy landscape fueled the magical touch.
Skyline Shop & Bar
Half of this place is retail shop while the other half is a cafe.
We choose this place for a break because we are too full for solid meals and this place sell snacks which is ideal for us as the next stop, we are going to Gimmelwald where limited or zero choice on F&B.
We ordered 2 cappuccinos and 2 chocolate croissants which taste really good.
Murren Village
This small mountainous village has its own characteristics during my visit during winter.
The place is covered with snow and mist, just like a fairytale.
How I wish I can spend at least a night here.
Pathway to Gimmelwald
From here, we start to make our way to Gimmelwald on foot. It is easy as the yellow signs are clear & the walking path is flat, smooth and downhill. Along the way, you will meet mini waterfalls that came from higher rangers., cable cars, farm animals, friendly people and different tones of alpine scenery.
We will see more photos about this pathway on the next blog on Gimmelwald.
Murrenbach Falls
This waterfall is not located in Murren Village, infact it is located next to the bus station in Stechelberg bus station. We took the cable car from Gimmelwald to Stechelberg as we are taking a bus to Lauterbrunnen (yes, we are doing 3 towns in a day).
Remember I mentioned above that you will meet several mini waterfall on the way from Murren to Gimmelwald ? Those mini waterfalls were the source of this Murrenbach Falls.
Heard from the locals that this is the highest waterfall in Switzerland, the water from Murrenbach Falls plummets down from a height of 417 meters.
The waterfall is active throughout the year, but it’s at its most beautiful after the snow melts in the spring.
Our happy times in Murren shall end here.
Well, the end of this blog meaning the start of another; coming up next will be on the picturesque Gimmelwald. The remaining blogs of Spiez,,Lauterbrunenn, Iseltwald, Colmar, Konstanz, Lucerne and etc. 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 publishing this blog, we just came back from our trip to the Artic - Tromso where we managed to catch the northern lights, the magical blue hour & etc, please stay tune by liking my FB page.
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"
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