6 July 2015
We started the day with breakfast and beautiful views of the Swiss Alps at our apartment in Wengen before starting our journey to Schynige Platte. The weather was forecasted to be slightly cloudy but no rain. Perfect weather for a day trip to Schynige Platte from Wengen.
Schynige Platte is a plateau near Interlaken, at an altitude of 1967 m. Access is via Wilderswil at 584m. It took a couple of train changes to get to Wilderswil (Wengen to Lauterbrunnen to Wilderswil).
While waiting for the train to Schynige Platte, we had time to look around the small Wilderwill train station and saw some Edelweiss for sale. Edelweiss is a well-known mountain flower and perhaps better known as the song from the Sound of Music.
The ride from Wilderswil up to Schynige Platte is an attraction in itself. Instead of the usual fast and modern Swiss trains, the Schynige Platte Bahn is a narrow gauge historical cogwheel train that featured wooden benches in the carriages, rolling stock from the 19th century and conductors in historic uniforms. A travel back in time indeed.
There are a few versions of trains serving this route, some older (brown and open air) and some slightly newer (red) but still vintage. We happened to take the old style ”open-air” train up instead of the newer red train. The cogwheel train climbs at a slow 12 km/hr up to Schynige Platte, passing many panoramic viewpoints overlooking Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. This meant there is plenty of time to enjoy the views from the train. 50 minutes to be exact. For me, the views and ride was no big deal as I knew we would be seeing much better views as we hike around the plateau later. Nevertheless, it was interesting to experience the old Schynige Platte railway, which opened in 1893 and is one of Switzerland’s pioneering lines.
Upon reaching the summit, we were greeted by splendid views of the Jungfrau region.
And a pair of alphorn players.
The alphorn is a traditional wind instrument used by farmers to communicate with their cattle grazing in the meadows on the Alps. A blow on the horn is supposed to make a sound that echo through the mountains, informing the cows that it is time to go home for their milking, food and shelter. Making a sound through that long pipe itself is a challenge for the newbies.
Most tourists would spent a couple of hours wandering on the summit to take in the views, get something to eat in one of the restaurants and visit the alpine garden in summer.
There was a small playground that tempted even the young and old adults to have a go. It was not every day that we could enjoy a swing or seesaw at 1900m above sea level.
Schynige Platte is the departure point for very popular mountain hikes. When planning my trip, I was contemplating whether to attempt the Schynige Platte to First hike. This famous 15 km hike is rated as demanding and difficult, but offers plenty of views of the Jungfrau region. It should take about 6 hours across meadows, rocky paths and perhaps snow fields and high alpine terrain at elevations of 1924 – 2613 meters above sea level. I was not very sure about the time it would have taken us, in view of the inexperience, fitness and also likelihood to stop for plenty of photos. I finally decided against doing this hike for simple reason. The last cable car down from First is 6.30 PM and it would mean spending a night in the high mountains if we were to miss it. And we could not be sure it we could make it in time even if we started out early from Schynige Platte. Nevertheless, there are shorter round trip hikes around the Schynige Platte that are not to be missed too.
We started on our round trip Schynige Platte - Louchernhorn - Schynige Platte (Panorama Trail) hike after lunch. The starting point of this hike is located next to the restaurant just above the summit station leading to the Daube/Tuba lookout point. This 5.2 km trail should take about 2 and a half hours.
The beginning part of the trail was not too interesting, relatively speaking. There was some steep ascend to the lookout point where we could see the green waters of Lake Brienz and Interlaken below us.
From there on, the hike on the ridge was more interesting and awesome, to say the least.
This is a popular hike and there were a few other family groups on this same trail. With thin wisps of clouds rolling across the summit, we made our way along the ridge keeping a distance between us and the next group.
Although the hike we did the day earlier was awesome, this ridge top hike was something else. Featuring steep drop to Lake Brienz on our left and gorgeous views of flowered meadows on our right and views of high mountains all round, this hike is simply one of the “must-do” hikes in the Bernese Oberland.
We took our time on this trail, stopping often to take pictures of the views of the majestic mountains, alpine flowers and green lake on our left.
This looked like a scene from the Fellowship of the Rings movie although we are not in New Zealand but in Switzerland. We looked like little hobbits when compared to the majestic and huge mountains.
There is a short detour to climb the stairs up to a lookout point but we did not try this as staircase and outlook point seems precarious.
The same trail would lead to First, about 5 hours away. Upon nearing Louchernhorn we took a right turn, left the ridge and headed back down towards Schynige Platte. The return trail was across a mixture of meadows and rocky terrains. No more view of Lake Brienz, just more views of the mountains.
Before long, we were back at Schynige Platte to take the same old cogwheel train down to Wilderswil.
We ended the day taking a walk around the town of Lauterbrunnen with views of the Staubbach Falls, one of the many waterfalls along the Lauterbrunnen Valley.
We found the office for the Airtime Paragliding and made our bookings for this activity before heading back to our apartment in Wengen.
A nice way to end the day was enjoying a glass of wine on the balcony and watching the sun set across the alps.
