Birg, Gimmelwald and Mürren
Reading Time: 5 minutes After sharing Part 1 of our Swiss Alps adventure, I couldn’t wait to post Part 2.
Birg Thrill Walk
Once we took in all of the Schilthorn summit, we hopped on the cable car and rode our way over the ski slopes to the mid-station Birg. At this stop, we ventured out for a view from the terrace and couldn’t resist the sign leading us to the Thrill Walk.
The Thrill Walk consisted of a metal walkway secured onto the vertical walls of the imposing rocks massif.
It didn’t take us long to figure out that we definitely would NOT be leaving the Thrill Walk.
We walked the 200m pathway under the Birg cableway station.
It was a spine tingling walk to say the least. As if walking along a metal-grated plank wasn’t enough of an adrenaline rush, there were a few surprises along the way.
Once we shuffled our feet past these smooth metal rods, we were treated with the option of walking across the glass bottom pathway.
If we kept our mind off the fact that there was only a sheet of glass separating us and the rocky slope below, we were okay.
But for those who chose to stop and take in the view, let’s just say it messes with the mind. Some symptoms may include shortness of breath, sweaty palms, and rapid heart rate!
The next surprise was made up of three cables. One cable was to tight rope walk across and the other two were either for securing under sweaty armpits or for grasping onto with sweaty palms! We were both hanging on for dear life. (Don’t worry, though… there was a chain link enclosure to catch us had we lost our footing.)
For the grand finale of the Thrill Walk was a chain link tunnel to crawl through, which made it pretty difficult to avoid looking down. Dave kicked his fear of heights to the bottom of this mountainside as he travailed each test!! Way to go, Honey!
Once we made it to the end of the Thrill Walk, we discovered that the safe, glass-enclosed walkway leading back to the cable station was closed, so we got to turn around and do it all over again!! Woot!
Gimmelwald
The rest of the day was much more relaxed. We grabbed another cable car and sauntered our way down to a quaint little village called Gimmelwald.
Our plan was to grab a snack and browse through some little shops, but it turned out that everything was shut up since it was the off season.
As we were walking along the road outside of Gimmelwald, we kept hearing a sound like a fighter jet flying over us. It turned out to be the sound of mini avalanches coming down the mountainsides due to the warm thaw.
Mürren
Our last cable car stop was the village of Mürren.
Here we parted ways with our group to browse through a couple shops. We stopped at a local shop called Exile on Main Street, which is a flagship store of Piz Gloria, so we both bought a hat to keep our heads warm the rest of the day.
We made it to the train station just in time to catch a ride back to our bus in the valley where we were to retrieve our luggage before taking another train up the opposite side of the valley to our hotel.
I came across this little sign posted above the toilet seat in the train station. I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud! Really?!?
Our day was full of one exhilarating, memorable surprise after another. To top it off, this was the view awaiting us when we got to our hotel room in Wengen and opened up the doors of our deck. I didn’t expect to love Switzerland so much!
