Wengen - Switzerland at its best

Switzerland has a lot of charming locales and one is totally spoilt for choice. Unfortunately by falling into the tourist trap one tends to overlook the lesser known places, which are often overshadowed by the more popular tourist hotspots. One such hidden gem that we discovered was Wengen in the Bernese Oberland. It was by sheer chance that we stumbled onto this enchanting place. When we were doing the bookings for our stay we looked at places near Interlaken like Grindelwald and Murren, as our base for Jungfrau. Nothing was working out as most of the places either didn’t appeal to us or was booked since it was the peak season. Interlaken didn’t enthuse us because we wanted to stay somewhere not overrun by tourists. Then we came across this place in Wengen, fortunately it was available on the date we were going and that’s how we ended up staying in this charming hamlet

Amazing mountain view from Wengen

Wengen is only accessible by train or foot. From Lauterbrunnen (a valley couple of hours from Interlaken) we travelled by cog railway to Wengen. The carriages are painted bright green and yellow and the seats inside are wooden. The train has so few carriages that on a mountain curve one can catch a view of its tail end. It's around 15 minutes of steep climb through magnificently picturesque surroundings.

Lauterbrunnen valley

Switzerland's natural beauty is legendary but this stretch from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen just takes your breath away, the scenery is absolutely spectacular, there are mountain streams which run along the way, the water is absolutely crystal clear and one can see the bottom of the flowing stream. The whole area is so very green and amazingly also so very white (snow colored peaks which seem quite close and not far away) and you get an unforgettable and mesmerizing view of the valley below which is dotted with ‘chocolate -box' wooden chalets.

 Wengen is a small alpine village which is car free. There is a short little street which is the only marketplace in the town. It has a couple of restaurants, handful of bars and a bakery shop which has really delish freshly baked stuff. There is an ice rink too and lots of chalets which have been converted into hotels. Most tourists pass by Wengen on their way to Jungfrau.

Amazing night view from the chalet

The chalet that we had booked was a good 20 minutes walk from the train station and a fair part of it was uphill. The first day it seemed kind of  painful and we were thinking that- maybe it was not such a sensible thing to do- living in wilderness merely because we fell in love with the place and that - maybe we should have stuck to a more central location even though that might be less fancier.  But all these thoughts just disappeared once we reached the chalet, it was even more prettier than what it looked online and the back drop was to die for....imagine the sight from the chalet...on a clear day we could get a spectacular view of the three peaks the Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch.

A view of the Jungfrau from the chalet

 All our misgivings went away in a puff and now my husband was patting himself on the back for having the foresight to realize that we all would love the place. Though now we had another problem at hand, nobody wanted to leave this place for any sightseeing.

The Telescope for mountain gazing

The 'modern' chalet

The couple who own the chalet are Irish. This is their holiday home and they mostly come down here in winters with friends and family for skiing. Wengen is a very popular ski resort and I believe that it gets way more packed in winters when all the skiing enthusiasts descend here.

There are lots of places around and we did day trips to see all of them. There is Murren, which has no road to go onto ... a cable car from Lauterbrunnen takes you up till Grutschald and then a single carriage train ride lands you into Murren.This was also the location of a James Bond movie (On Her Majesty's Service).

Murren

Then to Isenfluh through a spiral tunnel ... this is such a tiny hamlet inhabited by a small populace and here one can buy fresh cheese (the taste of which you will never forget) from the local farmer. From here there is a cable car for Suwald which is also called a cow car as it can take six people or a cow. One fine day we also did a small trek.... a trail from Wengen to Lauterbrunnen which took us an hour to do.

The Falls at Lauterbrunnen

Since we were going down it was not hard on us but on the way we met a lot of cyclists doing mountain biking and we were wondering how they were attempting it for to us it looked very tortuous.

Green vistas at Wengen

Wengen has a very unhurried pace of life and it is highly recommended for  people who like fresh mountain air, soaking in the stunning scenery, doing the hiking trails or maybe even mountain climbing. For me personally, this place is all about taking time to savor stuff at your own leisurely pace. I love all of Switzerland but the one place that I would most definitely like to revisit is Wengen. What I remember of my stay is that it was one week- of air so fresh and pure, of cow bells waking you up in the morning, of pearly white snow peaks staring from your window sill, of smiling and contented faces, of life at its heavenly best.

Cows grazing outside our chalet

Picture - postcard Gstaad

 Bronze Statue of Rosie the Cow at the Promenade

What should I say about Switzerland that would do justice to this beautiful land? We had been there for over a couple of weeks and each place from Lucerne to Lausanne to Zermatt was an experience that left us totally enchanted by its unparalleled beauty. 

Switzerland was perfect and so were its systems. The trains ran with clockwork precision-you could set your watch. The public utilities were squeaky clean. Everything was very tourist friendly. The signage on the stations was so simple that you didn't need any assistance in locating your train or the platform. As for their transport system it's definitely one of the best in the world. We covered a fair distance in our fifteen day sojourn and were amazed by its efficiency-no running late and no cancellations. Many a times we had to change trains with just a couple of minutes for that transfer  and everyone would be scampering from one platform to another but they waited till everyone got in and only then the train pulled off.

One of the places that we visited here was Gstaad. We took the panoramic Golden Pass from Zweisimmen. The train journey was an experience in itself. The train has huge glass windows so one could see some spectacular views of the countryside. Till now we had been quite taken in by the beauty of Interlaken but this area surpassed that in its natural prettiness. All throughout the way I saw lush green meadows dotted with cows. I was by now feeling very envious of the people living here who enjoy this every day.

Gstaad is an exclusive ski resort and a car free village. There is a main street here which runs through the village called the Promenade. It is for pedestrians only and chic shops flank both sides of the street. We went around indulging in some retail therapy of the window shopping kind. There was - Prada, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Ralph Lauren, Cartier -you  name it -a shopper’s paradise, but so fancily priced that my shopaholic daughter  decided that maybe! she should restrain herself for just this one time.

Despite being the playground of the rich and famous this ski resort has developed in such a way that its villageseque character has remained intact. Cow bells could be heard tinkling in the distance and we saw a lot of quaint wooden chalets, typically Swiss with alpine style roofs. Gstaad has stayed small and beautiful and thankfully has not been overbuilt like say Zermatt which is a bit of an over kill.  It has also been able to keep a fine balance between being an uber luxurious resort and maintaining its pastoral roots. The centuries old tradition of making Alpine cheese is still being carried on. We tasted the regions famous cheese Hobelkase, which is cut in wafer thin slices, almost transparent and then its rolled up and served. It was a hard cheese and had a spicy flavor and it went very well with white wine.

The crowd here is ultra chic and classy. I didn’t see any normal tourists like ourselves here ... and backpackers ... you must be kidding! The people who have lived here and some of them still do reads like a who's who ... Valentino, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Andrews to Sean Connery, so we were definitely in exalted company. Our very own Kareena Kapoor calls it her favorite place in the world. The feel here is definitely upscale and you see a very well heeled crowd frequenting this place

There were charming little cafes and restaurants on both sides of the main street and it was great  fun to sit there, out in the sun, and lunch on a typical Swiss meal of rosti, potato soup, cheese platter and chocolate fondue and, watch the beautiful people passing by and of them ... there was no dearth. Later in the day we savored warm Belgian waffles with nutella, which were melt in the mouth and the son had hot dogs which he said were very fresh and delish.

Gstaad was a very surreal experience for me and for all its glitz and glamour what has stayed in my mind is its understated charm and its achingly beautiful vistas. If I could, the one thing that I would like to take back from here- its fresh mountainous air which definitely needs to be bottled and sold. Gstaad looks as if it's a landscape painting ... with such lovely colors and hues ... and everything so perfectly natural and divine ... with not a thing out of place ... an urban village which charmed me then and gets a smile on my face whenever I think of it now. A must see jewel of the Bernese Oberland.