"Hugo is waiting for you on the terrace by the bar," our Swiss tour leader said as we arrived at the Hotel Kirchbuhl in Grindelwald after a day hiking in the Bernese Alps.
"Who’s Hugo? I asked.
"You’ll love him," replied Birgit. "He’s cheeky, fresh, European, sophisticated, chilled, fashionable ... a real hit with the ladies."
"Sounds intriguing," I thought as I dumped my day pack on a huge bed festooned with soft down duvets and pillows, threw open the doors to my balcony and inhaled lungfuls of sweet alpine air.
We had just scaled what seemed like a perpendicular cliff face to get to our hotel high above Grindelwald — but the view from this elevated location was well worth the huffing and puffing and burning thigh muscles at the end of a long day on the Bear Trek.
From my balcony, I looked directly at the massive rock face of the Eiger, the first peak of the mighty Bernese triptych, the others being the Monch and the Jungfrau. The late afternoon autumn sun painted the mountains molten gold and cast long shadows over the little village below.
The mysterious Hugo awaited so I couldn’t linger on the balcony for long. As I stripped off my sweaty hiking gear and boots, and luxuriated in the torrent of hot water gushing from the monsoon shower nozzle in my en-suite bathroom, I had a fleeting pang of guilt. I remembered how, back home in New Zealand, I used to trumpet the merits of hefting heavy packs up steep mountains and dossing down in communal bunkrooms at basic back-country huts with no showers or electricity ... let alone gourmet restaurants and bars. How good is this? I mused as the hot water relaxed my muscles and revived my spirits.
"So where’s this Hugo?" I asked.
"Here he is," she said, laughing, handing me a glass clinking with ice and a delicious-looking concoction made with prosecco, elderflower syrup, mint and lime juice.
"Cheeky, fresh, European, sophisticated, chilled, fashionable ... and a real hit with the ladies!"
In fact, Hugo was so popular with the ladies that evening, he became our favourite companion at the end of every day.
After a couple of Hugos and a delicious dinner of local venison, fresh vegetables, salads and apple fritters at Hotel Kirchbuhl’s restaurant, I collapsed into my comfy bed with its fluffy duvet and soft pillows.
Strange though it may seem, I didn’t miss the dehydrated food we so hungrily consumed at the Doc huts back home, or the snoring chorus and rustling of sleeping bags in the bunkrooms.
Nor did I miss the weight of a heavy pack on my back. Eurotrek had arranged luggage transfers and accommodation at four-star mountain hotels so all we had to carry was a light day pack with water and wet weather gear.
Eurotrek also provided detailed maps of the route with suggestions to lengthen or shorten each day’s itinerary utilising Switzerland’s inimitable network of trains, buses, cable-cars, gondolas, chairlifts and funiculars. Knowing I could cheat if I couldn’t keep up with my younger and fitter hiking mates gave me a smug sense of ease.
In fact we all cheated on the first day of the Bear Trek, a section of the 20-stage Via Alpina which takes hikers over 14 alpine passes in Switzerland’s Northern Alps. We took a Post Auto bus from the tranquil little resort town of Meiringen to the Hotel Rosenlaui, thereby lopping off a few hundred vertical metres and shortening the route over Grosse Scheidegg Pass to Grindelwald by a couple of hours.
The result was a perfect day, challenging without being exhausting. The "wanderweg" (walking trail) led us alongside meandering streams, through forests of tall conifers, and across lush green meadows sprinkled with wild flowers grazed by friendly, bell-wearing cows.
We climbed to a beautiful alpine plateau where we walked in awed silence in the shadow of the magnificent Wetterhorn whose sheer grey rock face wept glacier tears.
Along the way, there were barns with self-service fridges stocked with local cheeses. Some were beautifully decorated with flowers and photos of the award-winning dairy cows whose rich milk made the products therein.
There were no other hikers on this remote part of the Bear Trek ... and the bears that once roamed these high alpine pathways had long since disappeared.
Among Switzerland’s multifarious delights are her mountain restaurants that just happen to appear around lunchtime. The Berghotel at the summit of the Grosse Scheidegg Pass, 1962m, served hearty fare for hungry hikers — barley soup with spicy sausages and crispy bread followed by mouth-watering desserts. Our usual meagre tramping lunch back home consisted of cheese and salami on dry crackers.
On the downward track to Grindelwald, the Eiger’s forbidding North Face loomed into view. The 3967m Eiger is a magnet for mountaineers, the first ascent taking place in 1858. However, the 1800m sheer rock and ice Nord Wand (North Face) was not conquered until 1938. The Eiger has since claimed 64 lives.
In 1912, a railway reached the Jungfrau summit and today still holds the distinction of being Europe’s highest train station at 3454m. A few years ago, my daughter and I sipped prosecco cocktails in deckchairs in the snow at the Sphinx Terrace, known as the "Top of Europe" (3571m). We attributed our subsequent giggly light-headedness to the thin air and dazzling alpine sun. But I wonder if Hugo was to blame?
The first rays of sun kissed the tip of the snow-capped Bernese Alps as we set off early next morning, well-fuelled, after a substantial hikers’ breakfast at the Hotel Kirchbuhl.
A train deposited us at Alpiglen, shaving a couple of hours of uphill slog off the seven-hour hike. How I love the Swiss Transport System. There’s always a means of cheating right where you need it most.
Shortening the hike enabled us to have a relaxed, enjoyable experience with ample time to revel in the landscape, take photos, stop for a leisurely lunch ... and get to our destination in time to meet up with Hugo again.
A sprinkling of fresh snow dusted the peaks, the edelweiss was in flower, and alpine chalets were competing for the brightest window boxes and neatest firewood stack.
After summiting the pass, the rumble of an avalanche echoed around the mountains as a slab of ice broke free from a blue-white glacier and thundered down the valley, an awesome sight and sound from a safe distance.
We stopped at the Bergrestaurant Allmend for a delicious lunch platter before an easy downhill hike to the Silberhorn, our hotel in the centre of the car-free resort of Wengen.
The exquisite picture-postcard village, with its traditional wooden chalets and belle epoque hotels, sits on a sunny terrace 400 metres above the Lauterbrunnen Valley with stunning views of the Jungfrau and the Schilthorn.
After a relaxing soak in the Silberhorn’s outside spa pool, we met up with Hugo again and then managed to do justice to a delectable five-course feast — melon and prosciutto, lentil soup, salads, beef ragout and apricot tart — at the hotel’s excellent restaurant.
The 360-degree panorama from the Schilthorn summit gave us an entirely different perspective on the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau and more than 200 other mountain peaks including Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc, 4808m, in neighbouring France.
The Schilthorn is also renowned for its Skyline Thrill Walk, a 200m-long glass and steel bridge that clings to the rock face below the cable-car station at Birg. I braved an eight-metre steel-mesh tunnel above a sheer drop and walked along a wire suspended high above the rocks ... enclosed inside a safety net. Only in Switzerland would I take such risks!
"Believe me — it happens," said Jana.
Late afternoon, we took a cable-car down to Murren where we checked into the Hotel Alpenruh.
Nick conducted a walking tour of his picturesque car-free village which sits on a ledge high above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Murren, the highest, continually-inhabited village settlement in the canton of Bern, has a fascinating history with records dating back to 1257 when the "Village on the Wal"’ was first mentioned. Millions of years before that, Murren was submerged under the ocean, and 25,000 years ago, it was 1.2km under glacial ice which only began to recede 8000 years ago.
Prior to the 1850s, the inhabitants survived by subsistence farming but as the region warmed, the snow and ice melted and Murren became more accessible. Hotels and railways were built and along came international tourism.
It’s a place of many firsts. British skier Sir Arnold Lunn set the world’s first slalom course in Murren in 1922 and the first winter Inferno Race (from Schilthorn to Lauterbrunnen) took place in 1928 organised by British ski enthusiasts; in 1930, Switzerland’s first ski school was founded here; and in 1937, Murren celebrated the opening of the first ski lift in the Bernese Oberland. It’s a tranquil place I’d happily return to ...
Later, Hugo joined us at the Hotel Alpenruh to help us celebrate our last night. He really gets around, that cheeky European! He’s even popped up in New Zealand recently. A real hit with my lady friends ...
How to make a Hugo
Ingredients:
Ice cubes
Fresh mint
1 part elderflower concentrate
3 parts Italian Prosecco or any brut
sparkling wine (not sweet)
1 wedge of lemon or lime, squeezed
Instructions:
Place ice cubes in a large wine glass.
Gently muddle the mint, either using a
pestle or your fingertips. Add to the
glass along with the juice from one
lemon wedge.
Add 1 part elderflower concentrate to
3parts Prosecco or sparkling wine.
"Proscht!" if you are in German-speaking Switzerland, "Sante!" if you’re in French-speaking Switzerland, or "Salute!" in Italian-speaking Switzerland.
Fact File:
- The Bear Trek is part of the Via Alpina, a classic among long-distance hikes in Switzerland. The Via Alpina is a challenging mountain hike through the picture-perfect landscapes of Switzerland’s Northern Alps. A series of 20 daily stages takes hikers over 14 alpine passes and through a great variety of alpine terrain, villages, flora and fauna. Mountain restaurants and hotels provide meals and accommodation along the way. Eurotrek organised our accommodation and luggage transfers so we just carried a light day pack. They also provided excellent detailed maps of the route.
- Justine Tyerman was a guest of Switzerland Tourism, travelled courtesy of Swiss Travel Pass and Swiss Air Lines, and hiked in the Jungfrau and Schilthorn Region with Eurotrek.
- The Swiss Travel Pass also provides free access to more than 500 museums around the country.
