October 2018 – Bernd's Travel

We have made this trip a few years back on a nice spring day. The site is about Bruder Klaus (Brother Klaus), who lived here in the 15th century as a hermit after being a political figure for many years. You can find a bit more information here. If you’re catholic, this is certainly a site that is worth visiting. For everybody else, the site is worth a visit just for the nature and scenery around it.

Flüeli Ranft is about 25km or 30 minutes by car from Lucerne. Quite a few people visit this place, so if you get to choose, plan your visit during the week. The site itself consists of several chapels and churches, all set in a beautiful little valley. The walk down to the place where Bruder Klaus lived for many years is very steep, so plan for that. It takes about 15 minutes to get down and a bit longer to get back up. Cars are not allowed.

Geburtstag, Familie, März 2016,

This is a nice day trip if you’re in the area and can be combined with a trip to Melchsee-Frutt, which is about 30 minutes further up the valley – see also my other blog about a visit to Melchsee on this site.

Enjoy your trip to Flüeli Ranft and take in the scenery and mystique of the valley.

We have made this trip back in 2012 on a summer weekend. The Grindelwald area is a beautiful corner in Switzerland. It has of course the famous mountains – Eiger, Jungfrau, Mönch – that are the main attraction. But in addition, it is a very scenic corner of Switzerland with many more attractions nearby.

To say it upfront, going up to the Jungfrau Mountain by train is not a cheap trip. We paid at the time about 125 Swiss Francs per person. It was however well worth it. It is one of those experiences that you should plan for at least once. Especially when travelling from further away to Switzerland.

We started our trip at 10 in the morning and took the train from Grindelwald to the “Kleine Scheidegg Station” right at the bottom of the mountain. This is the place where they filmed the famous Eiger movies. Some of the buildings are still original from those years all the way back. At the kleine Scheidegg we switched trains and took the next train all the way up to the Jungfrau Station at 11.333 ft above sea level. The train ride itself is interesting as it goes most of the way through the mountain in a tunnel with one stop about halfway where you can get off and take a look over the valley below.

At the top of the mountain there are quite a few things to do. There’re obviously the mountain scenery that you can enjoy from different levels of the station at the top. They have however also a tunnel through the glacier with ice sculptures and some photos about how they built the train tunnels. Very interesting.

SONY DSC

It goes without saying, that you can spend hours at the top, just enjoying the views. Just make sure you pick a nice day. Weather can change quickly in the mountains, so check the forecast carefully and also check the webcam sites that gives you a view from the top. It would be a shame to spend all that money, just to walk around in the clouds.