Bernese Oberland

Switzerland has some of the most scenic and efficient railways in the world. It takes less than two hours to get from Bern to Wengen. The journey involves three changes, at Spiez, Interlaken Ost, and Lauterbrunnen and is a feast for the eyes in itself.

Once Lauterbrunnen bound, I quickly engaged in a conversation with an amiable Swiss woman sitting next to me. Anna is a nurse from Zurich, she is recovering from a back injury caused by a horse riding accident. She loves horses and wishes to be back riding soon. We went into details about the Swiss healthcare system. I had not spoken German in years, getting back to it was rough. Fortunately most people in Switzerland speak German, French or Italian. So for each lost German word, I substituted it with French. Then as we switched the whole conversation to French, I regained my German vocabulary. It was an exhilarating experience. So exhilarating that I missed most of the scenery until Anna and I said goodbye at Lauterbrunnen.

I picked Wengen as my home base to explore the Bernese Oberland because it is less populated than the other villages such as Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald and it is one of the very few car-free resort villages in Europe.

Main strip in Wengen has a few hotels, bars, and gift shops. I prefer to stay away from the crowd.

After storing my luggage, I set out to take the cable car to Männlichen, and from there hike to Kleine Scheidegg, before hopping on Europe’s highest railway to Jungfraujoch.