Lauterbrunnen-Murren

 Mon 27/1/25

We woke up early this morning before 5am after a good night's early sleep and rest. Our breakfast at the hotel starts at 7.30am and the selection was good with croissant, cheese, bread, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, milk, coffee and juice.

breakfast at hotel

We headed out to Lauterbrunnen, part of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage site, taking the 8.40am train and arriving at 8.56am. We bought the return trip ticket from Wilderswil to Lauterbrunnen via the SBB app for CHF 6.40 (RM)  per person. 

From the Lauterbrunnen train station, we walked a bit at the main road and then took the small alley on the left down to the valley where we were greeted with a view of a church, river and Staubbachfall. We took a lot of pictures along the valley to Stechelberg cable car station, about 5km in distance. It was an easy, flat walk with crampons on as it would be slippery walking on some icy parts without them.

We took about 2 hours for the 5km walk with many stops for photographs. We tried to fly the drone here when we see there were nobody around. But not long after, a local passed by and said that drones are prohibited in the area, so we took it down before we managed to get any good footage.

view from Lauterbrunnen station

pretty view of Lauterbrunnen valley

flat route between Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg

flat route between Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg

pretty views between Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg

icy route - wear crampons

some non icy parts 

back to icy route before reaching Stechelberg

We arrived at Stechelberg cable car station at 11.15 am and bought the cable car ticket to Murren via the SBB app for CHF 5.90 (RM) per person. We took the 11.45am cable car and it just took 6 minutes which somehow felt like a vertical lift up to Murren.

Murren is a quaint little mountain village and thick with snow compared to down in the valley. There is a piste for skiing here.

arrived at Murren

Since we were not skiing, we would just be hiking to Grutschalp, which is located above Lauterbrunnen. So we were doing a loop hiking starting from Lauterbrunnen walking in the valley to Stechelberg, then up the cable car to Murren, then hiking the mountain (almost flat) to Grutschalp, then take the cable car down back to Lauterbrunnen. The hike from Murren to Grutschalp also covers another 5km in distance and again we stopped for a lot of photo taking along the way. 

We could see the peaks of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau for a bit before being covered by the clouds.

mountain peak views from Murren

mountain peak views from Murren

mountain peak views from Murren

another hour walk to Grutschalp

the route is parallel to the train track

mountain peak views along the route

mountain peak views along the route

beautiful views

We also stopped to have our packed lunch (yesterday's lamb briyani, palak panner and naan that we didn't manage to finish) at the bench somewhere in the middle of the route, surrounded by the mountains. 

packed lunch with moutain views

lunch stop

some wooded area

walking in the snow

We reached Grutschalp before 2pm, so we still have some time to spend at Lauterbrunnen. We bought the cable car ticket down to Lauterbrunnen via the SBB app for CHF 4.70 (RM 23.50) per person and it took only 4 mins.

Back at Lauterbrunnen, we walked to the Staubbachfall waterfall to take some pictures there, then went to Coop to buy Evian water for CHF 1.15. This is probably the only cheap item in Switzerland.

Staubbachfall 

We then took the train back to Wilderswil at 3.30pm and went back to our hotel to rest for the day. It has been a long day of walking today and we didn't feel like going out again so we had 2 packs of Big Kari Maggi for dinner tonight. 

Interlaken-Wilderswil

 Sun 26/1/25

The airport train was not working so we were taken to immigration section by bus. The immigration process was smooth and the queue was not too long in the early morning. After taking our backpacks, we proceeded to buy the train ticket to Wilderswil via the SBB app. I have already bought the 1 month Half Fare card online while in Malaysia which cost 120 CHF (RM 603) per person. With the half fare card, all our journeys will be discounted by 50%

To get to Wilderswil, we have to change platforms at Zurich HB to Bern, and then change platform again at Bern to Spiez, and finally change platform again at Interlaken Ost to Wilderswil. The total journey took 2h45min. The point to point ticket from Zurich airport to Wilderswil cost CHF 40.40 per person (RM 204). There was no more supersaver tickets available then.

in the train with our backpacks

double decker train

We arrived Wilderswil at 10.39am. From the train station, we walked to our hotel Historic Steinbock, just 10 minutes away, crossing an old wooden bridge across the river. The hotel cost CHF 216 (RM 1095) for 2 nights with breakfast. We were given a Guest Card for the Interlaken area which gives us free public transportation on the train and bus.

our hotel room at Wilderswil

old wooden bridge in front of our hotel

Interlaken guest card

We were able to check in early as our room was ready by 11am. A shower was really welcoming after the long journey and we rested a bit before venturing out at 1pm.

We took the train from Wilderswil to Interlaken Ost, then change to Interlaken West. We walked a bit along the river, then went to have lunch at an Indian restaurant, having lamb briyani, palak paneer and naan for 65 CHF (RM 328). From the restaurant, we walked along the Aare river from Interlaken West to Interlaken Ost for about 1.7km, stopping along the way to take pictures.

lamb briyani, palak paneer and naan

river near Interlaken West

river near Interlaken West

At Interlaken Ost, we decided to take the bus 103 to Bonigen See to take pictures of Brienz lake. There was no one here, so we decided to fly the drone. However, we were prompted by the app that flying at the area posed a risk. Hence we decided not to fly the drone and just took pictures.

Bonigen See

It was already getting colder at 5pm so we decided to the take the 103 bus back to Interlaken Ost and the train back to Wilderswil to call it a day. We didn't feel hungry so we didn't have dinner and tucked in early at 6.30pm

Tomorrow would be a long day of hiking at Lauterbrunnen valley and Murren.

KUL-ZRH

Sat 25/1/25

We would be taking a 7 day trip, starting from Zurich to the Bernese Oberland, staying at Wilderswil; followed by  canton of Valais, staying at Täsch; back to the Bernese Oberland, staying at Kandersteg and lastly return to Zurich for our flight back to KUL. This would be our first time to Switzerland after avoiding it for so many years due to cost factors. For this trip, we booked our tickets through Qatar Airways, part of the OneWorld alliance. In this trip, we transited at Doha (DOH)  before arriving to Zurich (ZRH), Switzerland. We bought our ticket about 3.5 months before the departure date. Our return trip ticket cost RM 9598 per person, this time being our maiden flight on Business Class due to age factor.

As usual, our trip has always coincided with the school holiday season, so it was busy at KLIA. The queue at Business Class was also quite long, and we took about 40 minutes to check in our backpacks. 

We would be taking public transportation in Switzerland during winter, hence the backpacks. I didn't want to navigate the luggage through melted snow and read that the transit time for platform change was tight (more on that later).

We utilised our MH's Enrich and QR's Privilege Club membership to access MH's Golden Lounge  and enjoyed English breakfast with latte while waiting to board our flight at 9.40am for departure at 10.20am. The aerotrain at KLIA was still not in service, so we still had to take the bus. However, there is a dedicated bus service for business class passengers at Gate G1. After security check at the departure gate, we immediately boarded into the flight.

breakfast at MH lounge

I was seated at the Qsuite seat 6B facing forward, while Partner In Crime was seated at 5A facing rearwards. It turned out that rearward facing Qsuite seats are located right next to the window while my seat facing forward have about a 1 seat gap between the window where the storage compartment is located. And seat 6B has a rather limited view of the window due to the barrier from 5A seat. Reminder for myself not to choose seat 6B next time.

QSuite 6B seat

QSuite 5A seat

entertainment panel

QSuite privacy door

The meal selection was great. I had cream of artichoke soup with truffle oil as starter; braised beef short ribs with herb jus and asparagus for Main Course, selection of cheese and ice cream for dessert. I was also served with karak chai with saffron, arabic coffee, biscuits and nuts in between the meals. 

artichoke soup with truffle oil

braised beef short ribs with herb jus and asparagus

cheese selection

ice cream

karak chai with saffron and biscuit

I also requested for the mattress seat cover to test the lie flat bed and managed to get about an hour's sleep for the 7 hour 45 minutes flight duration.

flat bed position 

request the stewardess to put on the mattress to sleep

There was free wifi available on the KUL-DOH flight.

We then had a long layover at Doha for 13 hour 35 minutes. We arrived Doha at 1305 and went to the Al Mourjan Garden lounge to rest, shower and eat during the long layover. We booked the quiet room for 2 pax for 6 hours from 1330 to 1930. We couldn't really sleep in the room as there is no bed or sofa, only 2 'dentist' chairs. 

Al Mourjan Garden lounge

quiet room at Al Mourjan Garden lounge

shower

prayer room

After checking out from the quiet room, we went to the dining area to have dinner of salmon sushi, grilled salmon and beef steak. After dinner, we rested at the chair at the quiet area with privacy walls. However, I couldn't really sleep here also. We should have looked for a sofa instead, although there is no privacy at the area.

grilled salmon

salmon sushi

beef steak

chair with privacy wall at quiet area

Finally we were ready for boarding for our flight to Zurich at 2.40am. Our next flight sector would take 6 hours 30 minutes. This time it was not a Qsuite, but with lie flat bed nonetheless. Our seats were at 5A and 6A on the left side. 

5A seat, not QSuite

seat control panel with karak chai, nuts and crisps

For this sector of the flight, I chose roasted red sweet pepper and goat cheese ravioli for Late Night Dining, greek yogurt with plum and granolas for breakfast starter; omelette with mushroom for Main Course breakfast and Energising Citrus made of orange, carrot, apple and ginger juice. 

roasted red sweet pepper and goat cheese ravioli

greek yogurt with plum and granolas with orange, carrot, apple and ginger juice 

omelette with mushroom

bread selection

It was a smooth flight for both sectors, with no major turbulence and we landed safely at Zurich at 7.10am on Sunday 26/1/25. For both sectors of the flight, we received a box of Laderach chocolate (at the end of the flight), a set of of pyjamas and Diptyque amenities kit (before the flight).

Diptyque amenities kit

pyjamas set

Laderach chocolate

We opted for 15 day roaming for RM99 per person to be able to live stream the final of the Australian Open on our local app in Switzerland.