Lauterbrunnen

The car free town of Wenegn lies at an elevation of 1250 metres. The town within minimal traffic - some electric vans, taxis and farm vehicles - is quiet and peaceful, though its numbers swell in both summer and winter.

The town has a regular rail service from Lauterbrunnen in the valley below and from Grindelwald via Kleine Scheidegg.

The railway is of the rack and pinion type.

The town with it's close proximity and accessibility to the higher mountains and slopes is popular with winter skiers and summer walkers.

From Wengen there are numerous walks.

The main walking route is to follow the path along the train track which eventually arrives at Kleine Scheidegg, though there are many stop off and tracks along the way.

The track can easily be picked up by first taking the train in the direction of Kleine Scheidegg and exiting at one of the in between stations and resuming the walk.

Of course walking back down towards Wengen is much easier, so maybe better to take a train right up to the last stop and walk back down.

The views of the Eiger from Wengen are spectacular, whether on a clear sunny morning or when the clouds momentarily drift away from the 3970 metre summit, revealing the snow caps and ice fields.

On the 11th August 1858, the first successful ascent of the Eiger was made by an Irishman Charles Barrington and swiss gudes Christian Almer and Peter Bohre.

A plaque above Kleine Scheidegg commemorates Charles Barrington and the first climb.

At 2060 metres, Kleine Scheidegg is a high mountain pass below the Eiger and Lauberhorn, the pass connects Luauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. While the name means Little Watershed, it is at a higher elevation than the Grosse Scheidegg.

At the pass there is a hotel, restaurant and railway station.

The station is the terminus or starting point for the train which travels through the mountain to the Jungfrau.

The three peaks of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau rise up and out above the pass.

Along the train route to the Jungfraujoch a number of glaciers are visible, but these are relatively small compared to the Jungfrau-Aletsch, which can be seen from the viewing area at the Jungfraujoch station.

From the pass at Kleine Scheidegg there is a trail that runs down towards Wengen.

The beauty of walking this path is if you get tired there are a number of train stops along the way from where you can take the train back down to Wengen, Lauterbrunnen and even Interlacken.

The administrative region of Lauterbrunnen includes not just the Lauterbrunnen Valley but also the villages of Wengen and Murren and Gimmelwald. The river Weisse Lütschine, whose source is high in the mountains and fed by the melting snows flows through Lauterbrunnen. The water quality is very clean and is said to be drinkable.

The valley of Lautebrunnen is one of the deepest in the Alps and extends from Lauterbrunnen village back into the mountains for about 8km. The valley due to it's formation by glaciers is U shaped.

Depending on the time of year there are numerous waterfalls, which plunge from the mountains high above, some of the falls just disappear in spray before the reach the valley floor hundreds of meters below.

The Staubbach Falls close to Lauterbrunnen village is probably the most impressive and is one of the longest falls in Europe ( 250m).

The Staubbach Falls, close to Lauterbrunnen village is one of Europe's longest waterfalls. Before the falling water reaches the valley floor it strikes overhanging rocks.

Visitor access has been made into the rocks so the waterfall can be viewed from behind.

The quantity of water falling of course depends on the season and recent rain, hough usually it is quite impressive. The water falls more than 250m vertically before striking the overhang.

Trummelbach Falls are about 2km deeper into the Lauterbrunneb Valley.These falls are a series of ten glacier/ice falls and are accessible by tunnel.

The Lauterbrunnen–Mürren mountain railway system which includes the Grütschalpbahn cable car provides easy access to the village of Murren, which overhangs the Lauterbrunnen valley.

The cable car which can carry up to 100 passengers takes about 4 minutes to rise from Lauterbrunnen station to Grütschalp.

The cable car has been in operation since 2006 when it replaced the much older funicular railway.

The village of Mürren sits high above the Lauterbrunnen valley at an elevation of 1650 metres. The village is accessible by cable car then train from Lauterbrunnen train station.

From the village there are beautiful and uninterrupted views of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains.

Cable cars take you down to the village of Gimmelwald and up to the Schilthorn and its revolving restaurant made famous by James Bond (George Lazenby) in On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969.

The area is popular with skiers in winter.

There are a number of walks around the village of Mürren, though one of the most simplest and probably flattest is the 4km path along side the train line from Mürren to Grütschalpbahn.

This path hugs the top of the valley before it plunges 200 metres to the Lauterbrunnen Valley below.

Along the mountain track there are excellent views of the snow capped mountain peaks.