A great weather day, so we made the trip to the Schynige Platte. This adventure started by going down off one mountain, along the valley to the junction with the adjacent valley, up the next valley then up a different mountain. Here is the route/train plan for the day !
- Railcar along the cliff edge
- Cablecar/bus down the cliff
- Train to Wilderswill
- Rickety old train/railcar up to the Schynige Platte
The train to Wilderswil stopped at the station right next to the vintage train which was waiting for us and one train from the opposite direction to take us up the steep track.
Wikipeadia says –
“The Schynige Platte railway is a mountain railway in the Bernese Oberland area of Switzerland, which connects the town of Wilderswil, near Interlaken with the famous wildflower gardens of the Schynige Platte. An impressively and varied natural landscape unfolds on the journey, including forests, Alpine pastures and views of the Bernese Oberland. Towards the top of the line, there are also views of the imposing peaks of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The line opened, using steam traction, in May 1893, and was electrified in 1914”
We got on the train in Wilderswil. Two carriages with a small carriage at the end with the engines. (pushing up the hills) Each carriage was divided into compartments with wooden bench seats. Each compartment had a door out on to the platform, but there were no walls between the compartments.
The rail car ride was fun and impressive. We started at river level and climbed, winding up the mountain at a rather steep grade. We travelled though forest, along cliffs, though meadows and tunnels, all with fantastic and changing views. In some place the grade was steep enough to slide off ones seat !
We left Wilderswill at 580m above sea level, the last station is at 1970m and the track is 7.25km long. In pictures you can see how steep the rails are !
After a pleasant exciting train ride we arrived at the top station where there is an alpine botanic garden, a station, restaurant and station kiosk, all fairly low key. As it was the start of spring a lot of construction work was going on. We wandered around the gardens, only just coming into flower and admired the views. We enjoyed a budget lunch with a mega dollar view.
In the afternoon we repeated the journey – back to Murren. On the way down we shared a cabin with a couple who work at the gardens and we heard all about how it is run and some of the interesting research that has been done.
Here are some pictures as we walked around.;
And of course some flower pictures !
Back to the station, down one mountain, along the flat, back up the mountain – what a day !
Next – Allmenhubel by train