Continuing with our 'Making Memories with Moms' series since 2022, we are back with another trip with our moms this year. This time, our destination was Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein. We kicked off our trip in Germany, and drove around the entire country in 10 days covering a total distance of 2856 kms (1775 miles), and continued our journey in Switzerland by trains. This was a hectic trip but we are so thankful for the opportunity to enjoy all the amazing places and sceneries with our moms, making memories that will last for a long time.
18 May 2025: Lucerne
19 May 2025: Grindelwald, Schilthorn, Murren, Gimmelwald
20 May 2025: Lungern, Brienz, Isetwald
21 May 2025: Wilderswil, Isetwald
22 May 2025: Schilthorn, Interlaken
23 May 2025: Zermatt
24 May 2025: Mannlichen, Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, GoldenPass Express
25 May 2025: Geneva
19 May 2025 (Mon): Wilderswil - Grindelwald First
Started our day at 6.30am because we had a lot of grounds to cover today. It was forecasted to rain the next 3 days so we had to readjust our entire itinerary the night before to squeeze in more sights in one day while the weather was good.
We took the 7.10am train from Wilderswil and arrived Grindelwald at 7.40am. After getting off the train, we hopped on bus 121 for a short 3 minute ride to Grindelwald Firstbahn gondola station.
(Our train and bus ride up to here were all covered by the Berner Oberland Pass).
Arrived Grindelwald First station at 7.48am and we were on of the first few people in line for the gondola that starts operating at 8am. Guess who the majority of the kiasu early birds were?
Boarded the gondola at 8am, which took 25 minutes to get to Grindelwald First. We bought the adventure package with 2 activities + unlimited gondola rides for CHF71/pax.
Beautiful views of Grindelwald and the surrounding mountains from the gondola ride. It's been 15 years since the last time I visited Grindelwald in 2010.
We made it to Grindelwald First at 8.30am. We were one of the first few people to arrive and saw that all the rides were open with no wait. Since we arrived so early, we should have gone straight for all the paid activities first before checking out the other free ones and saved a lot of time.
We started our visit with a photo stop at the “First View” vantage platform. The vantage platform sits at the very top of the First summit, offering a 360-degree panorama of the Bernese Alps. Each of the seven staggered “rotor blades” highlights a special section of the surrounding mountain range.
Grindelwald First was another filming location for CLOY and they had a photo spot for CLOY fans...lol!
The paragliding landing take-off point next to the First Flyer ride was the filming location of where Seri finally met Captain Ri after her paragliding landing in episode 16. Yes, I had fun retracing CLOY and Binjin's footsteps all around Switzerland on this trip.
Amazing views all around Grindelwald First. Thankful for a clear and beautiful day.
We made a mistake taking our own sweet time taking photos all around different viewpoints for about an hour instead of going straight for the rides.
We started standing in line for the First Flyer (zip line) at 9.30am. There was a line but we thought it didn't look too bad. Unfortunately, we were wrong. The line moved extremely slowly because it was windy and there were only 4 zip lines. We waited for about 1.5 hours and was getting close to our turn. Unfortunatly, the staff informed everyone still standing in line that it was too windy for them to operate so they had to stop the ride...ugh! =.=
Since we didn't know when or if the First Flyer would resume, we decided to move on to the next activity. We took the gondola down to the next station - Schreckfeld station, which is the starting point for the First Glider and Mountain Cart.
The Schreckfeld station was also a filming location for CLOY where Seri helped to take photos of Captain Ri and Seo Dan at a beautiful trail on the side of the mountain in episode 4 and 11.
At this point (11am), the wait times for the First Glider and Mountain Cart were between 75 - 120 minutes. I was definitely frustrated and was kicking myself for not coming here earlier, especially since we got there at 8.30am. I was also annoyed that we wasted 1.5 hours of good weather for nothing, and now we had to wait even more for other activities.
Mom opted to go for the First Glider while we opted for the Mountain Kart. Both activities had about a 1.5 hours wait but mom was able to go faster since she went solo. The eagle-shaped First Glider pulls backward from Schreckfeld towards First at 72km/hr, and speeds up on the way back at 83km/hr, giving riders the feeling of floating through the mountain like an eagle while enjoying a panoramic view at high speeds. Mom enjoyed her ride.
After waiting for 1.5 hour, it was finally our turn to ride the Mountain Kart at 12.45pm. This track takes us downhill all the way for 3km from Schreckfeld to Bort, and only has brakes to control the speed. There were definitely parts of the track that looked dangerous, especially at the turnings.
I went slower coz I was trying to take videos of the beautiful sceneries (with my tripod clam) and avoid falling off the cliff...lol! It took us about 45 minutes to complete the Mountain Kart (with multiple photo stops and MIL also stopped to help an injured cyclist).
The Mountain Kart ended in Bort station, which was also the starting point for the Trotti Bike. The Trottibike is kinda like a scotter, with only brakes to control the speed. The trail goes all the way downhill from Bort to Grindelwald with amazing sceneries along the way.
Even though I was annoyed that we wasted time waiting for the First Flyer and not getting to ride it, it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise coz we wouldn't have done the Trotti Bike if we had gone for that. The Trotti Bike was actually a better option as we got to stop as much as we wanted to take photos at any time and the sceneries along the trail to Grindelwald were amazing.
Lost count of how many times we stopped for photos coz the scenery was too pretty! It was cool to see cows (with cowbells) grazing against such a stunning backdrop. Loved the view of meadows, farmhouses, cows, and mountains.
It took us about an hour to complete the trail. It was already 2.30pm by the time we ended the ride in Grindelwald. Mom was already waiting for us for quite awhile coz she went downhill after finishing the First Glider ride earlier. We ended up spending way more time that planned at Grindelwald First but I'm certainly not compaining coz we had beautiful weather and views.
We left Grindelwald at 2.45pm and decided to rush to our next destination, Schilthorn, and attempt to catch the last gondola uphill. Stay tuned to the next post to see if we made it.
No comments:
Post a Comment