Hi friends, welcome back to my Switzerland series! All too quickly our time in the mountains was coming to an end and we wanted to make the most of our last full day in Wengen. Our plan included one last hike along the Eiger Trail, lunch at a mountain hut, and enjoying the cable cars along the way. The hike starts at the Eigergletcher (Eiger train station) which is accessible directly by train from Wengen, but we opted to take the longer, more scenic route. We started the day by taking the cable car up to Mannlichen, our favorite cable car from Mannlichen to Grindelwald Terminal, and one final cable car from Grindelwald Terminal to Eigergletcher (38CHF without pass). All of these rides were covered with our passes and the route below is in purple. If we didn’t have our passes, it would’ve cost 362 CHF!
The cable car from Grindelwald Terminal to Eigergletcher is called the Eiger Express and opened in December 2020. It was constructed with an innovative tricable system held up by only seven towers over the almost 6,500-meter distance (four miles) to Eigergletcher. The gondola seats twenty-six people, includes free WIFI, and only takes fifteen minutes to reach the top. There’s also a VIP gondola with a champagne bar, but I don’t think that was covered by our passes 😉 If you want to read more about this unique cable car system, you can check out this article.
Over 470million CHFs went into this project (roughly 530m USD) because it links the transportation hub Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage site at 3,454m (11,333 feet) above sea level. Creating this cable car system reduced the travel time from Grindelwald to Jungfraujoch by 47 minutes, which is pretty significant. Since 1912, Junfraujoch has been the highest railway station in Europe and offers plenty of activities such as an ice cave, viewing platform, adventure park, and stunning views. The regular ticket price from Grindelwald Terminal is 201CHF, but the half pass will get you half off. This is an expensive excursion, so I would double check the weather before purchasing your ticket. Jon and I felt like we got a similar experience from our time at Mount Titlis, so we didn’t have much of a desire to go up to Jungfraujoch and encounter all the crowds.
After a beautiful ride up to Eigergletcher, Jon and I looked around the new station a bit. This train station was immaculate and you can tell no expense was spared. Even the bathrooms felt like something that would be in a fancy mountain spa or health club. We stepped outside on the viewing platform and the up-close views of Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau were pretty incredible.
Jon and I embarked on our final hike of the trip, The Eiger Trail, a 6km (3.7 mile) point to point trail. If you start in Eigerglatcher and end in Alpiglen like we did, the trail is mostly downhill. The hike starts along the intimidating North Face of Eiger Mounain. This mountain is 3,967-meters (13,015 ft) tall and a treacherous, but famous mountain to climb. The North Face was first successfully scaled in 1938 and since then there have been over sixty-four deaths. Needless to say Jon and I much preferred the views from the ground.
Part of the trail we could see Kleine Scheidegg where we ended on the Panorama Trail.
Most of the trail was spent looking down towards Grindelwald and didn’t change much.
Near the end it was a little difficult walking downhill because it was pretty steep and my knees were taking a beating. We didn’t love this hike, which probably explains why I don’t have any pictures of us. Maybe if we did this hike first and not after our all-time favorite hike in Murren we would’ve liked it better, but in this case the best hike was not saved for last. Our favorite trails in order were The North Face Trail, First to Bachalpsee in Grindelwald, The Panorama Trail, and lastly the Eiger Trail.
After completing the hike, Jon and I grabbed some lunch in Alpiglen before taking the train down to Grindelwald and our favorite chairlift back up to Mannlichan. We enjoyed the views up there one last time and then it was time to head back down to Wengen to grab one final ice cream. We ended our last day relaxing and soaking up all the beautiful views from our balcony.
Wengen sure was good to us, we got so lucky with the weather! I’d definitely stay in Wengen if we came back to this area. It was very convenient to get around and had beautiful views of the valley and famous peaks. There also seemed to be enough to do if you wanted to try some of the restaurants or do a little shopping. We thought five nights was the right amount of time to stay in this region. We felt like we had fully experienced it and crossed off everything on our list without feeling rushed. After five days I was ready to see another area (and a laundromat), but I wasn’t ready to leave Switzerland. We had one final day left that included an afternoon in the capital Zurich. Stay tuned for the conclusion of my Switzerland series!
