We leave in less than 1 week. Several of you have been so helpful with itinerary details. One last question: we have 7 days in Grindelwald. Forecasts so far call for several days of that time as rain. I understand that we won't see anything on Jungfrau or Shilthorn on rainy/cloudy day, but what about all those other easy hikes & cable car rides we have planned (Mannlichen - Kleine Schiedigg, First, Grutschchalp-Murren, etc)? Are they up too high to see much on a less than perfect day?

Obviously, I want as much time in the mountains for the views & hiking, so we will maximize every good weather day. I already have scheduled a Lauterbrunnen trip for one cloudy day. What else can we do? Day trip from Grindelwald -- Spiez, Thun? Where else would you advise? (Hopefully, we enjoy every minute of the BO week, & not need to go elsewhere -- other days scheduled for Lucerne & Schaffhausen areas) Thanks once more!

All places will be nicer in the sunshine but you cannot have everything in life... Let's hope best. Make use of every fine day. With 7 days, chances are good that you'll catch at least some sunny days. Weather forecasts for the Alps for a week or more in advance aren't that reliable anyway. The weather can be different from valley to valley and changes quickly.
If it rains, though, the whole valley will be covered by clouds liek a blanket and all the mountain tops disappear. Zero views. If it's changing with showers and sunny periods, you may be lucky or not. Best thing to do, if in doubt, is asking the locals in the morning what they think of the weather situation for that day - at your hotel, for example, or at the bottom station of the cable car - these people know the signs.

Thun is pretty. Spiez with the castle and the lake, too.

For really lousy weather, Bern is a good option since most of the sidewalks in the old town are covered by arcades. The old town is a jewel, there are some good museums and interesting churches, and it's also nice for shopping. Bern is worth seeing.

Quokka is keeping her kangaroo paws crossed for sunshine!

Ballenberg! Switzerland's open air museum is located at Hasliberg end of the Brienzer See.

Good advice from quokka about the difficulty of predicting weather in the Alps and how it can be completely different just one valley over.

I'd just like to add that even a socked-in overcast day may not be a total loss. When we were skiing there a few years back Murren was completely in the clouds with no views whatsoever. We decided to take the tram up to Piz Gloria for lunch anyway, and about halfway up we broke out of the clouds into a magnificently sunny day with the overcast below us filling the valleys like white cotton and all of the peaks poking through. We spent the entire day skiing above the clouds, then descended on the tram back into the murk. Magical.

You can usually get an idea what the views (if any) from the peaks will be like by watching that TV channel they have that cycles through the various cameras placed around the area.

Hello logogm

As schuler suggested, Ballenberg is a great alternative. Not only is it a rather unique village with all types of Swiss housing, the train ride there is beautiful. It follows the shoreline of Lake Brienz, with its aqua blue waters. ahhh. When you reach the correct station for changing to bus (can't remember the name, maybe someone could help here), just hop on the connecting Post bus that takes you straight up to Ballenberg.

Another thought is Lauterbrunnen's Trummelbach Falls.

And don't worry about the clouds for your hikes. You can still see on the trails, lol. Maybe not so much the tall peaks of the Eiger and Jungfrau. But it's not unusual for the skies to just clear right up, too.

I was with a group in Murren on a snowwy day - wet snow becoming water on the ground, end of May. Still beautiful, and yes, there are veiws to enjoy. Just make sure your shoes/clothes are waterproof.

logo,

The weather changes a lot. A cloudy morning doesn't mean a cloudy afternoon...

JMHO, but Ballenberg would be a bit depressing and maybe muddy in the rain although perfect if just cloudy.

It was cloudy on Sunday and we still hiked around the rim of the mountains above Lauterbrunnen and had great views.

Clouds with no fog will still leave lots of good views when hiking.

Mannlichen and Grutschalp are no where as high as Jungfrau or Schilthorn. (sorry if I misspelled these...hope Robes et. al. are sleeping...) You'll be able to judge before going up what you'll see below and the views down are lovely too.

Have a wonderful trip!!

gruezi

Speaking of Trummelbachfalle, from one of my trip reports:

"After lunch, since it was cloudy, we decided to make Trummelbachfalle (Trummelbach Falls) our first destination. It is located on the road between Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg.

This waterfall, so the propaganda says, "carries the glacier melt from the west wall of the Eiger and the north walls of the Monch and Jungfrau." It seemed logical to me, although I thought Monch was one of the guys on CHIPS.

First you take a funicular that passes through the rocks that lead to the falls. Then you ascend about 12 million steps that offer incredible views of the falls as you climb upwards.

At least the walk took off the calories I had eaten at lunch. It is a great spot to go (especially on a day like this) because it is inside and really damp and just a little eerie. But then we saw something REALLY eerie.

When we got to the top, there was a guy who was just staring at the Falls cascading down on the other side of this not so tall wall. I mean this guy never blinked. I haven't seen a guy stare this much since I last went to a topless bar

Tracy headed back down, but I stayed for a minute because I thought this guy was thinking about jumping. Then I thought, "Great. He'll try to jump. I'll try to save him, and he'll take me with him (seriously, I had not had a cocktail yet)."

Well, I headed down, too, and we did see him later, so he didn't kill himself. When I mentioned my thoughts to Tracy, she said, "Wow, I thought the same thing." I guess that's why we're married."