Suspire - such "private guides" are not really usual in Switzerland. The demand isn´t high. Renting a car or simply taking trains and busses will be a better bet I think. Unless your ancestral places are isolated farms in the countryside you will find a frequent bus or train connection to the place...

Emmental is a beautiful area, full of farms and gorgeous farm houses.

If you have some addresses from your ancestors, you can look at their farms via satellite pictures.

Go to website: http://www.sanday.ch/
and put in the address. You can get closer or farther using detail. You can get different types of pictures by choosing one at the bottom of the box.

Enjoy! (You're not related to Rothlisberger, are you? He was just in Switzerland visiting his ancestors in Emmental too!)

Hm, I don't know if I'm related to Rothlisberger! If his screen name comes from his real name, I do know there's a Roth in our family back in the 1700s, so it's possible!

Hi! It might have been me that started on Gimmelwald. It was a combination of a long hike, perfect day, awesome view, cowbells, cold tall beer, crisp green salad and piping hot fondue in a place which is silent except for cowbells that made it so special. I suggest it for lunch after you visit the Trummelbach Falls and Murren. Not five star, just quaint. That said, I think you need to skip Engadine. We picked 3 areas and didn't have too much time in between. What we missed last year we are doing in two weeks- the Engadine and the Val D'Anniviers in Valais. Yes, it's 6 hour train ride, but we have 14 days. So don't try to get everything done in one trip- start saving for next year!

Would a trip in November make sense? This would be the week of Thanksgiving.

I'm just starting to think of Switzerland as a possible destination. Interested in the natural sights of course but also the culture of the bigger cities as well.

But would November be so cold as to prevent trains from getting to certain places?

Maybe fly into Zurich and take the train towards Lucerne for either a flight back to the US or train to Paris for the flight back. This would be for a week.

Hi Suspire---yes, I live in the Seattle area too. And I have planned (and taken) several family-group trips to Switzerland, with the group ranging from 7 to 9 people. (And I'm working on the next one, for early summer 2007). We go mainly for the hiking, but also manage to play tennis (clay courts are a real treat), chess (there's an outdoor chess board in Mürren with 2-foot high pieces), and do other things.

How large is your group? You mentioned the possibility of renting a chalet in Wengen---is that the one on VRBO? I'm curious about that one myself.

For scrb,

You should start your own thread -- throwing in a question on a thread with 100+ posts will not get you a lot of attention.

But here are some thoughts -- trains run all year round, no stoppage for the cold or snow. So whatever train travels you have planned will be fine. However, the mountain scenery will be pretty dreary in Nov: cold and wet and not much snow (if any) on the ground in the mountain villages. Many hotels won't even be open. If that's the only time you can come, you should concentrate on the sunnier areas: southern Graubunden, Ticino, or Vaud (Lake Geneva region).

Good luck!

s

ooops, not a thread with 100+ posts, yet still 25 posts will hide your own question effectively --

s

enzian - at this point our group is small - 3 to 5 people - but we haven't opened it up to others yet. We want to plan the trip we want to take first, and then open it up to others, to avoid having 18 people trying to help with the planning! If they want to take a different trip, they can plan their own trip. We want to get our itinerary just as we like it.

As for the chalet in Wengen - I don't have a specific one in mind yet; just the idea of it. What is the VRBO one? Do you have a link?

More questions:
1. The hike from Jungfrau observation building to Monchsjochhutte (I don't know how to make umlauts on my computer!): how long is that, in either time or miles?

2. I have seen information about the Swiss Saverpass, which can be used if two people are always together. It seems that this is the same as the Swiss Pass, but just discounted for multiple people. Am I understanding this correctly?

3. Is there a reason to get the Berner Oberland Pass if I have the Swiss (Saver)Pass?

Off I go to look up www.myswissalps.com, www.wengen-murren.ch, www.myswitzerland.com, www.sbb.ch (same as www.rail.ch?), www.regiopass-berneroberland.ch/engl/ticket.html, www.jungfraubahn.ch, www.schynigeplatte.ch, switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/berner_oberland/murren.html, www.gimmelwald-news.ch ... good thing it's a rainy day in Seattle!

(enzian - perhaps we should get together sometime for some hot chocolate and fondue! :) )

EEEE! I just found the most fantastic bit of information at my first link. A listing of all the trails in the Berliner Oberland, along with time, distance, and level of difficulty.

http://www.myswissalps.com/berneseob...ng.asp?lang=EN

Other regions linked from here:

http://www.myswissalps.com/swissmaps.asp?lang=EN

OH how I love to plan!!!

The chalet in Wengen (actually it's several apartments, I think) is on the VRBO website (www.vrbo.com); look under Switzerland and then "Wengen". I don't know yet if we will stay in Wengen or in Grindelwald and then Mürren; that plan would give us better access to the hikes we want to do, but Wengen is so lovely. I'll decide that part later.

To answer your other questions---

1. Hike out to Mönchsjochhütte: I think it's about 30 to 45 minutes each way, but someone else will have to clarify; I haven't done it yet. You are on snow the whole way, but it's not steep or tricky.

(By the way, you probably do have the unlauts on your computer; there is a code for typing them. The ü, for example, is "Alt 0252". Google "typing German letters" and you'll find a chart with all the codes.)

2. The Saverpass is indeed a Flexpass for two (or more) people. You have to travel on the same itinerary all the time, but with a group that's usually what you are doing anyway. We used that one last time; before that we used a Transfer Ticket plus Berner Oberland Regional Pass.

It's not easy to figure out the best deal for the passes---you will get many opinions here! One place to start is to input your planned itinerary into Railsaver.com and see what comes up. It will give you the price for each leg of your trip, and you can see if a pass will save you money. And if you're going to be riding lifts for hiking and sightseeing, and going up to the Jungfraujoch, that is another factor. Some of the passes give you a discount on those, even on the "non-travel" days of your pass.

I work downtown and could meet for tea or something to help you with your planning. Just not fondue----I'm not a big fan of cheese (heresy, I know). On my first trip to Switzerland, I traveled with a group of Seattle Mountaineers, and we took half-board at all our hotels. Everyone knew how I feel about cheese, so on the evening when the chef proudly announced that we would be having raclette (a big production, with amazing grill things that melt the cheese), every head at the table swiveled in my direction to see how I would react. I managed to keep a straight face, and I ate lots of potatoes and little pickles that night. Last summer it was the same thing, this time with my family. We have stayed at the same family-run hotel in Bettmeralp several times, and they wanted to welcome us back. So the chef proudly announced that he was making fondue just for us. We smiled and thanked them and everyone (but me) ate it with gusto; but the teenagers all went out for more food afterwards (pizza, of course).

A great book to read to get a feel for the Swiss of the Valais region (which you will traverse when you take the Glacier Express) is John McPhee's "Place de la Concorde Suisse". He travels around the area with a French-speaking regiment of the Swiss army. The Place de la Concorde, by the way, is the huge, open glacier area you see from the Jungfraujoch, looking south. It is the origin of the Aletsch Gletscher, the largest glacier in Europe.

One more thing---I posted a link to our photos of the Aletsch glacier area on the "cow" thread.

And what beautiful pictures they are! Did you take those? You have quite a photographer's eye!

Thank you, but my daughter took them (and I think she has a pretty good eye for photos too!). I haven't gone digital yet---I like using my SLR and film.

I'm a little late to this party--but my 2 cents:

1. I agree with Ingo. The Engadin is my favorite part of Switzerland, but you would be trying to cover too much to see it and Zermatt. If the Matterhorn is a must, do Zermatt. Otherwise, go to Pontresina, which makes a great base for the area. In this regard, another vote for the Bernina Express. You could spend an extra night in Pontresina, and take a day trip to the south part of the Bernina Express to Poschiavo and back or see the Lower Engadin instead.

2. It would then be easy to go from Pontresina to Luzern, spend a half a day or a day and a half there, and then head for Wengen, part way on the great GoldenPass train.

3. Ballenberg will take most of the day, including travel time there and back. You can start at the west entrance, and then leave from the east entrance (great chocolate shop there!) where you can again pick up the bus to head back to Brienz so you don't have to backtrack. If you want to cut the day short, you can also walk downhill from the Ticino part of Ballenberg to a train station, but the train service from that station back to Interlaken Ost is not frequent so you'll have to time it well.

Thank you, taxatty, for your belated (though not really!) .02! Another vote for Bernina Express: check. Chocolate at Ballenberg: double check!!!

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Lake Brienz Swiss Dinner Cruise? I love the idea of some "Swiss Folklore Music" --

http://www.bls.ch/schiff/kal_swissdinner_e.html

Along those lines, who would have thought I would have to search so hard to find yodeling?! Aside from the yodeling festival which appears to occur at the wrong time and place for our trip, I can't find anything. I would think there would be places with "Alpine yodeling - nightly at 9!" But no such luck! Ideas? Also, alphorns. Or will I find all this so prevalent that I don't even need to search for it?

Thanks, y'all! I really appreciate all the wonderful insights you keep tossing my way!!

Suspire,

You won't find many activities yet for summer 2007. Start searching for Swiss music and yodeling in spring 2007.

Schuler - of course! I haven't even been looking for specific dates, though. Haven't found anything in general, whether summer 2007 or now. But your post gives me hope that there are things out there - I'll intensify my searches! Yodelayeooo! :)

We've come upon yodeling twice, purely by accident, once in Grindelwald and once in Mürren. Both times it was a Saturday night, and a group of people gathered at an outdoor cafe to drink wine and sing. We were told the establishment will provide the wine as long as they keep singing. It was such a lovely, haunting sound. . . .

I'm told my great grandfather used to yodel before he moved out of Switzerland ... I wonder if it's in my blood? Or perhaps ... just blood curdling! :)