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Some drivers stop at some idyllic places if they are too early.>
And or if they need a cigarette break IME on several buses drivers always seem to light up practically before the bus stops! |
TH4E GRINDELWALD BUS - offers a handful of different excursions in the Grindelwald area - and is I believe the only form of public transportation on roads above Grindelwald - well roads - really they are tiny lanes the smallish buses tortuously negotiate.
There are several neat options with the bus - foremost IME is to take it all the way over the Grosse Scheidegg down to Meiringen, stopping en route at say Reichenbach Falls or other places. To me the valley going down from Grosse Sheidegg to Reichenbach Falls is as gorgeous as any valley in Switzerland - I actually hiked it all the way from Grindelwald to Meiringen - in my younger days and did not actually take the bus though did the same course. From Meiringen you can take a train to Interlaken-Ost for trains back to Grindelwald or your Jungfrau base or take a train to Brienz and take a lake boat back to Interlaken-Ost - a long day but a great great day out - the Grindelwald Bus to Meringen, boat or train to Interlaken, etc. More on the various options later - such as getting off en route to Gr Scheidegg and hiking to First and then the awesome trail to Bachalpsee and back to Grindelwald from that area either by foot or cable way from First. Again the Grindelwald Bus is not a postal bus and thus Swiss Passes, Swiss Cards, etc are not valid on it I believe. |
You may also hike from Bachalpsee via Fernandes Hut to Bussalp and board there a Grindelwald Bus (perfect round trip without backtracking to First)
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thanks neckervd for the excellent suggestion! Those hikes are simply marvelous - not too many other hikers like on some areas so you can get the feeling of isolation in such a gorgeous area - good for the mind as well as body.
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Someone mentioned Leukerbad on another thread and reminded me of another neat postal bus ride - from the Leuk train station up to Leukerbad.
I remember this one especially well because of the telepathetic Banana Incident! Details to follow! |
Hr
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the Banana Story
Postal buses are usually memorable for their startling scenic and often scary rides but the bus from Leuk SBB Bahnhof to Leukerbad was different. When I boarded there was a group next to me on the very back seat that was passing a banana around - well not a real banana but a plastic clone of one - with the story told by the gal who was its master that she took it on all her trips - it was her good luck charm and passed it around several times during the rather short trip to Leukerbad. That banana indeed had visited so many countries that it had its own passport probably! OK - not that much but I found out that the gal was from a small town very close to mine in Michigan, rather weird in itself, but just the day before I seen the name of that town in Meringen's tiny English chapel - a church in Meiringen, once a British watering hole (Sherlock Holmes tangled with arch enemy Prof Moriarity on the nearby Reichenbah Falls - with the evil Prof presumably falling to his death in the torrid waters). And in this tiny chapel indeed did have a Sherlock Holmes Museum and there were some letters written to Sherlock Holmes - one with a return address from that very tiny burg in Northern Michigan - same as the Banana Lady was from! OK coincidence but NEXT... After looking around Leukerbad (taking a day trip there from Interlaken just to case it out) I got on a down to Leuk SBB BHhf bus and sitting in the EXACT same back row seat as the women who had the fake plastic banana and who was going on so much about it - was a young gal eating a..... BANANA - a real banana! Now that is not coincidence but surely telepathetic! |
anyway as a bus ride goes the one from Leuk SBB Bfh to Leukerbad is so-so - take it only to access an amazing Alpine resort not for any thrilling bus ride. And a fairly short ride to boot. Don't go out of your way for the bus ride but yes to get to Leukerbad, a place sadly off many tourists' radars for some reason.
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Incredible, and what memories.
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Do they run in winter on the same schedule?
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Winters many of the ones going over high passes do not run because those passes are often blocked by snow - ones actually linking larger cities like Leukerbad to train lines do run regularly so it depends. Check the official Postal Bus web site given somewhere above.
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Some pictures of a almost unknown short Swiss Post Bus line as there exist dozens of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7_nL3qYns BTW: the following alpine post bus lines are open all the year round: Gstaad - Col du Pillon - Les Diablerets Val d'Hérens Val d'Anniviers Saas Fee - Brig - Simplon - Italy Bellinzona - San Bernardino - Chur Chur - Lenzerheide - Julier - St. Moritz Chur - Lenzerheide - Davos Zernez - Ofenpass - Malles (Italy) Urnaesch - Schwaegalp - Unterwasser - Wildhaus - Buchs - Vaduz - Malbun |
neckervd - thanks again for your valuable inputs! I'm surprised Simplon bus route is open the whole way.
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There are less Brig - Domodossola buses in winter than in summer. The scenic round trip Berne dp 8.39 - Kandersteg - Goppenstein - Brig - Simplon Post Bus - Domodossola - trenino panoramico Val Vigezzo/Centovalli - Locarno ar 15.19 and back via Gotthard - Lucerne is popular all the year round.
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The scenic round trip Berne dp 8.39 - Kandersteg - Goppenstein - Brig - Simplon Post Bus - Domodossola>
You do mean taking a train from Bern to Brig via the old route and not all by bus or is there some bus doing the whole thing? The old route up and thru the old Lotschberg Tunnel is infinitely more scenic than the new high-speed train route using the new Lotschberg Base Tunnel which is all in tunnel the whole way from Frutingen to Brig - you see nothing of the supreme scenery as you do by taking the old route (which takes about an hour longer to Brig). |
Yes, Bern - Brig by train via the old route.
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Yes, Bern - Brig by train via the old route.>
Yes that route is so so scenic - pity now folks speed thru a tunnel under that spectacular scenery that you can still see by train by taking the old route which still have regular regional trains on it to Brig - if not in a hurry take you time by doing the old route via the old Lotschberg Tunnel. |
Will be in Bern in January. Would you recommend this route for that time of year? How would i know which train will take us via the "old" route?
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Yes - it is a mainline freight line still and has frequent regional trains - so from Spiez take a local regional train to Brig via Goppenstein - thru the old tunnel - the most awesomely scenic part is the prodigous descent down to the Rhone Valley, where the train seems to go too close to a ledge with drop-offs of hundreds of feet - kind of like landing in an airplane.
Fast trains going thru the new tunnel are called IC or InterCity trains - the older route regional trains are noted as 'Regional". |
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