We woke up early to be treated to a beautiful sunrise.
The morning sky was crystal clear and the sun was shining. We are going to the Schilthorn!
Schilthorn is a summit above Mürren, almost 10,000 feet high. The longest aerial cableway in the Alps goes all the way to the top. We were so mesmerized by the views from the cable car windows that we managed to only take one shot as we approached the summit.
The Schilthorn is also called "Piz Gloria" after the revolving restaurant where the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was filmed. It is the world's first revolving mountaintop restaurant and offers 360-degree view of the entire area. It takes almost an hour to do a full revolution. We stayed for the whole two round trips and watched 200 mountain peaks and 40 glaciers slowly go by.
The view from the open terrace is even more incredible. The panorama extends from Bernese Alps and the Jura mountains up to Mont Blanc and even as far away as the Black Forest.
We had another good reason to linger for so long at the restaurant. We were waiting for the sun to rise above the mountains. When we first arrived the sun was directly behind the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. A couple of hours later it was shining brilliantly on the awesome trio and we have lots of great shots to remember them by.
There are a few options to get down. In winter a famous black ski run starts at the summit and leads down to Mürren. Featured in the Bond movie it is known as 'The Inferno' or 'The James Bond Run'. In summer, there is a hiking trail. We opted for the cable car ride.
We passed Mürren on the way down and rode all the way to the bottom of the valley. From there we went Interlaken for the afternoon cruise on Lake Brienz.
Lake Brienz is the smaller of the two lakes around Interlaken. It is surrounded by snow-capped mountains, forested slopes and gushing waterfalls.
The boat made several stops at small resort towns along the lake. One of the resorts even has private railroad going up to it.
Back at the hotel we enjoyed more spectacular views of the mountains and another gorgeous sunset (the shot was made right out of the window).
