Schilthorn - Bond Brunch from Murren and North Face Trail Hike

I just checked a random date in August—Aug 18th—and I see the cable car departing Murren at 7:40, 8:10, 8:40 and so on. From Stechelberg departing at 7:25 am and 8:55 am like you mentioned.

It’s smart to get up there early. We took the first ride up in Sept. and we almost had the cable car, restaurant, and mountain to ourselves. The brunch is really good. Be sure to try the mini waffles.

We booked the brunch from the Schilthorn website. We booked in advance as you can cancel if you need to.

Enjoy!!!

P.S. you have to have the 2 little dots (umlauts) over the u in murren or the SBB app won’t take it. I recently learned, if you hold down the u on your phone, you’ll get an option to add the dots.

Do build in some flexibility for bad weather. It's not so much fun up there when you can't see more than 50 feet in front of you.

Carrie- didn't know that trick for the 'U'.

Have a great trip!

I did the brunch and it was a great deal of fun. The views are amazing. Go as early as you can.

Ah, it's Option U on your computer keyboard to type it in properly, thanks @Carrie for that tip for the SBB app.

I was just trying to figure out how to get from Mürren BLM to Lake Como (Como S. Giovanni) for our night in Como/following day in Bellagio and just assumed the SBB website didn't offer that transfer.

I found someone else talking about the Bond Brunch; they recommended waiting until you know the weather before booking. Half-fare card advance purchase?, reservation at Piz Gloria?, Paragliding from Murren? - First Comment from @Sam

However, I am going in August (specifically Saturday August 13th) and it sounds busy. So now I'm 50/50 on booking in Advance and risking the weather

You can reserve just the brunch ahead of time if you want and then cancel if you need to. You don’t need to buy your tickets for Schilthorn until the morning you decide to go. We had the Swiss Travel Pass but still needed to purchase the discounted tickets for the cable car. Those we bought at the ticket window right at the cable car station. Early in the morning, there was no one in line.

Were you able to figure out your options for Murren to Como S. Giovanni? Looks like that is going to be about 5-6 hours.

There are 2 basic routes from Mürren to Como San Giovanni, one via Spiez and one via Luzern. Either way, you start out by heading down to Interlaken Öst from Mürren. The route will show 2 changes on the way, at Grutschalp and at Lauterbrunnen.

The shortest and simplest Spiez route departs Mürren at 10:28 and takes 5 h 19 minutes, with a total,of 5 changes, including the ones mentioned above. After those, you change at Spiez to the direct train to Milano Centrale and change there for a train going the short distance to Como S. Giovanni. There are other departure times for this route, but most will add an extra change at Brig. This route involves 2 long tunnels, the long Lôtschberg Basistunnel between Spiez and Visp, and the Simplon tunnel between Brig and Domodossola in Italy.

The shortest and simplest Luzern route departs Mürren at 10:58 and takes 5 hours 37 minutes to reach Como, with a total of 5 changes— Grutschalp, Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken Öst, Luzern, and Lugano. This route takes the long and deep Gotthard Basistunnel under the Alps on the way from Luzern to Lugano. There are alternate departure times for the same route, but most will have an additional change after Luzern, at Arth-Goldau.

There is an alternate very scenic route from Luzern to Lugano called the Gotthard Panoramic Express, that avoids that long tunnel and goes over the Alps via the Gotthard Pass. There is still a tunnel, but it is much shorter. This route utilizes a boat plus train so is interesting as well as scenic. You can opt to skip the boat portion and pick up the train to Lugano at Flüelen instead if you want.

You can see all these route options on the Swiss rail map:

https://cdn-doc.myswissalps.com/docs/default-source/rail-network-maps/swisstravelpass.pdf?sfvrsn=7788603a_56

Note that tunnels are indicated by dashed lines.

Carrie, Pat, I’ve used the “holding and sliding” technique for years not only for German but also for French, Spanish, Turkish, etc. I always have viewed it much the same as learning a few key words In the language of the country one is visiting: respect - especially when one is writing directly to someone who is a native speaker of a particular language. Glad you’ve discovered it. :-)