Our group would like to see Trachselwald castle, traveling by train from Bern. It appears that there is no public transportation to the actual castle from Sumiswald- Grunen train station but they advise walking about 45 min or e-bike. The difficulty of trail on e-bike is on one site said to be difficult so my question is has anybody completed that trip from Bern to Trachselwald Castle and how difficult was the hike or biking. I am a 73 year old, fair health but not used to hiking with elevation and the rest of group are young! Also any chance of taxi or Uber to the parking lots next to the castle? Thank you !
Posted by
Green Bay
23090 posts
Isn't there a 482 bus that runs between Sumiswald-Gruenen and Gruenenmatt that stops in Trachselwald? Then it is a 10 minute walk to the castle.
Posted by
Nashville, TN
1247 posts
Yes - starting April 7 according to SBB
Posted by
OP
19 posts
Thank you so much! We plan on getting the SBB app so will check it out!
Posted by
Nashville, TN
1247 posts
Just put "Trachselwald" into the destination box and the date you plan to travel there and it will show you times and route options. Depending on the rest of your itinerary, Montreux isn't that much further than Trachselwald and Chateau de Chillon in Montreux is the best audio guided castle tour I've ever done. If you're interested in castles/historical sites, it's a must do.
Posted by
Switzerland
393 posts
If you enter your final destination, which is Schloss Trachselwald, SBB tells you that it is a 26 minute walk to the castle from the Trachselwald bus stop. Busses are running currently (not starting in April), I can see the schedule for tomorrow.
That is probably why they advise you to just walk/bike from Sumiswald rather than take this additional 31 minute bus ride to get only marginally closer to the castle.
Sumiswald is in the Emmental, so not exactly near Montruex. I assume you are doing a Mennonite history tour, thus the reason for visiting this castle.
I can see on the topographical map that the Schloss is at 762m elevation, Sumiswald-Grünen 662m. This is not a huge elevation gain. It is a longer, more gentle slope up to the castle when coming from Sumiswald (where the train station is), Trachselwald (where the bus stop is) requires you to do a much steeper climb.
I would just skip the bus, be ready for a bit of a hike, and walk there from the train station. 100 m gain is not that much. Keep a leisurely pace, stop for a moment if you need to and just enjoy the walk. Also with an e-bike, 100m is nothing, there must be a mistake in the rating of the bike ride - it looks to be about 2km long. Definitely not in the 'difficult' category.
Edited to add: Here is the info for a taxi company on their town website:
https://www.sumiswald.ch/de/unternehmensverzeichnis/detail/detail.php?i=48
Posted by
Green Bay
23090 posts
SBB tells you that it is a 26 minute walk to the castle from the Trachselwald bus stop
Google maps shows it to be 550 meters and an 8 minute walk. The bus stop shows as 684 meters elevation and the castle at 755 meters elevation, a 71 meter gain (233 ft).