We are taking a train from Freiburg to Murren in June. What is the best/fastest way and how many stops will we have? Thank you!
Do can get schedules at the Swiss Rail site: http://www.sbb.ch
In total it's a 2.5 journey. Take an intercity train to Bern than change to another intercity train to Interlaken Ost. At Interlaken take the narrow gage train to Lauterbrunnen. At Lauter. transfer to the cable car (located at the train station) up to Grütschalp and then transfer to the short shuttle train to Murren .
Are you talking about Freiburg am Breisgau in Germany, or Fribourg (also referred to as Freiburg by German speaking Swiss) in Switzerland?
The sbb schedules will show both. Click the "+" sign to the left of the list of possible itineraries to get the detail of all the train connections. Then check the "show intermediate stops" button at the bottom of the page.
Be very careful here, there are TWO Freiburg's:
1) Freiburg im Breisgau, known in French as Fribourg-en-Brisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
2) Fribourg, also known as Freiburg, capital of Kanton Freiburg, Switzerland.
If you go to the Swiss railway's site ( www.sbb.ch ), it will probably default to the second one. And a Swiss Railways ticket machine can only sell you a ticket to or from the Swiss one.
If you look on the German Railways site ( www.bahn.de ), it will assume you mean the German one.
Now which one do you mean?
You can look up times on either of the above-mentioned websites, and you can look up prices on www.sbb.ch But make sure you have selected the correct Freiburg.
There is also Freiburg an der Elbe, Lower Saxony, Germany; but that is more obscure.
We will be in Freiburg, Germany. Thank you for the information!
As Michael correctly notes in his itinerary, there are many moving pieces in this trip but, since this is the Swiss we're talking about, they all sync up perfectly. Note that if you have a Eurailpass there's a big sign at the Interlaken train station saying your pass is not valid PAST HERE.
When you get to Lauterbrunnen you have two choices to continue to Murren. Your call.
cindy,
You could also use the Bahn.de website to research your journey from Frieburg (Breisgau) to Mürren. There are numerous departures every day, and one of the shortest is a departure at 10:07, arriving Mürren at 13:58 (time 3H:51M, 4 changes). The Bahn website currently shows tickets on that route at €94.60 PP. I don't know if there are any discounts possible for children, but hopefully one of the others can answer that question.
When you arrive at Interlaken Ost, you'll transfer to the local Berner Oberland-bahn for the ~20 minute trip to Lauterbrunnen. Be sure to check the small digital display on the side of the coach to ensure that it's going to Lauterbrunnen (some of the trains split in Zweilütschinen). When you arrive there, you'll walk across the street to the cable car station for the short trip to Grütschalp where you'll transfer to the small BLM mountain railway (which will be waiting with usual Swiss efficiency) for the trip to Mürren.
Note that there are two routes to Mürren from Lauterbrunnen. When you buy tickets, be sure to specify the "Mürren BLM" route. The other route involves a short trip on the Post Bus to Stechelberg, and then Cable Cars to Gimmelwald and Mürren (you have to change cars in Gimmelwald). The BLM route will be easier when you arrive, but you could certainly try the other route during your stay there. The first segment from Stechelberg to Gimmelwald is spectacular!