Monday 2nd September : Weather: 11°C in Tannalp to 22°C in Meiringen:
Tannulp to Meiringen: 8.0k walk Tannalp to Plan Platten: 4 x Cable Cars Plan Platten to Meiringen
Ascent and Descent: Ascent 484m, Descent 233m,
Time: 9am to 12.30pm: 3hrs walk + 30 min coffee: then 12.30 to 2pm 4 x cable cars Plan Platten to Meiringen
Accommodation: Hotel Rebstock, Meiringen
Leaving Tannalp for the Ridge Walk
Views to Tannalp and Tannensee
Ridge Walk between teh Alps
Morning Coffee with a View
1hr to Plan Platten
Alpen Tower - start of 4 cable cars
Another stunning day in the Alps on a cool morning. We walked the ridge walk from Tannalp at 1976m up a small climb to the Balmeregghorn at 2250 metres and on to Plan Platten at 2245metres where we took the 4 x cable cars down almost 1700 metres to Meiringen at 595 metres. The views either side of the ridge were magnificent on this blue sky day.
We “sleep in” til 5.30am. It’s a cool 11°C outside with clear blue skies after last night's thunderstorms. We boil our cup of tea (made with powdered milk from Aldi) then shower and pack. Breakfast is at 8am and it’s a wonderful buffet of cereals, yoghurt, fresh hot bread, jams, cheeses and cold meats. Tea and coffee are from a self serve machine.
We leave at 9am expecting it to be cold, but there’s no wind, so 11°C doesn’t feel so cold. The Via Alpini 1 track veers left around the Tannansee, which is still as a mill pond. After 1k, the track climbs through the meadows, which turn into a ridge walk about one metre wide with steep grassy slopes on both sides. It feels safe though there’s sheep balancing on small ledges on one side giving us the heevie Jeeves. We meet an American-Chinese lady hiking alone while her husband minds the kids. She obliges us with a photo on the ridge.
After two hours, at 11am, we’ve reached the Balmeregghorn at 2,250 metres. A good spot for coffee behind the concrete block anchoring the Ski lift, which only works in winter. There’s views down to the villlage of Frutt, beside the Melchsee, clearly a ski resort with a huge apartment block dominating the valley. There’e views of the alps ahead and to the north, with hanging glaciers glistening in the sun. We’ve walked this ridge in 2015, but the views are so great you could walk it every day - better than Cleveland Point!
We take our time over coffee, as the sign indicates it’s only one hour to Plan Platten - a short day. The coffee goes well with a snack of left over meringue from last night’s dessert. We’re sheltered from the slight cool breeze, enjoying the sun’s warmth, while admiring the views all round, but at 11.30am, we’re on our way again. It’s a steep down hill descent before climbing again around the side of the mountain to the Alpen Tower, the start of the 4 cable cars down to Meiringen. We’re there at 12.30, after a magnificent 3 hr ridge walk, one of the finest in the Alps.
The tickets cost 45 CHF each (about $AUD90, but worth every penny to save the 1600 metres descent. The views from the gondola are breathtaking as we descend into first Magisalp, then Bidmi then Reuti before arriving in Meiringen at 2.30pm. A short stroll down into the village, and we have lunch in the Park named after Arthur Connan Doyle, a frequent visito to Switzerland and in particular Meiringen. Lunch is a hunk of yesterday’s bread which was still quite fresh, with soft cheese and butter, and a jet boiled cup of tea.
We’re already thinking about tomorrow’s walk and decide to visit the tourist office to check the time table for buses between Meiringen and Grindelwald, our next overnight stop. Our plan is to get a bus to Zwirgi, then walk to Gross Scheidegg then take a bus to Grindelwald. The tourist office is at the railway station just a few minutes walk from our lunch stop, and the friendly assistant who speaks perfect English, gave us the bus time table plus a map of the bus route. So that confirmed that our thoughts on tomorrow’s walk would work.
From the tourist office, we walked down the main road until we could see the Coop where we’ll buy dinner, then back to the Hotel Rebstock, which we'd seen on the way. Check in is at 3pm and it’s already 2.50pm so we sit outside and wait as the front doors are locked. At 3.30, I try the doors again, and peer through the window where I see a man waving me around to the side of the building. And there’s a sign pointing to reception at the back - certainly not an intuitive location for reception. They just needed a sign on the front door. Our room 25 is on the second floor - as are all booking.com discounted rates, and we are pleased to see it is on the back side of the building. Most of the bad reviews for the hotel mentioned that the front rooms were noisy, but closing the windows made it very hot.
Ian has a shower while I blog, then it’s off to the Coop to buy 2 beers, ham, fresh bread, cheese, one bullocks heart tomato, 2 bananas, one small onion and 2 yoghurts. Back to our room to sit at the little desk for a lovely dinner with a cold beer. I have a shower, then a bit more blogging and bed at 9pm. There’s no TV but Hotel Rebstock was only $150 per night and it was the cheapest place we’ve had in Switzerland so we can’t compalin about much. It’s dated but clean.