The Swiss love to cap their peaks with restaurants. One of the most popular is the Schilthorn’s Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant perched at 10,000 feet above sea level. Just after it was completed and before opening to the public in 1969, it was the famous and thrilling setting of key moments in the James Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Today, they entertain visitors with 360 degrees of jaw-dropping Alpine views and lots more. The station is bursting with the James Bond theme…even the public toilets — as you’ll see in this clip. This must be one of the most memorable toilets anywhere — what’s your most memorable foreign WC?
This clip is the first of a five-day series of fun I had with my Rick Steves’ Best of Europe Tour group high in the Swiss Alps. (Up next: James Bond WCs at 10,000 feet, The New Thrill Walk at Birg, The Mighty Trümmelbach Falls, and The Cows Coming Down from the High Alps).
As guides, we are really dependent upon good weather to fully enjoy the Swiss Alps. The truth is: The Alps are most staggeringly beautiful and unforgettable when it’s sunny. And on this tour, we enjoyed the most beautiful day I can remember, high in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland. Of our group of 27 TMs (as we call our tour members), 24 joined us on this all-day alpine excursion. This video clip is a moment from the last part of the Mürren to Grütschalp hike.
For a peek at how we design such a day (and share our experiences with our other groups), here are my rough notes for our other tour guides:
Guide Notes — Day 17 of Rick Steves’ Best of Europe Tour: Swiss Alps
Free day in Alps. If sunny, guide should organize this day and lead it. (Lift tickets discounted if 20 or more are individual tickets, so TMs can peel off if and when they like. Remind group you’ll collect tomorrow in euros so they don’t need to hit ATM for more SF.)
8:00 – Bus to lift.
8:25-8:55 – Catch lift Stechelberg to Schilthorn, 10,000 feet above sea level (beating the crowds and any clouds that may gather later in the morning) — watch altimeter in cable car as you rise, remind group at this altitude you get winded very easy.
9:00-10:30 – After five-minute orientation, free time at Schilthorn (new viewpoint out back, great James Bond clips in theater, revolving restaurant for hot chocolate or a pastry).
10:30 – Gather group outside funny James Bond WCs and catch 10:35 lift down together to Birg station.
10:40-11:10 – Free time at Birg – wonderful new Thrill Walk (takes 15 minutes max), fine terrace and glass floor with view down on Thrill Walk alternative. (Just miss one lift to make time for Birg, be in line before next lift arrives from Schilthorn to fill 11:15 cable car down to Mürren with no extra wait.)
11:20-12:30 – Mürren, short orientation town walk, free hour for lunch, stop at Co-op grocery store – perfect for picnic (demo weighing a single grape and printing out price and wrapping grape in it), meet at station at far end of town.
12:30-14:10 – Hike Mürren to Grütschalp with stop midway at Winteregg dairy farm for fresh home-made yogurt, and Alp cheese (pay for goodies, one small 1-SF yogurt per couple, 2 spoons, old mountain cheese, handy WC). They also do a cheese tasting with three varieties if you like.
14:15 – At Grütschalp station, buy group lift tickets down to Lauterbrunnen (to get them discount, collect tomorrow in euros).
14:20-15:00 – Walk through Lauterbrunnen, meet at waterfall far end of town (just past Horners, the BASE jumpers’ favorite pub). Tell story of how the waterfall throws rocks and can be dangerous (especially after rain storm).
15:00-16:00 – Hike up valley to Trümmelbach (point out cow bells under eves of old farmhouses).
16:00-17:00 – Tour Trümmelbach Falls (group discount admission is 10.50 SF. Tell the lady you’ll pay the 50 cents per TM and let TMs just pay 10 SF as they enter. This saves time and frustration.) Ride elevator through mountain with group, explain best underground waterfall caves are within 100 meters above top of lift. Call bus driver to meet you one hour after arrival.
17:00 – Bus picks up group there, shuttle back to hotel.
19:00 – Dinner at hotel (Alp horn concert and demo tonight if not last night).
As a Christian, I enjoy being open to spiritual experiences while on the road, and there’s no more spiritual experience than traveling to the developing world. To be with the world’s struggling and downtrodden is to be with Christ. My expertise as a writer and guide, however, is traveling through Europe, which also offers plenty of opportunities to get close to God. Here’s my guide to five places in Europe that stoke my spirit.
As I walk high on a ridge in Switzerland, the Alps strike me as the greatest cathedral in Europe. Ride the rack-railway train from Wilderswil (near Interlaken) up to Schynige Platte, then hike along a ridge to Faulhorn, with its famous mountaintop hotel, and on to the perch called First. As you tightrope along the ridge, lakes stretch all the way to Germany on your left, and on your right is a row of cut-glass peaks — the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. The long, legato tones of an alphorn announce that the helicopter-stocked mountain hut is open, it’s just around the corner…and the coffee-schnapps is on. It’s enough to have even a staid Lutheran raising his hands in praise.
There’s a reason pilgrims have hiked from France to the distant northwest of Spain for more than a thousand years. Trekking with people of all spiritual stripes — or none at all — across the vast expanses of Spain, it’s easy to be one with nature and get caught up in a private talk with your maker. Everyone’s heading for the same point: the Cathedral of St. James in the city of Santiago de Compostela. And to be there as well-worn and sunburned pilgrims step on the scallop-shell pavement stone in front of the towering cathedral, overwhelmed with jubilation to have reached their personal goal and succeeded in their quest, is a joy in itself.
I have a personal ritual of sitting quietly on the rampart of a ruined castle high above Assisi, the town of St. Francis. I look down at the basilica dedicated to the saint, then into the valley — where a church stands strong in the hazy Italian plain that marks the place where Francis and his “Jugglers of God” started the Franciscan order, bringing the word of God to people in terms all could embrace. Hearing the same birdsong that inspired Francis, and tasting the same simple bread, cheese, and wine of Umbria that sustained him, I calm my 21st-century soul and ponder the message of a saint who made the spirit of God so accessible.
Worshiping upon the tomb of St. Peter under the towering dome of Michelangelo in the vast expanse of the greatest church in Christendom — where incense gives earthly substance to ethereal sunrays — I ponder the centuries of devotion and tradition that have gone into building both this magnificent church and the Catholic faith. Throwing out my Lutheran cynicism, I appreciate it all as a humble and noble quest by countless people through the ages to better understand and get close to our heavenly Father.
In the wine country of Burgundy, just down the road from Cluny (where the greatest monastic order of the Middle Ages was born), a rough lane leads to the ecumenical monastic community of Taizé. It welcomes all to gather with no regard to culture, language, or denomination. With a perfectly ecumenical embrace, people come together at Taizé to celebrate diversity, tune in to God’s great creation and the family of humankind, and become comfortable with silence, praise, meditation, singing, and simple living. Taizé gets you close to God.
What tips do you have for getting closer to God in your travels?
I absolutely love our My Way Alpine Europe Tour itinerary. Imagine enjoying the Alps in Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and France — all in 12 memory-packed days. (While My Way tours are officially un-guided, I took some liberties with the group I led this summer and threw in a few extras.)
I enjoyed surprising our group with fun ad-lib stops during our driving days. (The tour is designed to be a series of two-night stands, alternating between driving days with stops and days where we’re set up and free to explore on our own.) We took a group shot at my favorite ruined castle with its new suspension bridge (Ehrenberg Castle, near Reutte in Austria’s Tirol, just a few minutes over the German border from Neuschwanstein Castle).
Our Alpine Europe Tour group came ready to hike. Here we climbed to the hill-capping ruined castle of Ehrenberg. Trish and I snuck up bottles of beer and pop to surprise the group with a little party at the top. I “discovered” these castle ruins as a teenager. Ehrenberg was one of my original Back Doors, which I collected for the first edition of my first book, Europe Through the Back Door (in 1980). Back then, I never dreamed I’d be coming here with busloads of travelers. It’s always a treat to show off my favorite little spots in Europe, and I’m thankful that my team of guides are just as enthusiastic as I am when it comes to sharing with their Rick Steves tour groups the countless magic moments Europe has to offer.
As the leader of our tour, I got to decide which of the summer luge rides we’d go on. They only run when the weather’s dry. On this day, the sky was heavy with clouds loaded and ready to dump — but we managed to get our luge rides in. Here’s Trish barreling to the finish line — huge smile blocked by her iPhone. By the way, Trish — who took the photos in this post — has her own blog, and is reporting on this tour from her perspective. For Trish’s take on our My Way Alpine Europe experience, visit The Travelphile.
We rode the Biberwier luge ride (just outside of Lermoos, on the Austrian side of the Zugspitze). It’s a fast one, and I always make a very strong point that you need to keep your limbs in tight, hold on to your stick, and be careful. Still, the thrill of the luge sometimes tempts kids-at-heart to go too fast. One man on our tour ended up with a very painful souvenir. What did he do upon finishing that tragic ride? He rode the lift up to do it again.
I am really nervous when leading a group through the Alps, because you can be seriously disappointed by bad weather. On this 12-day trip, we had about three rainy days. While the rain dampened our clothes, it didn’t dampen our spirits. Here we are in Chamonix — at the statue of the men who first climbed Mont Blanc back in 1786 — looking up toward Europe’s highest peak and seeing only clouds. The next morning, the sun came out…and so did Mont Blanc.
Leading a tour is more fun with a fun-loving group. And, because of the way we promote our tours, fun travelers are what we get. As I always tell my groups, “You’re the most wonderful group of travelers I’ve had the privilege to lead.” We really did have a wonderful group, with a wide range of ages and styles. Together, we were a lot like a family on the road.
My favorite kind of group shot is a group selfie. Twenty happy travelers can pack a lot of joy into one frame — especially after having spent 12 days enjoying a Rick Steves tour itinerary covering the best of the Alps. Happy travels to each of my friends on our tour, and thanks for traveling with us.
The day after our tour finished, I found myself alone again (singing that old Gilbert O’Sullivan song…naturally). I was in Amsterdam, wearing my guidebook researcher hat. For me, it’s rejuvenating to alternate responsibilities while working on the road. I normally toggle from guidebook research to TV production. This year, I’m adding tour guiding to the mix. I thoroughly enjoyed leading our group — and am already looking forward to guiding our Best of Europe in 21 Days Tour in two short months. But for now, it’s just me, the latest edition of my guidebook, and a list of things to check each day. Thanks for traveling with me.
This is Day 67 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.
The My Way Alpine Europe tour I’m leading includes plenty of free time to ride high-mountain lifts — as you’ll see in this two-part, Alp-happy video. With the help of a three-mile-long cable, we glide slowly, dangling silently over the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) from France’s Aiguille du Midi (high above Chamonix) to Helbronner Point, the border of Italy, on Europe’s highest lift. Then we celebrate the view from Helbronner Point…looking down on the Alps of Italy, Switzerland, and France.
This is Day 64 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.
