The Bear Trek (Via Alpina) - Warm up day -Planplatten/Alpen Tower to Tannalp and back.

Meiringen Circular Walk, Via Alpina, Switzerland We were in Switzerland to walk the Bear Trek from Meiringen to Lenk, which is the middle part of the Swiss Via Alpina. When planning our trip, we had read the guide book, and it says that one of the best days walking of the Via Alpina is the day from Engstlenap to Meiringen (the previous day to the start of the Bear Trek). Therefore, we had booked 2 nights in Meiringen, intending to catch the post bus to Engstlenap, then walk over Planplatten ridge, before taking the cable car down to Meiringen. The ridge of Planplatten traverses high above the valley, with views in all directions and over to the Bernese Oberland towards the Wetterhorn, which we would be passing later. We also thought it would be a good warm up day before our trek. This was a great plan, but we then after booking found out that the post bus no longer runs, and a taxi to Engstlenap would be very expensive. Instead, we caught the cable car (having located it the previous evening) at 8am, from Meiringen. We got a discount off the price with our hotel card, buying a 94franc ticket for 2 people for all day. After changing cable cars a couple of times, we visited the restaurant at the top station of Planplatten, with great views. Leaving at 9.30am we followed the signs along the Planplatten ridge towards Tannalp (2 hours 20 minutes)- todays destination. After an hour of walking, we reached the top of a ski lift overlooking Tannensee Lake (1 hour, 155m ascent, 2 miles). We followed the ridge, the path at times taking a track, then back to the ridge before descending to the lake, with a sign 15 minutes to Tannalp, (2 hours 30 mins, 4.25 miles, 219 m ascent). We arrived in Tannalp after 3 hours of walking, there is a refuge with a restaurant, and accommodation, (5.2 miles, 3 hours, 227m ascent). We sat on a benches outside the church to eat our lunch, fortunately the church is behind fences to keep the very tame goats and cows beyond. Leaving at 1pm, we re-traced our footsteps, passing the lake, up a track, then along the ridge arriving back at the cable car at 4pm. We kept an eye on the time all day, ensuring that we turned round after walking for 3 hours. The last cable car leaves at 4.30pm, and we wanted to make sure we were there in time, to avoid walking the 1600m descent to Meiringen. Distance 10.5 miles (17km) Duration of Walk 6 Hours 25 minutes Ascent 2330 feet (710m) Descent 2330 feet (710m) Average Pace 36 min/mile Steps 26,936 Information We were there at the beginning of July- springtime. There were so many beautiful flowers, insects including numerous butterflies, birds and vultures flying overhead. We even saw a snake on the path-probably a viper. This was a great introduction to Switzerland, the views were tremendous-a taste of things to come, the cable cars were efficient, the path was well signed. We were surprised though to see so few people out walking. Once the cable car has been caught there are many other options of walks, the helpful lady in the tourist office in the station, had given us many choices. We were very pleased we had chosen to do this walk-it was nice to walk with only a day bag too. Back in Meiringen, we called into the very interesting Hasli entomology museum (free, with donation). https://jungfrauregion.swiss/en/map/d... The nearby church has lovely paintings on the outside, but we didn’t go in as a concert was on. We visited Migros supermarket over the road from our hotel to buy breakfast and lunch for the next day. We ate a delicious dinner in the Chinese restaurant in our hotel. In Meiringen there is also a Sherlock Holmes Museum, as he famously met his death at the nearby Reichenbach Falls. He is a fictitious character created by the author Athur Conan Doyle. Resources used www.bookings.com Hotel Ilufa-a nice hotel with a Chinese restaurant, good location by the station, bus stop, and supermarket. Book -Trekking the Swiss Via Alpina, by Kev Reynolds and Jonathan Williams. Cicerone press. The walk is mostly very well signed, but the book gives more information. Swiss, Meteo weather app, this is an amazing free resource. It seemed very accurate too. Swisstopo,App which has all the maps of Switzerland on line. We both have Garmin watches, on which the walk can be recorded, and down loaded onto our phones later. https://www.sbb.ch/en Swiss railways Getting to Meiringen We were up early to catch the 6.45am easyjet flight from our home in England to Geneva. Geneva airport is very easy, with signs in English, clean toilets and the train station is within the airport. We had booked the train tickets to Meiringen in advance, which takes about 4 hours. YouTube has a 5,000 character limit on video descriptions. To read Barbara's complete blog, please check out our website, www.hikingwithdaveandbarbara.com.