May 6, 2018
So you know the waterfall valley where Rapunzel’s tower is located?…….WE FOUND IT!!!! You’re welcome!
Rapunzel’s tower no longer stands, but we are pretty sure this is where it was.
We knew we would be stopping in Switzerland and we like to try to find little towns and stay out of the big cities and this was the perfect little Swiss town. Also, pretty sure this is where Heidi lived with her grandfather! Lauterbrunnen is the base for a bunch of tiny towns up on the mountains where there are no cars. Residents park on the Main Street and take a cable car or train up to their little town on the Swiss mountainside.
Lauterbrunnen was a 5.5 hour drive from Liechtenstein. Switzerland is beautiful so the 5+ hour drive was actually really pleasant. We got to see so much of Switzerland which is mostly mountains and lakes. We were so excited to get to Lauterbrunnen that we didn’t stop anywhere else. After driving through the beautiful lakes and Alps we arrived in the Lauterbrunnen Valley and are so glad we didn’t stop. Lauterbrunnen is another fairytale village. Pictures and words cannot convey the fresh air, beautiful scenery and the nicest people. We actually visited in the off season (Skiing season was just wrapped up) which was perfect since I personally despise skiing, cold and most sports in general. So we started the “summer season”. I feel like we timed every city just perfect on this trip.
We stayed at Hotel Staubbach which was at the base of Staubbach Falls giant waterfall in the pictures. Staubbach falls is one of 72 waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The Hotel had the best views of the waterfall and cows on the property. We were woken up in the morning by the sound of cowbells! They were eating right outside our window. This was a great hotel, very family friendly, they even had a play room with toys for the girls and dog friendly! The yellow building below is the Hotel Staubbach.
In Switzerland we tried thefresh spring water, fondu, since it’s known for it’s cheese, rode trains and cable cars, talked to cows and searched for the edelweiss flower.
Edelweiss is a well-known mountain flower, belonging to the daisy or sunflower family. The plant prefers rocky limestone places at about 1,800–3,000 metres (5,900–9,800 ft) altitude. It is non-toxic, and has been used in traditional medicine or folk medicine as a remedy against abdominal and respiratory diseases. As a scarce, short-lived flower found in remote mountain areas, the plant has been used as a symbol for alpinism, for rugged beauty and purity associated with the Alps and Carpathians, and as a national symbol.
We see the edelweiss flower as all the more proof that Rapunzel’s tower was here. I mean come on, a SCARCE FLOWER WITH HEALING POWERS!!!! Look familiar?!?!?
ok, enough of my conspiracy theories. Even though I do think I know where Rapunzel’s parents’ castle is located, however, I have not been there yet so I will update you after I do more research.
The municipality of Lauterbrunnen extends a considerable distance beyond the village and valley, with an area of 164.51 km2 (63.52 sq mi). It reaches as far as the peaks of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau to the east, the Gletscherhorn, Mittaghorn, Grosshorn, Breithorn and Tschingelhorn to the south, and the Gspaltenhorn and Schilthorn to the west. The Kleine Scheidegg Pass crosses over to Grindelwald to the east, whilst the Sefinenfurgge Pass crosses to Griesalp and Reichenbach im Kandertal to the west; both passes carry hiking trails that form part of the Alpine Pass Route, a long-distance hiking trail across Switzerland between Sargans and Montreux. Besides the village of Lauterbrunnen, the municipality also includes the villages of Wengen, Mürren, Gimmelwald, Stechelberg, and Isenfluh.
Lauterbrunnen lies at the bottom of a U-shaped valley that extends south and then south-westwards from the village to meet the 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) Lauterbrunnen Wall. The Lauterbrunnen Valley is one of the deepest in the Alpine chain when compared with the height of the mountains that rise directly on either side. It is a true cleft, rarely more than one kilometre in width, between limestones precipices, sometimes quite perpendicular, everywhere of extreme steepness. It is to this form of the valley that it owes the numerous waterfalls from which it derives its name. The streams descending from the adjoining mountains, on reaching the verge of the rocky walls of the valley, form cascades so high that they are almost lost in spray before they reach the level of the valley. The most famous of these are the Staubbach Fall within less than one kilometres of the village of Lauterbrunnen. The height of the cascade is between 800 and 900 feet, one of the highest in Europe formed of a single unbroken fall.
I’m not gonna lie, this was not the easiest place to get to. There are lots of winding roads and ups and downs.
We rode the gondola from Lauterbrunnen up to Grutschalp above the waterfall, then took the train to Murren which is a no car town. We walked around Murren, found some snow, had lunch on the patio of a restaurant overlooking the Jungfrau mountains and then took the cable car from Murren down to Stechelberg then took the train from Stechelberg back to Lauterbrunnen.
Here’s some video of the cowbells and our trip up to Murren