Engelberg: Fürenalp Morning Hike – Grotzliweg

When I was in Zurich back in August, I went on a short trip to Engelberg. The first day I went up to see the peak of Titlis, and on the second day, I decided to go on a morning hike at Fürenalp, which is another mountain in Engelberg. I had picked a trail called Grotzliweg  (Grotzli = small pine trees in Swiss German), and it was supposed to take around 1.5 hours, which seemed manageable for my first solo hike.

At the cable car station that morning, it was only me and 5 Swiss senior hikers. Do you remember what I previously wrote about Swiss chivalry? So this morning, I was the last one to get into the cable car, and all the seats were taken, but immediately, a Swiss gentleman in his 70s got up and offered me his seat. I kindly refused, but that was so sweet.

It was such a nice morning and I had the trail all to myself, since the senior hikers started out with breakfast at the restaurant next to the cable car station. On my way back, I ran into some of them, who all greeted me with big smiles and “Grüezi!” (Hello in Swiss German), and I Grüezi’ed back.

It was wonderful up there, and I didn’t hear a sound, except for the cow bells, which, on the other hand, were rather noisy. I had to stop every second step to take photos, attempting to capture at least some of this breathtaking beauty on my camera’s SD card. I was also looking to get a close-up shot of one of the Swiss cows, but as I got closer, I didn’t have the courage. I had a beef dish for dinner the day before, so I was afraid they could sense that I had eaten one from their tribe..

The cable car starts running at 8am and runs throughout the day with 15-minutes intervals or when at least 4 persons are ready to ride.

The trip to the top and back is 28CHF.

The restaurant at the top looked really cozy. If I had had more time, I would also have gone there for breakfast.

> Read my blog post about Titlis