We took a day trip from Fribourg to Gruyères, Switzerland (which Gruyère cheese is named for), and up the nearby mountain, Le Moléson, which is reached by funicular and cable car.
To reach Gruyères from its state (or canton) capital, Fribourg, requires either two trains or one intercity bus, then a train up into the hills, and finally a local bus into the old town. The same local bus route, in the opposite direction, goes from Gruyères train station to the bottom of the Moléson funicular. We started with the mountain because a storm was forecast for the late afternoon.
The bus ride climbed enough to make our ears pop while the big leafy trees passed overhead. A few were beginning to change colors but it was still early in the season.
The leafy trees give way to evergreens where the mountainside gets steeper, and that’s where the road ends and the funicular begins.
The tickets we purchased in Fribourg were good for all the buses and trains, but we didn’t know whether that included the funicular. Since it runs only once every 20 minutes, and the operator was planning a trip to California next year, we talked with him for quite a while. “It runs when I press the button so don’t worry. It will wait for you.” So we talked some more.
(A separate ticket is needed.)
We thought the bus ride had taken us pretty high. Then we thought the funicular took us really high, at a steep rate.
But there were these cables we had seen an hour earlier, way up in the air. We figured there’s no way those are the cable car lines – they must be power lines.
We exited at the top of the funicular, which shares a building with the bottom of the cable car. We stepped outside, looked up, and realized we had underestimated this mountain. At this point Cassie reminded me of her fear of heights.
So we walked around for several minutes taking pictures, and occasionally looking up at that cable car. The sound of cowbells can carry very well in the open, thin air. A herd that’s 15 minutes away sounds like it’s 15 feet away, with its cowbells sounding like Alpine folk music from a nearby speaker.
And then we saw a little old lady board the cable car alone, and watched it pull away, leaving us looking up at it.
“Fine,” Cassie said. “Let’s do this.”
I should say, it’s a more wobbly experience than the funicular. Try not to look down during it.
But it’s beautiful at the top. We looked down through the clouds at the town and its nearby lake. All around us there were meadows and stands of trees and bare rocks and passing clouds. Sometimes the sun would peek through them, sometimes a patch of blue. And sometimes on the horizon a faraway lake would peek through.
It took us a while to realize we could see Lake Geneva, on the French border about 40 miles away. The cowbells were quieter but still there.
And then a cloud would sneak up on us, and we’d be inside it for a few minutes. The clouds would swirl up, then down, then to the side as they rode the wind between hilltops and over ridges and into valleys.
Le Moléson is at the end of a chain of mountains, technically it’s a Prealp or a foothill at the base of the High Alps. It felt much taller than 6,570 feet. It felt like we were on top of the world.
We stepped into the restaurant for a snack and to warm up. Gradually the clouds were keeping out the sun more and more. Maybe there was a storm approaching from behind that ridge, or around that mountain. Couldn’t we see a lake over there earlier?
It was time to go have some fondue in Gruyères. The cheese pot was served with a meat and pickles platter and lots of bread and little round potatoes. And it was damn yummy.
Funiculì, Funiculà
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