Simmental SWITZERLAND – Boltigen Jaunpass Oberwil – Europe’s greenest Valley - Bernese Oberland
hello everyone good morning from the Simmental. Welcome back to my channel DjemoGraphic. i'm here at the Jaunpass, almost at the top and i'm waiting for the sun to rise. it's going to happen within the next one to two minutes; really excited for that. i hope there will be great colors and well... after enjoying the sunrise here i will go up to the Jaunpass and then i want to see how the Gastlosen mountains are going to be illuminated. hopefully with a beautiful red glow.
beautiful, just beautiful... and also just got to see a glimpse of the Gastlosen mountains how they look now being illuminated by the red light. i think it's really time to go up to the Jaunpass. now but once more take a look
there's a lot to see in the Simmental. In my last video about it i showed you the Iffigfall and the Siebenbrunnen waterfall in Lenk. But now, let's concentrate more on the things you can do around Boltigen and Oberwil in the Simmental. Let's start with the tourism office in Boltigen, the sponsor of this video. it's located just by the road and there are surely enough places to park your car. At the tourism office you can get various prospects about the attractions that you can visit in this region. in particular i can recommend you the brochure for the Simmental home trail, which shows you the location of the various masterpieces of the traditional Simmental houses.
then regarding accommodation, i can recommend you the hotel Simmental, which also is located in Boltigen. It was my second time i stayed there. the interior is traditional very cosy, the food you can eat at the restaurant is delicious and the owners are very friendly. All in all, the hotel is very authentic. Boltigen itself is quite small. as you're roaming around,
there'll be a couple of interesting houses to see. a very underrated attraction of the Simmental is the "Heinz Kunz" bicycle museum in short "HEKU Velomuseum". in there, you can see plenty of old bicycles that have been commonly used during the 18th to 20th century. there are a lot of army bicycles, a penny farthing or also called high wheel, a wooden bicycle or plenty of small ones for the kids. The museum is definitely fascinating, the collection is very rich and the owner, Mrs. Kunz is really passionate about her and her late husbands collection.
If you want to come here, the museum is open every month’s first Saturday up from 1 pm or else, if you contact the owner, she will be likely be available to show you the museum; for more details, check the descriptions. The owner of the museum, she just told me that basically all bicycles in here they still can be ridden, which is actually fantastic to hear. now i would like to talk a little bit about the wheels. i just mentioned before that back
in the old days, the bicycles they had wooden wheels. then, they were putting a metallic ring around, to make sure that the wheel stays protected. however, that was very, very shaky and this wasn't so convenient. So, soon after, the people they introduced these tires, which definitely make the ride a lot smoother and well... that's basically still the standard today bicycles. They didn't change too much over these decades, which actually shows that the design has been pretty good from very early onwards. And then here, we have a repair station.
so, you can see our vehicle is mounted to do the necessary repair works and then on this side, you can see, here the wheel is missing. it was taken out and then the bicycle is ready for repair and for that, they would use these tools. as next let's proceed to Schwarzenmatt, the pretty village just above Boltigen. I briefly indicated earlier that there is a house trail in the Simmental. In fact one, of the major attractions of this valley are its traditional houses, which charm with their beautiful architecture.
although the village is not part of the Simmental home trail, there are many traditional houses up in Schwarzenmatt. In particular one of them especially unique! This here is the Brunnenhaus ("Brunnehuus") up in Schwarzenmatt it's another traditional masterpiece of the Simmentaler house. interestingly it's not part of the official house trail here, in the Simmental, but nevertheless, it's really worth to come up here to Schwarzenmatt, especially to take a look at this one. i do have to say, the village up here is really fantastic. it's so quiet, full of traditional homes... this one here, then somewhere up there are also
Simmentaler cattles. you can hear the bells... really great mood! it's very very calm and it's also very raw, which is probably something you may mainly know from the postcards of switzerland. well... these were mostly taken in landscapes like this one here. and now, let's head back up to the Jaunpass and take a look how the local cheese is being produced. i'm now here at the cheese factory on the Jaunpass... and next to me is Mike. he's a cheese maker and he's going to show me a little bit how the cheese is being produced up here. myself, i've never seen it in live from very close, but yeah, really excited so he's working here since june 2021, but he has been producing cheese since six years. Alright, sounds exciting! let's go to the inside! it's a long process that starts with heating and stirring the milk, until a thick mass starts to develop. the thick mass is then separated from the liquid phase,
then shaping it into the typically round cheese form. afterwards, the cheeses are put into a salt bath and further infused with salt before they are stored at cool temperatures to let them mature. okay the cheese is stored for two months up there and for at least five more at a different place. during this process, the cheese eventually develops its taste. the next attraction that i'm going to show you is something that is very suitable for families.
it's a forest park with lots of smaller attractions for the kids this place is really cool! so, it's really for kids apparently... but well... myself sometimes i like to be again a kid and well... yeah, the forest is full of playgrounds like this, which is really cool. if you come up here with your family and kids i'm sure, they're going to enjoy very much. now i'm trying this short zip line. now let's head down to Oberwil im Simmental. there are a couple of more attractions to
experience over there. on your way from Boltigen to Oberwil, you may consider getting a glimpse of the Simmental house trail. in total this trail comprises 39 houses. very interesting are the houses number 21 and 22. they're both masterpieces of wood carpeting. and very nice are also the paintings. At Oberwil itself, you should take a look at the Vennerhaus, indicated by number 26 on the home trail map. among all the houses i've seen, so far, this one is my very favorite. impressive is definitely its large size and once again the paintings.
further uphill, when following this road, you will arrive at the suspension bridge called Hängebrücke Leiternweide. For the last bit, which is about one kilometer long, you will have to walk as cars are not allowed to pass. the suspension bridge is very thrilling, the canyon very deep and i can promise you that most likely you'll be alone in here. this is the suspension bridge Leiternweide. It leads
you to the Weissenburgbad, which is a historic building. and from here, it's just 17 minutes crossing a very deep canyon. really curious how it's going to be. looks very promising. Let's go! wow! it's very beautiful. the canyon is very deep and narrow, but great view over there as well as to this side. it's very enjoyable up here. i'm all alone and i think this attraction is really not known by many people. good, so now let's proceed to the Weissenburgbad that i'm
really excited to see it and after that, i'm going to take you to the cave track. now down in the canyon feels... very cooling it's very tall. this is quite a discovery. i'm all alone and i really have no idea how beautiful it's going to be down here. maybe you can even come here for a swim. i guess the water is very cold, but wow... it's so serene. let's check the water temperature.
it's quite cold. i would say very comparable to the Verzasca Valley, but the serenity divides down here. wow! i've been overusing this word, but i do have to say it's really breathtaking! these here are the remnants of the former Weissenburgbad. it used to be a very, very beautiful hotel. so sad that they have demolished it. It looked very beautiful.
i would say, i mean it's architecture it was comparable to the hotel Giessbach. so take a look: this was the first version and unfortunately it burned down in 1898. then, they have built a new one. unfortunately also that one has been demolished because i think business didn't go so well and what i read is that World War 1 and 2 have been very bad for tourism. i think that has caused a huge financial crisis and most likely led to the abandonment of this hotel and then the demolition. well if you have been following me on YouTube so far, then, you would know that i really value traditions, old houses, old hotels... i really love classy stuff
and now you just have this part remaining... but nevertheless, the hike down to the canyon... wow! it was fantastic and i hope maybe someday they will come up with something better. maybe again a new hotel who knows, or something smaller. let's see what the future brings. there are also the prehistoric caves that Oberwil that can be visited, a spot at which i can assure you're going to encounter very few people. it's best to arrive up here by bicycle, in order to save some of your time. there are four caves to visit.
one of them is very large and you can even go inside. here we are at the first cave (Mamilchloch). looking forward to climb up, looks really interesting. interesting... now i'm at the beginning of the cave and well... important to
know there is a shelter. so just turn it to the right and then the lights will turn on. that's definitely adventurous and it's quite slippery. so make sure, you bring good shoes! hold yourself tight to the rope and otherwise enjoy. don't stay for too long. it's just fine if you stay for a short while. but i think 10 minutes
in each cave is totally fine. now, let's head to the next one. Then, there are three smaller ones: The Schnurreloch, Zwärgliloch and this one here, where you can have a barbeque. whatever order you prefer to visit all of these attractions, i'll leave it up to you. i suggest you to visit nearby attractions, in order to travel efficient. For finishing your day or even visit to the Simmental, i highly recommend to go to this spot, which is almost the top of the Jaunpass. From there, if the weather permits, you will be able to watch a beautiful sunset.
The sunset is almost over. you can see some very little remaining glow at the mountains. i had a fantastic day here in the Simmental. many things to see and now sealing up this day with this nice sunset was very nice. so, that's the end of this video. i hope you've enjoyed watching. it if you did, please give this video a LIKE, leave a comment, share it to your friends,
it would be really awesome! also if you're new to this channel, then you most welcome subscribe. i really appreciate that. So that's it from my side, we're going to see each other very soon!
2021-10-31 17:53
