Our last trip was originally supposed to look completely different. In our family wall calendar (yes, we are so old-fashioned pen & paper family) I saw a single entry on Saturday: “Dominik – football game”. I thought to myself that I could take advantage of it, persuade my husband to take the younger two kids to the match, and I – for the first time in my life – I would do a “solo hike”. A kind of hike that I will go at my own pace, at the distance I want, for which I can make a snack just for myself… and that I would just enjoy my “me-time”!
Well, you probably all know that everything turned out quite differently than I had planned! Even though my husband agreed to spend the afternoon with the kids, and I already had about three possible hikes in my head and I wanted to ask my readers on Facebook to help me decide where to go, there were flashing warning light in my mind “Don’t speak too soon, don’t say it out loud!”
And as my fingers started running enthusiastically on the keyboard, I remembered in horror that our youngest had her ice hockey class!!! And at the same time as Dominik his football game. And I forgot to put it in the calendar !!! Oh, damn it!
But I decided not to give up and go on a trip at any cost, just later in the afternoon, and with the whole family. My hikers’ soul simply didnt want to accept that it would lose its regular mileage and amazing views.
I recalled that in the summer my “classmates” in the German class were talking about a place over Lake Thun, Heiligenschwendi. And since on our last trip to Sigriswil, the area above Lake Thun proved to be beautiful for autumn hiking, it took me a few moments to find a short trail to the Blueme Lookout tower, where we can enjoy what the area has to offer.
Getting there
Heiligenschwendi is located about 35 kilometers southeast of Bern. From Thun take the Goldiwilstrasse and Heiligenschwendistrasse to Heiligenschwendi. Parking is available directly at the “Berner Reha Zentrum” clinic. Parking costs 1 franc per hour (2 francs / 2 hours, respectively 4 francs / 3 hours). About 200 meters away is another parking lot.
Starting point – Berner REHA Zentrum
The starting point of this tour is the Bernese rehabilitation center, formerly the Bernische Höhenklinik für Tuberkulosekranken – a clinic for the treatment of tuberculosis, founded in 1895.
As indicated on the signpost, it takes an hour from the clinic to the lookout tower.
In the beginning, you will have to climb the wooden stairs, then hiking on a pleasant forest path.
At the signpost Wolfgrube, we hesitated for a while, which way to take. Finally, according to Wanderapp, we found out of the three paths we were to take the middle one, right into the tip of the forest.
The pathy was definitely interesting – the roots of the trees worked here as natural stairs (and on the way back, Dominik and I had a cone battle 🙂).
And when you hike to the lookout tower, of course, you hike uphill. Everyone enjoyed this climb in their own way 😉
Not far from the summit we came across the Bluemebrünneli well.
Blueme lookout tower
The Blueme lookout tower (or Blume as a flower) rises at 1,391 meters above sea level. When I shared a photo from the trip the same evening on WhatsApp, our neighbor Therese wrote to me that during her childhood (ie 50 years ago) there stood a lookout tower, but still wooden.
Step by step, I climbed the metal spiral staircase to the top of the lookout to the viewing platform, trying to overcome my phobia.
At the 16-meter-high lookout tower, you can enjoy stunning panoramic views of the Emmental hills, the Jura mountain range, Hohgant, Sigriswiler Rothorn, Stockhornn Thun Lake, Niesen and other peaks of the Bernese Alps.
Panoramic boards help with better orientation and identification of mountain peaks.
Hiking back via the Dreiländerstein viewing point
We did not follow the exact same route back, but at the nearest signpost we headed towards the Schwendi-Blueme Dreiländerstein viewing point.
From here the descent was a little rough. The narrow path led through the lush vegetation, it slipped a lot, one had to pay attention to the roots and even a tree was laid in our way.
As I wrote, we set out on a trip relatively late. But if we set out a day later *, we would probably have hiked back in the dark, because that night the time was changing from summer to winter. But in this way, we enjoyed the sunset, which played a beautiful game of shadows over the landscape.
*We definitely couldn’t set out a day later, because we spent a beautiful sunny day in the ice rink. The only consolation to me can be that my son’s team won a beautiful second place and I was very proud of him.
The icing on the cake – sunset on the viewpoint “Vesuv”
We barely left Heiligenschwendi, and we could not help but notice the tree and flags on the hill, to which several people were heading. At my enthusiastic cry, my husband stomped on the brake, and I ran up the hill with our little one to enjoy the sunset over Lake Thun.
Summary
- The route was 4 km long and is not suitable for strollers.
- The route of our hike can be found on the Wandermagazin SCHWEIZ website (but we did the “loop” in the opposite direction, which I highly recommend).
- There is a playground right at the beginning of the route, so expect to get stuck here for a while.
- Directly below the lookout is also the “Grillplatz” with a supply of wood and grills.
- This relatively short trip can also be combined: before or after sightseeing in Thun.
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