Niesenbahn

Seen from the shore of Lake Thun, the Niesen looks almost too regular to be real: a near-perfect cone rising above the mouth of the Kander valley, which is why the Swiss call it their pyramid. Its summit stands at 2,362 metres, and the Niesenbahn climbs almost the whole of it. Built between 1906 and 1910 and opened in July of that year, the metre-gauge funicular runs from the village of Mülenen at 693 metres to an upper station just below the top at 2,336 metres, lifting passengers more than 1,600 metres over about three and a half kilometres of track.

The line is split into two sections that meet at Schwandegg, where passengers change cars. The lower stretch is a little over two kilometres long and the upper one about 1.4 km, and on the steepest part the gradient reaches 68 per cent, and each car carries up to 60 passengers. Each half takes roughly a quarter of an hour, and the unhurried pace is part of the pleasure: the cabin rises through meadow and forest into open alpine pasture while Lake Thun spreads out behind it. The old name of the mountain, Yesen, is said to refer to the yellow gentian that still flowers on these slopes.

Beside the track runs something just as remarkable: a service stairway of 11,674 steps, recognised by Guinness as the longest in the world. It is normally closed to the public, but once a year runners are let loose on it for the Niesenlauf, a race straight up the mountain along the rails. From the summit the view takes in the lake, the Jura on the horizon and a crowd of Bernese Oberland peaks; the Berghaus Niesen Kulm at the top serves meals and keeps rooms for those who want to see sunrise from the pyramid. Paul Klee, who grew up near Bern, is thought to have found in its clean triangle a model for the abstracted shapes of his paintings.

The railway usually runs from late April to November.

Getting there

The lower station is in Mülenen, about 13 km south of Thun, right next to Mülenen railway station on the Lötschberg line — the easiest approach is by train, changing from the main line at Spiez. The nearest airport is Bern Airport (BRN), about 34 km away.