You do not arrive in Wengen by accident. This chocolate-box Swiss village, perched on a shelf of rock some 1,200 meters above sea level, is located deep within the Lauterbrunnen Valley and—to put it mildly—requires a little effort to reach.

If you’re traveling from Zurich Airport, as I was when visited in the summer, it will involve three trains before even get to the village of Lauterbrunnen, at which point you board a yellow-and-green cogwheel train to grind your way up the mountainside. (Thankfully, the Swiss train system is—no surprises here—exceptionally efficient.) Once you finally disembark, though, you’ll be rewarded with lungfuls of that sharp, fresh mountain air, and some of the most spectacular views in all the Alps. Here, sheer cliff faces on either side of the valley form an

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