
History and sights of Grimself and Furkapass
This road route from Innertkirchen to Andermatt, traveling along the winding roads on the mountain slopes and their passes, is another unforgettable experience in the Swiss Alps.
Innertkirchen is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli district, in the canton of Bern, with just over 1,000 inhabitants and crossed by the river Aare, running through a narrow valley.
After the first 22 km, the first wonder: Räterichsbodensee, a dam in the municipality of Guttannen, 150 m below Lake Grimselsee and at an altitude of 1,767 m above sea level.
The dam was completed in 1950, is 456 m long and 94 m high and feeds the Oberhasli company's power plants.
Following a further 7 km is the Grimsel Pass at an altitude of 2,164 m, a mountainous gorge connecting Haslital, the upper Aare river valley with the upper Rhone river valley.
The view from the top of the pass, with Gletsch in the valley below and the climb on the opposite side to the Furka Pass, gives a good overview of the region.
One of the images most associated with the Furka Pass, at an altitude of 2,429 m, is that of the iconic Hotel Gletscher Restaurant and Belvedere, built in 1882 by the young hotelier Josef Seiler, on a sharp curve and facing the Rhone Glacier.
Another famous one is the Hotel Galenstock, about 10 km further in Realp, used as a location in the James Bond film Goldfinger.
Following the road for another 14 km around the snowy slopes, you will find Andermatt, a village with around 1,400 inhabitants in the Urseren valley, surrounded by the Adula Alps and in the historic center of the north-south and east-west crossings of Switzerland.