Interlaken & villages
SWITZERLAND Diary : Day 1 to Day 10 - 05th April 2014 to 14th April 2014
Interlaken is a small, beautiful town in central Switzerland. The place gets its name due to its geographical position between the lakes of Thun & Brienz. Transport in Switzerland is world class and one of the best. The town is therefore an ideal spot that connects all parts of the country. Any corner can be reached within a maximum journey of 3 hours. Self-Driving is another option that can be considered. The town offers many activities like many boat rides, funiculars, mountain hikes, view points, panoramic valleys and mountain spots, making it one of the most sought after tourist destinations in the world. So, whether you are out there to explore just the areas surrounding Interlaken or the whole of Switzerland, this town is the ideal base for your entire tour.
Undoubtedly, Interlaken by default became our place of choice, to stay put during our entire trip to Switzerland. For a quick snapshot of all what we did during our stay here read Switzerland under ITINERARIES (in the main menu bar). This portion of write-up will cover experiences around a few villages that occupy the mountainous terrain surrounding Interlaken & also includes a bit of Interlaken town.
Our first International trip as a GROUP, the thought of spending a good 10 days in this beautiful country was invigorating. The carefully prepared itinerary ( read Switzerland under INTINERARIES in the bar menu) aimed to cover as many parts as possible. The schedule each day was packed with action and like no other. The flight took off from Bangalore as scheduled and landed in Doha in 4 odd hours. The layover time was not much. Both legs of Qatar flights were highly comfortable. Aerial views of the Desert Land in Doha to the Green meadows above Zurich was fascinating. We reached Zurich Airport as scheduled. The "State-of-Art technology" airport never failed to leave us spell bound. The usage of underground fast train system to get to the main hall of the airport was an unparalleled experience. The airport has an inbuilt railway system that gets passengers to any part of the country once they land in Zurich. We boarded one such train to reach Interlaken by switching trains in Bern.
The train journey was more than comfortable except for the luggage part of it. Wish we had learnt to carry less. We couldn't stop awing the country's gifted natural beauty. Green meadows sleeping in the lap of snow cap mountains was the feature throughout. Each of us was glued to a separate window in the train. We let the journey soak in. The journey from the airport to Interlaken West lasted for about 2 and half hours. We reached the countryside railway station of Interlaken west in day light. A short walk of 600 metres, tugging our luggage along, brought us to the most beautiful cottage - THE CITY CHALET. We had the top floors of the CHALET entirely to ourselves. The more I reminisce it, the more emotional I get. It was so spacious and a dream vacation home.
The first and second floors were linked by stairs inside. Two families stayed on the top most floor with still a bedroom to spare. Our family and the kids occupied the room on the 1st floor. There were 5 rooms in all for the 10 of us with more rooms and beds to spare. The kitchen was so well kept. Apparently the owner was a CHEF himself doing T.V. shows and therefore catered to all our kitchen requirements. The house was perfect and had everything for a simple living. It was worth every penny we paid. Jaw dropping, "to die for" views flanked all four sides. Awesome residential Chalets popped up in the neighbourhood. River Aare flowed gently in a canal that gently hugged the side of this entire area. The silence was killing. Clean streets, meadows and pathways were a regular feature. People were hardly seen. Daily lives seemed like an ongoing vacation.
A basic grocery shop and a "Srilankan" shop for our basic Indian needs, at a stone's throw distance, was the icing on the cake. I regret we couldn't walk around the town much due to our tight schedule. Then again as usual, we hope to do a longer trip someday and explore all what we missed earlier. That is every traveller's dream I suppose.
Vision of the Alp ranges from any corner of the town was a regular, rewarding feature. The country is known for its transport connectivity. I can never get tired of re-iterating that fact. April- May is the season for Tulips. One can find bunches of these colourful buds arranged so neatly in almost every nook and corner of the town. The area is also known to be a paragliding haven. On a clear day it is easy to spot many enthusiasts trying this sport, gliding downward in their chutes from a great height, in the open sky while making their way past the clouds. It is just a pity that we couldn't try it ourselves. Interlaken was such a perfect base for our daily ventures. The farthest we travelled was our trip to Geneva which took us around 3 and half hours onward.
Like I mentioned earlier, our entire 10 day touring began each day, by branching out from Interlaken. Walking up to the Interlaken West station and taking relevant trains using our Swiss Passes is how we got around. Although we stayed the whole time in Interlaken, it is a pity we couldn't see much of the town centre.
Our days began by train riding out of Interlaken each morning by 7 am and our return each day was not before 8 pm., leaving us with not much choice but to find the shops in the area closed by then. The town would be asleep, though the sun shone even at that time of dusk. Day 5 - 09th April 2014 gave us the opportunity to discover nearby villages. On our way to Jungfrau the first of the villages we came across was Wilderswil. Next up was Grund. Though the stops were short, we had the opportunity to absorb the scenic beauty of these villages from the windows of our mode of transport. We wound up that evening by exploring some part of the Interlaken town .
(Read JUNGFRAU for the first half of our journey). After a home packed lunch at the top of Europe we chose another route to return, while walking through a few villages on the way. LAUTERBRUNNEN was the first stop on our way down. This village prides itself of having 72 water falls in all. One is sure to spot a minimum number of such cascading splendours from any part of the village. The laid back village forms a perfect base to explore Kliene Scheidegg, Jungfrau mountains and all the nearby heart warming villages. Ensure you stay in this place for a couple of nights to savour the best of Switzerland. I am sure you will never regret it considering the scenic beauty and varied activities it has to offer.
Climbing up further above Lauterbrunnen , we reached the Murren village - A village famous for its SCHILTHORN peak of James Bond movie fame. We reached the village early evening and had a pleasant walk. The backdrop of snow capped mountains under the clear blue sky made the stroll memorable. It is a tiny village atop a mountain side and is well connected to other parts. Winding roads, well built Swiss chalets, flower decorations, valley formations, quite and silence is what one can experience here. You will realise from the photographs below that the village was quite deserted. We walked till we crossed the cable station to get to Schilthorn and moved further ahead. We finally reached Gimmelwald cable station. From there we rode a car to reach the village of Lauterbrunnen yet again.
A direct bus from Lauterbrunnen got us to Interlaken West. It was still 5 pm and the shops were opened. We walked around Interlaken city window shopping to our fill, treating ourselves to coffee and snacks and spending the rest of the evening back home. The day ended as usual with a superb home cooked meal. The rest of the days in Interlaken pretty much consisted of day trips that started early morn at Interlaken west station and ended by around 8 pm each day.