Interlaken and the Lauterbrunnen Valley

Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Lauterbrunnen Valley was a wonder to behold, with its sharp, steep cliffs, waterfalls, green meadows, and the Jungfrau (13,642') providing a backdrop. We visited Trümmelbach Falls, Interlaken, and then had a sumptuous fondue dinner in old-town Bern.

Boonie came to get us at about 9:30 and we drove our car over to pick up Silvia. South of Interlaken was this vast, glacier-carved valley. Trümmelbach Falls, about 10 drops, are back in the cliffs; we couldn't believe how they were able to build the walkway through the cliffs for visitors to see the various curves and falls up close.

You can see a fall in the foreground, in the middle back, and a continuation of the walkway at the top. The mountainside has been sculpted from the 5200 gallons per second of glacier melt. Here is a view looking back out at the valley:

I took many photos, but they're too hard to gain perspective on what you're seeing. It was just too spectacular to capture on film.

We were dressed for rain, but we lucked out until later in Interlaken. We walked back down to the halfway point, from where we could take an elevator down to the start to save Janet's ankles.

You can see how beautiful the valley is, reminding me of Yosemite Valley. Once we were down, we had a bite to eat at this bakery behind us. Well, mine was a beer, but who's counting?

The deli-bakery was on the ground floor of the Gasthaus, below that rock mountain. I have two more scenery photos from our hike up the mountainside waterfalls:

That is Jungfrau behind in this picture. You can see how high off the valley floor we hiked!

We then drove back north to Interlaken to walk around. One of our first stops was the large, crowded, and very expensive Kirchhofer Watch Gallery, where a friend of Boonie's worked. Boonie found her and they visited while Janet, Silvia and I gawked at how ridiculously expensive most of the watches were. It claims to have the largest collection of Swiss watch brands, and we learned that the tour-bus operators have always gotten kickbacks if they bring in their tourists - mostly Chinese. But that could end due to the exposed corruption, so Boonie's friend wasn't sure how it would affect her future there.

Interlaken also had numerous expensive cars...

...like this Rolls Royce that Janet wanted to steal. In the background on the left was where we later ate a mini lunch after walking all over the place and realizing that the small, quaint eateries are not open on Sundays.

This is the Aare River that connects the two lakes, Thun and Brienz, hence "Interlaken". It rushes through here due to an 18-ft drop between the two lakes, and there are several sluices like this to control flow.

This is facing the opposite direction from the last photo, and aren't those women pretty? We kept walking hoping to find a bakery or small cafe, but no such luck.

More pretty scenery, especially in the foreground!!

This was my final photo of the day, as we walked to the parked car after having a small sandwich at the expensive cafe. The best part of that snack was my "dessert first", the vermicelli-like ice cream dish that we'd first seen someone eating in our Appenzell Gasthaus. We later saw it on an ice cream menu in Lucerne, and knew at some point we wanted to try it. This was our chance, and it was pretty yummy. It had a pistachio base.  The Grand Hotel in the photo was grand all right, but behind me was the "Concrete Stain of Interlaken" - the 18-story Metropole Hotel.

I didn't get my own photo, so here's one I found. Isn't it an eyesore in the midst of the quaint architecture and scenery in the rest of the town?

Once back in Bern, all four of us went to a modern restaurant for an incredible fondue/wine. Janet and I found our own way from Silvia's to Boonie's, and then on the street car to the restaurant. We each had a salad, then the fondue came, with bread and potatoes. I kept eating and eating because it was so yummy and I didn't want any leftovers, but even I couldn't eat it all.

We finally had to say goodbye. What a wonderful family and "exchange daughter". Boonie went on back to her mom's, and would go directly on to work in Zürich the next morning. It was hard to say goodbye as we got on our streetcar and waved as we sped off.