Into Interlaken

View of the mountains from Interlaken

After being granted another long weekend last week thanks to the graciousness of my supervisor at IOM and seeing how I had one day left to use on my Swiss Rail Student Pass, I decided to go explore Interlaken this past weekend. Initially the plan was to go with some friends, but unfortunately no one else could get last Friday off of work; side note: last Thursday was Eid-al-Fitr, the last day of Ramadan, which is an official UN holiday, and while IOM is not part of the UN, we still honor the day off! So, as the trip shaped up, I wound up doing some solo traveling, which was fine with me.

I left Geneva on Thursday around noon and after switching trains in Bern, I arrived in Interlaken shortly after 3 pm. The weather did not look that promising for the rest of the day, however I was determined to accomplish something more than just checking in to the hostel and finding a place for dinner. After dropping off my bags at the hostel I made my way to the funicular train for the ride up to Harder Kulm, the closest mountain to the town of Interlaken. As it turns out, I was joined by a large Muslim extended family who were out celebrating Eid and it made for a very crammed ride up but we all made do. Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the station at the top, the fog and cloud cover had already begun to roll in, so the view was obscured. This did make for some artsy photography time, which I tried to take full advantage of. I wandered around for about 30 minutes before the rain really began to fall and I decided that it was probably time to head back down to town and find a place for dinner. I ended up at a traditional Swiss restaurant in town, Les Alpes, and ended up sitting next to a nicer Australian couple that were on a tour of central Europe (remind you of anyone we might know?). I could picture Bubba and Zaida sitting next to me, being extremely nice and friendly to this solo traveler. I opted for a rosti for dinner and tried out the local brew, Rugen Brau, then headed back to the hostel to call it a night early since I had a full few days ahead of me.

View of Interlaken from Harder Kulm

The fog comes rolling in....

Unfortunately the weather hadn't lifted when I left the hostel on Friday morning but the good news is there is still plenty to see and do even if the weather isn't the best. Loosely following my parents itinerary for their few days in Interlaken, I took the train to Lauterbrunnen and from there a bus to the Trummelbach Falls, which are a series of waterfalls that are situated inside the mountain side and to explore them you weave your way in and out of the mountain. Very cool spot! After the Falls, I took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen which is another town a little higher up in the mountains. In Wengen I took the cable car up to a meadow land 2000 meters up in the mountains called Maanlichen. The cloud cover started to take over by the time I reached the top but I was still able to hike around for about 45 minutes and saw some huge heifers in the field! At one point I thought I was losing sight of the path I was on and decided that was as good an indication as any that I should head back down, which I did. I arrived back at the hostel, took a warm shower, and found a nice Thai joint for dinner, chicken satay and green curry with chicken, yum!

Inside Trummelbach Falls

The cows of Maanlichen

Saturday the weather finally cleared up and I had already marked the day for my trip to Jungfrau, which is the highest peak accessible by train in Europe. The ride there took close to 3 hours and involved multiple trains but the views were spectacular! As can be expected, Jungfrau was jam packed with tourists as far as the eye could see, but I still managed to make my way around and spent almost 2 hours up there. In the afternoon I chose to take the train back down to Kleine Scheidegg and then over to Grindelwald, which is on the other side of Interlaken. I took the gondola from the town of Grindelwald up to First, which is another peak area 2,700 meters in the mountains where I did some hiking for a few hours and even got chased by some mountain goats! Needless to say, hiking at that altitude wore me out and I was more than happy to take the gondola back down and then the train from Grindelwald back to Interlaken where I ended up at an Irish pub run by three Germans where I caught some of the U.S. Open (golf) action.

Hanging out at Jungfrau

View of the Eiger on the way down to Kleine Scheidegg

The First, straight out of Game of Thrones

Ram on!

On Sunday I finally had the opportunity to use up my last free day of travel with my Swiss Pass and enjoyed the comforts of Swiss Rail 1st class on my way back to Geneva. All in all I'm quite glad I chose to go explore Interlaken for a few days and I felt that I could have spent a month or more there, but that's for another trip.

It's hard for me to believe that I only have two more days of work and that I will be back in Minneapolis on Sunday. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies when you are busy and enjoying your weekends and your work! I am quite appreciative of the opportunity to explore Switzerland, a country which I had little exposure to prior to this summer and a country that is quite diverse. I'm already thinking about when I can come back to visit in the future (or work, I'm not picky).

What I'm listening to:

"Ziggy Stardust" by Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8sdsW93ThQ

"Cowgirl In The Sand" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pzeYdkSr8s