Interlaken

Arrival

We arrived in Interlaken and found our hostel – very close to the station which was pretty cool. We had been told that the language spoken in Switzerland was French and German which has kinda developed into something they call Swiss German, which I think is basically German with a bit of French thrown in. This made things a little confusing luckily English was also pretty much spoken by everyone so it became easier to just stick to that. Was a little disappointed but had a chance to speak my sentence of German when we first arrived cos the guy in the hostel at the time did not speak good English. The views in Interlaken were absolutely gorgeous and I have included a pic of the view from our bedroom window.

First night had to go and explore so we took a walk. The river that runs through Interlaken was flooding so we had to change direction at one stage of our walk. We also started wondering what the headlines would say if we fell into the raging river – “Dumb Tourists” or something similar. We later found out that there are two lakes on either side of Interlaken but it used to be one big lake, ie: Interlaken used to be under water. Luckily things did not go back to the way they were while we were staying there – it could have put a bit of a damper on our trip.

While admiring the surroundings we found a poor cow that managed to get itself stuck in a really awkward position, it brings a whole new meaning to having fresh milk for breakfast. We sat down and I had a nice cup of hot choc with the beautiful view of the mountains – it was pretty cold so this worked really well.

Later that night we went to an open air movie called “Alles auf Zucker” – didn’t understand much so headed back to the hostel before it ended.

Day 1

Today we took a train to the little town of Lauterbrunnen, home to beautiful scenery and lots of waterfalls. Our first stop was the Staubbach Falls which can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the main street. There is a bit of an uphill path that leads you to behind the waterfall about midway up. So we managed to get a bit wet whenever the wind blew in the wrong direction.

Just down from the waterfall was a little graveyard – yes I know that it might seem a bit morbid but I took a photo. I thought it was pretty cool how the graves were basically little flower gardens opposed to stone slabs where any flowers left there would just die. My favourite one had a little garden gnome in it, again it sounds weird that I had a favourite grave but just understand where it all comes from.

After enjoying Staubbach falls we took a nice casual walk to the Trummelbach falls which is fed by the glacier up by Jungfrau. Our walk to Trummelbach revealed the many waterfalls I spoke of earlier, since we were walking in a valley with cliffs on either side this does make sense but it was still pretty awesome. Byron even drank from one of the many waterfalls, to get a taste of pure fresh mountain water.

We also saw lots of cows during our walk – they really are cute animals and they also seem to be a kind of symbol of Switzerland, cows and their big cow bells. Trust me these cow bells can get pretty big too. The biggest ones we saw were during one of our train rides so couldn’t take a pic.

Arriving at Trummelbach falls we discovered that is consists of something like 7 branches (don’t quote me on that). Most of these falls have kinda formed these caves so its like they are falling through the earth. It is really cool the way the rock has been carved away – it kinda made we wish I had studied Geology to 3^rd year so I could better understand it all. Yes I know I am a nerd. ;)

Walked back to Lauterbrunnen to catch our train and discovered a house with a grass roof. Byron reckons it makes for good insulation, I reckon that it just checks cool. We sat down for a drink before leaving and once again I had a hot choc – for some reason a mug of hot choc in Switzerland just seems to fit well.

Day 2

Train ride to the highest train station in Europe, Jungfraujoch. It is 3500m above sea level compared top South Africas highest which is 2075m above sea level. I think this experience should really be considered my first experience of snow because on arrival at Jungfrau I realised that the snow we had in London was piddly. The snow was thick and beautiful. We arrived and started by heading through the ice palace – this was pretty cool we saw penguins kissing and Byron even got to meet his hero, Mighty Mouse.

We then headed out to a viewing platform where Byron had his first experience of playing in snow. He built a “snowman” and I proceeded to demolish it – it looked more like the gherkin in London just more bumpy and unstable.

The views were spectacular even though when we woke up that morning we were considering changing our plans cos the mountains still seemed very misted up and miserable. Glad we followed through with plan A cos even though it was cloudy, Jungfrau was above all the clouds. You might notice in this pic that in the foreground it’s snow but further back is clouds, pretty cool huh? I kept an eye out for the Care Bears but they didn’t come out to say hi.

After taking some posed pics with us and the beautiful snowy mountains I stood up only to discover that sitting on snow makes your bum wet – damn. Luckily the sun was out and it was actually very hot up there so the wet patch dried pretty quickly.

Next stop was all the activities available up on the mountain. The one I was really looking forward to was the dog sled ride. Unfortunately it was closed cos it was too hot which made the snow too soft or something. The dogs could injure themselves around the corners.

We did however manage to get a chance to do some bum boarding. First time round everything went smoothly, managed to slide down the slope with out making a complete arse of myself. Unfortunately this was not the case for time number 2. As you may pick out from the pics I decided to do a somersault at the end of my trip. Even though this was not all that graceful I am sure it was the best somersault possible under those conditions.

I would also like to point out that Byron also managed to freak out a little in his second go. Look at that face. Byron and I both managed to get quite sunburnt but it was bearable.

On our journey back to Interlaken we met up with some friendly goats in Kleine Schniedegg (one of the stations that we change trains) also with bells around their necks, very cute.

Departure

Last sight of Switzerland was at our pit stop station, Spiez, before heading to Italy, again very pretty.