Learning a Lesson in Interlaken

The Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen valleys merge into one. In the bottom of each valley there’s a glacier fed river that carries not only the melted glacier water but the rock sediment from the grinding glaciers. Over the lifetime of the planet, the sediment has settled at the mouth of the river and divided one lake into two. Interlaken sits on that sediment deposit.

We arrived by train and towed our suitcases down the main street to our hotel, the Victoria Jungfrau. It is purely a tourist town and a springboard for anyone wanting to venture further into the Alps as we had done the week before. However, we saw lots of tourists that without doubt saw only the main street of Interlaken, a view of the mountains in the distance, and didn’t go any further. I think it may have to do with the internet age. They had gone beyond having a virtual tour to actually sort of being in the Alps, and any further would have taken them beyond their comfort zone.

There were 2 train stations in the small town, one on the east end and the other on the west. It seemed there was always a train coming or going from town. We could hear the squeal of steel on steel as the wheels rolled along the rails. It would start about 5 AM and be heard repeatedly all day long. For some reason that I have yet to understand, it was actually a pleasant sound. Maybe it was because trains were the lifeline for the community.

On our first day, Jones took us west for a boat cruise on Thun Lake. On another day, we went east by train to the end of Brienz lake where there was the town of Brienz. It was a small town known for woodcarving. Meet my new friend Heidi.

To make a full day of it in the Brienz area, we hiked around the end of the lake to Giessbach falls, a 7 cascade waterfall that flows into Lake. We didn’t have a trail map, just some directions from a local gal, her name may have been Heidi. We hiked up the waterfall. We went higher and higher with me telling Marlene that I was pretty sure the trail would bring us out to a road at the top. I was speculating we could take the road back to Brienz where we’d catch the train. It would make a great adventure and we wouldn’t have to double back on the same trail.

The trail was getting narrow and steeper and eventually we caught up to some seasoned hikers burdened down by their gear. We were climbing faster because we were traveling lighter. We felt pretty good about it actually. Fortunately they spoke a bit of English, and I was uncertain enough about my speculation that we asked if they had a map. They did, and it was very detailed. It showed there was no road. So with a “thanks” and “bye”, down we went the way we had come carrying the lesson, next time take-a-map. To save face, I kept telling Marlene all the way back “it’s just another adventure”.

During the week, we did more hiking but with a map, however the feature-of-the-week was when we rented mountain bikes and headed up the Lauterbrunnen valley following a map.

Click here for our ride:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.ca/2012/08/cycling-in-alps.html