After an overnight Swiss Air flight to Zurich , we bused it to Interlaken, Switzerland, as with much of Europe , is wonderful.
Grindelwald is a small rural town nicely situated in the Alps . We found our self-catering apartment. It was only 2 blocks from the train station. Most everything in the Alps is on a small scale except for the mountains.
Our apartment was no exception; just one open room with a kitchenette plus bathroom in a small multiunit chalet. It also had a nice little balcony where we had coffee in the morning and dinner in the evening. The apartment’s most redeeming feature was the mountain view, spectacular. In all respects, the apartment was all we needed and hoped for, quaint.
With the help of the landlady, we located the grocery store just a couple of blocks away. It was a Cooperative but we found the prices very high on most things. Meats were the worst, in the C$30 per KG range for the basics like chicken breasts and pork chops. Swiss wines were expensive and the taste on par with other European wines which were generally cheaper. Our valued favourite was an Italian Merlot. The Swiss Franc CHF was worth about C$1.10, so it was not difficult to compare prices. My theory on the locals surviving such high prices was that they were members of the Coop, so even though charged the high price along with the tourists, they saw some of it come back in the form of profit sharing. However, that was just my unsubstantiated theory, and I’m sure at best, it would only offset some of the higher cost.
Beyond the commercial main street, the town was an accumulation of chalets and narrow streets basking in the Swiss sun up one side of the valley. Within view from everywhere in the village, there were snow capped mountains with glaciers in between.
In the summer, hiking was the most popular sport in the area, though there was mountain biking and parasailing. Every evening, I’d pour over the maps looking for an interesting but doable hiking route for the next day. The routes were measured by elevation change and hiking-time. We soon learned it would lake us about twice as long as the posted hiking-time. It was obvious, the posted time didn’t include breaks for pictures, rest, or time to smell the mountain roses. The good news was that our destination was the trail itself, beautiful scenery, some exercise, and the hiking experience.
Click here for our hike in the
