Eurotrip Part II: Interlaken, Lake Brienze, and the Top of Europe

  Interlaken

Interlaken- the area between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz-- is a big tourist destination, not only because of its own charm but also because it is a departure point for lake and mountain tours. We got to know it while waiting for our boat tour, and returned another day to eat dinner there. The skies are often filled with hang gliders in Interlaken, since a  large park on the main street is the landing site for the gliders—fun to watch. We ate outside at Krebs, and both had venison (we were trying most anything to avoid more sausage and cheese).

  

And to the Top of Europe

Interlaken is also the starting point for the most exciting excursion of our trip, to the top of Jungfrau, one of the Swiss Alps. Dave and I debated about this one a bit because it was so pricey, even for Switzerland, and to do it right we had to get up very early to catch the train- actually a series of three trains each way, as the trip is 3 hours up and 3 hours down. But this was a chance to walk on a glacier at the highest railroad station in Europe- over 11,000 feet up. 

One of the three trains we took to the Jungfrau.
 

The journey was amazing. You'd think a mountain vista would get boring after 6 hours, but each turn brought a different perspective, different shapes and colors, and all of it was breathtakingly beautiful. At lower altitudes there were gorgeous alpine villages, and many people got off with walking sticks to hike down the mountain along well-maintained paths. (That Swiss efficiency again.) The Swiss are avid walkers; we met an old Swiss woman who told us that she takes the train partway up the mountain and then hikes down every day!

 

At the top of the Jungfrau there is a cheesy “ice palace,” and an observatory overlooking the glacier. We had heard that there are crow-like mountain birds that will eat from your hand so we brought some bread, and Dave kept himself entertained with bird games. We both walked on the glacier, but Dave went further, hiking out across a large stretch of the glacier while I enjoyed Swiss hot chocolate in the Jungfrau cafeteria along with other sane tourists. He said it was beautiful, hot, and blindingly bright.

Pizza Joint by the Lake

In all this driving back and forth between Bern and Interlaken, we had noticed a roadside pizza joint on Lake Brienz, and stopped there on one of our last days in Switzerland.  We were taken aback by the fact we had to pay to park at the restaurant—a  government thing—but a gregarious waiter, claiming to be Italian but later admitting to Portuguese heritage, came out to the lot and convinced us to come in for pizza and the best table in the house. We bought his pitch, and the pizza and mixed salads were good, the wine and beer were cold, and the view was 5-star.

Eating pizza on a terrace with this view? Priceless.

Next Up: The Road to Italy