Tag: switzerland

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Grindelwald – Oberjoch

If you are looking for things to and have the time, the way to probably see the area around Grindelwald is with a package, like a three day pass. There are others to choose from and some can save you some serious money, if you plan correctly. Since we were kind of flying by the seat of pants, this being a rather long excursion for us, we decided to go the à la carte, even though we kind of knew what we wanted to see.

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Grindwald First

Though included in several packages, you can purchase this tourist package separately. It cost us 62CHF per person with no discounts, which they constantly asked us for but would never tell us how you can obtain one of them (is that not typical Swiss).

However, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The alpine air, the walks and especially the views. Here is a slideshow on our way up the mountain Schwarzhorn for our amazing views of the Grindelwald Valley and the surrounding moutains.

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Here are also a few video clips of our ascent up the Schwarzhorn and to the Oberjoch ridge and Grindelwald First.

The Bachalpsee

After the Grindelwald First, and yes that actually just covers the walk around the Oberjoch cliff, there is also a nice hike to the Bachalpsee. It is signed as a fifty minute walk, but if you are with children and others, you may want to add ten or twenty minutes to your round trip time, just for talking and other diversions, like picture taking.

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The above slideshow details our lazy day trek to the Bachalpsee, a very nice walk to an alpine lake. A bit rocky along the way, but you can make it with a good pair of tennis shoes or sneakers.

That’s it for now, will be back tomorrow with more travel adventures.

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Grindelwald – First Impressions

We have been in Grindelwald for a day and it’s one of those unique places in the world, that have almost a storybook feel to it. Well, at least by visiting it, you can understand how this can happen with its majestic mountains, windy scenic roads and bucolic country feel.

We arrived by train from Interlaken and made the modest trek up a steep incline to our accomodations, the Hotel Alpenhof. One can make an argument that everything here is on a steep incline, and they would be right.

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The hotel is what you would expect for typical alpine accomodations, rustic with that scenic charm and a commanding view of the mountains, especially the Eiger. Above is a slideshow of our charming suite and a few shots of the overview we have from our balcony.

Grindelwald – A Stroll Down Mainstreet

The town of Grindelwald is not quaint, but rather a mixture of alpine tourist shops, restaurants, bars and cafes, and the odd monument. It is surrounded by the pastoral countryside, which is dotted by working farms and alpine cottages and houses. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, for this first blog on Grindelwald, a slideshow  of walking the length of mainstreet, all the way out of town towards the Grosse Scheidegg, is noteworthy.

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Finally, a few videos you may enjoy.

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Interlaken – Stepstool To The Alps

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Reformierte Kirche Unterseen And Square Fountain

After our stay in Offenbach, we headed to Switzerland using Germany’s ICE service. We of course experienced the customary breakdown, or what they like to call a Technische Störung, a German euphemism for someone committing suicide on the tracks, or just the Deutsche Bahn not being able to run a railroad. We have actually not ridden an ICE that did not have an issue, and from the comments we heard from the other Germans, they haven’t either.

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Tickets For Two – Offenbach To Frankfurt

We arrived in Basel SBB too late for our connecting train, so after waiting a further half an hour, we finally made it to our destination, Interlaken, our stepstool to the Alps. Interlaken is a small city, sitting between two rather large lakes, the Thunersee and the Brienzersee.

We stayed at the Hotel Interlaken, a four star hotel half way between the train station and the center of town, and handsomely situation across from the main park. Though it worked out well because of the rain, you should not worry about the location of any hotels in Interlaken, the city is not large enough to be too far away from either the Interlaken-West or Interlaken-Ost train stations.

Interlaken – The City

The actual city is what I would call confused. It appears, it does not know its identity, or what it wants to be. It appears to be conflicted between being a tourist town, a normal town for residence, or just a waypoint on someone’s map (train stop).

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It has both expensive hotels, restaurants and casinos, and then less fortunate areas within a block of one another. Several areas look destitute, some historic (like around the tourist museum), others more disconsulate – where stores have actually closed.

Unfortunately, while we were there, all it did was rain for two days. But, I would rather have it rain in Interlaken, than in Grindelwald, which was our ultimate destination on this trip. To be fair, we were using it as a rest stop anyway, so no fuss, no foul. In any case, we got one day, the day we left, to get some amazing photographs of the mountains without clouds surrounding them.

As for recommending any restaurants in the area, we cannot. There are a lot of closed restaurants, an affect of the virus. The ones that are still open are fine, overpriced, like all food in Switzerland, but none remarkable. Hopefully others that travel behind us may have better luck when the city recovers a bit more. Now, on to Grindelwald, the Eiger and the Jungfrau, Tschüß!