Today was cloudy with rain threatening so we decided to take a trip to Thun by boat - from Interlaken West to Thun on Thunersee (Lake Thun). The lake was calm and the trip was fine although the rain started just as we arrived. So lunch under cover seemed a good idea except everyone else had the same idea. We settled on a plate of antipasto and watched the rain ease.
Here's a view of the Alps from the boat.
Once the rain stopped we had an easy walk around town and checked out the castle and the sluice gates which we assumed were for flood mitigation.
We returned to Interlaken West by train (quicker than the boat trip). Yesterday (Saturday) after our trip up Schynige Platte we had caught the train back to Interlaken East and walked back along the River (Aare) to Interlaken West. This way we were able to go via the old town of Unterseen. It was here that Mary took a pic of this classic hotel.
Monday, 21 July 2014
More rain overnight but cleared by the time we had eaten breakfast. We decided to take another boat trip but this time to Brienz on Brienzersee (Lake Brienz). Today the boat was a paddle boat and the drive mechanism was able to be seen from a lookdown inside the boat. Just before landing in Brienze we saw the Giessbach Falls and above the Grand Hotel Geissbach (no not the Grand Budapest Hotel). Once we had landed in Brienz we decided to take the bus to the Ballenberg open air museum. However, it turned out to be either a fast hour's walk from east to west or a very slow five to six hours visiting most of the village buildings and craft events.
For those interested this link will be useful:-
Ballenberg Open Air Museum
We elected instead to have lunch at the Restaurant Ballenberg and had a huge serving of Bratwurst with hash brown and onion gravy - certainly enough to see us through to tomorrow's breakfast! The only pic here is this one of a distant waterfall above Lake Brienz
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
The weather was still cloudy and it had rained during the night so once more decided against any mountain trips. Instead we decided to do the Waterfall Walk along the side of Lake Brienz which we had seen from the boat. We again caught the boat (not the paddle boat this time) but this time alighted at the village of Istelwald and took the lower lakeside track toward Geissbach Falls. Here is the bridge crossing the falls just before splashing into the lake -
We then walked up to the Grand Hotel Geissbach and found the upper track back to Istelwald. Here are some pics of the hotel and views of the falls at higher points -
Wednesday, 23 July, 2014
Weather still cloudy but at least fine. Picked up an easy walk from 'Walking Switzerland' number 8007 Grosse Scheidegg to First (see Blog under 'Maps and Walks'). This involved a train to Grindelwald and then a bus onto Grosse Scheidegg where the walk started at the hotel. The walk was on a narrow roadway but very little motor traffic. It was well graded until we got to the stage leading up to First so we plumped for the next stop down at Schreckfeld and stopped for lunch at the restaurant - more delicious sausage with proper chips (French fries) and beer and cider. After lunch we did consider albeit very briefly walking back down to Grindelwald (only two hours) but chose, for the sake of experience, a ride down on the gondola service.
Here are some views of Eiger and shots from the gondola on the way down.
The downward track is seen below
Back in Grindelwald we caught the train back to Wilderswil and filled in a gap of our stay in Wilderswil - a walk around the old village. The main attraction is a wooden bridge built in 1738 leading to the church. This bridge was nearly destroyed in 2005 by the River Lutschine in spate. This prompted the expensive piece of investment in the form of a powered lifting system where, in the case of high levels for the river, the bridged could be raised above the destructive force of the flood waters.
Thursday, 24 July 2014
A virtual rest day today as the weather had been wild during the night with lots of thunder storms producing heavy rain. However, the sun came out by midday and it looks promising for a trip to Jungfrau tomorrow - fingers crossed.
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