Although Switzerland is a tiny country, it´s full of the most amazing sceneries you could ever find. And because I love the mountains there so much, I made my way to the highlands of this beautiful country, bringing Alex along, because I prefer traveling with someone!
This time I was going to the Berner Oberland, in the Kanton of Bern. As our destinations I chose Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. We used Interlaken as our basecamp, in the Alpenblick Camping Platz, and made daytrips from there. Since Switzerland is really expensive, we searched for a way to travel more economically and settled for camping. We went in august, just after high season, so we had a lot of space in the camping place and few people.
This camping place was just beside the Thunersee (the lake of Thun), one of the two lakes between which Interlaken lies. We didn´t lose much time and went swimming right the next morning (we arrived pretty late in Interlaken and had to build our tent in the dark!). The water was cold, but still enjoyable. While swimming in the lake you have the view of the mountains on the other shore, it´s a truly beautiful place to be!
As our first challenge we chose to climb the Harder Kulm, a mountain just beside Interlaken. The walking path is just beside the lift that brings you up, if you don´t want to walk. The day was rainy so it wasn´t an easy climb. The steepness isn´t bad, you don´t slip, the problem was the cold, it was tiresome. Almost at the top, the clouds parted and the sun shone through and the view we got then, which we hadn´t been able to see with the rain, took our breath away! Having walked all that way up in the rain and cold, payed off when we saw the view behind the clouds. We could see Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger, the three most famous mountains of the region and they looked impressive!
It took us around 3 1/2h to get to the top, but we rewarded ourselves with a nice cup of hot chocolate (yes, that´s one of the best things about climbing a mountain for me as you probably have noticed by now!)!
That night we had to cook our dinner in our tent, with a torch to have light, but that was a whole other kind of adventure!
Finally the day came when we were going to Lauterbrunnen, a place filled with waterfalls! We took the train at the station in Interlaken Ost, which takes you around 30min. Arriving in Lauterbrunnen we searched for the Staubbachfall, the highest free-fall waterfall in Europe. Follow the main street and it will lead you to it. The height form which it falls is impressive. From 297m the water comes down, until it hits the rocks at the bottom! You can hike up to a viewpoint on the wall behind the waterfall, but I preferred to look at the waterfall from the bottom.
We had heard of a place where many waterfalls come together. Trümmelbachfälle is a chain of waterfalls. You start the sighting at the top and make your way to the bottom. From Staubbachfall it´s a 30min walk. Arriving at Trümmelbachfälle a lift takes you up, where the waterfallchain starts. Just entering the lift, you can feel a change in the temperature. If you go be sure to have something warm to put on and a raincoat if you don’t like to get wet.
Trümmelbachfälle is a chain of waterfalls all flowing through high stonewalls. The water has carved it´s way through them for many centuries and the cave-like way through which it flows, leaves you awestruck!
On our way back to Interlaken we came across a vending machine selling goat cheese, goat milk, iced coffee with goat milk and some other things produced by the farm right next to it. We got an iced coffee and it was the best I´ve ever had! Walking back, take the way far to the left, closest to the stone wall on that side, and you´ll be sure to come across this vending machine. And not only that, but you will most certainly see some skydivers, since Lauterbrunnen is also known for having good cliffs for this type of sport!
Now there was only one place more in my list to visit and so the next day, we took a train to Grindelwald. Also around 30min by train from Interlaken Ost. We decided to go to First, a mountain in Grindelwald that has a cliffwalk and a beautiful view. You can take a lift, that will take around 20-30min to go up. But being on a budget, Alex and I gathered al of our energy and motivation together and made our way up the mountain by foot. Only 4h after we had started, we were drenched in sweat and at the cliffwalk overlooking the valley of Grindelwald below us!
Having made it there was a huge achievement for us, but having only one afternoon there, wepushed ourselves further and kept on walking! We made a 50min walk to the Bachalpsee and accomplished something I had been wanting to do for the whole day, jumping into the freezing lake! Just when we arrived, the sun went behind clouds and up there, if you stop walking, it gets cold. But having made it there we didn´t want a cloud to stop us and we jumped! Just in and out! It was fun and the water is so clear, I really recommend you to try it!
With this we were finished and took the lift down. The view was amazing! But having walked up was a very satisfying achievement, we had earned our way down in the lift! If you can, walk up, it´s strenuous, but it is something worth doing. The views you get are amazing and getting to the cliffwalk is so gratifying, just looking at everything from there! And if you don´t want to walk all the way, there are two middle stations you can get on and off the lift. From the penultimate station to the second station you can even go down on a go-kart, if that´s your kind of thing!
With that the only thing that was left, was to enter the Gletschergrotte (glacier grotto) in Grindelwald. It´s the space the glacier of Grindelwald has left between two walls, and where the icy water from the glacier runs down to the town! We walked around 20min from the First-lift to the Gletschergrotte. It was freezing there. We walked the whole walkway, 40min-1h, depending on how much time you want to spend in there. You can walk on a net over the ice cold river and test how daring you are! There is a lot of information about the glacier and the walkway along the grotto. Just 50 years ago, you could see the glacier where the walkway ends, now it´s 1km further back than that and backing more and more every year! It really gets you thinking about global warming and the dangers this presents!
Getting back to Interlaken the only thing we had to do, was to spend our last day in Interlaken and the lake beside our camping place!
More things you can do:
In Interlaken there are some shops, but there isn´t much to do there, if you are planning just to stay there. It´s better to use it as a base camp to get to other places. In Interlaken, never the less, you have a great view of the Jungfrau from the park just in the middle of Interlaken. We didn´t went up the Jungfrau, because a ticket costs around 100 CHF and we didn´t have that kind of budget, but if you can do it, I´ve heard it´s beautiful! The two lakes (Thunersee and Brienzesee) in Interlaken are so blue and beautiful, you can soak up the sun at the shore or take a boat-tour around them!
