Mon, 06 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Interlaken, Schweiz
posted 21:14 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Around Interlaken Region ( No photos )
After a night's sleep which was better than we had expected due to our colds, we were awoken to the sound of what sounded like an over-enthusiastic radio announcer. We knew there was piped music in the place, but this was something else. It turns out that the American voice was actually someone on a microphone, drumming people into enthusiasm for the day! Not quite what we expected from a hostel, but perhaps we should have guessed from the 'summer camp' billing this place gets.
We had our included breakfast, then got on the road suprisingly early, in through the middle of town to have a look around and get a few things organised. In common with weather-announcers world-wide, the Swiss ones got today very wrong - the prediction for horrible weather to continue was proved wrong as the blue skies let the sun shine through - we were in the real Interlaken at last.
The first and most important thing, now that it was a Monday, was to get some warmer clothes organised. The lady at the tourist office pointed us at a supermarket with a clothing section, but in the end we got a beanie each from there and gloves and a jacket for me from a sports store nearby. A marked improvement over what we have been wearing up until now.
Next, we needed to get some things organised for the tow of Rosie back to the Netherlands - notably payment and sending through the registration documents to the towing company. Both were handled quite well by the Post Office, and should be through to the recipients in a few days. From there, let the towing commence.
We had a stop in at Interlaken West Bahnhof to see if there was any news on my camera. They couldn't help much, and suggested that I call the report number again, which I did, but they couldn't help either. The general idea seems to be that they will get through to me if they find anything, which I guess is reasonable, but doesn't settle me down any.
So, warm clothes in hand, on head and around body, we set out to do some cheaper sight-seeing than we had really wanted to do (the hyper-expensive Junfraujoch railway that goes up 3500m, the highest in Europe), instead taking a bus up a windy road to a little village called Beatenburg. It was strangely nice to be on windy roads again, although weird to not be the ones doing the driving.
Nethertheless, we enjoyed the trip a great deal, soon passing up into where huge quantities of snow had fallen. Roofs, cars and pretty much everything were coated in snow, yet the place moved on, unlike what happens when the same thing occurs in London.
At the end of the windy mostly one-track road, we pulled in at the railway station. Only, not in the traditonal sense - you could either get the funicular railway back down the hill to another village, or a cable car another 1000m up. Figuring this was going to be our Swiss Alps experience for the time being, we forked over the money and jumped in the cable car.
We hadn't expected it to go for quite so long - it just kept climbing and climbing, up through the clouds and amazingly beautiful snow-covered trees, over mountain chalets, and past yet more people going about their business as if nothing strange had happened at all. Which I guess it hadn't.
The end of the ride was not terribly far from the peak of Niederhorn, 1950m high, which makes it about 1400m up from Interlaken, which looked amazingly small down below.
We set of trudging through the foot-deep snow, our sneakers being the one thing we haven't replaced, getting soaked almost instantly. Yet it was a huge deal of fun, each step an adventure of will we fall over, strike ice or just have our foot sink at times up to two feet straight down through the soft powdery snow? We completed all three with a great deal of style.
We threw plenty of snowballs before climbing right to the peak, not far but a long journey due to the incline and our lack of co-ordination and equipment. The views no matter where we turned were jaw-dropping. The weather was still fantastic, and we could see clearly for hundereds of kilometres in each direction, until our views were interrupted by the many snow covered peaks. From the top, we could see down into a valley on the other side, where a car driving along a road was like a tiny spec, and the houses even harder to spot due to the deluge of snow surrounding them.
It would be a truly amazing place to live, you wouldn't have to convince people particularly hard to stay here, although we just kept remembering the weather of the previous day. Given clear days, this is one of the most naturally beautiful places we have seen.
Eventually having our fill, we got back on the return cable-car for the trip down. We had considered walking part of it, but really that would only have been sensible with the right equipment and two replacement knees for me.
Back down at Beatenberg, we decided to walk for a while, winding our way back through the gorgeous chalets, all resplendent with flower boxes and animals nearby. The whole area seems to speak a strange mix of German and French almost interchangebly, with "Grüssie" for hello (presumably shortening of Grüss Gott, a German hello) and "Merci" for thanks/goodbye. After about an hour walking down the mountainside-road, we picked a bus stop to hitch a ride for the remaining trip down.
Once back in Interlaken, Liz went on a bit more clothes shopping to replace her jeans (which are about six months overdue in need of replacement, and now they are the only pants she has with us), while I stayed on the bus in the vain hope that Interlaken Ost train station had some news on my camera. No joy.
We met back in the centre of town (it's quite hard to get lost in), then returned to the hostel to cook some dinner, have a happy-hour beer, and catch up on some journal.

I think travelling fatigue is finally catching up with us, although the colds aren't helping much either. We are looking forward to pushing through back to London and then on our way home again, although we still have such a great time each day. I think we have just had too many stresses to deal with recently, so we both crave normality for a while.
Soon we will have plenty, and I'm sure we will be itching to travel again.

(customised)