Switzerland 2019 - Day 4: Interlaken

We were all up at 7 AM with the bells, as usual.

I didn't have anything left for breakfast, because I apparently couldn't count to 3 when we were at the grocery store on Sunday. Everyone accompanied me on a walk up to the Sutter Begg cafe, and then we shopped for a few train snacks at the Coop (mostly chocolate).

We checked out of the Airbnb just before 11, took the tram down to the Basel SBB, and caught the 11:30 train to Interlaken.

I didn't notice this on our first pass through the station, but there's an "American Bakery" chain called Blueberry.

It was a two-hour ride through tunnels, rolling hills, and farmland.

Near the end, we started getting glimpses of Lake Thun in the distance.

The train wove its way along the lake shore, through tunnels, and across fields. It was perfect travel weather, and we were looking forward to having a few hours to explore this evening.

Our train rolled to a stop at the Interlaken West station just before 1:30 PM.

We spilled out onto the street, initiated contact with our Airbnb hosts, and tried to figure out how to get to the house.

It was under half a mile from the train station, so we walked over to drop our bags off. Check in wasn't until 4 PM, but we took a look around while we were there.

Not wanting to stray too far from the house, since we planned to be back around 4 PM, we decided to walk over to the river that connects Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.

Along the way, we encountered an empty field where paragliders were landing. There were a handful of them floating around above Interlaken at any given time, all day.

We found a bridge over the river (I think it's the Aare), and walked along the trail on the north bank.

That river rips along at a brisk pace. Surprisingly, we didn't see anyone out for a float.

There was some brief exploration of a side trail, under the railroad tracks. The results were inconclusive, I believe, so we continued along the river.

We investigated the Harderbahn funicular, near the Interlaken Ost station, but didn't want to wait 25 minutes for the next ride.

Instead, we crossed back to the other side of the river, by the train station / ferry terminal, and walked towards Lake Brienz.

The ferry to the other end of the lake cruised by, scattering some ducks.

After walking a solid 2 miles, we finally reached the lake proper.

Lake Brienz is almost 9 miles long, so there was no way we were going to walk around it. Or even to the other end of it.

But we did walk along the shore for another mile or so, until we got to the tiny town of Bönigen.

At the Bönigen ferry terminal, we were unable to figure out when the next boat was coming, or when it would end up back at Interlaken Ost, so instead we opted to take the bus back to downtown Interlaken.

It was now after 4 PM, so we headed back to the Airbnb.

The bus had dropped us off right in front of a chocolate shop, and there seems to be an unwritten rule that we must go in every chocolate shop, so we popped in to sample some of the local flavor.

We enjoyed a stroll along some new streets on the walk back to the house, and stopped at the grocery store along the way.

Back at the house, we finally unpacked a bit and investigated dinner options. The view from the patio is lovely.

For dinner, we wanted to get away from the over-touristy downtown area, so we headed across the river to the Unterseen area to find a restaurant.

The first place we tried was closed for water damage, so we somewhat arbitrarily picked another nearby restaurant, Stadthaus.

I had a bratwurst served over rösti, which was delicious, although it may have technically been a breakfast item.

It was after 8 PM by the time we left, and we planned to do a quick after-dinner hike still, so we walked about a mile back to the house.

Just down the street, we climbed up a small road to the trailhead for The Rugen.

Once we made it up to the top, we hiked the ring trail around the hill for some beautiful views of the city, and both lakes.

Thankfully the sun doesn't set until after 9 PM here, so we had time to finish the trail and get home before dark. (These last two photos were taken just after 9.)

Tomorrow, we're planning to get relatively early start and catch the train up to Lauterbrunnen for some hiking.