September 25, 2024 Interlaken SU

We wanted to visit Interlaken before heading south towards Italy. It is a very popular destination for Swiss to vacation at, in most of the cities we have visited it was very easy to decide where to stay as there was only one campground. In Interlaken there were six to pick from. I picked one that looked promising punched into Greta Garmin and we were off bright and early.

A windshield shot on our drive today. Ton’s views were fantastic today, mine were of taillights and switchbacks.

The roads in Switzerland have been almost boring. They are fast and easy to drive with speed limits between 80 kph and 100 kph. Today for the first time we had to take on some mountain roads. Our trip was only 78 kilometers but it took about 2 hours. It wasn’t tough driving as the roads are wide, but for the first time we were going over some of the mountains instead of thru them. While it slowed us down the scenery was stunning.

Another windshield shot from our drive today.

We had left pretty early so we arrived at Interlaken before 11am. When we pulled into the campground we saw why this place is so popular with the Swiss.

Our view today from François. I messed up the shot by moving too soon.

Based on our first impression we would certainly have booked at least two days to explore the area, but when we checked in the owner of the campground confirmed what we knew driving over. After today it is supposed to rain hard for the next three days.

Cows with individual bells, green fields and mountains, a postcard from Switzerland.

After a quick lunch we were off to the bus stop to head to town. As we were walking we noticed the sky was full of Para-Gliders. At one point we counted 16 in the air at one time. Our wait for the bus was quite entertaining as the field across from the bus stop was one of the landing areas for the Para-Gliders.

We got to enjoy the landings while we waited for the bus.

Interlaken is on a peninsula of land that is in between two major alpine lakes. The Aarl river cuts thru the town and joins the two lakes so it is a pretty scenic place for a town. The only industry seems to be tourism and the town was full of hotels ranging from youth hostels to hotels catering to the rich and famous.

The town itself is cute, but very touristy in a good way.

We followed the river down to one of the two lakes. As we walked along the river we passed a cruise boat going out on an excursion. It was a typical cruise boat but for some reason it had a person dressed up in a mascot outfit like you see at baseball or football games on board.

The cruise boat going buy on its way to Lake Brienzersee.

The walk from the town was about a kilometer and a half, but as we got further from downtown fewer and fewer people were on the path. It looks like most people in town see the lake by boat.

Lake Brienzersee.

By the time we got to the lake there were only about 6 people actually at the lake front. So we found a bench and sat down and enjoyed the view for a while. We decided to wimp out and I consulted Google maps and found a bus stop nearby to get us back to the town center.

The Aarl River going thru town.

We wandered the town for another half hour trying to find a couple of souvenirs but struck out. We had one chore to accomplish which was to swing by the local RV dealer to pick up some tabs for our chemical toilet. With that accomplished we headed back to the campground.

Some more para-gliders as we were walking home.

We took a different route back to the campground which had us on a trail thru some farms. We saw another flock of para-gliders and since Ton enjoys cows we admired the very healthy and content looking Swiss cows in the fields.

While we are starting to see some fall foliage there are still flowers around too.

Our original plan was to take a short break and then walk to the other lake. But once we got back to François we got comfortable and since the view was so good from our campsite we decided we would just relax and enjoy the view.

With a view like this from the campground who needs to walk.

2 thoughts on “September 25, 2024 Interlaken SU”

  1. Feldschlassen was the beer that I had in Switzerland that tasted so good I just wanted to keep sloshing around in my mouth and never swallow it. Have you tried it by any chance?

    1. Thanks for the tip we are looking for good beer to try. This morning I went to the owner of the campground and asked where I could get your beer. She said that beer was from way up North near the German border (We are probably 100 miles from the German border 🙂 ), so it would be hard to find. We will check when we go in a grocery.

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