Around the World in 42 days - Day 10 - Paris and Interlaken

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Day Ten
22 February 2010
Location: Paris & Interlaken (Switzerland)
Hotel: Hotel Eiffel Seine & Hotel Krebs

We awoke early on our tenth day and proceeded to pack up our bags and ready ourselves for the day of travelling ahead. Today we were departing Paris and moving on to the third leg of our journey, Switzerland.

When Erin and I started planning our trip, we looked at a range of places we wished to visit and high on Erin’s list was Switzerland. While we had initially planned to either stay in Geneva or Zurich, it was soon decided that yet another European city might be a bit boring. As a result, we started looking for more remote towns and villages that might be off the beaten track. We settled on the small town of Interlaken.

Interlaken is situated at the base of the Swiss Alps and is effectively the main base for visitors of the Jungfrau region of the Alps. With a number of small towns littered around Interlaken, as well as up the mountains, we thought it would be perfect for a few days outside of the main European cities.

In order to get to our destination, we had to travel by train from Paris. Our first train of the morning was departing just before 8:30am from Paris Est Station. Luckily this station is right next to Gare du Nord, which we had arrived at from London, so finding our way back was not a problem.

We left the hotel about 7am and wheeled our luggage round the corner and into the Metro for the final time. We stopped for a moment to admire the Eiffel Tower one last time, before it dropped from our view and we descended into the station. We noticed that the streets were quite still and the trains were much the same. We figured that perhaps Parisians stir a little later during the winter to avoid the cold mornings.

We were soon on the Metro and speeding towards our destination. 20 minutes, and one train change later, we arrived at Paris Est and soon found our train. We had about 30 minutes to wait before we could board, so Erin watched the bags while I went to find us some drinks and a few little snacks for the trip.

We boarded soon after and found our seats with little commotion. The train was similar to the Eurostar, however I found it to be a little roomier and we were lucky to have a baggage compartment right across from our seats. I got to it first and was able to stow our luggage within arm’s reach, which was comforting. The train left right on cue and we slowly made our way out of the city and into the French countryside.

Given that I had not been able to find sufficient food for breakfast at the train station, I quickly made my way up to the dining car and grabbed coffee and croissants for us both. Luckily I arrived at the front of the queue and was not left waiting in the long line that quickly formed behind me.

With coffees and croissants in hand, we sat back, relaxed and enjoyed our train ride to Basel. The trip was just under 4 hours and the time flew by. We killed the time by listening to our iPods and reading. Erin can read just about anything and if we’re not out sightseeing, it’s a safe bet that she’ll have her nose buried in yet another book.

We arrived in Basel and had decided earlier that we would spend a few hours exploring the town. This plan quickly unraveled however as we entered into the station proper and quickly found that we were in another world that seemed an age away from both London and Paris.

Firstly, the language had now changed to a mix of German and French and the simple task of reading signs became much more difficult. While French is a somewhat simple dialect to understand (given is similarities to English), German I found to be a lot tougher. Simply trying to figure out the contents of a sandwich became a challenge.

We couldn’t see anything that looked like a bag drop area, and even if we had, I couldn’t really be bothered trying to ascertain the correct information in order to drop our bags for a few hours. As such, we decided to simply find the next connection to Interlaken and jump on it.

Luckily, the next train was only about 30 minutes away, so we made our way to the platform and once again I left Erin for a few minutes to go and find us some lunch. While we tried to avoid parting in foreign surroundings, it was much easier and quicker for Erin to watch the bags while I dashed off to find some food.

I returned just as the train was pulling up and we boarded and found a nice cosy spot upstairs with a great view and a good spot for our bags. We enjoyed the rolls I had found for lunch as the train departed Basel and made its way towards Interlaken.

This train trip was about 1.5 hours and once again, it went pretty quickly. We were actually glad that we had decided to abandon our exploration of Basel, as it was nice to be on the train and heading towards our final destination earlier than expected. This would leave us more time to find the hotel and hopefully explore the town before nightfall.

After an hour of travelling, we started to notice the snowfall getting thicker and the Alps started to creep into view. As we passed the Lake of Thun, we marveled at the spectacular mountains surrounding us and both Erin and I knew that we had made the right choice in destination.

Erin was becoming more excited by the minute as she had never seen snow, let alone mountains like this. My last encounter with anything even close to this was a decade earlier in the rocky mountains of Colorado. However, they simply couldn’t compare with the sights in front of us now.

We toured around the banks of the huge lake and entered Interlaken a little after 2:30pm. We exited the train and after a quick chat with the local ticketing agent, we soon walking the 150m up the street to our hotel. Marvelous!

We arrived at the Hotel Krebs and were pleased with the look of the hotel as we entered the lobby. We had originally booked to stay elsewhere as Krebs had not been available, but luckily I had checked a few weeks earlier and a room had opened up. It turned out to be a very lucky outcome as the hotel was beautiful and we received the warmest greeting we had encountered yet.

The young man attending the front desk was extremely welcoming and not only assisted with our check-in, but also took 10 minutes of his time to walk us through everything Interlaken and the surrounding towns have to offer. We also received maps, free tickets for the city buses and a number of brochures that we could peruse at our leisure. He even let us go upstairs and pick the room we wanted and of course, we chose the one with the view!

The room was great. After staying in average accommodations for the last week and a half, it was great to be in a really nice hotel with all the amenities. The room was spacious, the bathroom clean and modern and the balcony outside the floor to ceiling windows was great for relaxing on and enjoying the view.

After dropping our bags and enjoying the balcony, we decided to go for a walk down the main street and have a look at the town. The main street was great and had all the usual shops and stores that you would expect in a small town. We soon came across a large park with was covered in snow and Erin couldn’t wait to jump in and see what it was like.

Like a kid in a candy store, Erin was out into the snowfield and was soon picking up the snow and tossing it around. We laughed as she played with the snow and marveled at its touch. It’s quite extraordinary that something can still have that affect on you at this age and it’s something that was not lost on either of us.

We soon left our antics in the snow and continued on our way, stopping every now and again to look in shops or simply admire the view of the mountains. We eventually looped around and headed back towards the hotel.

We were a bit hungry by the time we got back to the hotel, so we grabbed a burger from across the street and ate up in the room. Given the time at that point, we treated the meal as an early dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night in the warmth and comfort of our room at the Hotel Krebs.

It was great to finally be in Interlaken and it felt like we had entered another world that we couldn’t wait to explore.

Paul & Erin

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Photos

WOW!
You ain't seen nothin' yet!