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Published: January 9th 2007
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Interlake, Gimmelwald and Murren
Fondue: Do’s and Don’ts Last night we decided that it was time to get Fondue, Swiss style. Our hotel pointed us to two places in town that served Fondue, one with few choices and one with a ton of choices. We opted for the one with a ton of choices despite the fact that it was run by Chinese people instead of Swiss.
We weren’t sure what to order because of the number of choices on the menu so we decided to go big. We picked the all you can eat option with meats and vegetables on the side. As you can guess we were feeling hungry and thought that we might want more than one serving. Boy, were we wrong!
The Fondue cheese is amazing and so much better than what you get at home. The FDA has a ton of restrictions on cheese back home due to fear of disease. This means that cheese has to be pasteurized (or actually the milk before it’s made into cheese.) In Switzerland there is no such law and therefore the cheese is much tastier.
The amount of cheese given
us was more than sufficient and we probably could have made due without the meats and vegetables on the side. Normally Fondue here is just bread and cheese. We made a gallant try at finishing our food so that we didn’t look too stupid but we lost the battle and the food won.
Some lessons here: I don’t see how two people could ever want more than one serving of cheese. Don’t pay for all you can eat, the extra money is a huge waste. You probably don’t need side dishes either…buy them sparingly and save yourself from looking like a glutton. Either way, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!
Off to Interlaken This morning we left Lucerne for a short trip south west into the Berner Oberland section of Switzerland. We had a reservation at a small hotel in Interlaken which was only an hour and a half from Lucerne.
Driving through Switzerland is great because of the country’s beauty. Even on a cold gray day the Swiss Alps and countryside create a vista that a camera just can’t capture. Most of our trip was on twisty and windy roads through the mountains but once close
to Interlaken the trip smoothed out into a lush green valley with mountains all around.
Our hotel is much like any other hotel we’ve stayed in while in Europe with the exception of the people who run it. Chris greeted us as we entered and mere seconds later his dog Monty came up and gave us a warm and wonderful dog greeting. Chris is originally from Roanoke, Virginia but you wouldn’t know it from his accent. More than 15 years ago Chris traveled through Europe straight out of school and found himself in Interlaken shortly before his expected return to the States. He decided to stay in Interlaken and was lucky enough to get a job running a hostel in the area. Between running the hostel and traveling in the off season, Christ has logged more than a decade of traveling the world and now runs his own hotel here in Interlaken with his wife Ursula. Pretty cool!
Chris and Ursula told us to head up into the mountains for a view of the area and gave us some advice for things to do and places to see. Sledding is big in Interlaken; you can rent a sled
Kel at Balmers
This one s for you Jen. at the train stations and head up into the mountains for cool sled runs. The longest run is 15 km (about 12 miles) long. While this sounded like a ton of fun, we only had one afternoon in Interlaken so decided to head up to the small towns in the mountains to be able to see the area instead of getting thrills on sleds.
Grimmelwald and Murren We drove up north of Interlaken to one of the big funiculars that heads up into the mountains. This particular funicular goes first to Gimmelwald, then Murren and then on to the top of the mountain. We decided to forgo the trip to the top because the web cameras that were posted with views of the top showed that the clouds had rolled in and that the views were completely blocked.
The trip to Gimmelwald takes about ten minutes and rises over two thousand feet. Gimmelwald is an incredibly small quaint town of farmers and cow herds. The total population of the town is 150 and almost everyone in town participates in the cow, cheese or hay industry. These particular farmers follow traditional farming techniques and survive mostly
on government grants which help keep tradition alive.
The town was pretty dead since its winter and a Monday afternoon with everyone at work. The main systems of transportation within the village consist of walking, sledding or riding these cool wooden sled bikes which looked like a ton of fun.
We spent about an hour walking around town before we got hungry. About ten minutes and a thousand feet further up the mountain is Murren which is a much bigger town due to the tourist/ski industry. Unlike Gimmelwald’s small town lack of industry (e.g. restaurants, hotels, etc.), Murren has good restaurants and tons of hotels.
Everyone in town seemed to be skiing or heading off to ski. We headed to a local restaurant and had lunch prior to heading back down the mountain to head back to Interlaken.
Back at our home base we set off in search of corn starch as Kel was starting to get low on her supply. As usual it is always an adventure finding the corn starch in a new place and new country. After searching aimlessly for a few minutes we asked for help and were escorted to the pudding
Pics from Gimmelwald
Little girls and their sleds...cute! section of the store. It seems that corn starch is mainly used for pudding in this part of the world so it is located right on the pudding aisle. Thankfully this stuff is the fine white powder variety that Kel is used to, so it will not make her unhappy to drink it. (Some of the stuff in Spain in Portugal was pretty miserable!!)
Since returning to our hotel we have been pretty lazy other than our cheap dinner. As a note of interest for everyone who is reading this as a means of planning their next vacation, Switzerland is expensive. Don’t be fooled by their good exchange rate to the dollar. While the Swiss Franc is worth about 0.70 cents US they just charge a whole lot more of them. A cheap dinner here costs about 30 US dollars but a decent normal US dinner runs about $80. Thankfully we are only in Switzerland another three days before we head on to Strasbourg, France.
Hope you are all well!! We hear it’s been really warm back home…enjoy the good weather!
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laura
non-member comment
Hi - so the pictures of Switzerland have been amazing - I so want to go and ski and eat Fondue!!! I could definitely see you too running a hotel somewhere :) Keep the stories coming - I love reading it! Have fun and be safe.