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Published: December 6th 2016
Grindelwald
The view is everything you'd expect to see when you think about a rural, Swiss town in the mountains.So here I was. I had made it to the last leg of my European jaunt; Switzerland. The night I arrived in
Bilbao four-and-a-half months earlier, seems like a lifetime ago.
Switzerland boasts some of the most beautiful countryside in the world. That was my main observation as my train went from Austria, through Liechtenstein and then into the green pastures, cobalt lakes and snow-capped mountains of the Swiss countryside.
Travelling on the Swiss trains is so easy as well. On-board screens automatically keep you updated with the next stops, the train's speed and the ETA at each stop. As we pull into Zurich's
hauptbahnhof, it even tells you which platform to catch your connecting train from.
However, this beauty, ease and efficiency comes at a price.
I managed to get my train to Lucerne from
Feldkirch fairly cheap because I had bought my ticket on the Austrian OBB website; but my next journey to Interlaken - despite only taking two hours - will set me back 30€. A whole day's budget! And buying in advance makes no difference either - so I thought I might as well just buy my ticket on the day for whichever of the hourly trains to Interlaken
Mount Eiger
On the hiking trail from Mannlichen to Wengen. I fancied, once I had finished with Lucerne. I'm surprised that there are no intercity buses in Switzerland.
Nada. Flixbus doesn't seem to have made it here and neither has BlaBlaCar. Which is really surprising - I would have thought that there would be a market for cheaper travel within the country; but perhaps the half-price rail cards that every Swiss person has takes care of that. And when the trains are this good and this frequent, why not?
It's not just transport that is expensive here; I only spent one night in Lucerne because at 36€ a night, that was all I could afford! I also started crying when hunting for dinner that night and seeing that the cheapest doner kebab cost 8CHF (7€!). The fact that I was happy that my groceries - which included that night's dinner and the next day's breakfast - came just under the 10€ mark from the supermarket, tells you everything you need to know about this crazily expensive country. Even though I was expecting it, it still didn't make things any better. It made me long for the days of 3€ steak and beer nights back in
Ukraine.
Which was
Kapellbrucke
Lucerne's most famous sight. why I was moving so quickly through Austria, Germany and Switzerland - I just can't afford to stay here very long. It has meant I have been moving quickly, walking for miles every day, avoiding taking buses if I could walk, just to save money. It had been tiring and I am glad it's almost over - I'm just about over it. Over the unpacking and repacking. Over snorers in my dorm. Over all the long walks with luggage between hostels and bus/train stations. Over having to do this all five times in seven days. I really was counting down the days til I landed back in London.
I've also been fairly lonely as I've not really met anyone since I left Munich. I've not been meeting backpackers - perhaps the places I have been visiting are too expensive for backpackers, or perhaps it is just out of season now, but it has mainly been Asian tourists that I have been meeting ever since I left
Warsaw. Even in Warsaw there were loads of Asian tourists. They're certainly a different breed of traveller and are certainly not the types to go out and have a few beers. They're not as
View From Harder Kulm
Viewing platform on a hill overlooking Interlaken. sociable, are usually older and have different social norms to the backpacker I'm used to hanging out with. Not that I could afford to go out and have beers in any case...
My first impressions of Lucerne as I walked back towards the train station was that it didn't feel very different to
Geneva or
Zurich - both of which also have lakes and similar architecture. It also seemed like a bustling place as well which wasn't quite what I was expecting - I was expecting more of a quiet, lakeside town. But no, I think you could call Lucerne a city despite only having a population of 75,000.
But when I got to Kapellbrucke, I then realised what the fuss was all about. This old wooden bridge dating back to the 14th century is bedecked with flowers and on the ceiling of this covered bridge, paintings. Unfortunately only the paintings at either end of the bridge still exist in their original form; there was a fire in 1993 that took care of the rest. Spreuerbrucke is a similar bridge with similar paintings - although the paintings depict the Dance Of Death rather than medieval scenes - and at
the end of the bridge is Muehlenplatz which captures the bridges, the water and the buildings perfectly.
I then noticed that there were some medieval towers upon the hill that were connected by ramparts - I fucking love ramparts so I decided to go up and see if I could walk along them. If not, then there was sure to be a good view from up there. It was even better than I had expected - there was a clock tower which you could climb up for free, with all the inner workings of the functioning clock on display. If there's one thing the Swiss know, it's clocks. You could also walk the ramparts between three of the towers and indeed the view was spectacular. I even found myself marvelling at one particular photo I took.
I then walked down into the old town which to be honest, isn't as impressive as others I have seen although it is always nice to have a completely pedestrian neighbourhood. There were a few too many luxury shops in the area for my liking.
One thing that sucks about travelling in autumn is the weather and the mercury plunged a good six
Old Town Lucerne
Colourful facades in Lucerne's old town. to seven degrees from the previous day. It was also raining for my one day in Lucerne. But the pro about travelling in the autumn are the brilliant shades of yellow, orange, brown and red, and as I walked alongside Lake Lucerne for a couple of hours, suddenly Lucerne was revealed in all its beauty.
At the end of my walk was the most visited museum in Switzerland; the Verkehrshaus. It is basically a transport museum for the ages housing all manner of planes, trains and automobiles. Out the front was a drill used to create the longest rail tunnel in the world under the Alps. I wasn't paying the 30€ entrance fee but you could see quite a bit of it from the non-ticketed areas. The place reminded me of MOTAT back in Auckland, except on steroids. Little boys would love this place.
A good day got better when I went to buy lunch at the supermarket and discovered that someone had left 5CHF credit in my self-checkout machine! I even got change from it! So I basically got paid 1.70CHF to have my lunch. It was a welcome relief - in expensive Switzerland I needed to scrounge
View Of Lucerne
Looking over the beautiful lake. all the free credit I could get!
That evening, I made my way to Interlaken and on the way there, I realised I was on one of the most scenic train rides in Switzerland. Wooden chalets, green pastures, glorious mountains and tranquil lakes - the scenery was simply stunning.
Once In Interlaken, I ended up at one of the more unusual hostels I've been to; the place is basically a hotel with some of the rooms converted into dorms by chucking in an extra bunk bed into them. Two normal beds were so awkwardly close together that on first sight I thought it was a double bed. Thankfully for me and the three American girls in my dorm, they were able to be split apart a little.
As for Interlaken itself, it really does have a stunning setting - between two mountain ranges and between two lakes (hence the name, Inter-laken). There isn't too much to the town itself and its standalone houses are very spaced apart. A mecca for extreme sports and activities, you could say that Interlaken is the Queenstown of Switzerland (somewhere funnily enough, I've never been to despite it being in my own country).
River Aare
The river running through Interlaken is a beautiful shade of aquamarine, the same as Lake Brienz - one of the took lakes straddling the town. While getting food, I got another shot through the heart, as Bon Jovi might put it.
This was my last stop in Switzerland and on my last day I needed to catch a train to Basel, from where I was catching my flight to London and where my European adventures this time around would come to an end. For some reason, I thought that the ticket there would cost 30CHF; to my horror I discovered that it was actually double that. I realised painfully that all the money I had saved in
Salzburg was now being completely wiped out.
Which was the crux of my struggles the next morning.
I had planned to do the only free hike in town - up to Harder Kulm - but I when I checked into the hostel I realised that I was really close to the towns of Grindewald and Lauterbrunnen, which I had heard were amongst the most beautiful places in Switzerland. A hike in the mountains sounded appealing - but I'd have to take trains and a whoppingly expensive cable car to get to the best ones. Still reeling from my discovery the previous night, I really struggled with myself
View From Mannlichen
At the top of the cable car. as to whether I wanted to go up into Grindelwald and do one of the things that you have to do in this country. It was a immaculately sunny day so the views up there would be amazing but it was going to set me back 50€. All that money I have struggled to save, would be going up in flames. 50€ just to go on a couple of hikes just seemed like such a rip-off. But what if all the money I was saving was to do this? Travelling is about gaining experiences and when would I ever be in this part of the world again? With no rain forecast for the next morning I could still do Harder Kulm then, even if it might be a little cloudy. It was getting towards midday now so I needed to make a decision. I had to do this really - money is money and I was here for experience - so I reluctantly swallowed the bitter financial pill and made my way to Grindelwald.
Conscious that I wanted and needed to finish both of the hikes I wanted to do before dark, I nevertheless faffed around in Grindelwald -
View From Near Kleine Scheidigg
Spectacular. And the view was pretty much the same for the whole hike. because it was so stunningly set. It dawned on me that what I was looking at was exactly what I had always imagined whenever I thought about a rural farm in the Swiss Alps. The old wooden chalets, the cows, the green pastures and the snow-capped mountains in the background.
I then had to make my way through Grindelwald for about fifteen minutes to get to Grund where I caught the cable car up to the top of Mannlichen. It was a fairly old cable car and the cabins were about the size of those you might find on a gondola ride at a fairground, yet it still cost 29CHF! One-way! The worst thing was that as I admired the breathtaking views on the rise, I realised that if I had done my research a bit better and been a bit more organised, I could've walked up in three hours instead of taking the cable car, even if my legs disagreed with me at the time (I had walked 120km that week).
From Mannlichen I then took the panoramic one hour hike to Kleine Scheidigg. In the shadows cast by the mountains, it was actually pretty cold - there was
View From The Cable Car
The cable car from Grindelwald to Mannlichen took about thirty minutes but with views like this, I wasn't complaining (apart from the price). snow and ice on the trail and I slipped a couple of times with one of those slips resulting in my Mars bar falling out of my pocket somewhere. That was really annoying because it was the only food I had on me and I was getting hungry. The walk does get you a spectacular view of Grindelwald in its valley with Mount Eiger looming above it. I then walked an hour and a half down to the town of Wengen, a cute resort town like Grindelwald but more tightly packed together. It even had a high street. The hikes were mostly flat and downhill so they weren't particularly taxing which was just as well considering the state of my legs. The downhill bits however were hard on my knees.
On the train back to Interlaken, I had to change in Lauterbrunnen which was probably the most dramatically set of all the towns, located right next to a set of sheer cliff faces.
Overall, seeing the snow-capped Alps up close was pretty cool and there were a couple of spectacular photos to be had with the scenery. But was it really worth 50€? I'd say probably not. But in
Swiss Countryside
View from the train station in Grindelwald. saying that, I don't regret doing it. The most prominent thought I had in my head the whole time however was the fact that I'm sure we have scenery like this back in New Zealand; so why had I spent all this money and come all the way to Switzerland to see it?
I had a burger at the hotel/hostel that night. It might not sound like a big deal but it was, as it was the most food I'd eaten for days! I figured I had enough food cash to afford the 15CHF and considering the amount and quality of the burger, fries and salad, I reckon it might actually have been worth the price!
The next morning, I set off for Harder Kulm - and the hike was certainly hard, as the named suggested. It was two-and-a-half hours up to the viewpoint looking over Interlaken and the two lakes. Lake Brienz in particular is a beautiful shade of aquamarine, which was stunningly unusual. The cold and intermittent rain didn't help, as the rain made parts of the climb slippery.
It certainly wasn't the hardest climb I've ever done but it was a real workout. And the
Flowers
Bedecking the Kapellbrucke in Lucerne. estimated hike time must be for pretty slow people - I did the whole thing in just over an hour. And the view was definitely worth the hike - arguably better than the one up in the Alps! And indeed you could still see Mount Jungfrau from here, even if clouds covered the rest of the Alps that day.
I continued climbing up, hoping for a view over the Harder Kulm Castle and onto the lakes - and just like at
Neuschwanstein, I kept climbing and climbing...and climbing...until I thought that I had to be too far away from the castle to get a sight of it even if I
did find a clearing from which I could see the landscape. So I promptly turned back, not wanting make the mistake of climbing another mountain like I did in Germany.
After getting back down the mountain, I then looked around a little in Interlaken itself, which isn't really much to be honest. Only the grand hotels that once housed visiting Victorians stand out, as well as the old wooden chalets and farmhouses.
And after that, I dragged my luggage from the hostel to the train station for the final
View From Spruerbrucke
Looking back towards the Kapellbrucke in Lucerne. time on this European trip.
If I had to describe it, I'd say that it was a different experience - certainly different to
the last time I backpacked Europe, where I hit all the backpacker hotspots and seemed to have the energy back then to get drunk every other night while still managing to sightsee and/or travel the next day.
I had visited different kinds of spots this time; less visited spots and spots visited by older and package tourists (particularly Asian ones). Only in the Balkans did I really bump into a more backpacker crowd.
And so my trip ends on October 23rd. It's a significant date;
nine years ago to the day that my first European sojourn ended. And I was going to the same place too; London. Except rather than going there to start a life, I was honestly glad to be heading "home" this time. It will be interesting to survey the post-Brexit referendum landscape. And it will be nice to go to a place where I can speak English naturally again - it will be almost sixteen months since I've had that luxury. Most of all, it will be nice to be somewhere familiar again and not have the pressure to go out sightseeing and making the most of my
Autumn Colours
And a gorgeous view over Lake Lucerne. time - I'll just be stressing over admin stuff instead!
I'll write one more blog entry to sum up this European leg; the highs, the lows, the best and the worst. But until then...
Auf wiedersehen,
Derek
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I've enjoyed Following your travels...
and am sorry to see them end, although it's great to get home. And thanks for the memories this blog brought back as my wife and I used to visit the Bernese Oberland many times when we lived in Stuttgart. We've walked and skied all the trails in the area...when prices were more reasonable.