Blogs from Brienz, South-West, Switzerland, Europe

Dienstag, 02. - 04.Juni 2015 Giessbachfälle Wir hatten von unseren Söhnen einen Gutschein für zwei Übernachtungen und ein Viergang Menu im „Grandhotel Giessbach ****“ geschenkt bekommen. Das Giessbachhotel wurde 1875 eröffnet und gehört zu den „Swiss Historic Hotels“ es verkörpert die Romantik und den Charme vergangener Zeiten. Es steht hoch über dem Brienzersee an den schäumenden Giessbachfällen, umgeben von Bergen und Wäldern. Beim Check in erhielten wir ein Upgrade in eine höhere Zimmerkategorie, ein Turmzimmer mit einer Sitzgruppe und einem Rundumbalkon, mit Sicht auf die Fälle und den Brienzersee. Kaum hatten wir unser Zimmer bezogen, klopfte es an der Türe und eine Hotelangestellte brachte uns Früchte und etwas Süsses. Die Tür war noch nicht richtig zu da klopfte es erneut und es wurde uns eine kleine Flasche Champagner offeriert. So verwöhnt wurden wir schon lange nicht ... read more

It rained steadily through the night and into the morning but it looked like there could be some breaks in the weather in the town of Meiringen. This is where Riechenbach Falls and the Sherlock Holmes Museum is located. We took our normal train and got there early. We had to walk through the town a mile or so to get to the Reichenbach funicular station. At the top, you can see part of the falls and the fictional spot where Sherlock Holmes fell in the gorge to his death fighting Professor Moriarty. Arthur Conan Doyle visited here in 1893 and was inspired to make this be the fatal spot when he decided to retire Sherlock permanently in “The Final Problem” There was such a hue and cry that he had to bring him back in ... read more

Day 26 OMG Jungfraujoch - at last. What a day of superlatives. Get up early'ish and have breakfast at the B&B. Irene offers us some coupons for the Jungfraujoch trip that will get us extremely cheap fares as long as we split the difference with her. Good deal so off we go..... Tickets issued at almost half price and we get on the train (after buying some cheap gloves). On our way and alreadynthensigtsbarebcoming thick and fast. By the time we get to our first change of trains I have lots of shots (might be a long trip). Get on the next train and immediately start to climb very steeply. Snow covered mountains, waterfalls, valleys, too many sights to cover so decide to cut back on photos and just look. After about an hour we get ... read more

As predicted, today was another 30+degree day. What to do without roasting? We figured if we got up high it would be cooler so off to Brienz again where there is a connection to the Rothorn Cog Railway way up to the Rothorn Peak. The Brienz Rothorn Bahn takes you 7.6kms up the steep, 25 per cent gradient, and the 1678 metres in just about sixty minutes - a slow 60 minutes as the poor little steam engine has to push the carraiges up the mountain. The ride starts at the restored valley station in Brienz and soon you are above the tree line and into a high open alp with steep rock faces sculpted by ice in a past age. The Brienz Rothorn Line has been hissing, huffing and puffing its way from the village ... read more

Today was a shared day with Mariann. The weather is perfect. Summer has arrived with clear sunny skies. We met Mariann at 10.45 at Interlaken and got the old paddle ferry down Lake Brienz to Iseltwald which is a small village on the wooded side of the lake (not the sunny side). From here we walked up the hill and along to Geisbach where there is a high beautiful waterfall and lovely old hotel. This walk takes about 1.5 hours. At the hotel we had lunch before heading back to Iseltwald on the lower track on the lake front. Because the weather was so good and it was the weekend, there were heaps of people on the boats, walking or lunching out. We were please that most of our walk was in the trees otherwise it ... read more