Interlaken I didn't like I decided, packed with day tourists, esp. busloads of Chinese and Indians - hordes of them roaming around in gangs! I asked how come so many, and one woman said the Bollywood movies are often filmed around here, so there's a bit of a pilgrimage... There are several Indian restaurants, filled with Indians, I guess that's like Americans eating McDonalds overseas... Sad really. Anyway, the town's only purpose seems to be servicing the bellies (and boy some bellies) and lightening the wallets of touristas... There are many patisserie style cake shops here - and I felt like saying "the last thing in the world you need is another cake" - or maybe in Indian culture if you don't die on the Ganges, you come and eat yourself to death in Interlaken. Who knows? Either way I feel sorry for the septic system here... Curry and cream cake....
The Chinese by the way don't eat at Indian restaurants by the looks of things, but they do buy cuckoo clocks. Interlaken has the highest sales of cuckoo clocks in the world according to the ourit office here - but sadly, cuckoo clocks are not from Switzerland they are made in Germany...
It was really feeling like BC today - and I like BC even in the rain...
So much nicer up here away from the busloads of tourists.... Buses cannot get here :)
The front of my hotel is below, my room window and balcony is right underneath the word 'Bernerhof'.
It is a striking valley, no matter what light is thrown on it.
Coming back down to Lauterbrunnen, the cog train is the only way in or out of Wengen unless you hike. Even for the über rich. So imagine my amusement when a German and a Brit were discussing plans to purchase a hotel for a Russian Oligarch up there... They take 10% of the purchase price as the broker fee, and if a large condo is 1.6 million, imagine what a hotel must be...
Back in Lauterbrunnen near the falls.
The way in, all carved out by erosion, it is a corkscrew waterfall, because the water twists, turns and smashes back into itself on the way down....
As you walk outside on a ledge... More falls!
The sound is quite deafening!
So I prefer the isolated quiet of Wengen, and happily climbed back up into the Alps for another night... Most hotels, restaurants and shops are shut, it's quite lovely.
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Well I had no option but to go up Jungfrau on Wednesday morning, I was half optimistic as the sun came out, The North Face of The Eigre here is part in sun and part in danger, the clouds are forming as the warm air hits the ice...
The pic above is from Kleine Scheidegg. So much so, my other shots, on the card that the iPad cannot read, are often full of nothing but... Well put it this way, the lovely sphinx at the beginning of the blog was a white out, snow storm! I left Wengen, won't repeat the zillion shots of lovely Wengen, then back to Interlaken and to Thun. If I ever get to Geneva - a distinct possibility, I will come back here and try again, or if I can brave the world's longest cable car run, Schilthorn and Piz Gloria, as seen in the 007 movie I starred in, "On Her Majesty's Service" it is on the other side of the valley from Wengen and Jungfraujoch.
It was a German DB train out of Interlaken. Not Swiss. Thun is at the other end of Lake Thun from Interlaken.
Pretty town, but threatening to rain....
The Berner Oberland is over there... With lovely Wengen up one valley...
Below is what we used to call a tulip tree when we were kids, a magnolia.
The sightseeing boats come back into Thun - backwards...
CH plates have the city in the letters, BE is Bern.
Covered bridges are popular in Switzerland from the old days.
Thun is a nice little town...
The mediaeval centre has two level shopping...
Loved this dog.
There is a story about a giant in Thun.
No doubt the giant lived here.. The highest point in Thun
And then, after a day if cloud upsetting a lot of my plans, the Jesus Rays shine through from heaven...as if to say... "look what you're missing"
And then, from behind, the sun started shining on Thun
"Buy another Euro Millions ticket" is what the sun is now saying... "So you can have a condo in Geneva and Wengen..."
30 million is the Prize in CHF, about 33 million CAD. Pocket change!
Left Thun for Bern or Berne in française...
The car below is the Smart Car roadster.
Bern is the federal capital, it has a Mediaeval core as well.
The offices of the confederation are here.
And the national bank.
It was near 7 by the time I got snapping...
These arches are all arcades, 6km of arcades...with shops, bars, restaurants, and Einstein's house which I cannot locate from the tourist map.
The clock is the centre of town...
These cellar doors all over - more shops and bars underneath...
Founded in 1190 or so, the first settlement was almost wiped out in 1400 and some by fire... So they rebuilt in stone and it is the same today as it was.
Tomorrow morning there is bright sun forecast so can take more pics then...
In Canada people have those "baby on board" stickers then they drive like a moron, well here they have different stickers at least... For dogs !
The chimneys are interesting.
Ok, getting too dark now.... Time for a big fat rösti dinner, then wash up and bed. Rösti is shredded potatoes, served up in various ways... I prefer it over fondue or raclette.
Good night from Bern, the bear city.
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- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on pictures for larger version and gallery. Copyright 2012 TinyFrontalLobeWerke AG., Zurich.
Location:Wengen, North Face of The Eigre, Thun, Bern, Switzerland.
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