Fortunately, I had a late morning departure from Zermatt and I needed it having got halfway into town from Cervo when I realised I’d left my phone somewhere. It turned out that I’d left it in my room at the hotel and a quick about turn by the electric taxi soon had me reunited with the most important single piece of equipment for the month ahead. With a mobile Interrail Global Pass every single trip is dependent on access to that specific phone and without it you’re stranded.
Sitting outside the railway station while my heart rate slowly returned to normal, I struck up a conversation with an American family who were headed down to Visp on the train before mine to discover that one of them had been a Eurail/Interrail pioneer in 1972, the first year of Interrail. Comparing experiences 50 years apart was both a revelation and the ideal way to calm down after the earlier panic. It was clearly a very different experience in the 1970’s and while I was only 11 when he’d made his 3-month trip around Europe it was a reminder of how things used to be. With no channel tunnel and the ferry to England not included in the pass he’d literally stowed away on a crossing from Rotterdam before spending 2 months in the UK at a time when the country was considered the “sick man” of Europe.
The journey from Zurich to Interlaken is Switzerland in a day, combining the mountain views of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa massif with the Rhone valley, before heading north to the twin lakes of Interlaken. Sitting between Thunersee to the west and Brienzerssee to the east Interlaken is the gateway to the Bernese Oberland from the northern cities of Bern, Lucerne and Zurich. The population of 24,000 swells in both summer and winter with over three quarters of a million tourists each year. It’s said that all trains lead to Interlaken, but equally all trains leave from Interlaken and that’s the big draw.
Interlaken, in addition to being a destination in itself, is a hub for visiting the famous summer/winter resorts of the Jungfrau region, with Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and Murren all in easy reach. With three days in town the plan was to head out each day to these hotspots using the town as a base, and you can’t get a better base than the imposing Grand Hotel Beau Rivage on the banks of the river Aare. The hotel was built in 1874 when sustainability was far from people’s minds, but it’s still manged to achieve level 4 on the Green Sign scale. As with all hotels in Interlaken visitors get an Interlaken Pass that allows free access to public transport in the Jungfrau Region, although I already had a VIP Pass from Interlaken Tourism that added free access to cable cars and the famous Jungfraujoch train.
Sitting high above the town at over 1300m Harder Kulm can be reached by a steep, very steep, climb or a 10-minute ride on the steeply inclined funicular and while renowned for its night time view over the town it's a great introduction to Interlaken at any time of day. Seen from above the three distinct settlements of Unterseen, Wilderswil and Interlaken hug the flat land alongside the River Aare and with the departure station just metres from the hotel it made sense to head up shortly after arrival in Interlaken.
Some time, long ago, so the legend has it, a young lady from a nunnery above Interlaken ventured onto the hills and attracted the attention of an ogre living on a neighbouring hill. To protect the nun from the ogre a monk climbed the mountain between them to stand in its way. And so the names of the Jungfrau (young woman) Monch (monk) and Eiger (ogre) were born.
As myth and legend evaporated in the age of science the rocky triumvirate became the highlight of the Bernese Oberland; a mountain ridge that dominated the skyline south of Interlaken with its icy glacial waters giving Brienzsee its distinctive colour. From Harder Kulm the eye is naturally drawn over the town to the three peaks. Back in the hotel that evening the ridge from Loucherhorn to Rotelflue captured the attention with the dying sun reflecting in a beautiful sunset.
The plan for days two and three was deliberately flexible. With the Lauterbrunnen valley, Jungfraujoch and Grindelwald all vying for attention it was down to the weather. On repeated journeys through the Eiger to the Jungfraujoch I’d never had more than about 10m of visibility so when day two dawned clear and bright the chance to head to Europe’s highest railway station was irresistible.
Jungfraujoch markets itself as the “Top of Europe” and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Bernese Oberland, despite an astronomical price for tickets, and over the last couple of years access has become considerably easier with the new high-speed Eiger Express cable car from Grindelwald. Starting from a new terminal building at the base the new route cuts 47 minutes from the transit time to the Eiger Glacier station compared to the train.
Changing at Eiger Glacier gave me a chance to break the journey without compromising on time at the top with a lunch break spent chatting with a local mountain guide. Looking up at the glacier above the ravages of climate change were obvious and the mountain guide explained the impact on trade with guides effectively writing off the whole of the summer season. A lack of snow and the retreating ice had left the Eiger unstable, not just the North Face but the “trade” routes up the west flank and the Mittellegi Ridge. Crossing the glacier to the Monch Hut had become a zigzag between crevasses.
Back on the train from Eiger Glacier to the summit station the guide’s words were reinforced as the view from the lookout at Eismeer demonstrated. Once at the summit station the scale and distribution of the crevasses was immediately obvious, at times almost reaching to the well-marked path to the Monchhutte.. The climb from valley bottom to summit had shown how different the weather can be at altitude with the combination of wind, temperature and cloud meaning few were venturing onto the glacier and the summit restaurant was almost deserted. For once, however, I was able to get a view down the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in western Europe to Bettmerhorn and Eggishorn and the winter ski resorts.
The return to Interlaken gave me the opportunity to revisit Kleine Sheidegg and one of the last remaining grand hotels of the 19th Century, the Belle Vue des Alpes. For over a century this had been a familiar landmark on the trip to the Eiger and Jungfraujoch with its unmatched view of the notorious North Face of the Eiger. It’s a slow journey compared to the Eiger Express, but the train route has its own attractions and avoids the need to go back into Grindelwald. Before departing I also took time out to revisit the ice tunnel under the glacier; similar to that at the Matterhorn Mountain Paradise but resisted the temptation to visit Lindt’s showcase shop at the summit station. If you’re paying for a ticket it makes sense to visit both to get the best value, but I was in a privileged position of having a free trip with my VIP Pass.
With just one full day left in Interlaken my attention turned to Lauterbrunnen, which literally means many fountains, and its surroundings. It was a straight choice between the valley of waterfalls and Grindelwald, and I’ve visited Grindelwald and First multiple times. The half hour journey from Interlaken is pretty mundane by Swiss standards but the valley itself is far from mundane. There’s a total of 72 waterfalls that drop into the valley, with some as high as 400m, with cliffs up to 1000m. It’s no surprise that the valley has been credited as the inspiration for Tolkein’s Rivendell. To either side of the valley the villages of Wengen and Murren are perched above the valley floor, each a destination in its own right.
Of the 72 waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen valley the highlights are the Staubbach and Trummelbach falls, the former being the second highest in Switzerland and the latter being probably the most visited. The Staubbach falls form the iconic view of the valley from its northern approach while the Trummelbach falls lie beyond the village and halfway to Stechelberg with several of its cascades hidden from view inside the Black Monk Cave.
The train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen is both delightful and frustrating. While Switzerland has multiple panoramic trains like the Glacier Express the train to Wengen has some of the most photogenic views of the Lauterbrunnen behind old and scratched windows; not ideal for taking photos. Above Wengen the cable car up to Mannlichen, however, offers the option (at a price) of an unrestricted view from the roof of the cabin.
While Murren and Wengen get the publicity as destinations Mannlichen is just a small collection of buildings, primarily tourist related but its position above the entrance to the Lauterbrunnen valley gives unparalleled views as well as access to Grindelwald. It also gives one of the best views of the Eiger’s north face. Seeing the face day after day the cable car operator reaffirmed the stories of the mountain guide at Eiger Glacier with images of the Eiger in July completely devoid of snow and ice on his phone. As he explained how mountain guides had refused to work on the mountain for the summer, he then produced similar images showing the Matterhorn from the same month completely bare of snow. Even in September the Eiger looked like a different mountain to the one I’d seen so many times before with no sign of the First Icefield, a dirty brown patch where the Second Icefield had accumulated Saharan dust and a seriously shrunken White Spider. It was with a heavy heart that I retreated back to Wengen and Interlaken.
Three days is never enough time to really do justice to Interlaken, there’s just so much to do within an hour of the town from water sports to winter sports or just relaxing by the river. The large open area in the centre of town provides the landing ground for paragliders and hang-gliders and the twin lakes are criss-crossed by delightful cruise boats year-round. I also couldn’t leave this section without a big thank you to Swiss Tourism, Interlaken Tourism, Jungfrau Tourism and Mountain Press for their incredible help on this leg of the journey.