Interlaken, Bern, Switzerland Thursday, August 23, 2012

Lake Thun

Our stay in Gimmelwald is over. We hop on the cable car down to Stechelberg and catch a bus from there to the Lauterbrunnen train station. At the station we get on a train to Interlaken. They have things timed pretty well. It is about 5 minutes for the bus to come and then 5 minutes for the train to leave. We left Gimmelwald at 0900 and arrive at Interlaken at 1010. We stop by our hotel to leave the big packs and just carry our day pack and poles with us. Ursula at the Hotel is very nice providing information and maps to us.

Schloss Oberhofen

We decide to do tomorrows plan in reverse since we arrived here so early. The plan is to take a boat on Thunersee to tour three different Swiss Castles. They are all free with our Swiss Pass so there is nothing to lose. It starts out hot on the back of the boat with no shade so we move inside. There are not many high mountains surrounding this lake so in our opinion not nearly as pretty as Lake Luzern. The ride is still nice and relaxing and we get off at Oberhofen to see Schloss Oberhofen. It is right around the corner from the boat dock.

Fresco in Castle Chapel

The entry lady is very nice and wants to know how we found out about the Castle. There are no other tourists around that we can see and when we say we are from the United States, she says hold on, I have a gift for you. She returns with a little book that has the history of the castle in English and says it is ours to keep. I only had a small brochure that explained three or four rooms very briefly so the book will help. The castle sits right on the lake and was built in 1861. This is not like the medieval castles in Germany and has more of an aristocratic mansion type feel to it. As we follow the self guided tour, we climb higher and higher. We should have expected this as nothing we have done has been on the level in Switzerland. That doesn’t make us shifty, just very vertical people!

Part of Turkish Smoking Room

At least 6 floors later we reach the top which was set up as a Turkish smoking area. Large pillow mattresses on the floor, Arabic architecture, interesting ceilings, and tile work on the floor fill the space. We wind our way back down to the main floor and step outside to visit the small gardens. Amazingly, we have spent an hour here and we want to catch the next boat in a few minutes so we walk on over to the dock. We had a good feeling about the town of Oberhofen as we see more park areas along the water and there is a church you can visit. It seemed like it would be a nice place to linger for half a day or so.
The boat arrives and we are quickly motored to Hilterfingen where Schloss Hunegg awaits us. It is a 7 minute ride.
We can see the Castle on a hill about a half mile away. We walk along the water at first and they have diving platforms that the local kids are jumping off of into the lake. The path leads us away from the water and a short way along the main drag before making the short ascent up.

This Can’t Be Good

We show our Swiss pass, get a nice written guide in English and start the tour. This castle also has more of a palatial mansion feel than a castle and the rooms are also decorated from the late 1890s to early 1900s time frame. The rooms are interesting from the decor and furniture of the period point of view, but not so much from a castle perspective. There is not another boat for an hour and a half so we ask about a bus to Thun and are directed down the street. We only have a short wait and get off at the Thun Bahnhof where we will take the train back to Interlaken.
First, however, we have one more castle we wanted to visit, Schloss Thun, and we see a sign pointing away from the station so we start walking. Another sign a short while later,so onward we go. Then no signs and a circle. We had seen the castle right near the station but now we cannot. Out comes the IPad with a map I had saved for this very occasion. Locating the street we are on and then the circle, we need to backtrack up the street the other way and then make a right.

Tower in Schloss Thun

Backtracking along, we see a sign again pointing right and it is not a street like it shows on the map but rather a long steep set of stairs. We move along on our Swiss stair stepper and then hit yet another set of stairs up an uncovered alley. We emerge by a church and see the castle a short way uphill to the left. We make it, get our tickets and what is the first thing we have to do. You got it, climb two long flights of stairs up. We enter into the knights hall. This castle actually feels like a castle. It is more medieval. It has towers that we climb and we can see the original walls extending down the street and another lower tower that looks like it has been converted into some kind of apartments. We have enjoyed our Swiss castle tour but we are ready to get back and eat, so we head to the train station.

Carbo Loading

We get back to Interlaken and decide to eat in as the Hotel has a self service kitchen we can use. We buy pasta, sauce, salad, salad dressing, a tomato, dessert, bread, butter, a chocolate bar, and a bottle of Pinot gringo from Italy.
We have a great meal and head upstairs to sit on our balcony and enjoy the rest of our wine with dessert. It has been another great day.
CNC
Life is way too short to not be excited, so do something today that makes your heart smile. What excites you in your life? – Charlie
Expenses
5.40SF- pasta salad and a dessert type snack we eat on boat.
16.70SF- Dinner, dessert, wine, and chocolate
105SF- Hotel Rugenpark

Miles Walked- 4.5 Miles