Interlaken - a little piece of paradise

This is my second visit to Interlaken after the first one in 2006, and the city has never ever failed to amaze me with all it has to offer!

We entered the city by train from the southern side of Switzerland, Italy. The closer it was to Interlaken, the more "wow" I heard from the people in the train while jumping from window to another window for taking pictures. Yes, the road to Interlaken offered a mind blowing view. Having located between two Alpine lakes (Thun and Brienzee) and surrounded by the Swiss Alps, Interlaken had made itself to be a superb holiday destination.

Interlaken was actually more like a transit city for us before going up to Jungfraujoch, the endpoint of highest railway in Europe, at the peak of Jungfrau mountain. We plan to go to this place the next day and decided to take the most out of the city in the evening - a very limited time space indeed.

The rainfall as we landed at Interlaken Ost station has made the weather even colder. We took the bus to our hostel, Balmer's Herberge Youth Hostel, a very nice backpacking hostel which claims to have been providing a good value accommodation for the past 60 years (!) especially for backpackers. After checking in and getting refreshed, we headed back to the city to grab a dinner and fulfill the wish of buying some merchandise (say.. watch..hehe..).

The next day, we were supposed to get up very early to catch the morning train to get into Jungfraujoch, but having physically exhausted, we chose to enjoy the bed a little bit more. By this, we had to give a miss to a significant discounted package to Jungfraujoch, called "Good morning" package.

Going up to Jungfraujoch can be done through two options:
- Interlaken (Ost/West) - Lauterbrunnen - Kleine Scheidegg - Jungfraujoch

- Interlaken (Ost/West) - Grindelwald - Kleine Scheidegg - Jungraujoch.

And yes, the ticket fare is very pricey (well, what is not in Switzerland), but yet several discount deals are available and most railways passes are valid to reduce the cost. Alternatively, there are two discount packages for day trippers:

-Good Morning: available during summer (May - October). You must take the 6.35am train from Interlaken Ost and should head back from Jungfraujoch at 12.00 noon at the latest. During winter, the ticket is also valid for the train at 07.05am.

- Good Afternoon: available from April to October. You must leave Interlaken Ost at 2.35pm and leave the mountain at 5.45pm.

For these two packages, they offer a return ticket fare at CHF 140, cheaper from the normal rate CHF182. The package price can't be further combined with other discount from the railway passes, which can offer up to 50% discount (In 2006, I used Swiss Pass and got 50% discount).

While my friends took the opportunity to go up to the peak, I decided to go only up to Kleine Scheidegg. I thought that mountains will not much be different from what I have seen back in 2006, so I would rather to give myself a break and enjoy my me-time, do whatever I wanted to do...alone! :-)

So while waiting for my friends to go back, I walked around the station. It was totally freezing cold, especially when the snow was falling very heavy and I couldn't stand outside too long. So I went from one place to another. I went to souvenir shops, a cafe to enjoy a hot coffee, Bratwurst and Rosti (Swiss dish consisting mainly of potatoes) before staying at the warm station waiting room to enjoy my reading.

Picture: train to Grindelwald ready for departing from Kleine Scheidegg

While reading, surprisingly I caught some words that I was familiar at: Bahasa Indonesia! I saw two ladies (mother and daughter) that seemed to be confuse about the train. I approached them and made some brief conversation, helping them with the train information (sok tahuuuu banget!).
After my friends were back, we headed to Interlaken via Grindelwald, during which we again were enchanted by the view: the vast snow-covered fields, the trees with snows at the tip of each leaves, the foot prints of some rabbits at the snowy ground, the giant look of the Alps from far and yet the green biiiiiigg green fields as drew closer to the city. We were so tempted to get off from the train and made our self lost in that green, running wild as far as possible....but of course, it was not :-(

Arriving in Interlaken, we were supposed to rush back to the hostel, packed up our stuffs and continued to Luzern before going to Munich the next morning. But again, we were so tired. So we decided to stay another night in Interlaken, have a relaxing evening, enjoy ourself with good food and nice walks around the city. Life is so beautiful! Hahaha...

People said that you have to try fondue (cheese or chocolate) while you're in Switzerland, so that's what we did. Though the price was quite expensive (chipping in didn't really help), but we enjoyed the food.

We closed our day in Interlaken by walking around the park near the church and back to the hostel (miss the bus...again) *sigh*

What I regreted most from my two visits was that I didn't get a chance to explore more about this little piece of a paradise. It was always to only transit before going up to the mountain, but someday... one day, I will... (a promise I made in my heart)