Switzerland 5: Interlaken

Wednesday, September 19

Today was a treat. This journey just keeps getting better and better. After a restful sleep at our cozy airbnb, we followed the road along Lake Como's south shore towards Milan, and returned to Switzerland (yes, this is a mainly Swiss trip, remember). To this point, most of the drive was unremarkable. Our next stop: 

The Verzasca Dam

You may remember this Dam from such filmography as - the opening scene in Goldeneye. Yep, this is where James Bond bungees to the base of the dam and then swiftly takes out the bad guy on the toilet. This dam is so much better than filmed!

Now, to start off, we had some trouble locating the dam thing. Heehee, get it? I should have printed a map to this, because the GPS sounded very confused when trying to locate the Dam. We tentatively followed it's directions for an hour in what felt like the middle of nowhere, until we finally reached a small town. Then the GPS said we'd reached our destination. We were lucky to have found within that town, a single sign towards the dam. Following that, it was a while before we saw another sign. So my suggestion? Firstly, bring a map, or a googlemap printout, something to get your bearings. Then, you may have better luck and confidence locating the nearest township - eg: Selvatica, or Gordemo, then finding a sign to the attraction from there.

Getting back to our time there. Man, do I wish we had packed a picnic for today! We saw the dam, you need to pay for short term parking at the attraction. There's a visitors centre and some restrooms here. After this, civilisation was sparse, and what few restaurants we did see either didn't appear appetising, or didn't appear open. The dam doesn't take too long to see, but it's a stunning vision. Now, for any die hard fans out there, there is a company that does the 007 bungee jump from this location. How cool is that! Sadly (and thankfully) for us, we arrived a week after peak season ended, so this company only ran trips on weekends and we couldn't rotate our itinerary around that. I'm not too fussed about missing it, I doubt I'd have the guts for this. Usually bungee jumping is over a body of water, but this one is into a narrow gorge alongside a slightly concave concrete wall. It feels like you'd be closed in on 3 sides doing this jump.

Verzasca Valley

Verzasca Valley

From the dam, we headed further up the road into the Verzasca Valley. This valley feels like a step back into another era, it almost feels enchanted. The road winds around the mountainside, and in the escarpment below you can see a crystal river flowing across the shallow green-tinged rocks towards the dam. Then you discover medieval-looking buildings. We would have loved to find a way down to the riverbed, or drive further into the valley than we went, but eventually our hunger got the best of us.

Verzasca Valley

We returned to the nearest Coop supermarket for some snacks. I also picked up some Coop brand Gianduja chocolate - at about CHF 1 for 100g, it's the cheapest Gianduja (hazelnut melt-in-mouth chocolate) I've ever seen, and I regret not buying more for my trip home.

Sustenstrasse

Our day took another spectacular turn as we drove to Interlaken. All I know, is that this is the name of the street we took, according to our GPS. I can only imagine how spectacular this road would be in full visibility, because we were dropping our jaws with every turn and we could barely see ten metres in front of us.

Either we were up in the clouds, or it was really foggy. As we reached the valley on the other side of the pass, it was raining heavily. It's possible the low visibility added mystery, adventure and beauty to this road, but I can't imagine how it could be less impressive when you can actually see it. And even if not, it's a fun drive with lots of turns.

Brienz

Brienz waterfront

On the way to Interlaken we stopped by at Brienz, which is a town on the lakeside. We visited the free Brienz wildlife park, which is just inland of the lake, you follow signs to the parking lot then walk up a hill through the woods - then you see some enclosures with animals, and there are food dispensers to buy food to feed the animals with. It was a fun way to spend a half hour.

Brienz Wildlife Park

Trümmelbach Falls

Trummelbach Falls

This waterfall flows through a slot canyon. You can walk within the canyon tunnels to see some parts of the waterfall, and outside of the mountain to see other parts. We checked this out as a side note on our way to Interlaken, mainly out of spontaneity. It's an easy walk to the waterfall. If you don't want to walk too much uphill, there is an elevator available to take people closer to the top of the falls, so then you only need to walk down.

Interlaken

We arrived at Interlaken before dark, and checked into our hotel. Our hotel was off a pedestrian-only zone. This made it a little tricky to figure out where to park. We ended up parking in a pay zone for a short time to walk and find the hotel, then they told us how to reach the free parking which was about 5-10 minutes walk away. The hotel was associated with a Mexican restaurant, which we had our included breakfast at the following morning.

We browsed the streets and did some window shopping before settling on a restaurant for dinner. Honestly, I'm struggling to remember where we went for dinner, because the place was great and had a price fix 3 course menu. I want to say it was the Belvedere Brasserie based on its location, so if not this restaurant, it was one nearby that provided a price fix menu with mainly French/Swiss cuisine on offer, and faced the Hohematte park. I mention this because yet again, we were very content with the quality of our meal, and felt the value was good for the price fix.

Thursday, September 20

Having taken full advantage of our first opportunity to sleep late, we went downstairs and found a brochure for the Schilthorn, which is yet again, another James Bond fan site, which boasts a panoramic mountain-top view and restaurant. We had plans for the afternoon and didn't have the 3 hours it would take to see this site without the stress of getting back in time. If I were to do it all again, I'd have woken up earlier and gone to the Schilthorn for breakfast. We had a lazy morning shopping the main street of Interlaken.

On to our exciting afternoon plans - hang gliding! Now, I've been wanting to go tandem hang gliding for a long time. And not the kind where you're pulled up by another vehicle, but the kind where you jump of a mountain and fly. It's a really tough thing to find, and I couldn't find it anywhere I've travelled in Canada. Where is more perfect to do this than in Switzerland?

Our tour guide was Eddie, an Aussie bloke that decided to drop everything and move to Switzerland for his dream. He picked us up promptly at noon, and we drove up a mountain to a take off site. We only had one guide for this trip, sometimes there are the two guides that will go up together. So Mike and I each took off separately, and watched each other glide down from the landing site. That was a great photo opportunity so we were happy with that. You have to help carry the equipment about 300 metres to the take off site from the car drop off, and he showed me how to assist assembling the glider and then checked my work afterwards.

Then on to the challenge - running as fast as you can down a steep hill, then jump! It's a bit nerve racking to run down a hill at a speed that you know you won't be able to stop. We had a few practice runs before bringing the glider with, because you have to jump at the right time. Then, we were up in the air. We were up for probably about 10-15 minutes, although I wasn't looking at the time. The view from the bird's eye is spectacular. We had clear blue skies, a stunning blue lake, and tree studded mountains. If you're up for some tricks, and the conditions are safe, the guide will happily do some dives and spins. Eddie took some photos of us from the air, with a camera attached to the glider, and Mike and I chose to purchase the photos later - hey, it's once in a lifetime!

I couldn't be happier with my experience through this company, and if you've ever wanted to try hang gliding, this is the best location I can think of for it. If you're in the area, and you're a bit hesitant, I can't imagine how you'd be disappointed if you bite the bullet on this one - go for it! It is expensive to hang glide with these guys in Interlaken (currently at 235 CHF), but I certainly don't regret a single cent.

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