Interlaken 2001

Grand Tour of Europe 2001 – Interlaken, Switzerland

23 April – ARGH! I ran the gamut of just about every negative emotion today. Annoyance – that it was raining when we got up this morning – that flunch’s breakfasts didn’t live up to their dinners – that this little girl on my train to Milan alternately cooed and screamed her bloody head off. Anger – that my train to Milan was 25 minutes late, rendering my 20-minute layover useless. Complete dejection – missing the train and spending the next two hours waiting in three lines before finally securing a reservation on the next train. I made myself feel a little better by buying a little gift. God, that whole mess was something I didn’t want to do alone. The train I finally got to take to Spiez was nice – higher class, and the views of the mountains were outstanding. We massed a tiny medieval village complete with ruined castle buried in the northern Italian Alps. Too many long tunnels (I counted up to 435 on one). At one point, the train was up so high that we were completely surrounded by clouds. Then we went through a tunnel only to emerge in a winter wonderland. Nooo! Thankfully, we came down shortly. We were late getting into Spiez, so I had to sit out in the cold train station for 40 minutes waiting for the train to Interlaken. I tried calling home to hear a cheery voice, but no one was around. The train to Interlaken turned out to be one of the double-decker ones I always wanted to ride on, so that was neat. It was just a short ride – in the dark – to my station. By the time I actually go there, it was almost 9:30. I was supposed to get in at 7:30. It was dark and drizzly as I made my way through the streets to my hostile (! Freudian…). Gave myself shin splints hurrying. Nice place {Balmer’s}, but a bit too raucous for my tastes right now. I just want to curl up and got to sleep for a long time. Tomorrow, I’m going to take advantage of the daylight and have a good look around. Oh, and those insect bites I got in Verona? They look swell (literally).

24 April – The potential to do something outrageous and totally extreme is very high here in Interlaken. I decided to be a lame-ass sissy cheapskate and not do anything like that. Being here on my own, there would be no one to impress with my daring and bravado (I feel like a thesaurus). So, I took the opportunity to see everything that I couldn’t in the dark yesterday. Following a hike route recommended by the hostel, I set out after a little breakfast to take a train to Lauterbrunnen. I had to wait in the train station for a while, so I marveled at the gray, overcast sky. The temperature wasn’t very warm, either, but not bad. I took the train, then began my hike. Lauterbrunnen is in a little valley a little ways away from Interlaken. The sky was still gray there. On either side, the cliff walls of sheer rock rose and made it a little disorienting to look at as I walked. I passed underneath (but not very close) to a few waterfalls that started so high up that it was just mist by the time the water reached the bottom. I was walking alone, so I noticed a lot of things – the silence except for my footsteps, some chirping birds and tumbling water – the smell of farms and wood smoke. I massed a cemetery where every grave was plated over with a profusion of flowers, pansies and the like. I walked for about an hour when I realized I lost the slip of paper with the route I was following. Instead of turning back, I walked ahead to where a gondola would take me up the mountain. I wasn’t able to get to the very peak, just over the top of the sheer cliff to Mürren. Pretty views, but the tops of the mountains were covered by clouds. As I left the gondola station, is started raining. Ugh. I walked through the village, then took the next ride down. I was going to walk back to the train station, but the weather was too miserable, so I took the bus then train back. It was too early for me to go back to the hostel, so I wandered a bit, bought pasta for dinner then chilled. I bought some patches and things in the store when that opened. Killed more time, then went to make dinner. Met some people at dinner. I called Dad and asked if he wanted a Swiss army knife. Yup. Watched Shawshank Redemption down in the bar with two nice guys from the East Coast, Brad and Eric. Then packed up my stuff and went to bed.

View in Interlaken
{46.686819, 7.858935}

Lauterbrunnen
{46.594874, 7.907472}

View down from Mürren
{46.547291, 7.893518}

Interlaken hostel
{46.681149, 7.863433}

The adventure continues in Paris…
{transcribed 2/17/2020}