Stunning landscapes part 2 - Jungfrau region, Switzerland

24 - 27 September

I was up early for my flight from Madrid to Geneva, and happened to be sitting next to a very friendly New Zealand couple who then proceeded to give me a lift in their rental car from Geneva to Bern (that's a couple of hours drive)! I was very appreciative of such a friendly gesture. I then caught one of the super-efficient, freakishly on-time Swiss trains to the tourist town of Interlaken.

Located right up in the Bernese Alps, Interlaken is (as the name would suggest) nestled between two lakes, Lake Thun (Thunersee) and Lake Brienz (Brienzersee). It's also the gateway to the railway lines heading up to the highest-altitude railway station in the world, and the whole region - the Jungfrau region - is covered in precarious train lines (including lots of cog trains), gondolas, cable ways - the works - to suit every (rich) tourist's desire.

However I based myself in Interlaken for the first two nights. What a change in scenery... Dramatic mountain landscapes above - and Japanese & Korean tourists scurrying around buying watches and swiss army knives in the town.

Is this a typical Swiss hotel? I guess so... The town centre of Interlaken

For the full day in between, I went for a day hike up to the ridgeline (Rotefluh) directly north of the town. It was a steep - and hot - set of switchbacks, but the views at the top were definitely worth the effort gained. I felt I deserved a beer at the cafe at the top of the cable railway more than the others up there!

The start of the Wanderweg - the ridgeline behind the target

The edge of Brienzersee & Eastern Interlaken

View at the top over Brienzersee

A good spot to take in some beer?

Or skydiving??

How about a gorgeous sunset on the way down?

The town of Interlaken at dusk

That night I watched the America's Cup New Zealand dream fall at the final hurdle, but was determined to head further into the mountains the next day and so headed off to Lauterbrunnen. A very friendly (but shoes off inside!) hostel allowed me to check in at 11am so I dumped my stuff and explored the town a bit before taking an aerial cableway to Grütschalp and a train along to Mürren. This was part way up to where a significant portion of James Bond's On Her Majesty's Secret Service was filmed in 1969.

The town of Lauterbrunnen, nestled in a very dramatically steep valley

View from the aerial cableway back down to Lauterbrunnen

Old-school train from Grütschalp to Mürren

View from the main street in Mürren. What a place to put a township!!

I then walked back down to Lauterbrunnen again, back along the railway for a while then cutting down a path. It rained a bit but I honestly didn't care - this was nature at it's best, most commanding, most breathtaking...

Backdrop for the train ride

Some curious chamois on the track down

Of course this was in autumn, so snow was confined to the highest levels. However it's quite easy to imagine skiers whistling down these slopes in winter, and of course the towns here are well-developed for the winter tourism influx.

The Lauterbrunnen hostel had a much better atmosphere to it and I joined a group of (mostly Australian) backpackers in the evening to share travel stories and superlatives about our surroundings. It got cold - what would you expect?! - but I actually didn't mind it too much after so long in the European summer.

So with one more day to explore, I ventured off on a big loop that was mostly walked, with another aerial cableway cutting out the longest and steepest part, enabling me to get around in one day.

So I walked up to Wengen, which was nothing but continuous switchbacks, and bought some lunch. What amazed me was that even these tiny towns clinging to hillsides only accessible by cog-wheel train still had a small SPAR supermarket.

Wengen

From there it was a ticket to Männlichen, which looked like a top-of-the-ski-run-cafe location, via the cableway.

The good views had started...

The view from the cableway station up to Männlichen - one continuous cable that went up almost 1km in elevation at 10 m/s, with a maximum gradient near the top of over 96%. That's steep.

Boarding the cableway

Did you feel your ears pop? View back down to Wengen, 947.5 m below.

View up the Lauterbrunnen valley from Männlichen

Lunchtime view...

What then looked like a short walk to the peak of Männlichen took a good 20 minutes but rewarded me with 360° views this time.

Tschuggen with Jungfrau behind

Another good skydiving spot - these guys weren't even descending, they'd jumped off the side of the hill and the updrafts were keeping them up

Me admiring the view from Männlichen

I then walked along the ridge of Männlichen, around Tschuggen and up to the second-last train station, Kleine Scheidegg.

Cog-wheel railway station at 2061 m

Railway carriage to go up to Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe at 3,454 m hidden up in the clouds behind. It goes through a tunnel over 7 km long to get there. Talk about entrepreneurship!

On the way back down I spotted a couple of mini avalanches in the snow opposite me on the mountain. It was a long way back down to Lauterbrunnen, and my thighs were killing me later, but I made it successfully before it got dark.

The next morning it was off for a slightly different Swiss experience - to a small town near Zürich where a friend lived who I'd met in Colombia. Bring on Aarau!