Switzerland 8: Interlaken

On May 5, 2023, we had already tackled Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and Harder Kulm, so the main thing left on our Jungfrau Travel Pass that we had not yet taken advantage of was to ride a boat out on the lake. It seemed a shame to me to stay three nights in Interlaken without going out on the "laken".

So we walked from our AirBnB through the little town of Ringgenberg to get to the train station there, to catch a ride to the boat dock in Interlaken.

It was fun to walk around the real houses where "real people" (not tourists) live. The houses sometimes look rustic on the outside, with weathered wood, but have a nice charm about them.

As we walked towards the train station, a bus happened by, so we jumped on that instead (also included in our pass). Once we found the boat terminal (Interlaken Ost, where "Ost" means "East"), we saw that we had a few minutes to wait, so we found a nice bench in the shade overlooking the river.

Soon we boarded the boat and started up the river. These boats provide public transportation around the lakes, and run about ever hour or so.

As we passed under the bridge, we entered Lake Brienz (Brienzersee).

Here's a little video from the boat as we pass under the bridge and look around. A guy on a paddleboard happened to be going along right then, too.

We went by the town of Ringgenberg, where we were staying, and then continued on to a couple other villages on the lake.

The mountains and houses on both sides were really pretty.

The first stop was Bönigen, which was just around the corner and kind of a suburb of Interlaken itself.

We could see another ferry across the way going the opposite direction.

There's just something fun about boat rides.

We also stopped at Ringgenberg, where we were staying. But we stayed on the boat.

Don't walk too far off the back patio...

Sometimes it's easy to lose a sense of the scale of the mountains, until you see the tiny houses by the shore.

Jared and Katelyn had their nice cameras going.

The next stop was the little town of Iseltwald. When we were planning a boat trip for the day, the only plan that worked with our schedule was to come to this town, get off for an hour, and then ride the next boat back. So we got off here.

As I mentioned before, the Korean drama "Crash Landing on You" is very popular, and may have been what drew so many Koreans to this area. When we got off the boat at Iseltwald, most of the Koreans got off, too. It turns out that there was a touching scene filmed here. In the dock jutting out into the lake in the picture below, they filmed a scene of a guy playing the piano (after something sad happened, and before another sad could have happened, because Koreans like Sad Things). So everyone was excited to take their picture on that dock, and someone started charging 5 bucks for access.

Linette and I hadn't gotten that far in the show yet, so we had no idea. It was just a coincidence that we happened to get off where some scenes from the show turned out to have been filmed. (Later when we were home, it was fun to see those scenes and go, "Hey! We were there!")

The town of Iseltwald was cute, and we had fun wandering around it for an hour.

I'm not quite sure what all these things on the wall are for (old boot, tools, masks...?)

I liked the view of this little church with the yellow-speckled field.

There is a nice villa on a peninsula in Iseltwald that is often called the "Iseltwald Castle." It was built in 1907 (very recent by European standards).

We found a nice place to sit there, and ducks and geese swam around as we relaxed for a bit.

The kids fed some ducks little bits of the apple they were eating. Then a black bird with a sharper beak came along and drove the ducks away. Jared caught the action nicely.

We saw a sign on someone's wall showing when each of their two babies were born (years ago).

There were not a lot of touristy things to do there, but we had already done a lot of that, and it was nice just to wander for a bit.

As we walked into one area, we saw water coming down a canal from the mountains and into the lake.

This little tiny car made me smile.

The kids found a playground and did the teeter-totter.

They found that they could balance if Sienna stood right there.

There was a little grocery store there, but it was closed during the lunch hour. Fortunately, it opened promptly at 1, and I was able to get an ice cream for everyone just in the nick of time.

Then the boat returned, and we started back.

It was a fun, relaxing outing on the lake.

It seemed to get more relaxing over time...

(I seem to have photobombed my own picture.)

Here's a 20-second video that shows a bit of the view. It also captured the "toot toot" of the boat's horn. At the end, Linette asked me to do "show me what you've got", so I did something random.

Soon we were back to the bridge, and we headed to the little river that connects the two lakes.

I liked how cute this house was, especially knowing how nice its view must be.

As we neared the boat dock, we passed by the funicular that we had taken up to Harder Kulm the night before.

Back in Interlaken, we needed some lunch, and decided to try fondue, since that is such a big deal in Switzerland. They gave us a heated pot of cheese, a bowl of potatoes, and a bag of bread chunks.

We also got a couple burgers and fries to share around. That was good, because most of us didn't actually like the flavor of the cheese that much, so the fondue wasn't an especially big hit. (The Raclette we had with the Stotts, on the other hand, was excellent).

I think this picture of a big bus and a tiny little car is hilarious. The car looks like it was Photoshopped wrong or something.

Sienna found a telephone booth full of books, so that was fun.

We found these little frames in lots of the places we visited on our "Grand Tour of Switzerland."

Paragliding

The other thing we had on our schedule that day was paragliding! We had seen paragliders throughout out visit, and Jared and Katelyn decided to go for it. They signed up late the night before, and now the time of reckoning had come.

Here they appear to be just a little nervous as the reality sinks in.

They met up with the guides, who put them in a van and drove them up the mountain, near Harder Kulm.

Sienna and I weren't sure if we would ever see them alive again, but we knew we had about a half hour before they launched, so we figured we should take advantage of the ice cream place nearby.

Linette, meanwhile, took a bus back to our AirBnB and picked up the car so that we could try to get up to a hike we wanted to do, immediately after the paragliding. Fortunately, she made it back and found a parking spot in time to see both flights.

Jared took a few pictures from on top of the grassy hill used for launching.

Here's Jared's white parachute in a flat pile, looking about like what he might look like if it failed...

And here is a bag full of stuff that Katelyn's life depended upon.

The idea is that you both get hooked to the chute, and then you run off this cliff.

You might ask at this point, "If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you?" The answer is apparently "yes".

Here is Jared, ready to go.

Meanwhile, Sienna and I were standing by.

Before he knew it, Jared and Mr. Dude were up in the air!!

We were way down there somewhere.

As they flew near the hills, updrafts would carry them high in the air. They were pretty sure.

From our vantage point at the landing site, we could see the hill where the paragliders launched into the air.

Wheeeeee!!!

Jared got to steer the chute for a bit.

They did a few spins that were pretty cool.

Linette took over one of the cameras as I switched to video towards the end.

They touched down in a perfect landing!

Here's a video of Jared's epic flight.

Katelyn's Flight

Meanwhile, Katelyn was up there just a little after Jared. She is the one on top in these pictures.

We could identify her chute because it said "Landi" on it. Towards the end, they did a nice spin with her.

She said that made her dizzy, so they didn't do too many of those.

Then she came in for a landing.

Here is the video of Katelyn's flight:

It was kind of a relief to have both of these guys safely back on the grounds. What a cool adventure, though!

When we had driven back up to Lauterbrunnen the day before to retrieve some lost footwear, we noticed that there was a hike up there that went behind Staubbach Falls, and that seemed like a cool thing to do. So we arranged our day so that we could bust a move after the paragliding to squeeze that hike in.

It was kind of funny that we had been to Lauterbrunnen all three days that we were there. But it kept being cool every time we went.

The waterfall seems to run continuously, as does this free, clean water fountain.

As we drove along, we kept seeing that view of all the waterfalls across the fields.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at Staubbach Falls, we realized that it was something that has paid entrance and is closed in the evening, so it was closed by the time we got there.

Oh, well, the view was still worth the short drive.

We hit our favorite Coop in Lauterbrunnen to get supplies for dinner, and then we headed back to the AirBnB.

We played games, and Sienna won, and Linette didn't.

That day was Cinco de Mayo, so we whipped up some Mexican food, out of what we could find at a Swiss market.

We got some black beans, ground beef, salsa, guacamole, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, chips, and fun-flavored sodas, and ended up have a nice dinner for Cinco de Mayo.

Since we got home at a reasonable time that night, we had time to play some games instead of just falling over. Here we are in the middle of The Great Dalmuti.

Saturday morning, May 6, 2023, we awoke to a misty morning.

The clouds were meandering all over the mountains and through the valley, and it was fun to watch.

We had a nice view of the valley and Alps from our bedroom as well.

The clouds kept playing peek-a-boo with the mountains.

Linette went for a jog that morning in the beautiful neighborhood with the spooky fog.

And she met some happy cows along the way.

Here is a time lapse video of the clouds rolling over the mountains and valley.

In the next and final episode, we attend the temple in Bern, go on a "gorge"-eous hike, and part ways with the kids, as we fly home from Geneva, and they fly home from Zurich.