Last July, my family and I decided to visit the traditional resort town of Interlaken in the mountainous Bernese Oberland region of central Switzerland. Its name very cleverly comes from its location, as this town is squeezed in a relatively narrow strip between the two lakes of Thun and Brienz – interlaken literally means ‘between two lakes’.
We decided on this region because my dad had visited here as a child with his parents and he wanted to do the same for his family. My grandparents have gone back a couple of times since, they say that they can’t get enough of the place and its beauty.
There is so much to do in this area and, as we found out, it is hard to fit it all in! Over the next few posts of mine I am going to be relaying our week in Interlaken pointing out top tips and things to do along the way. As always, if you have any tips on Switzerland that you think others would want to know, don’t be shy to add them to the comments below!
Day 1 – Sunday 22nd July 2018
We flew into EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (bit of a mouthful I know), which is situated around a 2 hour train journey from Interlaken. The journey seemed to go by very quickly though because of all the beautiful scenery that passed by between the towns. In the early afternoon, we arrived at Interlaken Ost station, just a few minutes away from our apartment. Our Airbnb host Fritz very kindly offered to meet us at the train station and drive us to our apartment so we didn’t have to lug our suitcases down the road. He also insisted he give us a quick tour of the area so we can get out bearings, although I think it left us feeling more confused because we saw so much (bless him)!
After half an hour or so, we arrived at the apartment which felt very traditionally Swiss. You can see where we stayed using this link which will take you to the Airbnb listing. There is a full kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room and a balcony which was really nice to sit out on in the evenings when we were relaxing after a long day.
It is also a stones throw away from the River Aare which is the main river that flows through Interlaken and feeds the two lakes either side. The water in this river has come straight from a glacier up in the mountains, and it is incredible how blue it is – we were told that this is because of all the minerals present in the water from the rocks. All I know for sure was that it was freezing! You’d have to be very brave to have a swim in there that’s for sure.
After spending some time settling into our home for the week, we set out to explore the area on foot. As it was quite late there wasn’t much open apart from the supermarket, so we did a food shop for breakfasts and packed lunches and dropped this back. We then walked about 5 minutes back to a little Italian restaurant we saw when we were wandering, and we decided to have something to eat here. It was a nice meal and filled a hole, but I couldn’t wait to try some more traditional Swiss cuisine.
After a long day of travelling, we decided to settle down for an early night before we got properly stuck into what Switzerland has to offer…
Stay tuned for more on Interlaken in the next few days.
Happy travelling!
Zoe and David x
Written by Zoe
Not-So-Trendy Travellers 