Interlaken

When I heard that there was a city in Switzerland called Interlaken (pronounced the same as Michigan’s Interlochen), I knew I had to go there. I must say, Switzerland definitely lives up to its reputation as a beautiful location. The landscape is stunning.

Interlaken isn’t a very large town, so there are only so many hostels in the town. I arrived in the afternoon, and when I tried to check in to a hostel I found out that there happened to be a festival going on at the time, and while there were openings that night, the following night was all booked up. This was the case at all the hostels in town. I still wanted to spend more than just one day in Interlaken, though. So, I hatched a plan.

Now, Interlaken is famous for it’s hiking, so there’s lots of trails around the city. Of particular interest to me was the Harder Kulm trail, which went from Interlaken up the mountain to an outpost at the peak.

After checking out of my hostel, I spent the day exploring the city and taking in the scenery. At about 6 pm I headed to the trailhead and started the hike up Harder Kulm. It’s about a 5 mile hike overall, and it was fairly steep. Here’s a picture of the typical trail conditions

Two miles in or so, the trail went straight through a cow pasture! There was a fare in the fence, and the trail just went right through. There was a cow standing on the path, and I had to walk around it.

After about one more mile, I came across a small turn-off from the trail that led to a wooden structure built into the hill, and I decided this would be my home for the night. You see, my plan for this hike was to find a place to sleep for the night, since the woods seemed safer to me than an alley or something. This place was an excellent fit.

My last visitor was at about 8:00PM, and after that my only company was the small field mouse who lived nearby. I named him Nibbles after the way he ate the bread crusts I gave him.

The view was amazing. I unfortunately didn’t get to see either the sunset or the sunrise because I was facing the wrong way, but watching the last traces of sun slowly disappear from the peak of Finsteraarhorn (The third highest peak in the Alps, and the highest in Switzerland) was still an awesome experience in the fullest sense of the word.

The night was fairly cold, but it stayed above freezing at least. I think it was around 45° at the coldest. It wasn’t a very good sleep, but I did get a few hours of rest. In the morning, I finished the hike up the mountain to the outpost at the top and took the first train down at 8:00AM.

There was a train going directly to Berlin at 10:00, so I hopped on that after stopping in at the store in town for some breakfast.

That’s all for now, farewell until next time!