RTW 2013 | Interlaken & Grindelwald

Interlaken was a nice little detour along the Golden Pass from Montreux to Lucern. I only spent a few hours between Interlaken and Grindelwald, mostly because it was raining and because I wanted to spend the night in Lucerne. The train pulled past Interlaken West and on to Interlaken Ost, where I got off. I would’ve gone to Interlaken West (it’s a lot nicer looking), but the train to Grindelwald and Gimmelwald were through Interlaken Ost. Interlaken sits on at the foot of the Jungfrau, with the highest peak in Europe, the Jungfraujoch. I was originally going to go up to the peak, but due to time constraints and the fact that it was overcast and raining/snowing, I ended up not going all the way up.

I had about half an hour in Interlaken before catching the train on to Grindelwald. The beauty of Swiss train stations was that they are very traveler friendly. They take into consideration that you may be travelling from city to city and want to stop by somewhere for a bit. They provide luggage lockers as well as a manned luggage service to store bags for a few hours if you want to head off to somewhere without being encumbered by bags. I ended up opting for the lockers as it was a few CHF cheaper. It was nice, 5Fr. to lock up my belongings before heading off to Grindelwald.

The trip up to Grindelwald was steep, the cogwheel clicking furiously as we headed up the mountain. The rain started up again as we reached the peak, but the view was breathtaking. The village was spread out all over the countryside and you could see houses and farms littered throughout the mountains. I’ve always wonder what it’d be like to live in a house like that, out in the middle of the mountains, where you’d have to drive 30 min for milk.

When we reached the station, I hopped off and started walking up the hill. The visitor’s center was off to the right, but it was being renovated. I ended up walking around the town, and heading back to the train station. Since a lot of the business revolves around ski season, there were hotels and restaurants that were closed until winter season. I walked around the countryside a bit, but I felt self-conscious as I was sort of walking in between houses and stuff. I ended up going back to the main road in case some farmers came out. In some other towns, I’ve seem farmers walking around with shotguns …so I made sure to be care fun because didn’t want to end up getting shot or something (although everyone I’ve met so far has been super friendly).

The train down from Grindelwald gave me a 10min connection, which would’ve normally been ample time, especially given the fact that Swiss trains are incredibly timely; however, I was concerned that the rain may delay the train by a few minutes, which would’ve left me with a really tight connection (especially since I had to claim my bags from the locker and get to the right train platform). It all ended well, and I was well on my way to Lucerne.