Interlaken, Switzerland

Lake Lodge Hostel!

Welcome to the city of outdoor adventure! I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful and fun place to spend my 20th birthday. We finally arrived in Interlaken at around noon on Friday after getting on our first train at 6:30 am in Metz. It took us 5 1/2 hours and 2 different train transfers in both Strasbourg, France and Basel, Switzerland. Thankfully, I have mastered the art of sleeping on trains, so I felt pretty rested upon arriving into Interlaken. On the train we got our first views of how absolutely stunning Switzerland and specifically, Interlaken are. I knew that it would be beautiful from pictures that I had seen online, but I still wasn’t prepared for how truly spectacular it is. I have never seen water this turquoise before in my life.

Our own private balcony!

The hostel that we were staying at, called “Lake Lodge” was located 20 minutes outside of Interlaken in the town of Iseltwald on Lake Brienz. This was my favorite hostel so far. It was an adorable Swiss Chalet. My girl friends and I were super lucky because we chose to stay in a 4 bed private room. This room had a balcony with an amazing view of the lake. The other boys weren’t as lucky. They chose to stay in a dorm and the only thing separating the mattresses were 3×5 pieces of wood.

Iseltwald, Switzerland

We spent the beginning part of the afternoon exploring our tiny little town of Iseltwald. We were all pretty awestruck by Switzerland and wanted to take all of it in. I wouldn’t even really consider Isetlwald as a city. It’s more of a small town outside of Interlaken. There are a couple hotels and a a handful of houses, but there isn’t even a full grocery store here. Nonetheless, it was still fun to walk around. There is a play structure in the middle of this town with all sorts of fun things that we dont really have in America. As college student, we probably had more fun that we should have at the play structure, but I don’t think any of us were complaining.

Jungfrau Marathon

After hanging out in Iseltwald, we decided to take the bus back into Interlaken and explore that area. We were very surprised to see almost all of the city shut down. We didn’t realize, but one of the most famous marathons, the Jungfrau Marathon was taking place in Interlaken that weekend. The marathon was on Saturday, but on Friday there were lots of children fun runs and shorter races going on. It was very fun to be in that environment. There were tents and kiosks set up everywhere selling food and beer. I had my first Bratwurst from one of those tents for only 6 CHF!!! So cheap for Switzerland where everything is unbelievably expensive. We did more window shopping and obviously ate some Swiss chocolate. On one of the stores, it said “A dark chocolate a day keeps the doctor away.” I loved that!! We headed back early to Iseltwald on the bus because all of us had long days planned on Saturday.

Brienzer Rothorn Hiking Group

All of us split up on Saturday to do different activities in and around Interlaken. One group decided to stay in Iseltwald and rent kayaks from our hostel to paddle around Lake Brienz. Another group decided to take a train away from the two lakes in Interlaken to a town called Grindelwald and do some hiking in that area. I decided to go with a group on the Brienzer Rothorn hike. This hike started out of the town of Brienz which is on the opposite side of Lake Brienz from Iseltwald. We took the bus into Interlaken and then the train from Interlaken to Brienz. This took us about 40 minutes or so total, so not too bad. The hike that we decided on follows the same path as the Brienzer Rothorn Bahn railroad that takes people up to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Interlaken. Of course, we decided to save money and get (LOTS) of exercise by doing the hike instead.

We started way down there in Brienz!!

This was the most grueling hike that I have every been on. I would say that I do have experience with hiking. I grew up in California with parents who love camping so much that we own a camper trailer. This hike was unlike any other I have ever done before. I am used to climbing up a mountain with switchbacks and at least some up and down sections even if it is mainly uphill. I am not kidding when I say that this hike was just straight up the mountain. What’s even more surprising was that this trail was on a road that cars use for a lot of the time. I don’t understand how cars are able to go up and down this road. I’m not sure how often they actually do. There was lots of either horse or cow or donkey poop on the road, so it looked like maybe driving wasn’t the main form of transportation. It took us around 3 hours to get to the top of the mountain and we only got half of the way that the railroad would take us.

We arrived at the tiniest little town of Planalp at the end of our hike. I don’t understand how people survive here, especially in the winter. I don’t think that they are self-sufficient because I didn’t see any farming, but there were lots and lots of cows. I could constantly hear the sound of cow bells around me and then echoing off the mountain from other cows. I was so happy to reach the top and sit down and enjoy our lunch. We had probably the best view that I have ever seen in my entire life (well, before I went paragliding :)). Interlaken is so famous because it is quite unusual to have two lake situated so close together with a river connecting them. From way up on top of that mountain, we were able to catch a glimpse of both lakes, Lake Brienz and Lake Thun, with the city of Interlaken positioned in the middle. The views from up top of that mountain were definitely worth the exhausting hike.

Some of the cows with the beautiful view

Planalp

The Brienzer Rothorn Bahn Railroad

It has a restaurant and bar!

The view away from the lake

The view with both lakes!!

Iseltwald, where our hostel is, from our hike

Moo!

The hike took us around 5 1/2 hours total. We only covered around 6 miles in distance but 0.5 miles in elevation. Aftwerwards, we decided to reward ourselves with some gelato, of course, and a relaxing ferry ride back into Iseltwald. The views from the ferry were also unbelieable. I have just decided that Interlaken in the most beautiful place in the world and this is coming from a girl who has been to both Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe. My dad was very surprised when I said this, but I stand my ground!

Views from the Ferry!

After arriving back in Iseltwald, we hung out for a bit. My friend Anna and I were already sore from the hike that we only finished 1 hour before!! Needless to say, I was sore for a few days after that hike. It felt amazing to lie down for a little while. My friend, Olu had been tracking our hike and it said we burned over 2,000 calories!! So yeah, I was exhausted. I took the most amazing shower since being in Europe. I don’t know if it was because I was so exhausted and dirty from the hike (it rained the night before, so there was lots of mud) or if it was just because I hate my shower in Metz, but it was fantastic. I would have never expected a hostel to have such an amazing shower. While on the subject of this hostel, let me just say that this is the best hostel ever. It was the cleanest, had the best breakfast and had lots of provided activities. I was very happy with our hostel choice even though it was a little ways out of Interlaken. It proved to be no big deal because the hotel gave us free bus passes.

Swiss Cheese Fondue!

All 13 of my friends decided to go out to dinner on Saturday for my birthday. It was so nice of everybody to hang out and celebrate with me. We went to a restaurant and bar that our hostel receptionist recommended to us. It worked out perfectly and we even saw her there as we were finishing up! I just ended up having grilled chicken, but I was a little disappointed because it was so salty. However, the general consensus among most people was that the meal was too salty. We did, however, get to try Swiss Cheese Fondue!! It was very delicious. However, as a girl used to her Tex Mex Queso, it was very different. Still very good though. After our dinner, we went on a pub crawl around Interlaken. This took us to 3 different bars and 1 club. The first bar also happened to be the same place where we had dinner. Interlaken is not a very big place. It was really fun and a great way to meet other young people in Interlaken. I think the best part was the club at the end, which was in the bottom of one of the youth hostels in town. They were playing American music from 1-2 years ago, so it was fun to listen to some throwback music that we hadn’t heard in a while. We called it an earlyish night again, because we were all paragliding early in the morning!!!!

On Sunday morning (my actual birthday!!!), I went paragliding. Thank you so much to my parents for this amazing birthday present. This is by far the coolest thing that I have ever done. We drove 15-20 minutes up to the top of one of the mountains around Lake Thun. We then walked to what looked like someone’s backyard. There waiting for us were all of the parachutes lined up on the grassy hill one after another. My tandem paraglider, Anders, strapped me into my harness and said we were all ready to go. I even got to attach my digital camera into the harness so that I could use it when we were up in the air. When we were all ready to go, Anders told me to just start running down the hill. This was the only time where I started to get nervous. We ran down the hill and all of a sudden, our parachute caught wind and we were flying off the mountain. That was the most amazing experience that I have ever had. We were legitimately flying and floating through the sky. We went through clouds and right next to cliffs. It was so fun. My guide, Anders had a Go Pro camera attached to the end of a stick so he took lots of pictures and videos of us up in the air. I have included some of the pictures here and will upload the video later. When we were landing, he told me to hold the Go Pro. I was like “You really trust me not to drop this thing?”. Well, I didn’t drop it so I guess that was good. The landing was so simple! I felt silly. You literally just have your feet touch the ground and take a couple steps. Well, at least that’s what you’re supposed to do and what Anders did. I was a little more hesitant and just decided to stand there and plop my butt on the ground. Oh well.. it seemed like all of my friends were doing the same thing.

Parachutes ready to go!

Pre takeoff selfie wih Anders

I’M FLYING

Another paraglider with a view of Lake Brienz

Interlaken form up above

Just hanging

After a long morning with paragliding, we all went and got pizza at a place nearby. All of us had an entire 12″ pizza to ourselves. It was so very delicious. Then, my two girl friends gave me macaroons on my birthday. It was so nice and I ate them all on Sunday :o. They were so good!!! We took the train back to Metz and arrived around 8 pm. I was able to talk to my family for just a tiny bit. The internet connection is terrible on my dorm and especially on Sunday when everyone is returning from trips. I had a great birthday in Interlaken, but birthdays are never quite the same away from home. My family does an awesome job with birthdays.

Me and my pizza!!

FaceTime with the Family!