Entering the Swiss Alps

Our destination today was the Alps in CH. Where??? I wondered why CH is the abbreviation for Switzerland. Thankfully (sarcasm here), Google had the answer. When it was part of the Roman Empire, “Helvetia” was the name of the region now known as Switzerland. The area was divided into canons, three of which united to form a confederation in 1291. Confoederation Helvetica is the Latin form of Swiss Confederation, thus the country’s abbreviation is CH. Now that we’ve answered that question, we can move on to our activities in CH today.

It was a cloudy, drizzly day, but Ted and I were on a schedule, because we’d already paid to take a train ride called “Highlights of the Alps,” so that’s what we did. The day’s journey began with a bus ride from Basel to Interlaken. One review of Interlaken mentions that it’s worth visiting for a day, and that you can easily stroll the entire city within an hour. Interlaken used to be advertised as a spa town to cure ailments; today, it lures hikers who want to climb to the nearby mountain summits. I think it would have been prettier on a sunny day.

There were a lot of paragliders in Interlaken. They literally jump off a nearby mountain and drift down to this flat open space.
The buildings around the open space were very palatial and the landmark Victoria Jungfrau Hotel was possibly the most opulent. We got lucky. The clouds cleared just enough to see (most of) the profile of Jungfrau.
There was a pretty park across the street from the paraglider landing area.
Interlaken is set between Lake Brienz and Lake Thun (thus, the city’s name). I think this is Lake Brienz.

We got back on the bus and headed for Grindelwald, where we boarded a cogwheel train that took us to Kleine Scheidegg, described as a “breathtaking mountain pass with stunning mountain views.” The pass is 6,762 feet high. The views, however, were less than stunning because, as the train climbed higher, we moved into the clouds.

We saw many huts like this along the train route. We think they were for hikers and/or skiers.
We also saw many huge woodpiles–some bigger than this one, and some enclosed by three-walled, roofed buildings. Switzerland is heated mostly by oil, so again, this wood is probably for hikers or skiers.
This was our “stunning mountain view” from the pass.

We had a traditional, delicious Swiss lunch at the pass. As our guide was describing what we’d be doing and seeing while we paused at the pass, he nicely segued into an unplanned event. A young man in our group went down on his knee and proposed. She said “yes.”

We took the cogwheel train back down to Grindelwald, got back on the bus, and headed for Brienz, a small town known for its woodworking.

After enjoying some time in Brienz, we boarded the bus one more time and went to Zürich, our final destination of the day.