Interlaken-Meiringen-Luzern July 2016 trip report

Hello,

I would like to thank Slowpoke before anything else to help me in the planing stage. The reports as well as the help provided by this forum made the planning stage feel like a breeze. :D This post is also going to be long, so I am going to describe each day in a different post in this thread.

I was in Switzerland July 15th-July 19th. We had extremely clear days, beautiful weather and great travel companions. I was traveling with my parents and we were quite tired after attending conferences in Italy for a week. We met up in Torino, Italy and the journey to Interlaken was not an easy one, with all our luggages. My mom kind of got prepared for the worst weather and got for herself the clothing she would wear if there were subzero temperatures, and that took up a lot of space. Since I stay half a world across from my family, she also got me a lot of things, and while they are things I love, they occupied a lot of luggage. This is the premise to many decisions we made through the entire trip. Some other premises: I am extremely addicted to my gadgets, and decided to make this trip without any of them other than my camera. We did not get a sim, but for emergency purposes, my US carrier was on for my phone, which I did not require. Hence a good amount of pre-planning was essential, which saved us. We also had a 4-day Swiss travel pass and it was such a boon.

July 15th : Turin-Interlaken

We made the 2:19 pm train from Porta Susa (Torino) to Novara. Then after a few cancellations of trains which would have directly taken us to Domodossola, we went to Domodossola through Arona, then Domodossola-Brig, then Spiez and then Interlaken West, near which we booked our hotel. So that was a lot of pulling luggage. And trains in Italy did not co-operate. Some trains were canceled, some came so late that we had too little time to drag all the luggage across to avail the connecting train; for some, the platforms were changed repeatedly. Swiss trains, as usual, were extremely good. There were ticket-checkers, trains on time, slopes to drag our luggage on from one platform to another etc. Perfect for us. My parents were somehow scared that the trains won't stop long enough to board or get down with all the luggages we had. This was unfounded, and nothing of that sort happened. However, other than that, the whole road from Torino to Interlaken was as beautiful as it gets. We had views of Alps through the whole journey, lakes suddenly appearing in view, getting closer to mountains as we got closer to Interlaken. Especially Torino-Novara looked beautiful with small villages with yellow fields and a view of Alps. While approaching Arona, we saw the beautiful lake Maggiore which we also saw when we started our journey towards Domodossola. Then there were numerous tunnels which took us through the mountains. The view while we were waiting at the Brig station made us so happy with a clear view of mountains around us, and we hoped for clear days ahead. We reached Interlaken West at around 8 PM. Took a taxi to the hotel, since we were exhausted after carrying stuff all day. Now, Swiss taxi fares, as you would find in every guide are much more costly than those in Italy. So 20 minutes in a taxi in Torino cost us 20 Euros, and 3 minutes in a taxi in Interlaken cost us 10 CHF. Anyway, once we arrived in our hotel in Interlaken West, we got an amazing view of the Alps in front of us from the balcony itself. We had quick food at an Indian restaurant just in front of our hotel. The food was really good. We had a little time before the sunset and we went on a stroll around the place. Unterseen looked so beautiful in the little we saw of it. The white peaks of the mountains looked golden in the sunset, but to add to our concerns, clouds started enveloping the peaks, and I was sad that our major plans will go to waste. Here's how it looked : www.anony.ws/image/NNu P. Anyway, to have an early start to the next day, we went off to sleep early.

A few thoughts at the end of the first day. We should have stayed higher up in Grindelwald or Murren for a better view. We were not so sure of which train we would be able to avail from Torino (given we were meeting up after our conferences) and whether we would get enough time to make the journey up with our luggage. We also thought of trying for Harder Kulm that very day. But we were deadbeat after a full first day.

More to come on my next post on this thread.

July 16th 2016 Around Interlaken

We woke up at around 5:30 AM, a bit early to gauge the weather. We requested our hotel to give us breakfast 10 minutes earlier than the usual time, which was 7 AM and they nicely obliged. We had breakfast and set off for the day. Meanwhile we saw possibility of clear skies ahead. So we took a train from Interlaken West to Interlaken Ost and then to Lauterbrunnen for Schilthorn. The journey from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen was picturesque. I loved the views from Schilthorn in photos than Jungfraujoch, so chose this one. Also, when we got off at Lauterbrunnen we saw the rush towards Kleine Scheidegg and felt happy to take the other way. We went up via Grütschalp to Mürren. The rides were fantastic with mountains rolling beside us, and sudden small streams flowing. Mürren is one beautiful place, and after much photo-ops, we went up from Mürren to Birg and directly went up to Schilthorn. Lake Grausseli was frozen. What a view it was. All you could see were mountains around you. We feel lucky to have reached at a time when the visibility was really good and the Sun not so high up. It was windy at the edges, but quite pleasant on the deck. We spent almost an hour there on the deck, then walked on the fresh snow that fell the previous day to the Adventure walk from there. My mom sadly had a minor slip in the snow there, which came to bite us later in the day. Anyway we went and had a second small breakfast in Piz Gloria (Elevenses rather; Hobbits anyone?) and were amused at how the restaurant rotates and the view from there. I decided to stay away from gadgets but my dad did not; so resulted in a few excited FB posts. After a full 360 degrees or so of the restaurant, we decided to go down to Birg. Big has the newly opened Thrill walk. My mom was still a little down from her slip, so she was happily lying on the cushions of the Birg observation deck (or skyline walk as they call it) and enjoying the view around, while my dad and I went on the Thrill walk. It was fun, not much thrill, just involved a little walk on the roap, and transparent glass, that's all. Here is the photo for walk on the roap: www.anony.ws/image/NNw N and here's the one for the walk on the clear surface: www.anony.ws/image/NNw Z . Other than that, it was walking up and down the stairs to see great views around.

We came down to Mürren, walked again across almost all the town, and went to Allmendhubel. The person at the ticketing centre of the funicular reminded us that it was not the way to Schilthorn. We smiled, thanked him for the information and insisted he give us a ticket anyway. While we waited for the funicular, we admired how beautifully the houses were adorned with flowers and the gardens surrounding each establishment with myriad flowers around them. It is a beautiful town. We went up to Allmendhubel and we met a group of people who were going on North Face trail. We sadly could not do that trail, and we went around on the flower trail. The views from Allmendhubel are spectacular as well, and I saw some peculiar Alpine flowers which are quite unique. However, we were not quite fortunate to see a good bloom this year. There were more placards with the flower names written than plants at certain patches. We went on a bit on the North face trail with the group we met and they described how they have hiked the mountains in Colorado last month and I expressed keen interest since that trip is coming soon for me.Then we went back on the funicular to meet another interesting couple sitting across from us, discussing flowers in different mountainous regions with us. The funicular here started late by 10 minutes or so (the only late thing in Switzerland we faced). We went back again across the town to go down to Stechelberg. The way down was gorgeous, with so many waterfalls, green valleys and view of rivers. We stopped at Stechelberg for a while to look at the beautiful falls there. We had planned to go to Trummelbach falls, but gave up on the idea since my mom's feet were aching a bit. We took the bus through the beautiful landscape to Lauterbrunnen, had food there in a local restaurant, clicked a bit of Staubbach falls.

We kind of gave up on all other plans we had for the day, and decided to make good use of our Swiss travel pass and just go around by train, since that might be a relief to my mom. So we went to Grindelwald, then Kleine Scheidegg and back by Lauterbrunnen. We stopped at each place and walked around a bit. We found Grindelwald too touristy (I felt it was more touristy than Interlaken, but then we did not venture much away from the train station). There was Eiger Ultra Trail going on and a huge crowd around that. I liked Kleine Scheidegg though. It was nice walking around there. I wish we could make the walk KS-Mannlinchen, but may be some other time. We came down to our hotel by 7 PM. Mom put her feet in hot water and felt better. So we went to Harder Kulm.

We took the last harderbahn up to watch to sunset, and I would say we did the right thing in doing so, since the sunset that day was too beautiful. The view from Harder was so good at sunset. We saw lake Brienz for the first time from the top. The color of the water, and different shades of orange and red it reflected during sunset was worth noticing. And the mountains changed colors to different shades and we were enthralled at the display. We took the last train down, went and ate in a restaurant in Interlaken and took the late train to Interlaken West.

[One thing I forgot to mention about in the previous post was how beautiful the journey from Spiez to Interlaken West. It was along the Thun lake and every turn of the train gave us breathtaking images. I wished we could do boating on Lake Thun as well, but time constraints :( ]

Overall this was a wonderful day. Though much of what we planned did not happen, thanks to the Swiss travel pass, we could just hop on trains so that we do not miss anything. And my mom showed great spirit. I never thought I could do so much on one day with my parents. Also, one more thing my parents enjoyed was bakery products in Switzerland. They are so good and filling that no one complained about eating the whole day. Food was extremely good wherever we ate. People were so nice. We met very nice backpackers and groups who told us all sorts of their stories. Some couple even told us their 33 years of coming to Bernese Oberlands from UK each year at the same time. As my dad said, you miss out on stuff even when you blink. Thanks to the forum again for the plan. More on the trip in the next post in this thread.

July 17th Meiringen

We checked out of our hotel, put our luggage in Interlaken Ost luggage lockers and took the Brienzersee ferry to Brienz. The color of the lake coupled with the view of the surrounding mountains was so good. We saw many waterfalls on the way. We got down at Brienz, caught a train and went to Meiringen. We walked to Reichenbach falls, and on the way we saw the Sherlock Holmes Museum from outside. It was not open in the morning, we read it opens late. It's a good 20 minutes walk from the train station to the falls and the way is marked. Meiringen looked like a nice town. We caught the funicular up Reichenbach, and my parents did not want to walk all the way up. The falls looks really nice, and I was too excited. I went up to the top station. We did some photo ops at the falls, got sprayed nicely, and got back. Then we caught the train from Meiringen Alpbach station to Aareschlucht West and walked to Aare gorge. It's so different, and awe-inspiring craft of nature. I first thought it'll be a difficult stretch for my parents, and we will not do the whole stretch, but once we started, my parents were in for walking the whole way. It's a marvelous thing to walk by - an easy walk with only steps leading up at the end. We were hungry at the end, so bought delicious meringues, and went to catch the train from Aareschlucht Ost. And we found out that the train stops inside a tunnel there, and we were so taken by it. We caught the train to Meiringen and went back to Interlaken Ost.

We collected our luggage and went on the Golden Pass train from Interlaken to Luzern. At this point we thought it would have been best to leave them at Meiringen Bahnof rather than at Interlaken Ost, but we did not want luggage to impede our boat trip too. Also, there was a plan to see Giessbach falls which did not materialize. And we thought dragging luggage will be too much for us. There was the thought of sending it by express delivery too, which my parents were not too keen on. Anyway, the way from Interlaken to Luzern was again so beautiful. So many waterfalls, mountains, tunnels... we enjoyed a lot. The train was crowded, this being the peak tourist season. We managed 3 seats together with difficulty.

Once we reached Luzern, we had a lovely room we got at Airbnb. A modern furnished studio room, near to the station and close to everything we could have wanted. We relaxed a bit, went and saw Chapel Bridge and Lion Monument. Luzern is so different from what we were seeing till that day in Switzerland. It's a proper city with lots of bakeries and shops. The lake is very similar to what we see in other cities, only with more swans, geese and other birds. The Chapel Bridge is a neat structure, decorated with beautiful flowers and we took a lot of photographs there. The Lion Monument is some 15 minutes walk from there, and it was poignant. We had dinner nearby and bought a lot of Bachman chocolates. We loved the Bachman bakery items a lot. While walking back to our place of stay, the sunset view of the Chapel Bridge was great.

July 18th Mt. Rigi

We only had until 4 pm on this day and we decided to go to Mt. Rigi. Couple of friends suggested it to me, and after I went there I am so grateful. We shunted our luggage in Luzern station luggage lockers, picked up breakfast at Bachman and took the boat from Luzern to Vitznau. The boat ride was again wonderful. It was different from our lake Brienz boat ride, but beautiful no doubt. I feel bad to compare this, but when I have taken boat rides in many other countries, people can go up the deck or choose to sit down and there is no such thing as class. Having that here felt a bit weird to me. Also there was another thing I noticed. The percentage of older people in the boat ride was much higher than I usually saw anywhere else. I do not know if that was something pertinent to only that day or whether there is some other reason. Anyway, we took the cogwheel train up to Mt. Rigi, and the view from the train was mind-blowing. But then when we got up the top, we felt like never leaving Switzerland at all. Such a clear day, so many mountains at one side, vast expanse of lakes and green lands at the other, so many flowers in the valleys. We walked around a lot, sometimes on trail and sometimes just like that and enjoyed being there a lot. We came back by train through Arth Goldau. The way back was a different type of scenery and we enjoyed it as well.

We picked up luggage in Luzern, took the only direct train to Milan for the day. There was one thing I noticed - no one bothered about seat reservations at all. Also, we somehow had to change train at Lugano, and the seating system was a mess. We carried a lot of Bachman bakery items with us and they came to use when the train was delayed an hour after entering Italy. A poor guy sitting near us was too nervous about catching his flight, thanks to this delay. I missed the bakery products when I came back home next day, tried to grab a quick muffin and it ended up too sweet for my taste :( I can not wait to go back to Switzerland and write longer trip reports :P I also have a lot of wonderful photos, but somehow attaching them here became difficult for unknown reasons. Thank you again for all your advice! :)

Hi! Thanks for your detailed description of your trip. It is useful to me as I have planed to visit these places by next week precisely from 31st July to 4th August 16. We are senior citizens and prior information is very useful.

I need following informations,

1) Do we need to carry heavy winterwear or lighter one is adequate, particularly for Jungfru and Titles.

2) You have visited Mt. Rigi. Which is better place to visit, Mt. Rigi or Mt. Pilatus?

I have 2 days in Interlaken and 2 days in Lucerene. What are your suggestions to visit?

Regards

Dr. Dakshinamoorthy

Welcome back RoHirRim!

Thanks so much for your very extensive trip report and the beautiful pictures you've linked to. I'm not sure why you weren't able to attach some of them here, but it might have to do with file size. If resizing your pictures doesn't work out for you, please feel free to e-mail us some of them, so we can attach them.

Anyway, you were definitely able to vividly describe your days in Switzerland. I'm very glad to hear you and your parents enjoyed your stay and had clear weather during your entire stay. Especially mountain top visits such as Schilthorn and Rigi are very weather dependent, and clear skies make such a difference to the overall experience. Great that you did not only enjoy the views up at Schilthorn, but the Birg Thrill walk as well! I haven't done the walk myself yet, so it's nice to get other travelers' information. Too bad your mother slipped, but I figure she didn't mind admiring the views from a comfortable seat that much ;-).

So you too experienced the Swiss Travel Pass's major advantage: being able to go wherever you want, without buying tickets or getting reservations. It really helps to adapt your plans if necessary, whether it's due to weather circumstances, physical fitness of one of the travel party's members, etc. Just making some scenic train rides is very pleasant as well, and a great way of spending your day if other plans don't work.

By the way, I fully understand there were more walks and rides you would have loved to experience, but one just can't do it all in one holiday. Coming back for more is the second best plan :-).

Thank you Dr. Dakshinamoorthy for your kind words.

If I go by what my mom felt during the trip (she is the one in the family who is sensitive to cold), she managed with a sweater almost the entire trip, except at the top of Schilthorn. As any other person living in a cold climate will tell you, it's the wind or rain coupled with low temperatures on a sunny day that make you feel cold. Jungfraujoch will be colder than Schilthorn, and I am guessing windy too. So my suggestion will to be to carry layers, instead of one heavy jacket. Also something to protect you against wind is helpful. I do not know if it's just my parents, but covering ears, hands and good shoes go a long way in making you feel warmer.

I have visited Mt. Rigi and it is a spectacular place. I have not visited Mt. Pilatus. I just used some feedback from friends and forum discussions to plan my trip. And from what I know, Mt. Pilatus is much higher and you will be able to get the alpine rocky feeling, in addition to good views. Mt. Rigi is lower and offers green meadows and easy walking around the lush green valleys with flowers all around, coupled with of course spectacular views. But then, I am biased. You might ask someone who has been to both.

Interlaken is a great place. There are numerous places to go around. You can go to Jungfraujoch/Schilthorn, do the Mannlinchen-Kleine Scheidegg walk (though this walk is easy, it still depends on your fitness level since you said there will be senior citizens traveling), Grindelwald-First, take a boat ride in Lake Brienz/Thun, Schynige Platte, Brienzer-Rothorn etc. We enjoyed sunset at Harder Kulm a lot. You might see what I am speaking of here: www.anony.ws/image/NNX 7, www.anony.ws/image/NNX p. While in Luzern, try to spend half a day in city sightseeing, especially the Lion Monument. You might also go see Rhine falls. We did not go there since my parents had visited Rhine falls before, and they liked the place a lot. Go to one or more of Mt. Titlis/Rigi/Pilatus, and include a Lake Lucerne boating trip in there. Also, I noticed you will be there on August 1st. That's Swiss National Day if I am not wrong. There might be special tours like sunrise/sunset tours etc available on that day and it might be nice to avail one of them. Good luck in your trip and have fun! :)

Thank you Annika! I will try with resizing; if it does not work, I will email. Clear weather was such a boon for us, and I am so glad we saw what we wanted to see and much more. :) And yes, to my mom it was the right admixture, great view in lazying comfort. Thanks to this forum again for justifiably extolling the virtues of Swiss travel pass. It is a great value financially as well as in terms of saving time and energy. I look forward to coming back to Switzerland soon! :)

Hi! Thanks for your immediate reply to my queries. Myself and my wife both are senior citizens are planning the trip. As suggested by you, we are planning to carry multiple layers of winterwear. We are used to cold conditions and high altitudes. in fact last 40 days we are in Denver, CO which is 5500' above. and visited Mt. Evans 1450', Only i thought of avoiding carrying heavy winterwear due to weight limitation in the international travel. We are on our way from US back to India planing the trip. Whether only for Jungfru and Titles, whether can taken on rental?

Your feedback is very helpful. Thanks once again.

Dr. Dakshinamoorthy

I did not see any winter-wear rental place, so just carrying extra jackets would be my suggestion. If you were traveling in US, I would have suggested you to buy from Walmart and return it later, if you did not use/like it. But I am not so sure about the return policies of stores in Switzerland. If weight is a concern, you might try to carry lightweight hybrid jackets. Again, I am not an expert on this. But I will say this. The things I made my parents carry were 1 sweater and 1 hooded lightweight jacket each, in addition to gloves. The only times they wore their jackets were at night (we did roam about to see Interlaken at night after Harder Kulm), in the mornings and on tops of places (reason:wind). I carried rain ponchos (they are ultra lightweight, and much easier to carry than other rain gears) and extra earmuffs (they did not need this). Hope this helps. On another note, it's really nice you visited Colorado; it's one of my favorite states in the US.

<<"I would like to thank Slowpoke before anything else to help me in the planing stage.">>

Thanks, glad to help a Tolkien fan. ;-)

Slowpoke

Thanks so much for this detailed trip report - we are planning a trip up to Allmendhubel next week and I am toying with the Schilthorn trip. I am actually gutted to see that the thrill walk has opened in time for our trip as I have a 12 year old who wants to do it, however I am scared of heights. When you say it was fun but not thrilling does that mean that heights-wise if wasn't too bad? Did it feel safe? How long are you on it for? Is it very busy? I love your photos of it and in fact they are the first ones I have found on the whole internet!

Hello JoeyA,

I would not be able to judge it from the acrophobia point of view. But there are a few flights of stairs going down : www.anony.ws/image/NNB W. And then there are a few more: www.anony.ws/image/NNB v. It felt safe, since it is a sturdy structure. You can gauge how narrow it was from this: www.anony.ws/image/NNB e. Also, you can look through the stairs down. I do not know if that would bother you. You would not go down a lot from the main platform though. The whole thing would take merely 10-15 minutes, depending on your photo-ops time, crowd and how long you wait for someone to walk the rope etc. When I went it was not so crowded. It was a normal flow of people I would say. Have fun on your trip.

Wow those photos are amazing, it looks awesome but also terrifying so i sadly won't be going anywhere near it. I'd love to not be scared of heights and just be able to enjoy that spectacular view. Thanks for sharing, we are off on Sunday, can't wait!

Hi RohHirHim -

Those pictures are excellent for capturing the mood and feel of the place.

Thanks for linking.

Slowpoke

Hi RoHirRim,

Thank you for your detailed trip report! It has been very helpful and filled with information useful for other travelers.

May I ask on the luggage locker facilities you used at Interlaken OST and Luzern - approximately how big are they? What size luggage did you bring that could fit in there?

Thanks!

Hi Applegsy-

Information about left luggage services and lockers (equipment) size, number and cost is available for every station on the Swiss rail network.

Use the SBB website; the information is buried in the menus..

In general terms, Home page/ Stations and Services, then "find a station" then look under the Services and also the Equipment tabs.

Here is an example for Interlaken Ost.

www.sbb.ch/en/station-services/am-bahnhof/railway-stations/bahnhof-finden.posid.7492.html

Slowpoke

Hello Applegsy!

Thank you for your kind words! Slowpoke, as usual, pointed you at the right direction.

As for us, we had different sized luggage bags. The largest one took a whole big locker (CHF 7) and had been coupled with the smallest one. And in the other locker(s), the other bags fit nicely. Size of locker in Interlaken Ost is slightly bigger than we got in Luzern, or so we felt; so we took 2 lockers in Interlaken Ost and 3 in Luzern. Fitting large suitcase or coupling many bags together in one locker did not pose any problem.

Just 2 things. Carry 5/2/1 CHF coins; the lockers are coin-operated. There was another problem I saw many of our fellow locker-users facing (it is quite intuitive, but it may not strike your mind when you are in a hurry). If you open your luggage locker after closing it, to close it back again, you need to put another 7 CHF (or 5, depending on the size you are using). So unless you are done with putting in all your luggage and won't need them before leaving, do not lock it. Good luck for your trip. :)

Hi RoHirRim-

Thanks.

<<"Just 2 things. Carry 5/2/1 CHF coins; the lockers are coin-operated.">>

At many of the larger stations, there are coin/note changing machines near the lockers or the pay toilets. For some reason that I do not understand, these do not always operate with Swiss precision. I'd say 80%, and when you really need one, it is out of service. I also get change by buying a newspaper or some other small item, as well. By the time i finish any Swiss trip, I have too many coins in my pockets.

The free luggage carts at the main rail stations require a 2 CHF coin deposit to free them from the storage queue; you recover it when you plug the cart back into a different queue. On some a Euro coin ( 1 or 2, Euros, I forget) will also work.

In the countryside, sometimes toilets at train stations require a half-CHF coin or similar. More and more of those are closed due to vandalism, unfortunately. Not very Swiss. ;-(

Slowpoke

I enjoyed all the info concerning what clothes to take. I would like to know if jeans are okay in restaurants. We will be in Montreux, Zermatt, Wengen and Lucerne. We are trying to minimize the am't of clothes we are bringing in order to keep our suitcases to one each. Thanks

Jeans are fine everywhere except may be in the fanciest (expensive) restaurants. No worries, many people hike and enjoy the outdoors in the Alps and don't pack lots of clothing.