Around Interlocken

So, after a couple of breaks for phone calls and photos, I’m finally up to writing about today. It’s a nice circular form, really. I’m sitting here in Alp Lodge Hostel, the very same place my day started. This morning, though, I was leaning on a small red button desperately willing my bladder not to explode while I waited on the manager to come check us in. I gave up after 15 minutes and ran up the road to public bathrooms while Tiff continued to buzz. On my return trip from my natural duties I paused to read the hostel sign closer. “Check in time: 3:30-11:00PM.” That explained that pretty well. Lucky for us, there were lockers in the hostel’s foyer that we could (or at least did) use to store our packs. Then we set off to see the rest of Interlocken.
It doesn’t take long to see the town, really. It’s a bunch of tourist shops set in front of key streets with bars and houses on the rest. The altstadt (“old city,” remember?) is cute, and has a Museum of Tourism that shows the city’s early mining of the traveler’s pocketbook. The twin churches near the west station are gorgeous on the outside, but the stone gothic one’s contemporary interior is startlingly barren. During the summer, there’s a Wilhelm Tell festival in town, but it’s too cold for the famous archer right now. A shaky hand would make his apple stunt much less impressive.
Tiff and I found the highlight of today’s trip to be the hiking. Trails criss-cross this entire area, mostly thanks to the various tourists that have been exploring nearby Jungfrau mountain for ages. We’re going up part of Jungfrau tomorrow, but we just couldn’t swing the 160 Swiss Francs to go all the way to the top, and it’s cloudy anyway. It seems like it’s always cloudy when I come to Switzerland, but I think that’s just the weather here.
The first train we took after seeing the churches and booking tickets for tomorrow’s train ride. It led us up along the Aare canal that connects the lakes Thunersee and Brienzersee. The water here is so clear that you can see to the bottom of all but the deepest areas, where it turns a light blue color. I think the color’s actually called “alpine blue” since it occurs only (or at least mostly) in Alpine streams, but I’m not sure. It’s gorgeous, at any rate. We followed the trail across a railway bridge, which was exciting, and up a rather steep hill to the ruin of Goldswil. Goldswil was a 13th century monastery that was abandoned in the 14th century and forgotten soon thereafter. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the seventeenth century and in 1944 it was restored and the cemetery around it was opened (I’m assuming the part about the cemetery because that’s the earliest date I could find on any of the tombstones). We sat there among the dead and their memories to munch on our peanut-butter dipped doppel-keks, Reeses’, peanuts, and Gushers fruit snacks. The hike up had us both thirsty, and guzzling down the water in the suddenly very chilly wind made me feel very much alive.
We took in the view for another few minutes before heading back down the hill and up the opposite bank of the river to a nature reserve. There we saw mountain goats and marmots in decently constructed environments (or so Tiff says). I took plenty of pictures because the entire set up reminded me of my family reunions in Gatlinburg. You can see in my various pictures the older goats perched in the cabin at the top of the hill while the younger ones run around the lower area. Also, the larger quantities of food are all at the bottom of the hill, so when the goats all eat together, they do it there. They all have secret stashes closer to the cabin too, though. They all appear quite content up there, too.
On the way back through town I saw a woman feeding the ducks and swans. I had to take a few pictures. I ended up going overboard, with something around 30 pictures that I can’t bring myself to get rid of. I’ve always liked ducks, and they’re cute pictures, so enjoy!
After the ducks, Tiff and I went to the ruin of Unspunnen. This hike was a little more uphill than the other one, but for a shorter length. We passed the old gallows, which were built facing the fortress and the church, as well as overlooking all the town. They were uncovered as recently as 1992, and it’s easy to wonder what else is lying below these hills.
I don’t actually know what Unspunnen was used for, but it was well fortified. The ruin shows an outer wall, an inner wall, and a still-standing central turret. The arrowslits are mostly whole, and the view is spectacular. You can also tell that the original fortress was built right into the mountain. I’d like to know more, but the historical marker has been removed. I’ll have to research Unspunnen more another day.
Darkness fell as we hurried back around the hill and past the gallows. We grabbed a dinner of bread and cheese which was much more filling than it sounds, and are now slipping off to bed. Tomorrow starts early with our trip around the area, and tomorrow night will be spent upright on a night train, which means I’d better sleep while I can.