Tour of the French and Swiss Alps by Train, part 4

Mountains, Lakes and Home

The Wednesday featured a day out in the Bernese Oberland in the Great Rail Journeys itinerary, including the ascent to Jungfraujoch using the new Eiger Express cable car from the edge of Grindelwald to an intermediate station part of the way up the Eiger. We had been to Jungfraujoch before and although we enjoyed it very much we felt that on this occasion our time would be better spent exploring other places in the local area rather than repeating that visit. It's not that we don't like seeing the same things twice, but the particular things that we enjoyed at Jungfraujoch did not seem worthwhile compared with the idea of exploring Grindelwald and Wengen (both of which we had also seen before!) and riding more trains rather than the cable car. 

Those going on the full excursion were warned to take warm clothing, even though the weather at Interlaken was hot and sunny when we walked with them to Interlaken Ost railway station. We did take some warm clothing, as we were heading to broadly the same area, but not intending to climb quite so high. We decided to travel with the party as far as Grindelwald Terminal, where the rest of them would be taking the cable car, then we would walk into Grindelwald centre, have coffee and then take a train via Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen for lunch, moving on to Lauterbrunnen where we would rejoin the party to travel together back to Interlaken. We had the train timings for the party and could easily fit our schedule into it, meaning that our travel to Grindelwald and from Lauterbrunnen was covered by the rail pass we had been issued - a pass that also gave us half-fares on the section between which we were paying-for ourselves.

The Swiss are always developing their railways. Not only did our train stop at the new station at Grindelwald Terminal to connect with the Eiger Express cable car, but also at an earlier station on the edge of Interlaken that serves the commercial area around the airfield. Our walk from the rail station into the centre of Grindelwald was warm and sunny and very pleasant. Although the station we had left was called "Terminal" it was not the end of the line! It was the terminal of the cable car system, which had been under construction last time we were here. The actual terminus in the centre of Grindelwald was being improved to provide better facilities for the town itself and so was a bit of a building site. Nearby was the hotel where we had stayed on our last visit so we strolled over to have a quick look and reminisce,  and spotting a waiter setting out some outdoor tables we decided to have our coffee there - something we had never done when we were staying there. 

Then we had a little walk around the shops and went to buy our tickets. There was some uncertainty about whether we needed to pay for the bit between Kleine Scheidegg and Lauterbrunnen which may or may not have been covered by our GRJ rail pass, but as we were travelling alone we were asked to pay and did so, quite contentedly. By the way, if you think rail fares in the UK are expensive, even at half-fare these little Swiss mountain railways are very expensive, but, then, think of the engineering they have to pay for! Anyway, we had a great ride. I had forgotten just how steep these cog railways in this part of the country can be until the train took a steep dive down the hillside to the "downhill" part of Grindelwald where it changed direction and then climbed steeply back up the other side to begin the ascent to the north face of the Eiger.

As the train climbed so we began to glimpse snow from the train windows (this is June, remember!) and by the time we descended from the train at Kleine Scheidegg there was a lot of snow around, although not at the station. Now it was cold, though, and we wore such clothing as we had brought and made sure we stood in the sunshine. The rest of the party would be up at the Jungfraujoch now, with the icicles and the ice palace and the view down to the glaciers. And the chocolate and watch shops! There is nothing much at Kleine Scheidegg except the train up inside the Eiger to Jungfraujoch, and it is not as busy as it used to be now that a lot of the traffic goes by the cable car to the next station rather than coming here. We joined the next train down to Wengen as soon as it was ready and made our way there. Now the conductor on this train was English and he was pretty sure that we had not needed to pay for this stretch of the journey because it was covered by our passes, so when we arrived at Wengen we spent a few minutes at the ticket office raising the matter and indeed were refunded that part of the fare ... very good. And off we went for a walk around Wengen, visited once before, ten years ago in winter. Now it was warm and sunny and there was no snow down here and we found a very nice traditional little restaurant for a bread and soup lunch, ideal.

And so to the train again to its terminus at Lauterbrunnen where we awaited the one after ours, which we were able to watch winding its way down the hillside opposite the village, on which the rest of our party were travelling ... or, rather, they should have been travelling. Every tour manager's nightmare had ben visited on our tour manager Richard when one of the party had failed to catch the train back down from Jungfraujoch, so the party was one short when they arrived. These days with mobile telephones it is much easier to sort out this sort of thing than it once was, and the missing person was easily able to follow down on a later train. 

Back at Interlaken Ost we walked back to the hotel and changed for dinner. This night we were to dine in the restaurant at the very top of the tower; we assumed that there were few enough diners for only one restaurant to be needed so they fitted us all in on the top floor. I think some of those who had booked it for following day, when we had to make our own dinner arrangements, were a little put out that we were all getting that view anyway! Another great meal, with an amazing view. At one point there came rain, and then, looking along the valley back towards the Jungfrau there was the most fantastic rainbow right over the mountain. I think this hotel must have been put on this site specifically to take advantage of the view up the valley to the Jungfrau, and for us that evening it really was very special.

Not sure why this guy is looking at me this way ...

Thursday was an entirely free day and we had decided long ago that on this day we should trip out to Meiringen to visit the Reichenbach Falls made famous by the (apparent!) death of Sherlock Holmes with Moriarty in what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had intended to be the last of his series of Holmes novels. This we did, after having a rather later start than on the last few days, but we managed to pack a few more bits in as well ...

We began again with a walk to Interlaken Ost railway station from where we bought our half-price train tickets and caught a train direct to Meiringen: this took us along the north shore of Lake Brienz and through the lakeside town of that name which we had visited on a previous trip. It was a fantastic scenic ride. At Meiringen we strolled into the town centre and kept walking until we came to funicular station that would take us to the Reichenbach Falls, a little way out of town. It was a great walk, but we could have done most of the trip on a little local train that goes that way. Before ascending to the Falls we had coffee at a nearby café which was actually the canteen of a hospital but open to the public. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. By then we had decided that after the Falls we would like to visit the nearby Aareschlucht Gorge, which it was possible to visit using the aforesaid local railway, and there happened to be a combined ticket available for the two attractions - and in Switzerland you take every opportunity to save money. The ride up to the Falls was fun - funicular railways always are, with their ever-changing view of the world below - and arrival was in a mist of spray. The waterfall is a spectacle but I think not such a spectacle as it would have been in Conan Doyle's day, with various alterations - and safety features - which mean that even if you could get to the edge to plunge over it you would probably survive now! 

Back down we walked to the station on the Inertkirchen Railway which would take us to the start of the Aareschlucht Gorge. Access to the gorge is at either end, with a railway station not far away from each end: we opted to travel to the far, eastern, end of the gorge and walk back through it to take a train back to Meiringen from the western end. The day continued sunny and we had a fantastic adventure, making up the itinerary as we went along, with local advice and the ever-available information from the internet. Apple Maps on our iPhones provided us with the train times and we were soon on a train to the far end of the Aareschlucht Gorge, where the station was actually inside a tunnel: I would have photographed the train there but the driver asked me to leave the platform because the signal would not clear to start the train while the platform was occupied! Not wanting to be the reason for a delay to a Swiss train, we rapidly left the station and the door slid shut behind us. Outside was a small group of people awaiting a train in the other direction but who would not be able to go onto the platform until the train was there and the door opened for them. If the London Underground worked that way it would slow things down quite a bit! So, a nice bit of uphill walk to where the gorge started, and a brief pause for an ice-cream to recover from the uphill walk in the hot sun, and then we paid our admission fee and started through the wonderful scenery of the Aareschlucht Gorge.

Photographs on a website cannot do justice to this amazing natural wonder: you simply have to go and see it for yourself. In places the river is wide: in some other places you can reach out and touch the rock on the opposite side! Here and there there are waterfalls and rapids, and occasionally you have to walk through rock tunnels, although much of the way you're on a walkway cantilevered out from the rock face a few metres above the water. It is all safe and easy, with some care, and there is much interpretative information on display boards as you go through. As we emerged the other end there was a gift shop and after browsing there we walked to the station to take our train back to Meiringen, this time from a station in the open sunshine. It was a trip of just a few moments and then we were able to join our train from Meiringen back to Interlaken Ost where we added just one more adventure to the day's itinerary: if there was not too much of a queue we would take a funicular ride up to Harder Kulm, the conical peak that overlooks Interlaken town centre ...

We arrived at Ost station and walked along to the river bridge and level crossing which took us to the funicular terminal and sure enough there was just a very short queue, so we joined it and bought tickets for the ascent. This was a longer trip than the one to the Reichenbach Fall; indeed it may well be the longest funicular I have ever ridden, and the unfolding views of a town we had begun to know were just stunning.

Like all these tourist railways up mountains there were viewpoints and a restaurant at the top. We spent some while taking in the views and then stopped for a beer, no more, at the restaurant outside bar. We could look down on our high-rise hotel, along the valley to the Jungfrau in the distance, and we could see the trains, like small-scale model trains, in both Interlaken stations. Both lakes were in view, and both boat terminals where the lake cruises operated: we had arrived in Interlaken on a boat on Lake Brienz on a previous holiday, and were due to take a boat from here on Lake Thun the following day.

Back down in the town we wandered along to a shop where we had seen drinking glasses with their bottoms moulded in the shape of alpine mountains and thought these would be great souvenirs of our holiday, so we popped in and bought one depicting the Matterhorn, which was a feature of our first alpine holiday, and the Jungfrau, a feature of this one. 

Then it was back to the hotel and dinner at the top floor restaurant, this time at our own expense from the full menu. There we met a few others from the Great Rail Journeys group who, like us, thought it would be hard to find a better location.

The hot, sunny weather did not last, and the following morning saw us setting off by bus in light rain to see the historic architecture of Bönigen, a very old place now a suburb of Interlaken but clearly its historic origin. There are many old, traditional Swiss timber building in its narrow streets, so much so that an architectural trail has been created for visitors. In the steady rain we followed this trail and did see all of the buildings, mostly houses, but our map got wetter and wetter and it was hard to take photographs, but I hope you'll enjoy the few I have put together here. Again, Bönigen is well worth a visit if you are in Interlaken with time to spare, and again, for us Apple Maps delivered on the bus timetable. We just managed to fit in our soggy tour of Bönigen in time to meet the rest of the group for the afternoon cruise on Lake Thun, included in our Great Rail Journeys tour.

Bönigen

By the time we left for Interlaken West station for our boat the rain had almost stopped, and by the time we boarded and the boat slipped away from the quayside (astern!) it was dry. Once clear of the river, the boat turned and cruised along the lake to Thun, where we would have a good couple of hours before taking a train back to Interlaken.

On the cruise we bought a glass of wine from the bar and enjoyed watching the scenery slip by - including, while gong astern along the river, the receding Harder Kulm from where we had looked down the previous evening. Some of the party had a light meal aboard, but we contented ourselves with a snack on the waterside in Thun. 

I had been advised by another railway modeller that there was a department store in Thun with a decent model railway department and we sought it out and there purchased a station kit I had long wanted and did not expect otherwise to be able to find: Swiss model railway equipment is fairly sparsely available in the UK. I was, though, beginning to wonder about the capacity of my luggage going home ...

Dinner at Interlaken was an included meal back in the downstairs restaurant and then we began our packing ready for the morning:it was time to think about getting home, a long journey all in one day.

We checked out and walked all together to Interlaken West and there joined a Regional train to Spiez, unfortunately already rather well-filled with people with a lot of luggage, so we were standing in the vestibule with ours. It was only a short trip, though, this leg, and the view of the lake was as good as ever. 

At Spiez we joined an Intercity train to Basel, again in Second Class but this was a duplex and we managed to bag some great seats on the top deck with some really good views. We had a little time to buy lunch at Basel before travelling First Class on the TGV to Paris, being taken by coach across to the Gare du Nord for the Eurostar train to London, travelling in Standard Premier with a light meal with wine as usual. 

We were in the very front of the London train which was great because we were able to leave quickly and make our way over to Kings Cross to get the last fast train of the day to Peterborough, again with a light meal, from where we needed a taxi to our home in Stamford, being too late for a train. On the way to Peterborough we downloaded an app for a Peterborough taxi company which had been recommended by a family member, and with that we were able to book and pay for the taxi (technically a private hire car) which was then waiting for us in the pick-up area at the station. It worked brilliantly: no need to have enough cash to pay a black cab, and no fear of a huge bill if the journey is delayed. We'll use that again we need it.

We had said farewell to our brilliant tour manager and to all our travelling companions while we were on the Eurostar train, and so had been ready for that dash to Kings Cross, but could not help wondering, as did some others, whether an earlier start from Interlaken might have got us back at an early enough hour not to have that rush back home. Some people were staying a night in London because they lived too far away to travel home that night. Still, that did not detract from what had been another really great holiday. We had seen much that was new, and seen again some old haunts. Some things had been a real adventure, some relaxing, all of it good. The weather could have been better at times, but at other times it had been absolutely perfect. We are already looking forward to our next foreign adventure ... and that story will be told soon!