Switzerland

After a month in Copenhagen – that much time in a beautiful, historic European city is enough to make me stir-crazy – I took a weekend to go to Interlaken, Switzerland, and go canyoning.

I didn’t realize how much I miss mountains until I saw them again. Interlaken and everything surrounding it is absolutely gorgeous (or “gorges” if I wanted to go with a canyon joke, but that’s the kind of thing my dad would say so I’ll refrain). Here’s the link to my photo album to see all 93 pictures I took before my batteries died (I forgot to charge the replacements before leaving, or else I would have even more): http://www.flickr.com/photos/11691186@N05/sets/72157602132155608/

Switzerland is culturally divided into three parts: German, French, and Italian. Everything in stores is printed in at least two of those languages, often all three. Just like in Denmark, Swiss people all seem to speak English as well, making me again feel inadequate for being unable to speak four languages. Interlaken is in the German area near Jungfrau, “The Top of Europe.” My time there was limited, so immediately after checking into the hostel I asked the girl at the front desk for a good hike from the hostel. She pointed straight up what looked less like a mountain than a cliff with some trees on it and said, “there’s a restaurant on top of that mountain. The funicular that goes up there isn’t running, but there’s a trail you can take. It’s kind of steep, but the views are nice.” First, “steep” doesn’t do it justice. Second, neither does “nice.”

Day two is when I went canyoning. Canyoning (aka canyoneering), for those who don’t know, involves rappelling, jumping, swimming, and hiking down a river cut into bedrock (not the Flintstones’ city). For someone like me, afraid of both heights and water, it’s a great way to spend a Saturday. Given the water and rocks, I didn’t bring my camera. So, I apologize, no pictures. Having a superb sense for irony, I made it safely down the entire river only to promptly slip and fall three steps onto dry land.

After getting back to Interlaken, I had a few more hours of daylight, so I took a ferry across Thunersee (Lake Thun). It was uneventful, but yielded more good pictures, so I’ll direct you back to my photo album instead of writing more on the subject.

The most famous hostel in Interlaken is Balmer’s. So I can take a ten hour flight and fourteen hour train ride, but I can’t get away from Balmer.

I left Interlaken a bit early on my last day there (no hikes I could complete in the hours I had left) and spent the afternoon in Basel, where I had to change trains to get home. This is where I really wish I had my replacement camera batteries. Instead, I just stole a couple of pictures from the internet. The thing that amazes me about Europe is that even cities which are considered nondescript and are famous for chemical manufacturing more than anything else still have dozens of beautiful, historic buildings. I’ll bet that makes New Jersey jealous.