We took a train from France to Switzerland on October 8, 2023, stopping at Basel before getting to our final destination of Interlaken. Neither of us had heard of Interlaken before we decided to visit. A few months earlier, we read about it on a website of bucket-list vacation destiantion and decided, “Why Not?!”
The journey took us through spectacular mountains. At one point, we were the only two people in our train’s car – it felt we were going to the middle of nowhere!
Where is Interlaken?
Interlaken is sandwiched between two lakes at the center of Switzerland and is considered the adventure capital of the Swiss Alps. As soon as we arrived, our jaws dropped. It’s surrounded by the mountains, lakes and stunning villages filled with little Swiss chalets. We said this to each other more than once: It was hard to believe that what we were seeing was real.
Hotel Royal St. Georges
There were tons of hotels in Interlaken, and we chose the Hotel Royal St. Georges, primarily because of its great reviews on TripAdvisor. The hotel (in fact, most of the hotels in Interlaken) looked like a true Swiss Chalet, and we fell in love with it. We had two balconies in the main room and a balcony off the bathroom. We opened the French doors to the balconies each day and it really felt like we were someplace special.
Monica thought the hotel and its grounds smelled like old fashioned libraries that she loved as a kid and she kept wandering off to smell the halls. Peter would just shake his head and go back to the bar where he found some excellent wine. The weather was in the 70s in the city, but we needed our heavy jackets in the mountains.
Harder Klum
On our first night, we took a funicular (cable car) ride to Harder Klum, a mountain 4337 feet above sea level, and ate dinner surrounded by the Alps. If Interlaken had a king, he would live at Harder Klum, and the restaurant would be his castle.
Walking around Interlaken
One day we downloaded an “Interlaken Self-guided Walking Tour” app. It was fun. The GPS told us where to go and what we were seeing. We’d definitely do one of those again! We saw quaint shops, paragliders, beautiful homes, lakes and lovely scenery. We went to a casino were Monica lost money, and we ate lots of real Swiss chocolate! Monica found a fudgy concoction (similar to liquid chocolate pudding) that she wanted to drink by the mug!
Jungrau – The Top of Europe
On our third day, we went to Jungfrau Summit, which is one of the tallest mountains in Europe and, at almost 14,000 feet, contains the highest train station in the world. It’s also the location of more than one James Bond movie. We took two trains, and a long, scary gondola ride to reach the top of the mountain, and then we had to walk through an ice tunnel to get to the peak! We both got altitude sickness and became dizzy and off-balance, but we didn’t mind too much. It was a one-in-a-lifetime experience! The summit had three restaurants, many shops and even an ice palace, containing hallways dotted with intricate ice sculptures.
Food
As usual, food was a big part of our trip. Our favorite food was at a traditional Swiss restaurant called Chalet Beizli. Peter ate liver and onions, and Monica ate a potato, cheese and egg casserole…and soup. We enjoyed learning about the Seasoning called Maggie and Aromate, which are on every table in Switzerland. Maggie tastes like soy sauce with beef boullion, and Aromate is salt with pizzazz.
We are so happy that Interlaken was part of our trip. It was an unexpected delight. The Swiss people are very friendly and welcoming. Someday, we want to visit Switzerland again and see some of the bigger cities like Zurich, Lucerna and Bern – and of course, return to Interlaken.