European Trip 5: Interlaken, Grindelwald and Jungfraujoch, Switzerland

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd September 2024 (days 8 – 9)

Traveling approximately 250 kilometres south from Titisee in the Black Forest, we crossed over the Rhine into Switzerland and the Alps. We had booked a site in Grindelwald, a beautiful Alpine village right next to the Eiger mountain, but stopped to explore the town of Interlaken on the way.

Interlaken:

Our journey towards Interlaken took us alongside the huge lake to the West of the town where we briefly stopped to admire the view at Gunten, on the north side of the lake.

The town of Interlaken occupies the land between two lakes, Thunersee to the West and Brienzersee to the East, with a fast flowing river joining the two and passing through the town.

It is a very busy commercial centre, advertising itself as the gateway to the Alps. As such, there are many posh shops and very expensive hotels in the town.

With the very warm weather, it was quite uncomfortable walking around the town and shade was at a premium.

Whilst we were there, many paragliders were descending onto the green park area, having launched from the mountain to the north.

With a few more kilometres to go, we moved on from Interlaken south again to Grindelwald.

Grindelwald:

The very well-kept village of Grindelwald is a centre for all Alpine activities, with many cable cars and Alpine trains either passing through or starting there. It sits in the shadow of the Eiger.

We stayed at the Camping Gletscherdorf site which has a large number of pitches, all jumbled together. The facilities are adequate but not spectacular. At the end of a long journey and in fine weather, we enjoyed a sit-out outside the motorhome, nestled in between very high mountains on all sides.

Our plan is to explore the high lands via cablecar and train tomorrow, so we booked a stay of two nights on this site.

Jungfraujoch:

The Jungfraujoch is an area of land forming a glacier saddle between two high (over 4000 metre) mountains on the other side of the Eiger from Grindelwald. Directly overlooking it, is the rocky prominence of the Sphinx, which is an observation station and tourist destination, advertised as the “Top of Europe” at around 3,500 metres. The views are stunning, especially from the observation platform at the top.

We traveled there via a combination of cable-car gondola and train. The gondola ride was spectacular, with amazing views as we passed across the north face of the Eiger, finishing at the railway station where we took the train on through the mountain, ever-upward until we emerged at the Sphinx.

Most of the train journey up was through solid rock, so not much to see. There was one brief stop though, to see part of the glacier close-up:

As might be expected, there is a large multi-storey visitor centre at the Sphinx, with restaurants and shops to buy a Swiss Watch or Swiss chocolate (we indulged in the second of these, but not the first).

There is also an ice-based sculpture “palace” inside the rock, which is superb.

..but of course, the main attractions are the views, so we went out onto the terrace,, which was entirely compacted snow, so quite slippery:

Looking up at the peak below, we could just make out that there were people near the summit. the right hand image shows them more zoomed-in:

We later went up to the observatory viewing platform:

We again opted for the cable car gondola for our descent, which gave us many more views on the way down:

Tomorrow we move on towards Lucerne.