This is a really late post. I have been keeping busy or being lazy lately, but this trip was too amazing to forget to document it.
I have been following Kristin from "Be My Travel Muse" (www.bemytravelmuse.com) and I have found it to be very inspiring. She writes about traveling the world as a solo female. She provides tips and advice, but mostly I have just found it inspiring. I haven't traveled alone often because I like being with people. I am not sure I was afraid of it, but I didn't embrace it. As my friends are getting married and having kids, I realize my list of travel buddies is getting smaller. So instead of waiting for others to join me for a vacation, I decided to go on my own.
I have a group of friends in Frankfurt, Germany that I have been meaning to visit so I reached out about good dates to come. They gave me a list of dates in September and then politely told me that I don't need a full week in Frankfurt. There are plenty of fun day trips, but they suggested adding another location to my week long trip to Europe. I did a lot of searching, but honestly it didn't take long to decide on visiting Interlaken, Switzerland. It is called the "Adventure Capital of Europe" and I can easily see why. But not only did it have an incredible amount of adventures for me to try, it is also surrounded by mountains. The mountains were calling so I decided to go!
As always, I love planning my travels almost as much as I enjoy going on them. I was going to fly into Zurich on Saturday morning (love red eye flights), take the train to Interlaken, spend a few days in Interlaken, and then on Wednesday I would take the train to Frankfurt and meet up with my friends until Sunday. The planning was hard because there was so much in Interlaken that I wanted to do: Hiking, canyoning, hang gliding, paragliding, white water rafting, chocolate class, visiting Jungfrau, taking a boat ride, visiting several nearby towns, and the list went on. I decided to book a canyoning/paragliding combo trip for one day though Outdoor Interlaken (https://www.outdoor-interlaken.ch/en/activity/106931/splash-and-fly-canyoning-interlaken). Then I also booked a train ride to Jungfrau (snowy mountain...yes please!), but I didn't have to pick a specific date. I also booked a EuroPass 4 day ticket for Switzerland and Germany. Other than booking those, I was going to wing it based on the weather.
Saturday:
I arrived in Zurich around 8:30 and immediately caught the train to Interlaken. I thought about looking around Zurich but didn't want to deal with my luggage and I had too much to do in Interlaken already. It was a nice two hour train ride and I was able to nap a little. I didn't sleep much on the plane so I arrived in Interlaken exhausted. I had booked a one person room at Funny Farm backpackers (cheapest single room in Interlaken that I could find). I would have loved to save money and stayed at a hostel with others, but that is still outside my comfort level and I sleep to lightly to share a room. Funny Farm was about a 15 minute walk from the train station and sadly it was in the rain. I got to the hotel around noon and all I wanted was a shower and quick nap, but I couldn't check in until 3pm. So I dropped off my luggage and walked down the street to find lunch. I found a super cute cafe, Barracuda Cafe and Bar, and enjoyed a delicious chorizo panini and hot chocolate. The rain had cleared so I went out exploring the town. I had no destination other than I figured I should go see the river/lakes. I found the river and kept walking until it dumped into Lake Brienz. Already I was in love with this city and it was a dreary, rainy day. It is so beautiful and I couldn't wait to see the sun come out.
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| Not the best weather to start with, but I made it to Switzerland! |
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| The color of the water is beautiful. |
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| Lake Brienz was nice even when it started to sprinkle. |
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| On my walk back from Lake Brienz, I found a meadow full of cows, which made me smile. |
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| The mountain came out for a little bit. |
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| I was excited to see the paragliders out. It made me more excited for my trip the following day. |
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| Pretty awesome given they run off a nearby mountain and glide into the field in the middle of Interlaken. |
Finally it was 3pm so I checked into my room (single room with a bunk bed and private bath). I took a shower and an hour nap. I wanted to push through, but my body was going to do better with a little rest. I adore taking free walking tours on my first day in a city to learn about the sites, history, and must do items. So I took the free walking tour through Outdoor Interlaken at 5:45. It was hard to wake up from my nap, but I wasn't in Switzerland to sleep. Manual was our guide and he did a great job of touching on history, popular spots, and other topics. It was a diverse group too and fun to meet people from different cultures. My favorite thing I learned on the tour is that Swiss food is based on cheese, potatoes, and chocolate. Have I mentioned that I loved this city?
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| Walking the streets in Interlaken |
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| The dam in the middle of the city |
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| Technically the river divides Interlaken and Unterseen as you can see here. |
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| The square in Unterseen. |
Even knowing I would love the food, I was too exhausted after the tour for dinner so I got a dark chocolate bar and went back to the hotel. I very much enjoyed my chocolate bar dinner and crashed hard on my top bunk. I needed to get up early the next day to enjoy my canyoning/paragliding trip, which already had a wrinkle in it. I had received an email from Outdoor Interlaken stating there was a problem with my canyoning trip (not enough water in the canyon?) and to call or stop by first thing in the morning to work out something different, including possibly going on the more difficult canyoning trip.
