Delayed recap of the weekend in Interlaken

Last month, one of my best friends Leah and her boyfriend Joel came to visit us in Switzerland.  We decided to go to Interlaken for the weekend as it is an active destination that has many "Swiss" highlights and is relatively close to Geneva with lots of different excursion options.  Leah's brother Mark and his girlfriend Cyrielle live in Paris, so they also joined us for the weekend.  I had visited Interlaken almost exactly a year before with Sarah, so we decided for this new adventure to revisit one of my favorite locations in the Interlaken area, Gimmelwald, and also explore a new destination, the Jungfrau.

Gimmelwald

We started by taking a series of trains and cable cars up to the town of Murren and then hiking down to the town of Gimmelwald, where we sat for many hours in the sun at a small alpine pension - we took in the views, enjoying lunch, beers, and each other's company. Since we don't go home to the US very often (and when we do we often have to divide and conquer our time), we love when visitors come to see us in Switzerland because it gives us time to give them our undivided attention and truly catch up for lost time!

Leah met a friend on the hike

Cheers from Gimmelwald!

Mark checking out the kiddie slide in the playground in Gimmelwald

After our delightful lunch, we took a cable car down to the valley floor and hiked the Lauterbrunnen valley, consistently voted one of the world's most beautiful valleys. This valley looks like it is out of a movie, you meander among meadows of Swiss alpine flowers, cows, and a glacial water river while 60+ waterfalls tumble down the sides of the towering valley walls on either side of you.

Frolicking in the river 

When hiking in the alps, I can't help but put flowers in my hair

Acting silly next to a series of rock formations made by hikers

Relaxing on the patio of our hotel overlooking the Lauterbrunnen valley, couldn't have a more perfect view!

In the evening we headed to a Mexican restaurant in town that had surprisingly good Mexican food for Swiss standards - we are always on the lookout for good Mexican spots

Jungfrau
On the second day in Interlaken, we decided to cave in and finally do one of Europe's top tourist attractions, the Jungfraujoch summit.  I say "cave in" because the price for this excursion for non-Swiss residents is approximately $200 (yikes!). So, for the past 2 years, we have hesitated actually doing this, but had heard that despite the price it was still a highlight of Switzerland and that we should check it out. So what do you get for $200 you may ask... well, scenic train rides up and town the summit that take 2.5 hours each way and then a visit to Europe's top railway station and the summit of Switzerland's most famous mountain.  On the summit there are multiple attractions: a scientific/weather center, a palace carved entirely out of ice in a glacier, several look out points where you can take in the views or walk, sled, or have a drink on a glacier. In the end, while expensive, I'm glad I did this trip at least once while living in Switzerland as it was a very unique experience and we had a lot of fun visiting it with friends.

Train ride up the mountain 

We made it!

First view of the Aletsch glacier - the largest in all of Europe - approximately 12 miles long

While the temperature was almost hitting 100 degrees on the valley floor, it was just barely above the freezing mark on top of the mountain - nature's air conditioning at work!

In the tunnels of the ice palace

Guess who? Scrat from the movie Ice Age frozen into the glacier :)

Care for a drink from the ice bar?

Whiskey distilling in the glacier

On top of the world

Eeks!

Beautiful Lauterbrunnen valley on the ride down

Since I often find myself forwarding blog posts to friends for trip ideas and then separately e-mailing them lists of restaurants and hotels we recommend in the area, I decided it would be helpful to end each of my travel blogs with a list of these types of points of interest for reference - accordingly, below is a list for Interlaken and I will be working on updating older blog posts with the same information.

Lunch: Pension Gimmelwald (delightful mountain top restaurant, good prices and authentic)
Dinner: El Azteca (excellent Mexican restaurant in the town of Interlaken) and Hooter's (TERRIBLE service, but it fulfills a wing craving when in desperate need)
Hotel: Hotel Schönbühl (slightly outside of Interlaken, so it wasn't not very convenient to the town, but quiet, cheap, and clean, shared bathrooms)