Trip to Interlaken

Lake Brienze

The train from Lucerne to Interlaken is the Golden Pass.  Indeed!  The rather slow moving train climbs into the northern edge of the Alps with spectacular views.  It was a 2 hour ride filled with blue lakes, green pastures and snow covered Alps.  The water truly is as turquoise in color as the photos indicate.  A nice lady on the train explained that the warm temperatures are a result of a warm wind that comes over the mountains and rests in the valley.  To our eye nothing here suffers from a deep winter freeze.  There was green and thriving bamboo.  Wayne said it reminds him of the Lake Tahoe region.  The lake was about 30 to 40 feet low currently.  The conductor explained that once the spring melt starts in the mountains, the lakes rise those 40 feet.

Interlaken today is a tourist resort with casino, hang gluiding, hiking and skiing.  The streets are packed with tourists shopping and snapping pictures.  It reminded us of the Caribbean Cruise we took where throngs of people disembarked ships to stroll down indistinguishable streets.  There are hotels and areas remaining from the early 1800s when Interlaken became an international resort due to paintings of the landscape.  Then visitors came for the mountain air and spa treatment.  One of those spas today is a casino.   The hotels from that period are elegantly Victorian.

View from our Hotel Royal St George

We have been amazed at the numbers of Chinese encountered at every stop on our trip. Here even the restaurant menus include Chinese.  This is concrete evidence of the economic rise of China.
Pictures at flickr.