Lake Brienze |
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.