Interlaken, Switzerland 🇨🇭

We head into the foggy Swiss Alps to the town of Interlaken, land ‘between the lakes.’  In between the cloud cover snowcapped mountains reach above the green pastures dotted with cattle resonating the gentle low ringing of bells.  We’re lucky to stay in this fairy tale land for 4 nights.

Our first day was spent exploring downtown and watching the para gliders soar in the sky at Höhematte. We even found two little crazy cows in the pasture.  In the afternoon we ventured out to the charming village of Iseltwald with decorative wooden chalets lining the teal waters of Breinzsee.  A quiet little town that was made famous as a filming location in the Korean drama ‘Crash Landing on You,’ an adorable tv show my sister shared with me that you absolutely should check out.

We lucked out as we managed to find the Fest Der Feste (Festival of Festivals) going on the next day.  It gathers fifteen local festivals for a collective display of traditional Swiss Autumn culture held at the Ballenberg Open Air Museum.  We arrived to find the unique one day event of ‘Combat de Reines’ where Eringer cows choose their queen of the herd through elimination battles.  We also saw pottery making, Swiss Alphorn players, and LOTS of cowbells (queue Christopher Walken and the Blue Oyster Cult).  

We even found a Tschäggätta wondering the woods. These terrifying creatures are based on folklore of isolated villages in the Swiss Alps. While their origins remain shrouded in mystery some believe they were pagan practices used to chase away the darkness at winter’s end.  The weather was a bit on the cold and rainy side most of the day so we decided to get chocolate wasted with some Swiss hot chocolate on the way back to our tiny cabin. 

Our last day here the clouds lifted and the sun came out, it’s been a while since we’ve seen blue sky!! We spent the morning around the beautifully stunning scenery of Lauterbrunnen and in the afternoon rode the funicular to the top of Harder Klum for spectacular views of the dual lakes of Interlaken. The funicular, over 100 years old, climbs the mountainside at a steep 64 degrees to reach the top at 4337 feet above sea level.