Swiss Untour Journal, June 1998
by Pat Barnes, Vacaville, CA
Hi...Here’s my journal from our trip to Kandersteg in June, 1998, my first experience with Idyll. There were five of us: my mom and her friend Dorothy in their 80’s, who could do limited walking, Stan and Ruth, a married couple, friends of Mom’s, and me... I’m 63, and in pretty good shape for walking, but we used lots of busses and trains and went places where walking was not the main event! Kandersteg is a super place. It’s just so much fun to talk about Switzerland. (I’m excited about going to Reuti in the Heartland in July 2001)
TUESDAY, JUNE 2...
Up at 3:30AM, took the Evans’ Airporter from Napa and arrived at SFO about 6:00. Checked all our stuff in plenty of time, got our assigned seats, and did much checking of tickets, passes and passports. We all had far too many zippers to get used to! We arrived at Kennedy with about two hours to spare. We had the first little baggage glitch when we went to check in...It seems as if we didn’t have the right sticker on our tickets...Oh well... the plane was very full. Our seats were tight. AND we sat on the runway for 1½ hours, but finally left. Had a couple more meals to amuse ourselves during the long flight.Now it is WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3... morning
We landed in Zurich, about 9:00, and walked through the airport maze until we found our Idyll reps, Agnes and Sonja and Hal Taussig, who were very welcoming and wonderful. Lots of other Idyll travelers were there too. We were a tired but joyful and excited group. We got our rail passes validated, had a brief lesson on train schedules, hung around and just tried to believe we were THERE!We headed for Kandersteg on a double decker train, sat upstairs, chatted with Agnes, and looked out the window. She gave us lots of tips, etc during the rainy ride to Kandersteg, and we constantly marveled at the many waterfalls and green mountains and lushness and tidiness of it all. I was privileged to sit next to Hal!
Frau Wafler, our landlady at Chalet Alpentraum, met us at the station. She was very sweet, spoke English pretty well, and was much younger that we had expected. Dorothy’s luggage did not arrive. Ruth and Pat walked up to our chalet, almost got lost, and the rest went with the luggage in the car. There was bread and cheese and fruit and eggs and coffee in our kitchen. It was about noon. Our chalet was charming...third floor, three bedrooms, a kitchen, dining and living room area and best of all, a fantastic view of the alps from our deck, with waterfalls everywhere. I walked to the village to get some money, while everyone took a little nap. I came back and napped too.
We debated walking to the village for dinner in the rain. We were very glad we did...it eventually let up. We found the Post-Hotel Restaurant. Dorothy treated us to a great dinner...charming server, great wine, I had rosti, and the others had noodles and goulash soup. We walked home and looked in several of the hotels along the way. Folks were friendly. We were pretty tired and didn’t waste much time getting to bed.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4...
We all had a good breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and coffee and caught the 9:32 train for Spiez for our orientation. Rainy off and on. We walked to the meeting place and met the other Idyllers and got lots of info on train schedules and places to go and things to do. Idyll alumni talked to us, and we saw slides of the various points of interest. We ate lunch together...our introduction to Swiss salads...delicious. We walked around Spiez a bit, window-shopped and caught the train back. We had fun shopping in the small grocery store for a few things for dinner...bratwurst etc. Lake and mountains were all beautiful. Nice sunny day.FRIDAY, JUNE 5...
We decided to spend the day in Kandersteg and had a leisurely breakfast, and then headed for the walk up to the chairlift that would take us far above the town to Lake Oeschinensee. We were quite taken with the little chalets that had milk and egg deliveries outside their doors. The chairlift ride was fantastic with cows and goats below us...ringing of many cowbells constantly...waterfalls and mountain peaks in the distance. At the top was the Rotobahn, a real fun bobsled type ride that Ruth and Stan and I went on, along with many children! The hike to the lake was supposed to be 15-20 minutes, but it was here that we learned that Swiss hiking time is a lot different than our Americans-on-vacation-not-in-as-good-shape-as-we-thought-we-were-time! And Mom and Dorothy and Stan weren’t up for that much walking.The rest stops on the many benches were beautiful...wildflowers everywhere. Ruth went on ahead to see just how far it was, and came back and reported that it was still several turns away, all downhill, and you know what that means coming back! I had to go down too, though, and found Susan, the owner of the hotel and restaurant at the lake, and after a little conversation, she insisted that we all see the lake, have lunch etc. She and I went up the road in her car, picked up the others, drove down, and had a super lunch in the restaurant. We had lamb, trout, spaetzle and of course great bread. We met a hiking couple from Georgia who have been to Kandersteg 10 times. Susan was a lifesaver, a real sweetie who drove us back up the hill to the chairlift.. The chairlift down was again wonderful, with Kandersteg below us. We strolled through the village and had ice cream and shopped for dinner...salad stuff and wine. At our chalet we were greeted by Frau Waffler with the news that Dorothy’s luggage had arrived, and she was about to go get it.
It was a very warm day. Everyone napped a bit and at about 7:30 or 8: 00 we made dinner...salad and cheese and bread. And chocolate for dessert. I worked on the next day’s schedule from the train books. Dorothy was very happy to sort out her suitcase. We went to bed before dark...I don’t think sleeping was ever a problem!
SATURDAY, JUNE 6...
This was the day of an optional Idyll trip to Fribourg, a large city, very European in ambience. We had muesli and toast and peanut butter and jam for breakfast, early enough to catch the 7:30 train so as to meet the rest in Spiez. We met a new Idyll staffer, Julie, English turned Swiss, 50ish and very nice. This turned out to be a very warm and humid day. (No journal is complete without many weather reports and food descriptions!) Mom and Stan and Dorothy shopped and strolled and went to a cathedral where Mom got busted for eating an apricot inside. They had a good time, ate at McDonalds, while Ruth and I went on a hike with Julie and the Idyll group. We bussed to some beautiful woods, stopped at a little street fair on the way, and hiked up and down...many steps and hills, and beautiful creeks and falls and woods. It was a glacial valley walk, but it was certainly not all level. We ate our deli food at a lovely picnic spot. We suddenly came upon the old town, where there was a huge flea market. We splashed ourselves in a fountain, and we found our way...uphill...to the square where we were to meet Stan and Ruth and Mom at 1:00. All Ruth and I wanted were huge cokes, and had to beg the McDonalds crew for some ice! (so...let’s talk about ice for a minute...We central CA types just have to have our ice...I would bring a couple of plastic ice trays from home next time. The one in our kitchen was very tiny.)We looked in some stores on the way to the bus right next to the train station. We had beer and tea and sodas in a sidewalk café across the street. At the orientation it was suggested that we find an alternate way home. I spent some time figuring out the train and bus schedules over the Jaunpass, as we had heard this was a scenic trip. We took the bus to Bulle, and then caught another one for the trip over the pass. It was truly breathtaking...valleys below, charming villages, farms, cows, woodpiles, lots of green pastoral scenery. In the little villages, we could practically touch the houses and stores as we drove past. At Boltingen, we got the train back to Spiez and then Kandersteg...we were getting the routine by now...and had another good dinner at the Poste-Hotel. I managed to work the phone and called Charlie and Julie. Using the phone is a skill to be learned! Kandersteg has two public phones...and they only take special phone cards that one gets at a store.
SUNDAY, JUNE 7...
Today, a bright sunny morning, we went to the Ballenburg Open Air Museum. Train to Spiez, change at Interlaken Ost, then to Brienz, and bus to museum. There were houses and farms representing the various areas of Switzerland. We took a horse and wagon ride to the “uphill” end of the park. We explored several buildings, had our usual fruit, salami, cheese, and bread lunch on a bench. Visited a cheese hut, had a little snack there, and stopped at several other houses...then it started to rain...only Stan had his umbrella...and we went from building to building trying to stay dry. The chalets were furnished according to their year. We were fascinated by the huge ceramic stoves in the kitchens.We caught the bus back to Brienz, and had hoped to do a little shopping, but alas, Sunday, stores were closed even earlier! We had a real good dinner at the Bahnhof Restaurant in Spiez. Brats, spaetzle, soup, salads, rosti and two bottles of wine! The rain kept up all the way back and we were very glad to get home. Yes, we called it “home” by now. I might add here what good sports everyone was...rain, lots of walking and many steps and uncertainties of just where we were going...there was a definite lack of complaining! No one dared!
MONDAY, JUNE 8...
Cheese Hut day...It was tough to get up early enough to get the 8:30 train, but we made it! A beautiful morning, clear and sunny. New snow was on the peaks. We took the train to Frutigen, only a few minutes away, and bus to Reichenbach. We met Agnes and Sonja and took another little bus up to Riental and Griesalp. It was an amazing hard- to -describe bus ride up into the mountains, actually on the other side of the Blumisalp, one of our Kandersteg peaks. The road was very narrow, and we were told that it had been widened! Many hairpin turns, past little villages, many waterfalls and a gorgeous river. We each paid SF3.50 for the road tax. We were slowly getting used to the money, but doling out the various coins took lots of practice! The Lenin Hotel was pointed out to us...apparently Lenin once slept there and later put its picture on a Russian stamp.The home where the cheesemaker and his family lived was in a beautiful setting of alpine pasture, wildflowers, cows and two cute pigs! We were shown the boiler room where the cheese starts. The mom does this every day...scoops out the curds from the big 500-gallon vat, puts them in wheels for pressing and brining. We saw the aging room where the wheels of cheese were kept. We tasted and purchased some fabulous cheese. We were lucky to be able to go here...it was the first of the season, since the cows have just gone up in the hills to graze. Sonja’s husband Mark, and two adorable children came with us. Winona, about 4, and also a baby in a backpack. We had lunch in the Griesalp Hotel, owned by a Dutchman...another great salad and rhubarb torte and bread, very nicely served.
Ruth and I hiked down the trail with several others to where we would meet the bus. It was a gorgeous easy trail, downhill most of the way, past the amazing waterfalls and cascades we had seen on the way up. This hike is in the book, but not nearly as slippery and scary as it is described. In fact, very easy, and the most fantastic waterfalls and cascades I have ever seen. Bus back to Reichenbach, where I got some bells for Carolyn’s goats from an authentic where-the-farmer-gets-his-bells-shop, I had to go somewhere else down the street to find the owner, a woman who spoke no English, to open up just for me.(An English speaking person told me she would be happy to). We had beer and wine and cheese and salami in the Frutigen station while we waited for our train.
TUESDAY, JUNE 9...
We once again got up leisurely. (To those of you reading this, please note how often this happens. I tried my hardest not to totally wear everyone out!) Ruth and I went to get our coffee beans ground; we had bought whole beans the day before by mistake, and buy some food. Later we shopped in our little village, and looked at watches and jewelry and linens. It was a beautiful clear day, and we suddenly decided at noon that it was a good day for the Matterhorn. Ruth and I took our purchases back to the apartment, and the others were to buy food for lunch. Here’s a good place to say what a challenge it was to go shopping. Even the deli closes between noon and two! Some stores are not open Monday, many for sure not on Sunday, and everything always closes at 5:00, after closing between noon and two.We got on the train headed for Brig, and bought some sandwiches from the guy with the food “trolley.” Had to change in Brig, for the special red train to Zermatt. There was beautiful scenery all the way...deep gorges, lovely hay fields, some vineyards, little towns, cute RR stations. Zermatt is a carless tourist city, very crowded, many large hotels. No Matterhorn in sight! We ended up taking a little taxi for SF3 each, and were driven past the shops and hotels to a spot where we could see the Big M and take a few pictures. We shopped a bit. We sat in a little sidewalk café and had hot dogs and beer and then shopped in a souvenir store. Zermatt was interesting, but we were real happy we weren’t staying there...too busy and frenetic and crowded. But it was great to see the Matterhorn on a clear day. We made good train connections and marveled at the snow-capped peaks. Southern Switzerland isn’t quite as tidy as the Bernese Oberland. We had soup for dinner at home, and worked on our several varieties of chocolate. Did I mention that Stan had brought candles from home, so we always had classy dinners?
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10...
After breakfast of some fresh bakery pastries and eggs and good coffee, we headed for Thun, where we heard there was an interesting flea market. It was beautiful out. We took umbrellas, just in case...but left our raincoats at home. We looked for the flea market but only found a farmers’ market. We had fun looking around at the beautiful fruits and veggies and flowers. We ended up going up, and I do mean up, to the Thun castle. It started raining, and didn’t really let up all day, but at least we had our umbrellas. Everyone was happy to be in a real castle...We visited the church, and climbed many steps to the various parts of the castle. What troopers the “older members” of our party were! This was the biggest step day of all...but...nobody wanted to miss anything!We strolled the streets and covered bridges and looked at the rushing Aare River. Gosh, I’d love to “tube” it sometime..it looks so fun! Nice shops. Mom bought herself a watch and one for me too, for my birthday. We bought out the store’s display clowns! We had a very good lunch in a department store cafeteria. I goofed in not weighing my salad, and the cashier had to scrape it all off and put it on the right plate and weigh it. It rained very hard. On the way back we thought we’d shop in Frutigen. Stan went back to nap. We women were the stalwart shoppers. Now that Dorothy learned how to get money from an ATM, she wanted to spend it! We took a bus up to the main street of Frutigen, but alas, it was not meant to be. Frutigen is all closed up on Wednesday. So we walked back down to the train station. At least it was down! We had dinner at our little chalet...I made spaghetti from a jar of Swiss pasta sauce, pasta, and frozen “Farm Patties,” which for a few minutes I thought it might be made from the riding kind of farm animal...but no! At least I think I convinced the rest about that!
As I’m writing this, I can’t believe we did all that walking in Thun, and still wanted to shop in Frutigen! But we always got rejuvenated on the train back, and often had a beer or two.
THURSDAY, JUNE 11...
We woke up to some more rain, and our kind landlady told us of some good rainy day choices. We opted for going to Meiringen, to see the Aareschlucht Gorge. We found the cute little train to take us to where the gorge begins, but it seemed a little farther than we thought, so only Ruth and I did the gorge trip, while the others had the first fondue of the trip. Fruit, veggies and even pickles! The gorge was amazing, and the trail was on a precipice above the river.We then hopped on the Postbus for the trip over the mountains to Grindlewald. It was spectacular...waterfalls and beautiful gorges and hairpin turns, and the bus driver had to open gates of little farms so the bus could go through. Woodpiles everywhere, and houses decorated with giant cowbells. At the top there was lots of rain and fog. Would love to do this on a totally clear day. We picked up some hikers, who had also found out the difference between Swiss hiking time and visitor time! We got on the BOB train to Interlaken Ost, and then on to Spiez. We had another good dinner, chicken and rosti and salads at the Bahnhof restaurant. Got home at a decent enough hour that we had time for a few card games before bed!
FRIDAY, JUNE 12...
We again were told to go south for better weather. So we decided to head for the Mt. Blanc area via Brig. Stan decided to stay and let us girls go. (He ended up going to Brig to look for T-shirts.) We stopped in Sion,...it seemed like a good place to explore the French speaking part of Switzerland. We had lunch at McDonalds...we just had to do it... and then took a bus ride up this amazing valley described in one of my books...Herens Valley, We went through the real different little village of Evolene, where the very nice bus driver wanted us to stop, but we opted to go on...We were happy to just ride, but we had to get off at Les Hauderes, where we finally understood that another bus would pick us up to take us back to Sion. We were the only ones there. This area is a big ski resort in the winter. Mt. Blanc is on the other side of the mountain. (Notes as of this writing and editing...September, 99...Sion was the town that lost out to the winter Olympics in a couple of years...Vance Roy wrote about it a while ago...it was a big political deal...)The bus ride back was of course very scenic, with some strange outcropping formations they called “pyramids.” We had coffee and pastries at a café before we caught the train back. AND we had the great “Truffle Buying Experience!” Mom just couldn’t seem to get her SF10 spent fast enough. The truffles were super and we had a lot of fun picking them out while trying to speak French. We had a couple of bottles of wine on the train on the way back... We made a chicken dinner at home, and truffles for dessert of course!
SATURDAY, JUNE 13...
It was a beautiful morning, after a few days of rain, and I could hardly contain myself and profusely apologized to my companions for waking everyone up so early. Looking out our window at the sunny snow-capped peaks was so good after the rain. Mom decided she would stay home and relax! The rest of us went to Bern. Dorothy still had money, Stan didn’t have his t-shirts, and Ruth and I were open to anything. We walked the very crowded Saturday streets...craft fair area, lots of stores. We spent a long time in a Swiss special handicraft store, .and bought several things there. We had lunch at an outdoor café by the clock tower...good pizza and salads and beer and nice service. We went back to Kandersteg, and were greeted by Mom on our balcony. It was still a gorgeous day.Mom and Dorothy had offered to treat us all to dinner at the 5-star Hotel Bellevue, to celebrate my birthday. We had 7:30 reservations, dressed in our best denims, ( !) and they loaned Stan a jacket. We were disappointed overall, but you know what? I’m not even going to describe it...we had such good food and service everywhere else, that even though a splurge evening wasn’t as anticipated...so goes it! It was funny how they tried to discourage us from having their local trout.
SUNDAY, JUNE 14...
Another early “up” so that we could get the 8:30 train to Goppenstein, just through the Lotschberg Tunnel. This special day was on the recommended list of things to do that week... We took the waiting bus to Kippel, where we were to attend church, all in German of course, and a special ceremony honoring the soldiers who fought as mercenaries in the battlefields of Europe. Kippel is a picturesque town of old and new chalets. Many flags were up. The church was very ornate and the women wore special black long dresses and hats with gold-embroidered flowers. We were at the church quite early, and watched and listened to the litanies of the men and women before the service actually started. The choir sang, a band played outside, soldiers in bright red uniforms marched in and stood in the aisle the whole time. Little girls in long white ruffled dresses marched in and sat in front.It was all very solemn. After the service, some people picked up flags on poles, and the whole procession marched through the most charming little town, and stopped at various altars. I’d like to learn more about this town and its history. They have a great museum, but...no time. We had a great lunch of soup and fondue at the local hotel-restaurant. Our server proudly showed us a Starbucks cup she had gotten when in America.
We then walked up to the funicular which took us way up to a ski area with many chalets at the top of this beautiful Lotschental valley. It was beautiful...a little foggy, but no people and a super view. At the bottom where we were to wait for the bus back to the train, I tried to make a phone call home. I was relieved to find out from a couple of other people that the reason for my failure was that the phone was broken!
Back to Kandersteg in 13 minutes...9 of them in the tunnel. We arrived just in time to try to catch the taxi-bus that takes people to Selden, a “magical place” according to our Idyll book, above Kandersteg. It was to be the last run of the day, and through the interpretation of another bus driver, we arranged to go part way, the most scenic part. I am running out of adjectives, but this drive was another amazing one, on an extremely narrow road, hairpin turns, overhanging rocks, rushing cascading river below the road. Our driver dropped us off at an adorable very old mountain resort hotel, in a valley that is like a smaller version of Yosemite. We visited with the local cows behind and in front of the fence! Mom finally found the perfect woodpile to take a picture of! Our charming hostess at Waldhouse served us coffee and tortes and other goodies. The inn was restful and friendly. We walked toward the bus stop and waited by the river and looked at rocks and water and the sheer glaciated cliffs. In the van on the way back, women from England who now lives here gave us some nice background on Selden. We learned that the thing to do is take the bus up and hike back down...I sure wanted to do that!
Back at our apartment, we grazed on bread and cheese and soup. Mom and Ruth stayed up until 11:00 playing cards.
MONDAY, JUNE 15...
One of our goals was to sample all forms of transportation the Swiss had to offer. We hadn’t yet been on a lake! And only two days left! So now that we had the train schedules about memorized...we could plan on the 8:30 to Thun, where we got on the Thunersee for a beautiful two-hour ride across the lake. We passed chateaux, beautiful docks with flowers, little villages, parks, swans, ducks, people walking dogs on the lakeside paths. In our ignorance, we got busted from the first class section upstairs. Kindly, though.I was really hoping that the weather would clear up so we could go up to Murren. I’ve seen so many pictures of the Lauterbrunnen Valley that I wanted to see it for real. We ate lunch, while it absolutely poured rain, in the Bahnhof Café in Interlaken. We hadn’t had raclette yet, so we sampled it there. Mom had the best noodles of her life. Stan had fish sticks. Dorothy had goulash. Ruth and I had chicken. We watched the sky turn blue in patches.
We managed to get on the right train to Lauterbrunnen, and the funicular up to Grutschalp, then train over to Murren...I’m calling it Grandma’s Train Ride, as opposed to Grandfather’s Walk on Page 10 of the Biking and Hiking Guide! We could see the spectacular valley and a little beyond, but not the peaks. Another time, perhaps. And I wanted to go to Gimmelwald in the worst way... We lingered only a little while because we had to get to Erlenbach for the party. It is a good thing that the train rides were so relaxing. Except for jumping up and down taking far too many pictures!
We were running late, and of course this is the time the train to Erlenbach chose to be late too. So we got there an hour late, at an almost deserted station. An angel of a woman who happened to be at the train station offered to give us a ride to the Restaurant Hirschen, and told us that next time we come we must stay in her little town. She was very proud of it. We were happy that there were those later than we were. Everyone was gracious, Agnes and Sonja and their families were terrific as ever, and we talked and laughed and sang and had great fondue and good wine and good sharing of experiences. What a lovely village! We walked back to the train station and bid our farewells, and headed back, through the beautiful setting sun shining on the lush green valleys and hills.
As we were walking back to our apartment in Kandersteg, we heard this huge sound of bells. We were very surprised...our first experience at seeing a herd of cows marching down the streets of a village. Wearing those huge bells, too. Do they really do that??? I guess they do. There must be a Swiss law about cowbells. I’m going to research that! Perfect ending to a long busy day.
TUESDAY, JUNE 16...
We packed our suitcases, and had them ready for Frau Wafler to take to the station by 11:00. What a good system!We had to have another shopping adventure, and were told that Adelboden was a nice flat town with lots of shops. Train to Frutigen, another wonderful amazing bus ride up to Adelboden. Great lunch in a hotel, more perfect salads. We window-shopped until the stores opened at 2:00. We shopped for real until 5:10, and got rid of a few francs more. All the shopkeepers were helpful and friendly. My backpack was maxed out! And we saw two or three more cow and cowherd parades through town. More huge bells! Bus and train back home. We wanted to eat in the Poste-Hotel once more, but alas...closed on Tuesday. So we tried the Alpenblick, and had a great time...Many locals were there, friendly and fun. We had rosti and beer and salad and great chocolate sundaes. We wished we had gone there before.
Home to bed, for the last evening. I managed to use the phone successfully!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17...
Since we planned on being at the Zurich airport about 2:00, we had a nice long morning to take the train over the Brunig Pass to Lucerne. It was about the most beautiful ever, especially since we bought First Class supplements and sat in the cars with the huge windows. What a ride. I really have run out of adjectives. We had the last of our cheese and salami and bread and apples while the trees and lakes and valleys and villages and waterfalls went by our windows. We stopped in Lucerne, had the best ice cream cone ever just outside the train station. We were getting eager to get to Zurich on time, and got rid of the rest of our Swiss francs in the airport. I bought coffee. We all bought chocolate.What a great trip, with wonderful travel companions. The trip of a lifetime, with my Mom and friends. I am really thankful for their patience and wonderful spirit. Seeing Switzerland the Idyll way is a grand adventure. I can hardly wait to go back!