Brienz
June 2013
Brienz, Switzerland
Switzerland. Just typing the name brings back all sorts of memories from past trips. The sights of spectacular Alpine scenery, half-timbered chalets, tiny mountain villages, and the iconic Swiss flags flying. The sounds of cowbells in a high pasture, postal bus horns playing the first notes of the William Tell Overture, and cog trains grinding up impossibly steep inclines. The flavors of local sausages and cheese, cold lager beer, crusty bread, and Toblerone – but not all at the same time, of course!
We’ve now visited Switzerland nine times spanning all four seasons, but it’s hard to say which is our favorite because each season offers something unique. While most of our trips have been in the fall for hiking or in the winter for skiing, we scheduled this year’s trip for the late spring to see if we could catch the wildflowers in bloom. We also knew that this timing would let us enjoy some quality hiking before schools let out for the summer and vacationers descend on this European playground.
Speaking of hiking, Switzerland offers over 41,000 miles of marked hiking trails or wanderwegs. This is an especially impressive statistic when you consider that the entire country only has 44,000 miles of paved roads! On this trip we hiked fourteen days, walked 122 miles, and climbed almost 15,000 feet of vertical in spite of weather that wasn’t always cooperative. We also took over 2,200 photographs, the best of which can be seen in the daily blog posts.
This year we decided to use the small lakefront town of Brienz (population 3,000) as the home base for our Alpine adventure. We chose Brienz to get a bit off of the beaten track while still having easy access to all of the area’s attractions. We originally discovered this gem during our 2008 vacation to the nearby resort town of Grindelwald. We had taken a day cruise on Lake Brienz with the town of Brienz as one of the scheduled stops; little did we know that one day we’d wind up staying in a chalet right on the waterfront near the lake steamer dock. The panorama that you see at the top of this page was the view that we enjoyed from the balcony of that chalet for two wonderful weeks.
Brienz is located in the Berner Oberland (or ‘highlands of Bern’), one of the five official regions within the Swiss canton of Bern. Tourism is major business in this region with towns like Interlaken, Gstaad, Wengen, Mürren, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald offering world-class year-round activities for visitors from all corners of the globe. Some of these towns are rather well known while others are just local secrets. Whatever you’re looking for in terms of an Alpine getaway you can find here : historic villages, endless fields of wildflowers, cog wheel trains, cable cars, and of course spectacular mountain scenery.
This trip to Switzerland, nearly a year in the making, definitely did not disappoint. As usual it was a real treat for both the senses and the soul. It’s hard to accurately convey the meadows filled with wildflowers, the distant sound of a cowbell from across the valley, the taste of a well-earned Rugenbräu, or the visceral thrill of a high Alpine trail but we hope that this summary gives you at least some idea of what it was like to visit this very special place.
Our Blog For Brienz
Day 1 – Williamsburg To Brienz
Our outbound travel day started with a short hop from Norfolk to Atlanta and then the long 4700 mile flight across six time zones to Zurich. From Zurich we took Swiss Rail to Brienz, a small lakefront town about 12 miles from Interlaken.
Day 2 – The Jakobsweg To Interlaken
For our first day out we decided to hike a 12 mile stretch of the Jakobsweg along the lakeshore between Brienz to Interlaken. Nothing like a little warmup before you jump right in ... The Jakobsweg, or "Way Of St. James" is a network of trails...
Day 3 – Kandersteg and Oeschinen See
Today we took the train to the resort village of Kandersteg, about 40 miles southwest of Brienz, so that we could hike up to see Oeschinen See, a stunning high Alpine lake ringed with snow-covered peaks. After waking up to see clear blue skies and...
Day 4 – From Meiringen To Hochmoor
Today we visited the town of Meiringen and hiked up to see Hochmoor. Like yesterday this hike was more about elevation than distance but the scenery was magnificent thanks to the beautiful weather. Cindy and I left Brienz about 10:00 AM for a quick...
Day 5 – Giessbach Falls To Iseltwald
We really didn't expect to do anything today given non-stop rain overnight and throughout the morning, but when the weather broke shortly after lunch we decided to take a chance on walking the southern shore of Lake Brienz. Lake Brienz is long and...
Day 6 – Wandering From Thun To Merligen
Today we took the train to Thun, a fairly large town on the far end of the Thunersee. From there we followed a wanderweg along the lakeshore to Merligen where we caught the antique paddlewheel steamer Blümlisalp for the cruise back to Interlaken....
Day 7 – The Swiss Open Air Museum At Ballenberg
A steady rain and drizzle didn't stop us from getting out today. We rode a Postal Bus from Brienz to Ballenberg where we took a self-guided walking tour of the expansive Swiss Open Air Museum. It may seem odd to visit an open air museum on a rainy...
Day 8 – A Walking Tour Of Interlaken
Steady rains today ruled out hiking on any kind of challenging terrain, so we elected to take a walking tour of Interlaken instead. Interlaken is a short and very scenic twelve mile train or lake steamer ride from our home base in Brienz. Fans of...
Day 9 – The Vineyards Of Valais
Today's weather forecast looked better to the south so we headed for the Italian border and the Swiss wine country of Valais. We followed the Wine Trail for 13 miles through the hillside vineyards between Sion and Sierre. This year saw an unusually...
Day 10 – Zermatt and the Matterhorn
On Monday we headed south again, this time to one of our favorite spots in Switzerland - Zermatt. We've visited Zermatt many times over the years and know both the town and the many moods of the Matterhorn quite well. This would be our longest...
Day 11 – The Falls Near Lauterbrunnen
We started our day on the lake steamer Edelweiss for a beautiful hour-long cruise down Lake Brienz to Interlaken. We then boarded a train for Lauterbrunnen so that we could see the spectacular waterfalls. Lauterbrunnen is a small town of about...
Day 12 – From Beatenberg to Interlaken
We started today overlooking Lake Thun from the flanks of the Niederhorn in the resort town of Beatenberg. Beatenberg is actually a series of small hamlets strung along a south-facing plateau or steppe high above Lake Thun. Just six miles from...
Day 13 – Exploring Engelberg
We logged our first visit to the year-round resort town of Engelberg today. We have friends who have skied here so we wanted to check it out for ourselves. Engelberg sits on the floor of a glacial valley and is surrounded by high mountains, most...
Day 14 – The Eiger, The Mönch, and The Jungfrau
Today we visited Mürren, a small mountain village with a gigantic mountain view. We've been here before to ski so it was fun to explore the area without snow on the ground. With a full-time population of only 450 and over 2,000 hotel beds it's...
Day 15 – Zürich’s Altstadt : The Old Town
We left Brienz on an early train for Zürich so that we could have the better part of Saturday to explore this vibrant Swiss city before our flight home on Sunday morning. Zurich is located in north-central Switzerland at the tip of Lake Zurich and...
Day 16 – Back To Reality …
Today was our day to jump back across the ocean, the timezones, and the chasm between vacation and reality. We woke up in our hotel in Zurich about 5:30 AM, got our showers, finished packing, and checked our passports one more time. Just about then...