Top 10 Tourist Attractions in Interlaken
Interlaken is a fantastic base for seeing the best of central
Switzerland's magnificent scenery while enjoying the comforts of a chic
lakeside resort. Tourist attractions are all around it, with boat tours on
Lakes Thun and Brienz at either side of the town, and thrilling train and
funicular rides to the spectacular surrounding mountain peaks. Interlaken is
one of the oldest, best known, and most popular summer holiday resorts in Switzerland. The first visitors arrived in the 17th century,
and as transport facilities improved with the coming of the railroad, boat
services on the lakes, and most recently the expressway, Interlaken became the
major tourist center of the Bernese Oberland. Along with the almost endless
variety of walks, climbs, and outdoor excursions, there are many other sports
available for active travelers. On the right bank of the Aare, opposite the
Kursaal, is a swimming pool, and visitors will find a golf course in Unterseen,
as well as sailing and windsurfing on the lakes, parasailing, horseback riding,
and tennis.
1. Höheweg
An area of 14 hectares that belonged to the Augustinian convent
was acquired in 1860 by a group of 37 hotel owners and private persons to be
left as an open space, a remarkable example of farseeing town planning. Through
its length runs the Höheweg, a splendid avenue between the east and west rail
stations that affords a magnificent view of the Jungfrau,
surrounded by hotels and flower-beds. Alongside it is the Kursaal, with a
theater and a café and beautiful gardens with a flower clock, as well as a
number of hotels, including the 150-year-old Victoria Jungfrau Hotel. Next to
the Hotel Interlaken, you'll find the small Garden of Friendship, the first Japanese
garden in Switzerland, a peaceful spot with flowering plants, water, and koi
carp.
2. Harder
3. Schynige Platte
From
Wilderswil, a five-minute walk from the Interlaken Ost railway station, you can
take a rack-railroad that has been carrying sightseers up to the Schynige
Platte since it opened in 1893. At the top, along with the Hotel Kulm and an
excellent alpine
garden with 600 species of
flowers, you'll find one of the finest panoramic views of the Alps,
encompassing the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau peaks as well as Lake Thun.
4. Unterseen
The Marktgasse runs northwest from the
Interlaken post office and across the Spielmatten islands and the river to the
little hamlet of Unterseen, at the foot of Mt. Harder. This is one of several
villages that form Interlaken, and in this old part of town is the 1471 parish
church, with a Late Gothic tower. Here, you'll find some beautiful wooden
chalets of the kind you'd expect to see in tiny mountain villages, not in a
busy resort center like Interlaken. Set in green gardens, these may even have
farm animals grazing on the lawns. Small restaurants around the pretty Stadthausplatz
serve traditional Swiss dishes.
5. Lake Thun
On the west side of Interlaken is Lake Thun, a long,
narrow lake surrounded by mountains. The best way to explore the lake is on one
of the cruise boats that operate from Interlaken year-round or in the summer on
the beautifully restored historic paddle steamer. At the western end of the
lake, you can stop in Thun with its medieval Old Town and lakeside castle with a striking
keep that overlooks the lake. It was built in 1191 and enlarged in 1492, and
today houses a historical museum with 14th-century arms and armor, tapestries,
furniture, and prehistoric and Roman artifacts. Other castles and several
Romanesque churches are in villages that dot the shore of Lake Thun. Schloss
Shadau, easy to spot right on the water, is a smaller replica of Chateau
Azay-le-Rideau, on the Loire in France.
6. Lake
Brienz
On Interlaken's east side is Lake Brienz, a narrow body of water
that's really an enlargement of the valley of the River Aare. Lying between the
limestone ridge of the Brienzer Grat and the Faulhorn mountains, it is seven
meters higher than Lake Thun, on Interlaken's west side. Like Lake Thun, it is
best seen from one of the five boats that connect Interlaken to towns around
its wooded shores. The most atmospheric of these boats is the restored steamer
the Lötschberg, built in 1914; other boats offer special dining cruises with
Swiss food specialties.
7. Touristik-Museum (Museum of Tourism)
The history of tourism in the Jungfrau Region is shown here in
three floors of exhibits that cover everything from early transport and hotels
to travel clothing and skiing. Housed in a lovely restored 17th-century
timbered house, the museum includes models of early postal coaches, rack
railway locomotives, and lake steamers, as well as actual historical carriages
and vehicles.
Address: Obere Gasse 28,
Unterseen, Interlaken
8. Interlaken
Monastery and Castle
Interlaken's former
Augustinian monastery dates to the 12th century. You can see the 14th-century
bell tower along with a Gothic cloister and remains of a chapel dating from
1452. Notice especially the variety of window designs in the castle church.
Before the property was turned over to the state in the 16th century during the
Protestant Reformation, the monastery was an important hostel for pilgrims
headed to the former hermitage of Saint Beatus in the caves above Lake Thun.
These caves were a stop for pilgrims on the Way of St. James, known as
Jakobsweg in Switzerland, leading to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
9.Swiss Open-Air Museum Ballenberg
One of Europe's finest living history museums,
Ballenberg spreads across 124 acres of alpine countryside in a series of
village and farmstead groups representing different Swiss regions and their
traditional ways of life. Historic houses, barns, shops, and other buildings
were brought here from their original sites, with their furniture, decorations,
utensils, and implements. Old crafts and traditional customs are revived here,
and in the course of a visit, you may see everything from woodcarving and cooperage
to lace- and cheese-making demonstrations. The homes represent all styles from
the most modest cabins and rustic farmhouses to elegant homes of the
well-to-do, but the focus is on how people lived, how they produced their own
goods, and how they traded and shared within their communities. Special
exhibits may examine one facet of life in detail, such as child labor on farms
or a particular craft and its evolution. You could easily spend an entire day
seeing all the buildings and exhibits in this fascinating look back in time.
Ask at the Interlaken Tourist Office for information on packages that include
boat and bus travel from Interlaken to Ballenberg.
Address: Museumsstrasse 131, Hofstetten bei
Brienz
Official site: www.ballenberg.ch
10.Giessbach Falls
11.Brienzer
Rothorn
The lakeside town of Brienz is the center of the Oberland craft
of woodcarving, examples of which you can see in shops and studios and on
houses with beautifully carved friezes on the facades. Above the town rises the
2,350-meter Brienzer Rothorn, reached in about an hour via Switzerland's oldest
steam rack railway, the Brienz-Rothorn Railway. From
the top are views of the Appenzell, Uri, Engelberg, Berne, and Valais Alps
extending from Säntis to the Diablerets. Wear hiking boots, and you can take a
four-hour hike to the Brünig Pass, returning to
Brienz by the Brünigbahn. Built in 1888,
this is the smallest rack-and-pinion railroad of the Swiss network.
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