Basel was really just a starting point so I moved on the next day towards Interlaken as recommended by a good friend [link].
The Rail pass I had bought [link] allowed unlimited travel on chosen days and half price on the days in between but it also included boat and bus travel so I thought it'd be nice to travel by boat too via Thun.
Unfortunately, a little misunderstanding (or lies on the timetable) did see me get stranded in Speiz where I thought I could get off and wait. As a result I walked to the train station which was up a big hill on on the other side of town. I was surprised at how sleepy a town it was and I think it was then that I realised how small (and small town in some ways) Switzerland actually was.
The weather was not great and visibility pretty poor. While in interlaken I wanted to go to the highest train station in the world at jungfraujoch so looked at the prices. It was risky with visibility so was not sure about it but what else would I do? I went to the ticket office and they explained, kindly, that there was no benefit to buying a ticket earlier so I should check the next day. That saved me a lot of bother! The hostel in interlaken was very friendly and made me think I might generally be better off youth hostelling but without Chris Eubank. I'd not booked my future accommodation at that point so it kind of made my decision - it is always the right thing to make decisions with one data point.
Interlaken was pretty, and pretty quiet so with the rain,I thought I could head to Bern for free*.
Bern is a handsome city with some interesting architecture and a bear pit. An actual pit and bears. They are not now quite the same thing but they used to be not all that long ago. I was genuinely impressed with the high bridges and the aspect of the buildings. Had the weather been a little more pleasant, I think it would have been really lovely - had to drop the "really".
On my return to Interlaken, I walked down the main road and noticed a lot of oriental tourists (mainly Chinese) and this was a common thread throughout. I guess the tour market is booming with the newly moneyed middle classes but you don't see them as much in the UK due to the kind of isolationism that supposedly gets votes [link]. The Chinese tourists I saw spent a lot of money on designer goods. Or at least window shopped quite hard!
(Basel is a where an agreement about Banking Capital ratios was decided)
The Rail pass I had bought [link] allowed unlimited travel on chosen days and half price on the days in between but it also included boat and bus travel so I thought it'd be nice to travel by boat too via Thun.
Unfortunately, a little misunderstanding (or lies on the timetable) did see me get stranded in Speiz where I thought I could get off and wait. As a result I walked to the train station which was up a big hill on on the other side of town. I was surprised at how sleepy a town it was and I think it was then that I realised how small (and small town in some ways) Switzerland actually was.
The weather was not great and visibility pretty poor. While in interlaken I wanted to go to the highest train station in the world at jungfraujoch so looked at the prices. It was risky with visibility so was not sure about it but what else would I do? I went to the ticket office and they explained, kindly, that there was no benefit to buying a ticket earlier so I should check the next day. That saved me a lot of bother! The hostel in interlaken was very friendly and made me think I might generally be better off youth hostelling but without Chris Eubank. I'd not booked my future accommodation at that point so it kind of made my decision - it is always the right thing to make decisions with one data point.
Interlaken was pretty, and pretty quiet so with the rain,I thought I could head to Bern for free*.
Bern is a handsome city with some interesting architecture and a bear pit. An actual pit and bears. They are not now quite the same thing but they used to be not all that long ago. I was genuinely impressed with the high bridges and the aspect of the buildings. Had the weather been a little more pleasant, I think it would have been really lovely - had to drop the "really".
On my return to Interlaken, I walked down the main road and noticed a lot of oriental tourists (mainly Chinese) and this was a common thread throughout. I guess the tour market is booming with the newly moneyed middle classes but you don't see them as much in the UK due to the kind of isolationism that supposedly gets votes [link]. The Chinese tourists I saw spent a lot of money on designer goods. Or at least window shopped quite hard!
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| Thun, Bern, Interlaken 2013 - click for photo album |
(Basel is a where an agreement about Banking Capital ratios was decided)
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