Interlaken - with Pictures

So these are the pictures and my recollections in Interlaken Switzerland. I camped in Interlaken which was great and this first one was the view from my tent door each morning (though usually there were clouds covering the mountains in the mornings...this was actually taken in the afternoon. I didn't climb this one but I did something similar if not actually a bit taller.

This photo is of the main drag in interlaken heading from one train station, Interlaken Ost (East) to Interlaken West, a good deal of the town is situated on this one road with nice little side streets to explore along the way. Of course along the whole thing you can see the alps in all their glory surrounding you. The weather was also perfect here...days were nice but not TOO hot and nights required a light jacket at best.

This is phot of what is actually a chain of stores in switzerland that I thought was funny because if you don't know swiss german it would appear that the store's proprietor is CHRIST with a lesser partner in Schmuck. Its actually a jewlery store and the Uhren and Schmuch refer to watches and jewlery rather than well...schmucks. I'm pretty sure that the store is not actually owned by Jesus but I could neither confirm nor deny that fact.

The interlaken town common...it looks right onto the Jungfrau (young woman) and while it appears nice hear is really overgrown and nobody seems to use it. Its actually kind of a bright green eyesore in the middle of the city. The swiss should take a cue from the French and start dominating nature a little bit more in their living areas.

Of course, interlaken wouldn't be complete without a Hooters in town. This place was packed both nights I was there. I didn't go because that might have been a bit depressing just to think about. I took the picture because it features really some of my two favorite things in the world...you guessed it, the bike and motorcycle in the front. Get your minds out of the gutter.

A big hotel in Interlaken that I could never afford to stay in...but it was nice to look at from the outside.

I couldn't figure this out for the life of me. Its in the center of town and advertising itself (in English mind you) as being the last sex-shop before the Jungfrau. I'm not sure what mountaineer in preparing for his climb of the Jungfrau goes through his list as: "backpack...check...boots...check...ice axe...check...midget porn...shit we better go back to Interlaken." Of course, Jungfrau translates to Young Woman so maybe its not the mountain they're refering to. I kept walking down the street looking for the young women as a better alternative to the sex-shop. The next day on my trip to the Jungfrau I forgot to stop here ahead of time...big mistake.

Some old church in town...i took pictures of churches in every city I visited. I thought it was ironic to do so.

So while in Interlaken on the first night, I took a hike up one of the big hills that flanks the city. At the top I found this weird little bench with the inscriptions about warts or something...i have no idea if it translates to anything or not (google seems to think it doesn't). Anyways, on the bench was that little bottle of wine just waiting for me. It was already open so I drank some as a self-congratulations for completing the climb. Ok, I didn't do that because it was open already and that would be a bit risky so early in my trip. It was a bit weird though.

One of my favorite parts of hiking in Switzerland were the trail signs. They start right in the middle of town and direct you very specifically to lots of cool things. They also deal in time rather than distance which took a little getting used to. Of course, these times assume you are the average swiss man or woman. On average, it appears that I'm about 20% faster than the average swiss. Anyways, it was nice and they made hiking around and getting places by foot extremely easy.

A view from the top of the hill looking down onto the town and the river. That river was about as blue as I've ever seen. Extremely clean and cold water that flows at quite a good pace through the town. There are multiple companies that run white water rafting at points just outside the city limits. I'm assuming that the water is mostly glacial run-off and i think thats probably why its so clean and clear.

Another view from the top looking over towards the Jungfrau again across the town green. My campsite is not quite visible but its close to the green patch in the distance on the other hill. A nice little spot indeed.Patrick OUT!!!