Gimmelwald

The next morning we headed off towards Gimmelwald. Before we left on this trip we really wanted to see the Swiss Alps and Rick Steves strongly recommended the Interlaken area. Out of all the places to see in Europe, Rick ranked Gimmelwald as his second favorite (2nd only to Paris). It is a little town built on the side of a mountain and it is pretty far away from any towns or cities. We had to walk a good distance to a train station, then take a train to another small town, get on a bus that took us deeper into the mountains (with some pretty cool waterfalls), and then take a tram up a mountainside to Gimmelwald.

The place was amazing. It is a very small town up on a mountainside with beautiful panoramic views of the Alps. There weren’t that many tourists up there (it is fairly pricey to stay there, eat there, and take the transportation to get there) which was nice compared to everywhere else we have been. From Gimmelwald we could see waterfalls across the valley, forests and pastures along the mountainsides, and huge glacier tops on the mountain peaks.
We stayed in the Pension Hotel, which was on the main street in town.

And by main street, I mean main path (there are no cars of course up there). The lady was very nice and led us up to our rooms that had four single beds and windows with more spectacular views of the valley below us. We walked around the town for a bit and noticed that there really were no shops anywhere – although a couple families sell homemade butter, cheese, milk, and yogurt. All the houses and buildings are made of the same type of wood. Along with the scattered houses were lots of farmland and a handful of chickens, goats, cows, etc. Apparently, the government subsidizes the farmers in the Alps to keep the area nice and clean. If they didn’t, I don’t think that the farmers would be able to support themselves.


We took a 30 minute hike up to the nearest mountain town, Murren. The hike was great and the town of Murren was a bigger version of Gimmelwald in that it had more houses, a grocery store (which we used), and some restaurants. It also had a fitness center with an indoor pool that was free with our stay at the Pension Hotel. There was one clay tennis court in town that we were really close to playing on because it was right next to the edge of the mountain – it would have been the most picturesque tennis court I had ever played on. But it was 40 franks for an hour (about 37 dollars). The swimming pool was fun and all the facilities were really nice. Outside the pool was a lawn with some chairs that we relaxed in, taking in the views.
That night we found out that our hotel had some card games and some movies to borrow. We were excited because most of the games we have played on this trip have been word games that don’t require materials or catch phrase on my ipod touch. We played a couple rounds of Uno and then set up my laptop in our room and watched a movie. It was great.