Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland




My latest favorite place in the world is Lauterbrunnen. It is a beautiful valley near Interlaken.

For most Indians, Interlaken is synonymous with Yash Chopra movies and classic Swiss scenery. But about 20 miles from Interlaken, is this quaint little town and valley called Lauterbrunnen and this place formed the base of our Swiss travel in the Berner Oberland area.


While Interlaken boasts of all the touristy stuff, if you want to live close to the mountains and numerous waterfalls (close to nature as my mom would say), Lauterbrunnen is where you need to be. A small town, that leads to a beautiful valley, with waterfalls falling on either side. When we went out for our first walk on the valley floor, I stood at one point and counted the total number of waterfalls visible - the count was 11. Streams trickle down from anywhere and everywhere. My husband remarked - "This is much like Yosemite, but multiplied by 10'.


Days in this place just seemed to vanish - there was so much to do. There were beautiful walks on the valley floor next to the river, and numerous hikes, some to the top of waterfalls, others took you high onto the ridge surrounding the valley. One day was spent taking the cogwheel train to Jungfrau - the top of Europe. Another day was spent taking the lift to Murren and walking the flower trail over there (More on the flower trail in a later post).


On a rainy day (to my disappointment, I would have been happier closer to the valley), we also did the Golden Pass Scenic route in a train and explored the lakes near Interlaken. BTW that is where Interlaken gets its name - "Between the lakes" - it is between two lakes, Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.



Valley view from our hotel

I guess we were also very satisfied with our stay at this place - at the Staubach Hotel, a very comfortable and fairly reasonable hotel. The staff was very helpful and gave us numerous tips on things to do and places to eat in the area.

If I look back at our trip, I think we were happiest at Lauterbrunnen. Another time around, I would just plan to go to this area and spend a week there.

View of the valley from one of the mountains

Comments

KP said…
great post...such nice place..i was waiting for this post..this is on top of my list of visiting places in the near future..very informative...thx a bunch..:)
5:59 AM
Sigma said…
Nice post and beautiful pictures. So, how many days in all did you spend in this place?
Waiting for the flower trail ...
6:19 AM
Cuckoo said…
:))))

So, the wait is over. I too have many pictures of Interlaken. Not yet posted.

Could you visit that ice museum on top of Jungfrau ?

Was my info of any help ? Staying in Switzerland has been one of the most beautiful thing of my life.
9:38 AM
Weekend Warrior said…
Very nice pictures. Makes me want to travel there. I especially liked the view from your hotel. When is a good time to visit this place?
4:21 PM
Pooja Aggarwal said…
@KP: I wrote this post because you kept insisting I write about by Swiss trip. Glad you liked it, I have loads more to write on this place but unfortunately time is less.

@sigma: We were in Lauterbrunnen for 4 days

@cuckoo: We did visit the ice palace at Jungfrau. And your information on Geneva was really useful, thanks.

@weekend warrior: We went in June (3rd week) and it was fairly good. The weather was nice and it was right before the crowds land in July and August. We had one rainy day.
4:39 PM
KP said…
I really hope u have more free time to write about it and give us more info on this place. Once again thanx for sharing this!
6:25 AM
Pijush said…
Simply Mind blowing Puja.. Wonderfully captured shots.
7:33 AM
Nandan Jha said…
Nice Pics. I read a very interesting post on Switzerland and was generally searching when I hit upon your blog.

The one I was reading is at Ghumakkar, the link is http://www.ghumakkar.com/2008/02/07/two-weeks-in-switzerland-%e2%80%93-lucerne/

Browse by when you have time.

Wishes
Nandan
5:04 AM
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