2021-09-27: Brienz Day 2

Our Excursion: 2021-09-27: Brienz Day 2 (Part of trip: 2021 Switzerland )
Date of our excursion: 2021-09-27
Location: Grimsel Pashohe, Switzerland

Our Planned Itinerary: Eat a hearty breakfast Head out to Meirengen to catch a bus to Grimselpass Ride the bus up the steep curvy roads Eat lunch and walk around the lake Ride the bus back to Meirengen and catch a train to Interlaken Ride the funicular up to Harder Kulm to get some great views Look around for the plate shop Walk along the lake to catch the sunset Eat a pleasant dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce, with vegetables, oranges, and rolls. Dessert is biberli cookies and raspberry cream donuts.

Travelers on this Excursion: Bruce Dave Diane Erika Sonja Kristin

We hit some cool places.

Continents: Europe Countries: Switzerland States/Provinces/Cantons/Regions: Berner Oberland Cities/Villages/Towns: Brienz

Some featured areas we visited: Berner Oberland (region in Bern, Switzerland) Brienz (village in Berner Oberland, Bern, Switzerland)

It’s Day 12 of our Switzerland trip and our second day in Brienz!

Today we are heading somewhere new. We are going to take a bus up to Grimselpass. This looks curvy and steep on the map. The views on the way up are magnificent! We pass the Aareschlucht, where you can walk through the mountain by the river. The road to the summit has towering rocks/mountains on either side. Interestingly, many are tinted green giving it a unique look. Towards the top are dams and lakes which generate electricity and provide water to the areas. The top is a continental divide so some water goes down one side to the Aare and other water goes down another side to the Rhone. Throughout the year, the lakes have varying depths due to snow melt, rain, and water use. The roads to the top are narrow and curvy so the bus blows its loud and unique horn to warn other cars not to proceed, or else they will have to back up to let us by. This road has many hairpins, although proceeding down the other side has more hairpins. Bikers and fast car drivers love to enjoy this road. We saw many sports cars and motorcycles, as well as a few crazy bicyclists. There is a 110% grade funicular to a lake we will check out another time because we will miss connections if we check it out this time.

The views from the top are phenomenal so we find a rocky place to sit and have some lunch – sandwiches, chips, and chocolates. We then continue on our exploration. The trails are kind of make-your-own because there are many unmarked but well traveled paths. We enjoy wandering around and marveling at the massive mountains. No one falls off a cliff.

We head back down the mountain in another bus. Many people snooze. Because it is too early to end the day, we decide to head over to Harder Kulm and ride the funicular with a gradient of 64%. The views are great and we can see the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau, as well as both the Brienz and Thun lakes. There is a sign for a viewpoint so we follow it. Apparently it is just the first or second bench we come across very shortly after the sign. The trail however, steeply climbs, is full of roots and rocks and narrowness, and is enclosed in trees so thick you can’t see outside. We are warned by another hiker group that the trail is insane and there are no views due to the dense forest.

After the Harder Kulm, we head back to Interlaken. Some go on search of the old shop that sells the Swiss plates that were broken the last 2 trips. The shop no longer sells these and these are no longer being made. Sad.

Dinner is simple and delicious. Spaghetti, tomato sauce, ground beef, mixed vegetables with sides of oranges. After dinner we head out to take some pics of the sunset but it is not as spectacular as we thought it was going to be. Dessert is Biberli cookies and raspberry cream filled donut things. Tasty but not healthy whatsoever.

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Here's a mapped route!

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Here are some of our pics...

Click the button to see pics here. This pulls from google photos so it is a bit slow. It should load eventually.