Interlaken....not to be confused with Interlochen, MI

I'm spending the weekend (Saturday & Sunday) in Interlaken, Switzerland. It was a good 2+ hours on the train from Thawil....after changing trains in Zurich, Olten and Bern (actually I didn't have to get off the train in Olten because my train continued to Bern....luckily I had enough time to get back on after figuring this out).

I love the Swiss trains. They run on time (like clockwork!) and it's easy to navigate their train stations and figure out where to stand to catch the second class cars. It's not cheap, but then everything in Switzerland is expensive. My roundtrip train ticket cost 130 Swiss Francs, which is about $123. A roundtrip ticket from Thawil (about a 10 minute express train) to Zurich is 12 Francs. But the system is so well coordinated that the connecting trains arrived after a 5 minute (or so) wait.

Interlaken is in the southern part of Switzerland between 2 lakes that are a beautiful crystal clear green-blue in color thanks to the mineral content of the water. We're surrounded by tall, snow-covered mountains. It's known as the Jungfrau region. We're here to go up to the "Top of Europe" at 3454 meters and see the 3 surrounding mountains - Eiger (Ogre at 3970 meters), Moench (Monk at 4107) and Jungfrau (Virgin at 4158). The Moench is between Eiger and Jungfrau so that he can protect the virgin. We'll take a 2-hour train ride up into the mountains and stop at Eigergletsher (2320 meters) before taking a cable car up to the Top of Europe. It'll be cold, but should be spectacular....if the skies are clear.

Today we walked around a small portion of Brienzersee lake to take in the sights. There are lots of walking trails in this city and people were out getting fresh air and sunshine. The mountains are absolutely beautiful covered in snow. I've played tourist in Luzern in the fall when the caps were covered in snow, but this was breathtaking.

Interlaken appears to get a lot of Asian tourists. The shopkeeper across the street said they get a lot of Chinese, Korean and some Taiwanese tourists. There are a LOT of watch stores here, obviously catering to the Asian tourists. My friend Ken says that people stay in Interlaken and ski during the day nearby because it's cheaper than staying in a resort town (he just skied in Zermatt for a week and spent $3,000 for a hotel, food, and ski passes). We're staying at Hotel Krebs for 150 CHF, which is incredibly reasonable for Switzerland. Breakfast, internet access, and a tourist card (ride the bus and train between the 2 Interlaken stations for free) are included. A perfectly situated hotel near the train station. I highly recommend it to anyone staying here.

Overall, Switzerland is a pricey place to stay and especially to eat. All week we've been spending about 50 CHF to 100 CHF for 2 people to eat dinner. The inexpensive end is for 2 soups and salads and wine (wine is usually less than 10 CHF) or a pizza and pasta. Tonight we went to an Indian restaurant (typically inexpensive in the US) and spent 81 CHF for 2 vegetable dishes, 1 chicken dish, 2 orders of bread and 3 glasses of beer (at 3.50 CHF that's inexpensive). Might be better to drink more and eat less. I'm so glad I'm on an expense account!

I have more photos of Interlaken and from the train ride at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53773&id=1134000222&l=2f6a98efc2