Travel Log

To escape the heat and the tourist hordes we headed to Lake Brienz for some stand up paddle boarding. We started with three boards but soon realised (well ok, Alex realised, Nick was grumpy!) that we should have four boards so we picked up a fourth board and spent the next two hours paddling around the lake. We even made it to the other shore and landed at a small gravel island beneath a cliff. The lake water was about 17 degrees apparently but it felt warmer and was pleasant to swim in. After paddle boarding around we spotted a beach area with a pontoon and inflatable trampoline islands and we paid for entry to spend a few more hours in the water. There was also a pool as well as the lake beach. It wasn’t quite the authentic and quiet lake we were after, but the kids enjoyed it.

After overheating in the sun we decided to head to higher elevations and made for the Lauterbrunnen valley and the gondolas up to Murren and eventually Piz Gloria (Schilthorn). If anything Lauterbrunnen was even more rammed with hordes of tourists than Grindelwald. On the gondola we were joined by a mob of East Asians filming every second and sparing no consideration for anyone else. I did have a nice chat with an old Swiss man with a little dog who was telling me about the mountains of the area.

The kids were almost unbearable in the queues and at one point Jasper managed to trip over a queue barrier stanchion (!) and hurt his leg so badly that the lift attendant offered him a wheelchair and priority boarding for the next gondola! Honestly!

Piz Gloria was a disappointment since there was a lot of construction. One station down we did the “thrill walk” at Birg. This was a bit more thrilling than expected once we got to the glass walkway to see some panels were cracked, and that the route had been unexpectedly closed off early! We made a hasty retreat.

On the terrace there was the unusual juxtaposition of Swiss mountains and line dancing to America country music. There was some sort of group of line dancers going through a set and it was quite cool to watch and listen to country music.

It was stressful driving back to Grindelwald because the traffic was a nightmare and we still hadn’t sorted tickets for Jungfraujoch - were weren’t going to make the ticket office at Grindelwald Terminal… On the journey, to the background audio of incessant bickering, we saw that the train station ticket office would be open so we headed there and after a wait in another queue did get our tickets sorted.

Back at our chalet it was a quick dinner then to bed early.