Bern to Interlaken (Ringgenberg)

June 13, 2019

Beautiful Contemplative Ride

Today was just that, a beautiful ride. As often happens towards the end of a tour we spent time together and individually contemplating our good fortune and how appreciative we are to have been able to do this. Life can turn on a dime and we are so aware of that. Chris Froome’s crash is an example of that and we have had too many other reminders recently. So to have the gift of a day like today was precious.

The weather was perfect. Sunny and 25 degrees. My personal sweet spot, not too hot, not too cold, just right. The riding was great, the scenery was beautiful, and Thun! What a treat that was.

We started with breakfast at the Ibis and I have to say the Ibis impressed us. We were in an Ibis Budget (we were in Bern after all) and it was just fine. Squeaky clean, comfortable, quiet and a reasonable breakfast. When we are in Europe we usually look for more European accommodation, Chambre d’hôte, B and B, quaint hotel type of thing, but in this expensive city Ibis was perfect. We spent very little time in the room anyway as we were so busy embracing Bern. We wouldn’t hesitate to stay in one again. Incidentally the Ibis Budget was about $200 Canadian a night, so not cheap!

View from our room. The mountains have put in an appearance.

Looking down on the National Equestrian Centre. It is huge.

Our route out of town was incredibly straightforward. I credit the CN for that. We were in the poppy fields before we knew it.

We should have called this the poppy tour.

Next up was forest, fields, rivers and maybe a few more poppies. It was just glorious riding. The villages we rolled through were charming, the weather was perfect and the route was easy to follow. We both were having so much fun. We are so lucky.

Then we rolled into Thun, and were stopped dead by the beauty of the place. One of those unexpected moments bike touring. We had done our research and heard Thun was lovely, but didn’t realize how lovely. We spent over an hour trolling around, having lunch riverside and just exclaiming to each other about what we were seeing.

First was the Thun swimming pool. Just fence off a portion of the river and dive in. A bit early in the season as the water was high and rushing and 12 degrees but it was gorgeous.

Thun is beautiful. It was the highlight of the day.

We just kept seeing more beautiful things.

Just when we thought we had seen everything we rounded a corner and this appeared.

We forced ourselves to leave Thun. It is absolutely stunning, and but our hotel wasn’t there and we weren’t ready to stop the cycling yet. It was smooth riding, well marked with great views. We were surprised at the end of the day at how much climbing we had done...it was so beautiful we didn’t notice. We laughed, we chatted, we savoured the views.

Here is Sebastian who was bike touring with his wife and three girls, and manfully carrying most of the gear, although they were all doing their part.

After exchanging route information we headed on, in opposite directions.

And then Interlaken. It was a zoo, and that is being kind. It is a victim of its own success. There was traffic, masses and masses of people, tour buses, shops flogging souvenirs, every kind of tour being flogged everywhere...it was, to us, totally unappealing. We couldn’t get out fast enough. Keith took very few pictures, and one sums up what Interlaken has become. I had to include it because we couldn’t believe it. Keith had me in stitches about the whole thing. Beautiful setting, but absolutely totally overwhelmed by busloads of tourists.

To us, this photo sums up Interlaken. We couldn’t leave fast enough.

He took this picture while I nipped into the grocery store, which was a nightmare because it was so crowded and full of people, both locals and tourists. We are tourists too, I know that, but I like to think we are more polite and respectful tourists than some I saw in this store.

I went straight to the self checkout at the store...the lineups for a clerk were long and the lineups for self checkout a little less so. When I was done a bright red light went on and I couldn’t complete my purchase until they checked my age. What?? Then the penny dropped. I had bought a bottle of wine.

Fortunately we had booked a hotel about three km out of town. As we arrived Keith said to me “This should be far enough”. That’s when we realized we could still hear some obnoxious music (to us, someone liked it) being carried down the lake from Interlaken.

We are in such a beautiful and peaceful spot. We love it. The original plan of going back into Interlaken was off the table. We have relaxed here, had dinner, and the church bells just rang 9 PM and we are still sitting outside on the patio overlooking the lake and mountains. We feel so relaxed and happy.

Looking down the lake towards Interlaken.

Not a poppy! The roses in France and Switzerland have been so beautiful.

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Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 2,299 km (1,428 miles)

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