Back in May I visited my friend who lives in Switzerland for a week. And travelling to Switzerland in May is so much better then November. With stunning views, beautiful meadows, and some amazing wildlife!
The last few times when I travelled to Switzerland, I flew to Zurich and took the train onwards from the airport. This time I decided to take the train immediately from Amsterdam. I found that there was an international train from Amsterdam directly to Basel (Switzerland). From Basel it is just an hour and a half to Thun. Why take the train, isn’t the travel time longer? Yes the journey is 9 hours long but it is cheaper than flying, it is better for the environment, and I personally find train travel more relaxed than flying. Unless your train has a delay, unfortunately this did happen to me. But that doesn't take away that this vacation was much needed and really wonderful!
Thun
Thun still is an absolutely beautiful town. I arrived early in the evening, and as I was quite tired from the travel, (not to mention still recovering from a Covid infection) we immediately went to my friend’s home and ordered some food and decided to go to bed rather early. The following day was more of a day to do groceries and get some ideas on what trips we wanted to do in the week to come. On the days that we didn’t do much we went into the town to walk around, visit the castle and walked past the lake Thunersee. The lake really is stunning with crystal clear water and is surrounded by gorgeous mountain ranges. One afternoon we were walking around the castle we noticed a couple of lizards scurrying along the castle grounds and on the walls. These were common wall lizards, I am not overly fond of reptiles, however lizards are definitely very interesting and lovely colourful creatures to see.
Inside and on top of a mountain.
For our first trip we went to the St. Beatus caves, which are situated within the mountain of Niederhorn. And the caves are really beautiful, the entrance to the cave is amazing as well. A steep climb, but amazingly beautiful and almost other worldly (Rivendell comes to mind whilst walking to the entrance). Once you arrive at the cave entrance you can go for an 1km walk into the mountain and back again. This cave system is absolutely beautiful, with a river flowing through the cave, waterfalls, lakes and small corridors and stairs that guide you through the cave system. Many of the cave grottos are filled with both stalagmites and stalactites which were formed over millions of years. I love looking at the stunning formations of these stalagmites & stalactites, and let ones fantasy run wild to see something in these formations.
After being inside a mountain it was time to get on top of a mountain, and a very beautiful one at that: the Stockhorn. The Stockhorn can be seen from Thun and is actually really close to the town. However if you want to get to the top you have to go to the other side of the mountain, which means you need to take a train and a bus to get to the mountain. We took the cable cars up the mountain and walked the last few hundred metres to the top at 2190m, here we simply enjoyed the stunning view. This is also where I personally noticed that my longs were still recovering from the Covid infection. Close to the top we suddenly noticed a massive bird flying a bit lower in the valley, neither of us had thought to bring binoculars (shame on me, I work with binoculars on a daily basis) luckily I did bring my camera and managed to get some shots.
Looking at the photos we were able to identify the bird as a bearded vulture. I can’t really remember if I had ever seen a vulture species in the wild, and to see them fly in the habitat where they belong is absolutely amazing! They truly are massive birds, I love how they simply soar through the sky. After eating lunch, and enjoying the sight of ravens, alpine crows, red kites and a very swift sighting of an Alpine ibex, we started our walk down the mountain to the next cable car station where we would get on again and go down the mountain. This descent was pretty steep and not that easy, with some patches still covered in snow. But it was absolutely stunning!
Reichenbach fall / Aareschlucht.
On one of the hottest days of the week, we decided to go on a hike past Reichenbach fall and to the Aareschlucht. Well, we had already planned to go in the Aareschlucht, and it just happened to be the hottest day. The heat, however, was much appreciated as the water flowing through the gorge made the temperature almost cold, to walk from Reichenback to Aareschlucht was very warm indeed. You know it is hot when even lizards search for some shade!
The name Reichenbach fall may ring a bell to Sherlock Holmes fans/readers, these are indeed the famous falls from the Sherlock Holmes stories. We took a very cute old funicular railway (cable railway) up the mountain. You get of this cable railway at a nice viewpoint to the falls. If interested you can also visit a Sherlock Holmes museum, we didn't have the time as we had a hike to look forward to. From here we walked higher through the forest and passed the top of the falls and continued our way to the Aareschlucht. The sides of the falls were covered in trees which provided some shade. But to get to the gorge we had to cross some valleys and this ment traversing some alpine meadows under a stark blue sky and bright sunshine. Looking back on this walk it was absolutely stunning, and felt very alpine with going through meadows and passing an alpine village.
Unfortunately the eastern entrance of the Aareschlucht was closed, we were too early in the season, so we took the train to the western entrance, which was open. But getting on the train was a bit odd. We had to walk into a small gorge with rocks all around us and then there was a metal door, the train station was inside a tunnel. We had to push a button so the train knew that we wanted to board and it would stop. The metal doors to the actual platform only opened after the train had stopped. We got off on the next station and walked to the west entrance where we first to a break and enjoyed some much needed ice cream.
Then continued into the Aareschlucht, and honestly this was probably the most stunning place we visited. The Aareschlucht is a gorge through which the river Aare flows. The cliffs on the side are limestone and nearly 50m high. In some places the gorge is less than 1 meter wide, in other areas 30meter wide. You walk on a walkway that has been build against and sometimes inside, the side of the cliffs. The walkway through the gorge is 1,6km long and as the east entrance was closed we walked the gorge twice. Walking the gorge twice made the experience even more special, as on the way back you would see something new or in a different light.
All in all, this week passed way too quickly and was absolutely amazing and stunning! Can't wait to return and explore some more, maybe next time I finally get there when Thun is covered in snow.
For more photos from this vacation go to the gallery and click on the Switzerland album!
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