DAY 3 (17th September 2022) – Interlaken (Harder Kulm and Iseltwald)
After two nights in Lucerne, it was time to move house, so to speak – the first move of the trip. It was time to uproot and leave for Interlaken to our following adventure destinations. The Lucerne-Interlaken train journey would take two hours, and the view outside our windows were scenic and breathtaking. These are just samples of what we saw along the way:
Wonderful scenes just outside our train windows from Lucerne to Interlaken
After a quick early check-in at our AirBnb unit along Niesenstrasse in Interlaken (our host was super kind to allow us to check in earlier), we made our way out to fulfil the plans for the day. First up, was another mountain climb, this time to a relatively small hill overlooking Interlaken town and its two adjoining lakes below – this hill is named Harder Kulm. After that was a bus ride to Iseltwald, a village situated along the southern shores of Lake Brienz (Brienzersee), to a particular place where they shot the now-famous piano scene from a popular Korean Drama called “Crash Landing on You”.
Stroll along Höheweg
After dropping off our luggage at our AirBnb place, we started our walk towards Harderbahn, the funicular station which would take us to Harder Kulm. Our gentle 20-minute stroll along Höheweg, which is one of the main streets at Interlaken, afforded us some beautiful views of the snow-capped mountains in the distance. We also came across a small Japanese Garden (Jardin Japonais d’Interlaken) set against the backdrop of the imposing spires of a church named Reformed Castle Church (Reformierte Schlosskirche). We just had to stop to take photos along the way!
Harder Kulm
The funicular took just ten minutes from Harderbahn to the top, approximately 1300m above sea level – not the tallest mountain by any means. But it does give us a bird’s eye view of the two lakes, Lake Thun (Thunersee) and Lake Brienz (Brienzersee), separated by a small strip of land where Interlaken was built. The best place to view the places below would be at a purpose-built platform cantilevered out from the side of the cliff, aptly called the Two-Lake Bridge. It is possible to also view several other mountains such as Eiger (which means “ogre”), Mönch (meaning “monk”) and Jungfrau (“maiden”, or “virgin”), the tallest of the mountains in this region.
Iseltwald
When we have had our fill of the cool breeze and the views from Harder Kulm, we took the funicular back down the hill to Harderbahn. It was a short walk to Interlaken Ost Station for the bus connection to Iseltwald, a small village along Lake Brienz. Indeed, it is a small village – according to local history, their population never crossed more than 600 people, and until 1988 when Route A8 highway was built, the town was barely accessible.
Today, the village attracts many visitors, particularly from Asia just because of the Korean Drama named “Crash Landing On You” starring the South Korean heartthrob Ri Jeong Hyeok as the main protagonist. In what is now an iconic scene, the main character was filmed playing the piano at the village’s pier, hence many people flocking to that pier to take photos. Of course we couldn’t lose out on that! (Bro Ray: I never watched the drama, so I know nuts about it – Wifey and WN did, so even though there was a long queue to take photos, we did it anyway – twice).
In our itinerary, we were supposed to make a stop at the Iseltwald Castle, which was located at the tip of a peninsular at the village. There was a pathway which led straight to the gates of the castle, but the path was blocked just at the edge of the property, and the gate was padlocked. It looked abandoned, what with creepers and tall grass all around. Oh well….
After the tour of Iseltwald, we wanted to retrace our steps back to Interlaken by hopping onto Bus No.103, but we discovered that there was a ferry which runs the length and breadth of Lake Brienz, and Iseltwald is one of the stops along the way. This ferry would also take us back to Interlaken Ost Station, and so, we decided to give it a try.
Summary Day 3
There is so much more to Interlaken than just the two huge lakes. Iseltwald, and I suppose the many other towns and villages that hug the lakes’ coastlines, offer a different feel of Switzerland, the piano scene at the pier notwithstanding! By now also, you could see that going up mountains and adventuring at the tops of these mountains is quite the normal thing to do in Switzerland, but why not – the country is literally sitting on the Alps, the biggest mountain range in Europe.
