G & J away from home

Monday, 13 June 2016

What to say about today?  Not much unless I can buy superlatives by the bucket-load.

Early this morning saw me out and about just after 6am looking for essential supplies - bread (and butter) for toast and milk to our morning tea(s) and coffee(s).  At breakfast we catalogued our collection of well-travelled food assets:

Food collection

Baguette from Paris, tea from Rye, hot chocolate from Arundel, Marmite from Guernsey, honey and jam from St Malo, spiced chai latte mix from New Zealand, and butter from Interlaken.  (Beth would like it recorded that not all of this was purloined.  It's not the she doesn't have plans for a life of crime - she does appear to, but that's about never being asked for her ticket on the trains rather than making off with a spare tea bag or two.)

Marianne and Beth went out for a look around after breakfast and then after lunch at the bakery on the corner we set out for the tourist information office, the floral clock (book reference), and the castle.  As I had expressed an interest in going around the lake (either one) by boat and Marianne was still patched up against sea-sickness we got details about round trips at the tourist information office; there was only one choice for that now it was afternoon so we set off for Interlaken-Ost with round trip tickets for an excursion on Lake Brienz.

We did, of course, stop at the floral clock to pick up our TICK for another book reference:

Beth, Marianne, and Jane beside the floral clock (Photo: Gary)

Actually there were quite a few stops; we are easily distracted and we did have a bit of time up our sleeves.

Distracted by very neatly stacked wood - and the need to stop and take this photo for my brother who is a bit of a wood-stacker himself:

Ready for winter

But once we arrived at the river wharf it was only a very short wait until the boat arrived - and it was a paddle-steamer!  Nothing more was required to make the boat trip perfect in my opinion.

DS L�tschberg, entered service in 1914 (then again in 1923)

The day was overcast with a few showers but cleared while we were out and about on the 3 hour round trip to Brienz and we would probably have been less happy with bight sun for the whole three hours.  The weather certainly seemed to be all right for taking photos and while a bit windy when we sat in the open areas of the boat while it was underway it was lovely and fresh.

In the middle of the lower cabin there was a fenced cut out which enabled passengers to see the engine working and on the wall a porthole into the paddle area to they could be viewed while in motion - all very exciting stuff though the open access to the engine made the cabin a little stuffy and smelly.  We didn't encourage Marianne to linger in there.

Engine in action

View through the paddle wheel porthole

The DS L�tschberg was 'restored' in the 1990s to return the fittings to a more original look and it certainly has the feel of a boat of its age - so much so that we were in agreement that the visiting Chalet School girls could well have sailed on it - if they themselves hadn't been fictional!

Downstairs dining room

Curved seating

I trotted upstairs to find a number of nice features, my favourite being this little room, just big enough for a dozen or so people, beautifully decorated.

Small upstairs seating area

We spent most of the outward journey up on the open deck in front of this room only discovering as our tickets were collected for the return journey that it was a first class area and we belonged down below!  (Not a distinction we have much in New Zealand and certainly not something the person who sold the tickets mentioned.)

Whether upstairs or down our cameras were blazing, mostly at the scenery (the lake, little towns, beautiful lakeside hotels, the mountains) but occasionally we took photos of each other - many of them celebrating Marianne being able to enjoy a boat trip.

All aboard; Gary, Beth, and Marianne

The excursion started in the river Aare near where it flows out of Lake Brienz (where we are in the photo above) and then makes four stops around the lake before reaching Brienz and then retracing its steps back to the terminal behind the Interlaken Ost railway station.  (The same arrangement leaving from near the Interlaken West railway station uses a special canal to access Lake Thun.)

Marianne sails!

I'm going to make a special, extra post with the scenery photos in it since there were so many great sights on the trip but writing this blog entry has been test of my patience as the internet here is so patchy that it runs for 4 or so minutes - at the most.  We also had problems with the wi-fi connection at the cottage on Guernsey and it's pretty annoying in both cases since one of our criteria for choosing the accommodation we did was that it had wi-fi.  (Less of a problem in Guernsey as the roaming rates on my phone were reasonable and I could use it as a personal hotspot for everybody.  The roaming rates in Switzerland and Austria is not nearly as favourable.)


Reading: The Miser's Sister by Carola Dunn (Jane)

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