January 21, 2024 – Interlaken Ost and Grindelwald in the Winter!

We thoroughly enjoyed our short time in Lucerne. But because we were on the fastest trip ever to see several sites in Switzerland, it was time to get a move on. Our next stops were Interlaken Ost and Grindelwald. We arrived in Interlaken Ost the evening of the 20th, so we had the full day to visit Grindelwald. If we’d had more time, we would have spent a full day in Interlaken West.

On the walk to the station to go to Grindelwald, we saw a paraglider – yes, paragliding in the middle of the cold winter! Don’t get me wrong, I liked my paragliding experience and I liked my 46 (? – give or take, I don’t recall exactly) skydiving experiences, but I did them when it was warm. No thank you to what this guy is doing! Here he is landing in the park right by our hotel.

Here are two more pictures of Interlaken Ost.

And just like that, we were in Grindelwald. Initial pictures:

We learned that sledging is a big thing in Switzerland. I mean, skiing and snowboarding (primarily the first from what little we saw) are also popular, but people also take the lift to the top of the mountain and sledge down. Most of the sledges are small, but they vary in size.

Exception to the rule! The sledge to beat all sledges

Grindelwald was pretty, but we wanted to go up the mountain so we went to Grindelwald First. Again, the cable car was very expensive, but that’s because it is primarily a ski lift for skiers, snowboarders, and sledgers. So, we had the joy of taking the lift to the mountain and all that being on the mountaintop entailed, but we didn’t have the joy of skiing. Had we known, we would have scheduled a second day here and I would have gone skiing, provided I could also have rented ski clothes, as I didn’t have warm enough clothing.

But, in spite of the lack of skiing – or even sledging – we saw some of the most beautiful mountains on Earth. A good second prize. 🙂 Because mountains are actually my favorite thing on earth (I am from Colorado, after all), followed by water, expect a lot of pictures.

And what to our wondering eyes should appear, but another paraglider! I am beginning to question the sanity of the Swiss.

They aren’t going anywhere any time soon

Now it was time to do the First Cliff Walk. That’s it, in the pictures below.

That (at the end) was where we stood for pics

I can’t stop myself. More pictures . . .

We went back to Interlaken West. They also have the “sort of” indoor/outdoor seating.

We had just a few days left of our trip. We took a bus to Zurich the next day (Jan. 22), spent a few hours there, then went to Munich to spend the night before taking a train to Berlin the next day.

Here are a few pictures of our short visit to Zurich.