Originally we were supposed to go to the Italian part of Switzerland this day, but we had so many rest stops that we ended up changing our plans and stayed here in the central part.
Elgenberg - View of the city
Zanet expressed interest in taking a boat ride on Lake Thun yesterday. As a result, we left the camp at 8:30 today to catch the boat leaving at 9:40. I was lucky along the way, as it wasn't until the fourth day that I saw the IC2000 double decker cars. They are one of my favorites. The manufacturer is a consortium of Bombardier and Alston. They can be stacked up to ten cars and in this configuration can hold up to 1000 seated passengers. A special feature of these cars is the upper deck passage and the couch-like arrangement of the seats at the stairs. A table in the middle completes the room arrangement. We had one more lucky day. We've run into the local Swiss mischief a few times where first class cars are rebranded as second class cars, and since this was the first car where space was available, we tried first class for free.
Bern - IC 2000 first second class
Bern - IC 2000 couch adjustment
The journey to Thun takes about 20 minutes. We transfer to the boat and drive just an hour to Spiez. It would take another hour to get to the ship's destination of Interlaken, and that would be too much time wasted. I liked the cruise on Lake Thun the best of the three we took.
Cruise on Lake Thun
We're performing at the Spiez. We see the castle by the wharf and then walk quite a distance to the station. Here, for the first and last time in person, we encounter a delay of a whopping 5 minutes in the case of our train.
Spiez
In Interlaken, we want to change to the Luzern-Interlaken express, which is part of the panoramic Golden pass route, but it is not running at this hour, so we take an alternative passenger train to Meiringen, where we wait for the express.
Jezero Interlaken
Meiringen - Stadler LINK's Die Zentralbahn unit
We spend the time for the arrival of the train on wifi again, only this time at the yellow Post bus. There is none at the station and all the buses have it. The train from Meiringen is routed through a spur and just outside the town the train starts to climb 350 vertical metres. It then descends again to Lake Lungern and we get an epochal view of the lake and the village of Lungern. Together with the turquoise colour of the lake and the alpine green all around, this is and unparalleled view from the train.
Lungernské jezero
The train ends in Lucerne. There we have about ten minutes to change to the Lucerne-Elgenberg express, which will take us to the ski resort of Elgenberg. The ride takes about an hour, and we climb several kilometers in a tunnel to Elgenberg on the teeth. Unfortunately, the weather deteriorated rapidly upon arrival and it started to rain. In Elgenberg, the biggest tourist attraction is the round cable car to the Titlis glacier. However, we don't head up it because the price is 80 Euro and the top is in fog all the time today. We have slightly more modest goals here and once the weather clears, we're off to the cable car to Ristis. This is free as part of the Swiss pass, you just have to ask for it at the ticket office. Since it's already afternoon, we go up all by ourselves.
Elgenberg
Elgenberg - Cable car to Ristis
Here we plan to take a tour of Rigidalstafel and Harzlisee. But just before Rigidalstafel, it's gonna cloud up and thunder. That only means a thunderstorm and a quick run for the cable car. The final metres are covered with lightning overhead and heavy rain.
Ristis
Ristis - Ruchweg
Ristis - Alpine storm
We wait under the shelter of the restaurant until it runs out and then take the first cable car down. On the way to the train, we stop by Coop for more cheap souvenirs and then we transfer to the train and Lucerne. It gets rainy there again, so we wait a bit at the station and then go downtown. I was going to buy chocolates from a selected department store. But it's after 8 o'clock and therefore closed. So at least at the end we finally walk through the Kapellbrücke.
Lucern - Kapellbrücke
We return to Bern and the campsite again in the twilight and around ten o'clock. For lunch we again have Chinese soup, tomato sauce and sausages. We end the day with beer and a storm that has just passed over Bern.
Useful links:
Swiss Railways
Swiss Saver day pass
Cable car to Ristis
Zentralbahn railway company
