Harder Kulm - Interlaken's Home Mountain

Our lovely and enjoyable train ride let us of in Interlaken. Interlaken is, as the name suggests, between two lakes, Lake Brienz and Lake Thun. It is also a beautiful valley between picturesque mountains. Again, we stayed at a Youth Hostel, which was conveniently located right by the train station. After checking in, we were advised to try Harder Klum since we arrived before check in. We stashed our bags and set off for another adventure.

Harder Klum is called “Interlaken’s Home Mountain” and I can understand why, it is RIGHT there! You can either hike up or, take a funicular. While we love hiking how could we turn down a ride in a new to us type of transportation? We ended up getting one way tickets so we could hike back down.

After waiting for the funicular for about 30 minutes we were loaded in, and took off. As we went up the hill the view just got more fabulous. I manages to snap a photo of the other funicular as it headed down the hill. I imagine going down might be a bit more on the intense side than going up.

When you get to the top of the Harder Kulm funicular it is just a short walk over to the observation point. As you approach a truly fantastic building starts peaking through the woods. This was still at the beginning of our trip and we were blown away but the though of a restaurant/bar up there. Little did we know, that it is just a Swiss thing, to have bars everywhere when you go hiking!

The overlook was a triangular shaped deck that went out over the hillside. It was a spectacular panoramic view of the valley below and the mountains in front.

After admiring the view we went for a hike. Before heading down the mountain we went up the ridge line a little ways. While we were seated at a bench enjoying our lunch, a Chinese couple passed by us. My husband heard them talking in Mandarin, so when they greeted us in English he replied in Mandarin. They were so shocked, they did a double take so hard, they almost tripped!

When we left Hawaii for the trip, we agreed that we really both missed Alpine meadows, and that was what we really wanted to see. Well, did the Alps ever deliver! I just couldn't stop taking photos of wildflowers. On our way back down we noticed that the observation point was empty. We stopped for another panorama.

Then we started the switchbacks down the steep mountain back into town. The following are photos taken on that walk back down to Interlaken. I also took the opportunity to play with some of the fun auto settings on my camera.