Interlaken, Switzerland is located in between two lakes in Canton of Bern. The first lake in Der Thunersee. We stayed in Sigriswill, a small town on the north shore of this lake. The other lake is Der Brienzeesee. Both lakes are beautiful. Both have unique areas. And both needed exploring.
On our second day in the area, we decided to check out somewhere close by. I looked at Google Maps and found the town of Brienz, situated on northeast shore of the lake. While looking for cool places to see near Brienz, I found two. One is called Axapl. The other is Geissbachfälle. The second I knew to be a waterfall. The first I didn’t know was a ski resort high up a very narrow and treacherous road. We soon found out.
When reading about Axapl, the description said it’s elevation is 1,535 meters. The map just showed that Axalp was inland a bit from the shores of Brienzersee. A topo map would have clued me in as to how steep the climb actually was. What a topo map wouldn’t have shown me was that for the most part, the road was one lane with turnouts scattered about so two cars can safely pass without one falling off the side of the mountain into the lake.
Another thing that I read in Google Maps is that there is a forest near Axalp that contains over 70 wood carvings. This comment was wrong, We found the forest and hiked for a while. It actually contains over 100 wood carvings. We saw most of them.
Along the way, about half way up the mountain, at a hairpin turn that had a pullout, I saw a woman standing there, looking somewhat lost, holding her thumb out. I stopped and opened my window.
“Guten tag. Wie geht es Ihnen?” I said. (Hello. How are you?)
“German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word . . . .”, she replied (I caught about half of her words).
“Geht es dir gut?”, I asked. (Are you okay?)
“German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word . . . .”
She looked like she was half way to tears. I couldn’t leave a damsel in distress on the side of a treacherous road so I asked her if she needed a ride.
“German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word . . . .”, she said as she reached for the back door handle.
Linda looked at me cross-eyed. Neal and Randa, who took up most of the back seat, wondered if she would in fact get into the car. She did. Barely. With her small rucksack and warm coat.
“Danke Schoen. German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word, German word . . . .” (Thank you. Blah blah blah . . . )
Randa tried to speak to her in English. The woman finally started to talk with Randa. In English. It turns out, she was just on a mini-holiday and was hitchhiking around the area. She has a son who lives in San Francisco and a daughter who lives somewhere else in the States.
I drove to the top of the mountain and stopped in the parking lot for the ski resort. The woman slowly climbed out of the car. We weren’t sure if she wanted us to drive her somewhere else. she eventually thanked us again and said goodbye (Auf Wiedersehen). She donned her warm coat wand walked off into the distance. We never did learn her name, We named her Hope II.
I safely drove us down the mountain after our hike. Near the road at the bottom of the mountain, we found the Gleissbachfälle park. The waterfalls that plunge into the lake from high atop the mountain are a spectacular thing to see. There are 14 sections to the waterfall as it cascades over 500 meters. The four of us hiked around the falls for about an hour, and then, in the mist of the falls, enjoyed a beer at the nearby resort hotel.
Here are some photographs from the drive up the mountain, the wood carving forest, and the waterfall.
