Today (Tuesday, June 22nd), after breakfast in our apartment, we bought a bouquet at a nearby florist’s, then, around eleven, called Margot from the Unterseen post office. Then we walked toward her apartment while she met us partway.
Unterseen is across the Aare, north of Interlaken, and though a much older city than Interlaken, is much smaller and quieter and is part of the Interlaken municipality. The old town is to the east, but Unterseen now stretches west across fields and pastures and includes Neuhaus, which is on the Thunersee. There are still some barns, with cows and horses, close to the old town, within five minutes’ walk of the tourist bustle of Interlaken’s main street (Hoheweg ) and the Interlaken West railway station.
Interlaken and Unterseen, together with several smaller towns, are on the Boedeli, the land separating the Thunersee (Lake Thun) and the Brienzersee (Lake Brienz). Thousands of years ago, there was one big lake and no Boedeli. The Luetschine creek, carrying glacial debris from the mountains, gradually filled up the center of that lake, dividing it in two and creating the Boedeli. The river Aare begins in the mountains south of Meiringen (famous for the Reichenbach Falls, where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty battled to the death), where it goes through the narrow Aareschlucht gorge, before emptying into the east end of the Brienzersee. It comes out at the west end of the lake, crosses the Boedeli and empties into the Thunersee, which it exits at the northwest tip, at Thun. Then it flows north to Bern and eventually the Rhine.
Margot lives in a pleasant apartment in a newer building bordering on farmland. We sat and talked on her terrace, which looks south toward the Luetschine valley gap and the Jungfrau—except that the Jungfrau remained invisible, as if someone had stolen it. If you didn’t know that it was behind the gray clouds, you wouldn’t realize that there was a mountain there at all. The last time we were here, we only saw it for about ten minutes of the three days.
Margot, Mary Joy and I took a leisurely half-hour walk to the restaurant on the lake at
Neuhaus, where we had a good light lunch. Then we walked back through the fields to Margot’s, where we sat and talked until 6:30.
Margot had recommended an Italian restaurant in Unterseen, “Arcobaleno.” Mary Joy had a swordfish farfalle dish and I had a pizza. Margot appears to be as reliable as Lonely Planet.
Afterwards, we visited Jolanda’s grave in the Unterseen cemetery (behind and across from the church, with the Harder mountain rising steeply behind). On our way back through the old town, we checked out a cow barn, but Mary Joy was challenged by a barking dog, so we went back to our apartment.
Unterseen is across the Aare, north of Interlaken, and though a much older city than Interlaken, is much smaller and quieter and is part of the Interlaken municipality. The old town is to the east, but Unterseen now stretches west across fields and pastures and includes Neuhaus, which is on the Thunersee. There are still some barns, with cows and horses, close to the old town, within five minutes’ walk of the tourist bustle of Interlaken’s main street (Hoheweg ) and the Interlaken West railway station.
Interlaken and Unterseen, together with several smaller towns, are on the Boedeli, the land separating the Thunersee (Lake Thun) and the Brienzersee (Lake Brienz). Thousands of years ago, there was one big lake and no Boedeli. The Luetschine creek, carrying glacial debris from the mountains, gradually filled up the center of that lake, dividing it in two and creating the Boedeli. The river Aare begins in the mountains south of Meiringen (famous for the Reichenbach Falls, where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty battled to the death), where it goes through the narrow Aareschlucht gorge, before emptying into the east end of the Brienzersee. It comes out at the west end of the lake, crosses the Boedeli and empties into the Thunersee, which it exits at the northwest tip, at Thun. Then it flows north to Bern and eventually the Rhine.
Margot lives in a pleasant apartment in a newer building bordering on farmland. We sat and talked on her terrace, which looks south toward the Luetschine valley gap and the Jungfrau—except that the Jungfrau remained invisible, as if someone had stolen it. If you didn’t know that it was behind the gray clouds, you wouldn’t realize that there was a mountain there at all. The last time we were here, we only saw it for about ten minutes of the three days.
Margot, Mary Joy and I took a leisurely half-hour walk to the restaurant on the lake at
Neuhaus, where we had a good light lunch. Then we walked back through the fields to Margot’s, where we sat and talked until 6:30.Margot had recommended an Italian restaurant in Unterseen, “Arcobaleno.” Mary Joy had a swordfish farfalle dish and I had a pizza. Margot appears to be as reliable as Lonely Planet.
Afterwards, we visited Jolanda’s grave in the Unterseen cemetery (behind and across from the church, with the Harder mountain rising steeply behind). On our way back through the old town, we checked out a cow barn, but Mary Joy was challenged by a barking dog, so we went back to our apartment.
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