Interlaken Local Custom Tips by globetrott Top 5 Page for this destination

For all fans of Sherlok Holmes

For all fans of Sherlok Holmes

25 km east of Interlaken - in Meiringen - there are lots of special activities for Sherlock-Holmes-Fans :
Every year there are several "pilgrimages" of Sherlock-Holmes-societies from places all over the world and they come to Meiringen in their costumes, visiting all the important places in that area.
See the pics, that I saw in a window at the station of Reichbachfall-funicular.
In Hotel du Sauvage you may attend a 4-course-menu and have to solve a murder-mystery togeather with other guests and some actors.
Learn more about Sherlock Holmes at :
The Sherlock-Holmes-Society in London
and you may click here in order to see another Sherlock Holmes museum in Switzerland, close to Geneve
The Sherlock-Holmes-Museum in Lucens

Website: http://www.sherlockholmes.ch/

A great smoking-saloon in Oberhofen

When visiting the interior of Schloss Oberhofen This is certainly the highlight : The Turkish smoking-saloon / Tuerkischer Rauchsalon was built in 1855 at the highest floor of the big tower in the centre of the castle. This saloon looks quite impressive with precious ornate woodcarvings at the walls and the ceiling, lovely furniture, sofas etc. Saloons like that were found in many palaces of kings and rich merchants of that time. I remember a similar room in Schloss Linderhof in Bavaria (a palace of mad King Ludwig II)
My main picture looks a lot lighter, when you enlarge it !

Haslital-museum in Meiringen

Haslital-museum in Meiringen

Haslital is the local name of the valley around Meiringen and inside a beautiful old wooden building next to the church you may see the Hasli- & Naturmuseum Meiringen with plenty of exhibits about the life in the valley and in the alps high above it. There are also 150 different birds shown in the museum - a good chance to see rare birds from a short distance !

The museum is open daily 03.00-06.00p.m.
July&August also Monday-Friday 07.00-09.00p.m.
FREE entrance, But donations are welcome & expected !!
Museum der Landschaft Hasli is just a few meters off the campanile and the church of Meiringen.

Website: http://www.haslimuseum.ch/

A special place for James Bond-fans

This is the perfect place for all fans of James Bond : Don't miss the James-Bond decorations at the souvenir-shop on top of Schilthorn. These graffities are a bit hidden behind the small self-service-bar in the back of the souvenir-shop. Great memories of the movie "In her majesty's service" are coming back, when seeing these graffities. In that movie Piz Gloria is something like a beauty-farm, where the most beautiful girls were educated and got a fragrence as a souvenir at the end of their stay. That fragrance included a poison that would bring danger to the world... but of course James solves all of these problems.
This souvenir-shop is at the same level as the helicopter-platform, you cannot miss it !

fresh drinking-water galore

All over Switzerland and especially in the mountains you will pass by plenty of such water-wells ! Just fill up your water-bottles, the water comes freshly out of the mountains and tastes really great. Of course you may buy bottled water also in the supermarkets and in machines at all of the stations, but the price is at least 2 sfr / 1,50 euros for half a liter and the taste is not really special compared to the fresh mountain-water you may get for free.
Don't worry all of these wells are ment for public use, and the water that is not taken by the hikers will flow back to the mountains !!

Huskies at the top of Jungfraujoch

Visiting Jungfraujoch is a must, especiually, when the weather is fine ! One of the various attractions there are the special breed of Greenland-dogs , living on Jungfraujoch in the so-called "Polarhundekolonie" since more than 100 years already. At first they were needed in order to supply the workers and engeneers building the train-track, later-on they became a tourist-attraction and during summer you may go around the glacier in sleds torn by these Greenland-dogs.
The living-quaters of the dogs is close to Eigergletscher and it may be visited by tourists upon appointment - see the telephone-number below !
The dogs live there in small groups and may run around freely in a fenced area at the Eiger-glacier or return to their stables. They will also participate at various dog-sledge-racinges and TV-productions.
It is a pity that the season of the dog-sledges on Jungfraujoch was over already, when I had been there in end of October - maybe next year !!

Phone: +41 (0)33 / 828 78 34

Almabtrieb - a great local event

Almabtrieb is a special event at the end of the summer-season in the alps :check the local newspapers at the end of september or october - some of these events will be posted there and will be big festivities with hundreds of cows, traditional folk-music etc., when the local farmers take down their cows from the alpine meadows, where they stayed during all of the summertime. The exacte time will depend on the hight of the meadows - the higher they are located, the sooner the cows will be taken down again ! I was lucky to see such a small Almabtrieb, when I had been in Meiringen at the end of October 2005. See my photographs : the first in the procession was a police-car, that directed all cars to stop as far as possible at the side of the street, leaving the main-space for the cows and the farmers family, who directed the cows towards their home-stables. All of the cows were decorated with giant bells and other decorations.

Shelter-huts against avalanches

At many places in the area around Interlaken you will see several such shelter-huts, where you may run to, in case that an avalanche is approaching. Mostly these huts are in the mountains, along the most popular hiking-paths or sometimes next to the bus-stations and they are a good place to stay in case of a short heavy rain, while you are hiking or cycling and are looking for a dry place to take a rest.
As you may see in my pictures, these places are not very clean - because sheep and cows gothere also sometimes...