We’re lying here in bed looking out our windows viewing Lake Thun (Thunarsee) and the mountains to the north. If we crane our neck to the right we can see the Spiez Castle. The left window looks out on a vineyard. It’s Sunday morning and we’re settled in for a seven-night stay in Spiez, a relatively small town about 15 miles west of Interlachen.
We arrived last night after a day of sightseeing in Zurich. We checked out of our hotel and hit the pavement (actually, cobblestones in Old Town) around 9 AM. First order of business: breakfast. We found a small corner store selling smoothies and croissants not far from our hotel. Perfect. Now the big question: Swiss National Museum or tram ride to Uetiberg, a small town at the top of a hill, recommended by Jeff as having great views of the city. The dilemma was that light rain was forecast to end soon but the cloud base looked pretty low and would we see anything at the top?
We went for Uetiberg and, after fumbling around buying tickets and finding Track 22, we made it with a few minutes to spare (trains run every 20 minutes on weekends, so no big deal). There’s a 10-minute walk from the train station to the top of the hill and, sure enough, the views were cloud obscured in most directions, particularly toward Zurich. But patience pays and eventually the clouds parted to reveal downtown.
There was a light sprinkle or two, but we spent an inordinate amount of time finding the twin towers of Grossmunster, the one right next to our hotel. Imagine my chagrin when Judy found it on her iPhone before I found it on my Fuji with the telephoto lens. Pride cometh before the fall. Problem was, Grossmunster has a nearby church with a green steeple that helps spot the bland-colored Grossmunster. There are two such steeples in that area with green steeples. I finally found the right one and got the shot.
Back in town we stopped at one of Amy’s favorite chocolate stores, Laderach, a block or so from the train station. $75 later we were well stocked for Spiez, Israel and beyond. Hope the stuff doesn’t melt (or we don’t succumb to temptation) before we get to share with our friends on the Israel trip.
Judy had spotted another cathedral to visit: Fraumuenster, which conveniently enough was on the path back to the car park. It’s the one with the more prominent green steeple. Before entering, we had a nice flat bread with tomato, cheese and basil in the church square. We circled the building, looking for the rather nondescript entry way.
On one side of the church, we found a whole series of large fresco paintings on the exterior walls. Each panel – perhaps a dozen of them – obviously told a story but we couldn’t guess the meaning. A man, about our age, dressed in a suit, was leaning against a pillar and said to us, “Would you like to know the story of these frescos?”
He went on to tell us that it’s the story of Christianity arriving in Zurich. Early Christians crossed over the mountains from Germany but were persecuted by the local pagans and the Roman military. This was maybe third or fourth century CE, so late in the Roman Empire period. Two young girls were captured and, guess what, beheaded by the Romans in the final panel.
“And the girls picked up their heads and carried them to the site of Grossmunster, where Charlamagne built the church,” said I, smuggly. “That’s the myth but of course archeologists have debunked the myth,” he said. “Actually, the man depicted in the statue over there was Charlamagne’s grandson and those two women in that painting were his two great granddaughters, members of one of Zurich’s principal families at the time.
The man told us the frescos were painted in the 1930s. He was there because he had just given a one-hour lecture to a group of fellow members of his club. He lingered, I’m guessing, because he loved the frescos and church and wanted time alone with them.
Finally, we entered Fraumuenster. Of particular interest was a set of five stained-glass installations created by Marc Chagall, the Belarusian-born artist who started doing glass works at the age of 70. I believe there’s another Chagall stained glass installation in Tel Aviv. We’ll have to track it down if time permits.
But now it’s time to beat feet to Spiez. We walked back to our hotel, but on the way we encountered some sort of mass floating party heading down the River Limmit. Everyone was floating with the aid of some yellow blow-up. We asked a couple standing next to us and they said, “We live here and have no idea.”
Finally, we retrieved our bags and hiked on to the parking garage (gasp: 69 francs for 28 hours). We were on the road by 3:30.
The route to Spiez went by way of Lucerne and Interlachen. We’d traveled the Lucerne-Interlachen route with Carter 14 days ago by DayTrip car. At the time we said, “Glad Grampa doesn’t have to drive this twisty mountain road with all this traffic.” Guess what, Grampa got to do it after all. It wasn’t that bad and despite moderately heavy traffic and construction delays, we reached our Airbnb about 5:30 PM.
One more problem: our cupboard was bare, save half a loaf of bread (breakfast toast) and a carton of orange juice. A quick google revealed that all local grocery stores were closed and wouldn’t reopen until Monday (this is Saturday night). Not only that, but there’s some mega music festival going on in town. Roads are blocked and there’s a whole lot of people roaming the streets. A quick call to several restaurants found no tables available. Finally, we found one nearby that could fit us in.
The good news was that the restaurant was down by the water, all downhill from our Airbnb. The view of the lake and the docking steamers was fun. The fish we ate was great. The 500 ml of wine we drank (100 to Judy and 400 to Jon) was local and good. The dessert. Let’s forget about the dessert, although I remembered it all night long. The bad news: the restaurant is all uphill back to our Airbnb. But the exercise did us good and we missed only one turn in the dark before getting back home.
Looks like today we’ll have to drive into Interlachen, half an hour, for groceries or subsist on more restaurant food.
There are plenty of things to do around here: boat rides on Lake Thun, a par-three golf course in Grindenwald, the town we stayed in with Carter before doing the Jungfraujoch. Bern is only 30 miles or so away. But we’re committed to down time and relaxation at this, the midpoint of our trip. We’ll crack the spine of a book (e-book) or two.
One thing I’ll try to cut back on during our week in Spiez is blogging, so don’t count on much if anything from me for the next seven days. If I do post, those of you on my notification list will get an email. When the week is over, we’ll have five more days in Switzerland before going to Israel. We return home on September 19.
But you can’t go by what I just said. I did another day. Read on, if you wish.
