Best of Switzerland in 8 Days - Day 4 - Giessbach Waterfall and Lake Blausee

Introduction.

Switzerland is a country where there is something to see in and around every town. There are so many gems that get missed by tourists who are on a tight time schedule and just want to complete visiting some well-known touristy places to finish their "Pilgrimage" of  Switzerland. The fun lies in spending time and enjoying the endless beauties that Switzerland has to offer. 

In this blog, I would take you along to two unheard of places, Giessbach waterfall and Lake Blausee (literally meaning Blue Lake). First, let me tell you about these two places.

Giessbach waterfalls are on the south side of Brienz Lake (Brienzersee), one of the two lakes that are connected to Interlaken. In fact, both the lakes are connected by the Aary river that flows through Thun town, Thun Lake, Interkalen, and then into Brienz Lake. It is a beautiful waterfall having 14 tiers and it tumbles down over 400 meters to drain to Brienz lake.

Blausee on the other hand is a very small beautifully Blue lake in Kalley. This lake got created during a landslide some 15000 years ago. It is very close to the Kander River and is fed by a natural spring. Its water is blue and it has a very romantic but tragic story(mostly a myth) attached to the blueness of the water.

Travel to Brienz.

Let us start our travel. Since we were in the suburb, our trip started in the standard way, leaving the house, taking the bus to Interlaken OST, we boarded a train for Brienz village. After a short train ride of about 20 minutes, we reached Brienz. Brienz is a town famous for wooden carvings.

Watching Over the Village - Brienz Town

Shephard and his Horn

A Girl in a Row Boat

Are you Pinocchio?

Going to Giessbach Waterfall.

After a stroll through this small yet beautiful town and enjoying some of the wooden statues, etc, we took a bus for our first destination, Giessbach Waterfall. The buses going to Axalp village on top of the mountain pass through the stop of Giessbach waterfall. Getting down at this stop, it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the fall. The bus frequency is about 1 hour.

Another way is to take an Interlaken - Brienz boat and get down at the bottom of the fall (where this fall drains into Brienz lake) and take a short Funicular ride to Grand Hotel Giessbach. From here, if the full beauty of the fall is to be experienced,  a trek of about 1 km needs to be done upstream along with the fall.

Since we came there by bus, we were already above the falls and we had to walk down for 10 minutes. what we saw after this ten-minute walk was majestic. See for yourself.

Her Majesty the Giessbach Fall"

Posing on one of the Bridge across Giessbach Fall

Giessbach, in its full glory

The Grand Hotel, Giessbach, is a historical property in operation since 1857. This hotel has won awards including The Historic Hotel of theYear (2004). Visitors can visit this hotel. They can also eat here because despite being situated in a remote area, the rates of food, etc are in line with regular rates across Switzerland. Another reason in favor of this hotel is they cook well.

Beauty with Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel, Giessbach

Axalp Village.

Visiting the falls, we returned to the bus stop only to realize that we had looked at the timetable of Buses coming to Giessbach and not going back to Brienz. This error meant that the next bus to Brienz was about 40 minutes later. In fact, the bus that comes from Brienz goes to Axalp Village and the same bus comes back to take one to Brienz. 

We put this newfound knowledge to immediate use and hopped onto a bus going to Axalp. There were just a handful of passengers on the bus. This bus was being driven by a daredevil woman with deftness on a narrow mountain road with many hairpin bends. AT few places she had to reverse to give a pass to the oncoming vehicle. we were scared but she was cool. This trip turned out to be very beautiful as the mountains and the meadows were fabulous. Axalp is a famous place for winter sports like Skiing. In fact, the bus stop here is called Sportsbahnhof (Sport main Station).

Green Meadows

A small Village on the way

Axalp Village Square (Just big enough for the bus to take a U turn)

Reaching Blausee.

After a very brief halt there, the bus started the return journey and reached Brienz Bahnhof in about 40 minutes. We were to go to Blausee from here. The journey involved taking a train back to Interlaken Ost. Changing to another train for Spiez. At Spiez, we took another train to Frutigen. Fron Frutigen Bahnhof we took a bus to Blausee. The lake is about a 7 to 10 min walk through the woods but the path is wide and well laid out.

Sine Blausee is a Nature Park, there is an entry fee of about 8 Swiss frank on weekdays and 10 CHF on weekends. After buying tickets we were into the complex and soon, we were face to face with an unbelievably beautiful blue water lake. As big as a big pond and as clear water as clean glass. You don't have to believe me, here are the proofs -

Blausee, First look

Crystal Clear Blue water

By now you must be curious about the legend that is associated with this lake. The story goes that there was this beautiful blue-eyed girl who fell in love with a Shephard. He was also madly in love with the girl. They would regularly row to the middle of the lake to enjoy the beauty and to do some romance. This continued for a while. Unfortunately, one day the Shephard died in an accident. This girl, oblivious of this fact, went to the lake every day and waited for her lover. Eventually, after many day's wait, this dejected girl could not bear the separation anymore and ended her life in this lake. The water of the lake miraculously took the blue color of her eyes and was thereafter called Blau - Blue See - Lake. They have sunk a "so-called" statue of that girl in the lake which can be seen at the bottom of the lake.

How much more clean the water could be?

The beauty from the legend of Blausee

There is a glass bottom rowboat that takes us on a trip inside this blue water lake. It is fun to enjoy the depths of the lake on this short trip.

See the reflexation of the sky

Trip in the glass bottom Boat

Blausee Nature Park has a hotel with about 20 rooms, a restaurant right next to the lake, and one Pizza place right at the entrance, it also has a big wooded area where you can stroll. There are play equipment where children can play and also places to make barbecue if you are carrying marinated stuff to Barbecue there.

Facilities around Blausee

Facilities around Blausee

Modelling can be done even at Blausee

A Loghouse to Relax

Me, Relaxing on a Lounger and thinking, Where next"

In all, Blausee is a family place for a day-long picnic. There are activities that happen here in Summer including an open-air movie. It may be a family place, but it is a top-class trip for travelers also. Do not miss it during your Swiss trip.

End of the Trip.

By the time we finished our trip, it was nearing around 6 pm. We followed the transport in reverse order, Bus to Frutigen, then a train to Interlaken Ost and finally our B &B. Balance day was spent relaxing.

Tomorrow, we will go (along with you) to a mountain where again, most Indians do not go. Also tomorrow we shift our base, post the trip to the Mountain, to Lucern.