The Scenery Was Beautiful, Though . . .

We have recently returned from the Second Annual Admiraal Family Post-Christmas Trip-to-the-Mountains-Where-Mom-Books-Us-into-a-Really-Crummy-Hotel. Last year, we went to Gstaad, which is a swanky Alpine resort town. We stayed at the youth hostel in Saanen, which was neither swanky nor a resort. The  chattering of other guests, desert-like air in the bedrooms, and smell of the shared bathroom were not compensated for by the free breakfast, which was mediocre. The scenery was magical, though.

Trying to recreate the winter-wonderland experience, I suggested we travel to Interlaken this year. I had learned my lesson with the youth hostel. Sort of. Lured by comparatively low prices (this is, after all, high season in resort towns), I clicked “book now” on a bed-and-breakfast located conveniently near the Interlaken West train station and advertising free breakfast. That last bit should have tipped me off. It was only when looking at the confirmation email that I noticed the ominous words “the shared bathroom is on the same floor.” Lucas asked if the “hotel” would have a pool. I smiled grimly and told him he’d be lucky to get his turn in the shower. But, after all, we were there for the hiking, the majestic mountain scenery, the snow. Strike two on the snow. Switzerland is in a warm spell, and Interlaken was positively balmy. 
       Interlaken has a McDonald's, where the kids begged to eat. I find that the longer I am in Europe, the better I like McDonald's. I'm not sure why, but perhaps it has to do with the predictability of the place. In the middle of a life of surprises, the fries always taste the same. Nevertheless, I don't like McDonald's well enough to agree to eat there while on a real vacation, so we ended up at a place called Bebbi's. This had to be the most aggressively kitchy Swiss place I have ever seen, with servers wearing spotted cow pants, Swiss flags and postcards papering the walls, and perky mountain music blaring. When Lucas ordered milk with his dinner, the waiter flexed his biceps and told Lucas that if he kept drinking milk he'd have muscles like that some day. He also told the next table. The restaurant promised "happiness, food, and fun." I think the waiter was supposed to be the fun. It also advertised free salad with every meal, which was welcome, as most Swiss food involves heavy doses of potatoes, cheese, and pork and is a bit thin in the vegetable department.

We had decided to travel by train because, well, I am a big fan. A train is like a tram . . . only bigger and faster. Also, unfortunately, more expensive. As a partial alleviation of that problem, I have cracked the code to finding “billets degriffés” a.k.a. supersaver tickets. This was not an easy task, and took me most of Christmas Eve morning and also a good part of Christmas day. Fortunately, someone else was cooking those days, so I could devote myself to entering and reentering data into the online ticket counter grid (every time I made a mistake or wanted to check a different route or date, I had to type in everyone’s vital statistics). At a get-together with other expats on Christmas evening, I bragged to a friend that I had figured out how to get cheaper train tickets. She asked me to send her the information via email. I realized while typing out the process that a sane person would probably just pay for the more expensive tickets, as the time and hassle involved in the supersavers cannot be worth it on any kind of reasonable hourly wage. Fortunately, my job does not pay an hourly wage (or any other kind for that matter), so I have no idea what the process cost us. Here is my email:

Go to sbb.ch. Change the language to English or French -- it's usually German when I get on the page. Maybe you like German, though. :-) I change the language to French because I always feel like maybe they’re holding back some deals for people who can speak the national language. I’m afraid that if I change the language to English, they will know that I am an American and refuse to come up with any bargains for me.

Hover over "Travelcards and Tickets," then under "Tickets for Switzerland" choose "billets degriffés" or "supersaver tickets." At the bottom of that page, type in "Versoix" for the station closest to you or "Genève" (not Geneva -- it won't find anything), and the date you'd like to travel, and it will show you all the deals. Keep in mind, however, that the prices will be double unless you have a half-fare card. The half-fare card is good for a year and costs 175 chf per person. We have not bought them, because I think we'd have to travel a lot more by train to make it worth it. I'm thinking about it, though, because we do really enjoy train travel.

You can look for international tickets by clicking on the link "International Tickets" under "Travelcards and Tickets." There's a link for supersaver tickets. The catch is that you can't get a supersaver ticket from Geneva or Versoix  to Germany. What you have to do is get a ticket from Geneva or Versoix to Zurich, then Zurich to Germany. (You also have to spell Zürich HB the German way or you get no deals.) 

Even with my slick mastery of the billets degriffés, traveling by train is more expensive than traveling by car. It is, however, so much more enjoyable -- you can walk around, watch the scenery go by, sleep, read, play euchre, eat. Unlike plane travel, you can arrive five minutes before the train leaves and be in plenty of time. You can also bring large bread knives on board and no one bats an eye. Best of all, with train travel, you are never lost, or if you are, it is probably someone else’s fault.

The train bridge. We climbed up a large hill/small mountain near here.

But only about halfway up. This is the view of the top, where we did not climb.

And this is the view of the valley from midway up the mountain.

We went on a beautiful, if not snowy, hike to a small town near Interlaken, where we bought enormous pieces of freshly baked apple strudel. Then we tried to eat them while walking back, which was a challenge.

Chalets at the base of one of the mountains surrounding Interlaken.

The bliss of rail travel.

Eric and the boys relaxing mid-hike. Johanna isn't in any of the pictures because she was in Spain.