Sarnen - Interlaken
54.7km, 4hrs 48mins, 1735m total climb
Our two days off ended when we woke up
to the rain on the outside of the tent this morning. We had to get
packed up and on the bikes in the rain, but luckily we were still in
the worlds best campsite! We dragged everything over to the main
washing/showering building and laid it all out over the nice dry
floor and ping-pong table. Once we wiped down the tent and packed the
panniers, we moved it all again over to the main building that has
the restaurant, reception and the brand new swimming pool which was
opening this morning at 09.00. We paid our dues, then took all the
bags into the laundry room where we put everything in a tidy corner
and hung out the tent to dry.
Then we went for a swim! First ever
customers! It was bloody cold, about 7 degrees outside and blowing a
gale, and both pools are open-air. The water temp was 24 degrees, but
you had to keep moving. I was impressed as the whole pool was made
completely of hand-welded tubs of stainless steel. Must have taken
months and cost millions. I kept finding new welds everywhere, even
on the starting boards. Wish we had pictures.
Then we tried out the Erlebnisbad
(wellness pool). This had the bubbles and jets and also a whirlpool
that dragged you around, again all hand made and welded. Nothing was
switched on at first but two of the contractors/foremen were still
hanging around and saw us in the pool and switched it on for us. They
were laughing that we were actually in there and one took a picture
of us swimming against the whirlpool current to send to his mate who
had bet him they wouldn't have customers.
Got on the bikes at 11.00. Nice way to
leave, but crap weather to cycle into. A climb up the Bruenig
Hoehepass (1008m), made this our new champion of climbing days, with
1735m total. It's going to get worse though! We were passed by a
couple of serious looking cyclists on the way up as we were u-turning
away from a busy road (which turned out to be the right way), and met
them again later on up the climb twice. They were in full wet weather
gear and booties whist we were in shorts and I only had my climbing
(sweating) t-shirt on despite the rain. I don't think we were more
than a couple of minutes slower to the top! Anyway, they were
friendly and gave us the usual weather forecast and what to watch out
for on 'their' roads as people like to do. He was English and she
Swiss, randomly.
The long downhill was freezing as
expected due to the weather, but we were pretty cautious anyway, not
too fast as it was very wet and some leaf covered corners.
We turned off into Interlaken which we
were going to camp the other side of, but had decided to seek out
warm and hopefully cheap accommodation instead due to the weather.
Unbelievably, the first 15-20 people we saw were all Asian? Was a bit
of a shock as we weren't expecting any tourist hotspots. How poor our
Geography! The place was very busy despite only being able to see the
first 200m of the toes of the Alps.
We searched and asked the locals,
Johanna had a tip of one place near the school so tried to find that,
but there were so many it was confusing. We then got another tip from
a local to try a famous Herberge called Balmer's. Very famous due to
the number of American and Canadian youths that stay there whilst on
the Eurail tour (European Railway round-trip). It was fairly priced
and had the deal-clinchers of a free buffet breakfast and free WiFi
(55 Euro), also came with a free drink token for the mini-club later.
Done.
We packed up the bags and found our
room. Showers were decidedly bodged in, half way down the hall, but
overall the buildings were old and nice and everything was clean. Had
a shower and a relax, then went for a quick drink with the voucher.
Disappointingly there was only over-enthusiastic, nasal American
teeny boppers, drinking copious amounts of sweet fizzy alcohol. We
spoke to one Swiss guy who was travelling with his young daughter and
went to bed. Rock and Roll! :)
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| Free of charge swimming pool at Seefeld Park Sarnen |
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| View of the Campsite |
Haha, You must be as fitas a "Butchers Dog" by now !!
ReplyDeleteRemind me where you are both going ?
TD