Interlaken is a town in central Bern, which serves as a tourist centre and hub for visitors and hikers to much of the surrounding mountain area.

 

To be fair to Interlaken, it's not quite the tacky dive which Jessica scornfully dismisses it as. The problem with Interlaken is, if anything, perhaps that it tries just too hard to give those visitors what it thinks they want.

 

Interlaken lies between two huge lakes, Lake Thun and Lake Brienz (known in German as the Thunersee and Brienzersee). From these, valleys and hiking trails lead to a range of exotic locations, not least the famous Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau Alps. You can also go to see Schilthorn where the Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was filmed in 1969. Further up the side of Lake Brienz, you can find the Reichenbach Falls where Sherlock Holmes is supposed to have been killed (or was he ?) by Professor Moriarty in 1891. And besides all that, there are literally hundreds of kilometres of hiking trails at all levels and for all abilities in dozens of directions.

 

All this makes it a big tourist hub and you can tell this within about twenty seconds of exiting a train in either Interlaken West or Interlaken Ost (East) station. How ? Because everything is in English. A bit of German here and there but it's quite obvious that the target market can't speak the local lingo. Add to that the knocked off plastic chalets and Swiss cows plus replica cow bells for around fifty francs each and then consider the dining options: traditional Swiss curry houses, burger joints and sushi bars make it clear that you're not getting the Alps as Heidi and Peter would have known them. Not to worry if you're feeling homesick though - the local Hooters will sort you out no problem.

 

Fair enough, this is hardly unique to Interlaken. Paris, New York, London, Edinburgh, Benidorm etc etc all take a bow. That's modern tourism for you. Nearer to home, Grindelwald just up the valley is at least as bad. Like these other places, Interlaken does have some decent charm of its own. The problem is just that you have to sift around to find it while most other Swiss villages and towns (maybe not Grindelwald but most others) provide it more immediately.

 

Jessica may be quite vitriolic in her assessment but if you do visit Interlaken, you can see where she's coming from.