Our hostel included a free breakfast. It was pretty basic: Bread, jam, nutella, butter, corn flakes, milk, yogurt. For each night of our stay each person got 2 tokens. One load in the clothes washing machine cost 2 tokens. One coffee drink from the self-service espresso machine cost 1 token. The machine ground the beans fresh for each cup brewed, and real milk was used for the lattes and mochas. It wasn't as good as a coffeehouse, but it was a nice way to start the day.
Aubrietta in the breakfast room. We were the only caucasians in the hostel that night. There were a few East Indians, one Muslim couple (the woman wearing a full burqua!), and the rest were Japanese or Korean. This made it not your typical rowdy youth hostel experience, which I was kind of hoping to introduce the girls to. The mood was very quiet and relaxed, which was refreshing. The only sign of the true youth hostel experience was if you went to the communal kitchen late at night, or before the cleaning crew arrived in the morning. The kitchen was a disaster of dirty dishes and pans, food scraps all over the floor, and stove tops black with burnt food which has overflowed from pots boiling over.
There was a TV broadcasting a live image of the Jungfrau, THE mountain everyone comes to Interlaken to visit. It was on our itinerary, too, but obviously we weren't going today. It was not only totally socked in with clouds, but snowing, too!
Instead, we were headed to the Ballenberg Open Air Museum. I first visited it when I was 17 and staying with my dad and new stepmother in Switzerland for the summer. I had never seen such a place -- with historic houses to explore, cheesemaking demonstrations (and samples!), and staff in period costumes. I was instantly in love and knew that someday I would bring my children there. Twenty-six years later, here we go...
We decided to take a 98 year old steam paddle-wheel boat up the Brienzersee, which took more than twice as long as the train. It was free with our railpasses, so how could we pass up this opportunity?
Hard to believe these mechanics are nearly 100 years old. Just the day before yesterday we'd been on a similar boat on Lake Luzern, but we hadn't had enough of boat rides past pretty waterside chalets.
This boat had a surprise in the bow for the kids: a playroom! Two older women and a small dog were supervising.
The girls found the playroom was well stocked with German strategy board games, so they begged me to stay below deck and play a round with them, because this game needed more than 2 players. It was a fun game and I enjoyed it, but the old lady supervisors were not pleased that I was lingering. They kept giving me the evil eye and asking if they could "help" me, and when I said I was just finishing up this game with my daughters that needed more than 2 players, they'd back off for a few minutes before asking me again, if I needed "help." I knew that what they were really asking was if I needed help finding the exit. Apparently this area was for children only, no parents allowed.
More children came so I left the girls to play with their new friends.
There was a table for coloring, blocks for building, a fully-furnished doll house, and much, much more. The girls spent the entire passage below deck playing. I didn't even bother trying to extract them to see the views, they were so happy to be in the company of other children.
Meanwhile my husband was also on the bow of the boat, but topside. He had his binoculars on and was standing right up front. He stood almost the entire way, breathing all the beauty into his soul. He grew up sailing and bobbing around on boats, so he loves being on the water.
My eyeballs kept drifting to this unattended sleeping baby. The mother was off chasing a toddler, and I guess she knew her baby would be just fine in the company of mostly elderly Japanese tourists.
This was a more modern lake boat, used for parties or when extra capacity was needed for tour groups.
Let the tour de chalets begin!
Boathouses where the boats can be lifted out of the water are a great idea.
Many of the lakefront villages had a walking path with benches along the shoreline, so homeowners shared the view with everyone. I liked that idea. It has always bothered me that home in Seattle so much of the shoreline is private property and inaccessible to the public.
The lake was blue because of glacial flour, or pulverized rock. Look at the color in the rock face in the above photo! Isn't it beautiful?
There were lots of pretty waterfalls along the lake. This one had a footbridge crossing it, continuing a public walking path.
When the boat stopped to pick up more passengers I watched as this old gardener went back and forth dipping watering cans in the lake and watering hundreds of potted plants and flowers. Imagine doing that every day, all summer long.
When one sport is not enough: This man obviously likes canoeing AND cycling.
Steps from the boat, connecting trains and buses await. We needed the bus. Our ride was a nailbiter -- we wound up and down steep one-lane roads at high speed, and slithered between 300 year old chalets built close together back when the only traffic was horse and cart. There were a number of times when we came within inches of retaining walls and corners of houses, and yet the driver barely slowed to make the turns. What would such a ride be like in the dark of winter, on an icy road? These European bus drivers are fearless.
We passed a lot of pretty chalets on the half hour bus ride to Ballenberg. This one was a newer construction.
Look at this beautiful carved directional sign!
We arrived (safely!) at Ballenberg and entrance was free with our Swiss Rail pass. It would have cost about $45.00 USD had we not had our pass. I just love their logo, above, don't you?
We began touring the old buildings, but hunger got the better of us, so we started looking for one of the many cafes and restaurants on the property.
Ballenberg had great multilingual signage. I could tell we would be spending a lot of time reading signs.
We stopped at the first restaurant we saw, and strategised how to afford lunch when the cheapest menu item was equivalent to $15.00 USD. The girls shared a traditionally Swiss macaroni and cheese with ham, which came with a side of applesauce made on site. For Daddy and me we ordered a $19.50 appetizer sampler of cheese and cured meats, also made on site. It clearly stated on the menu that it was intended for 2 people, and we said we wanted 1 order, but the waiter brought out a double order and charged us $39.00, which I think was a dirty trick. Also, he was clearly appalled when we declined to order drinks. It was another case of us not wanting to spend $20.00 for bottled drinking water which flows freely from fountains found around every corner in Switzerland, and him refusing to serve us tap water because we were expected to buy mineral water or soda, or better yet, wine. Most of the smoked meats you see above we found to be inedible. That bacon was RAW, apparently a delicacy of the region, but it was so fatty, stringy and chewy I couldn't get it to break down in my mouth in order to swallow it, so I'm ashamed to say I had to spit it out in my napkin. Luckily the girls loved their lunch.
Kelsey really wanted to ride the horse drawn carriage, but a sign on the side said it was equivalent to $70.00 USD for 2 people, so we had to break her heart and say no.
Lunch out of the way, we continued touring the houses and barns. Above is a grain storehouse from 1685. Even utilitarian buildings were dressed with flower boxes bursting with geraniums, and not just here in the museum, but throughout Switzerland!
Freshly made sausages hung to dry in a barn. The smoky aroma was intoxicating as we walked through. It's hard to believe that I was once a vegetarian, given how much I was salivating while in that barn.
Each little farm had its own kitchen garden, growing different things representative of the era and the region. The museum featured 15 different architectural groups from different time periods. This was the Central Midlands area, with the garden typical of the early 1600's.
This was a medicinal herb garden, with a special exhibit on fragrance and essential oils made from plants. There were these cylinders on posts throughout the garden that contained cotton balls soaked in essential oils, and you had to guess which plant they were made from. You lifted the top, as Aubrietta is doing in the photo, took a sniff, and then checked your guess on the little flip sign below. It was a fun challenge!
Every plant had a tag so that you could know its name, both common name and latin name.
This field had different rows of heritage grains, such as emmer and barley. Excellent signage described whether the grains were used for baking or feeding livestock.
As always, the girls were attracted to all the hands-on activities. Here an exhibit on carpentry features an area for kids to drive nails into logs.
The girls bought some lavender sachets in the shape of kittens.
This basket weaver stops to take a measurement, making sure the diameter is consistent.
A wine-grower's house from 1780, with a young vineyard out front.
This espaliered pear tree was amazing, and just dripping with fruit.
I know that cowbells are historically relevant and supposedly help farmers hear where their herds are off in the mountains, but I've always viewed them as a bovine torture device. So large and so loud, and constantly clanging as the cow goes along grazing. It must be so irritating to the poor animals. As a human, though, I find the cacophony of ringing bells, each with its own unique sound, absolutely beautiful to listen to. It is like a handbell concert, the notes combining to create lovely melodies. Still, I wish the cows didn't have to endure them. Can't we track cows by GPS microchips now?
Inside a large dairy barn was a big exhibit on modern-day farming in Switzerland. None of the signage was in English, but we got the gist of it from the great photos, charts, illustrations, and hands-on activities.
Ballenberg had a lovely play area about halfway between the East and West entrances. There was also a carousel, but given the choice between a carousel ride and an ice cream, the sweets won out. It was getting warm and very muggy, so the ice cream was necessary.
Ballenberg features 250 different native farm animals, some being nearly extinct "heirloom" varieties, like these Pfauengeiss goats.
The girls were so excited to hold the baby goats, until the goats started nibbling on their hair. Here Kelsey is squealing under her breath that I need to hurry up and take this photo before she drops the goat who had just had a chunk of Kelsey's hair in its mouth. Kelsey was disgusted that her hair now had baby goat slobber all over it.
Aubrietta was a little more comfortable holding the baby goat, although just after I took this shot the goat turned and grabbed the chincord of Aubrietta's hat in its mouth and started tugging, which startled Aubrietta.
I had somehow forgotten just how large Ballenberg was. I know that I was a lot younger, but I also think that the last time I was here I didn't walk the whole length from one entrance to the other. The property is 163 acres, long and narrow. The map we purchased warns that it is impossible to see everything in one visit, and suggested routes covering just half the grounds take a minimum 4 hours. Our leg muscles were burning from all the hiking, and tromping up and down stairs in all the houses. I bet we walked at least 5 miles, probably much more.
We were really happy when we finally reached the East Entrance around 17:00. In the gift shop we bought patches, and bandanas with edelweiss flowers on them. The girls also got juice pops, which in the photo you can see them rushing to finish before boarding the bus which is pulling up behind them. Minutes after we pulled away on the bus the sky opened up and a torrential downpour hit. The whole time we were on the bus it just poured, but miraculously as we neared Brienz the rain stopped.
Instead of taking the bus back to Interlaken, we were taking the train. These elderly Japanese tourists who had been with us on the bus crowded around the automatic ticket machine trying to figure out how to buy train tickets. I really felt for them -- after 5 weeks of travel and trying to figure things out in languages I didn't understand, I knew the stress and fear of making a mistake. Buy the wrong ticket and you could get fined or thrown off the train. Get on the wrong train and you could end up hours from where you intended to be, sometimes without a way back if it was late in the day. I don't travel to spend time with tourists, but I admit that other than the chain-smoking the men do, I really enjoy being in the company of Japanese tourists. They are usually polite (although they can be pushy in crowds), perennially cheerful and enthusiastic, genuinely interested in learning about what they are seeing, and so grateful when you offer to take their photo with their camera for them.
While waiting for the train Aubrietta took Kelsey literally when she said she loved Switzerland and never wanted to leave. "Here, I'll lock you in so you can't go home with us!"
On our train ride back to Interlaken the rain started up again. Rain beat hard against the window, but a beautiful rainbow could be seen as we approached the town. Luck was with us again, when we emerged from the train station, because the rain had completely stopped. It was Sunday, so the big grocery store by the train station was closed. We'd just missed the bus to the hostel, so Daddy walked the 10 minutes to the hostel, while the girls and I went to the convenience store to buy more microwave dinner fixings. The store was less crowded than the night before, but it was later in the evening, so there wasn't much left on the shelves.
Here's Kelsey getting water at dinner in the hostel kitchen.
One of the dining rooms had a ping-pong table.
No one was eating outside tonight. The sky rumbled and lightning was hitting the hills in the distance. It wasn't long before the rain came again, even harder than before. We were so glad we made it back to the hostel when we did.
Daddy went to bed and I wrangled another load of laundry while the girls found a quiet corner to chat and share a bag of paprika chips. After that they went down to the playroom in the basement, and I went to the lobby area to research transportation to the Jungfrau for tomorrow. The rain was supposed to blow through tonight and be replaced with glorious clear skies tomorrow. We'll see....
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