We had planned to go up to Grimselpass, a spot with glacier lakes at the top of our valley, and just sit around today. Our luck ran out with the weather, though, and since it’s storming all over Switzerland, we headed back toward Interlaken to visit St. Beatus’s cave. It’s absolutely a sacrifice cave now, complete with lighting, a concrete path, and informational audio at certain grottos. The cave is pretty, if a little sad, and there’s a rushing stream that goes through it. I think it would have been quite the amazing cave before it got converted to a tourism site; it isn’t horrible-looking even now. From the stories, St. Beatus made his cell in the mouth of the cave (a bit off the side of a large waterfall), and he’s said to have given sermons in the cave every week. He actually sounds a bit like the Bernese Oberland’s version of St. Patrick. Legend has it that he exorcised a dragon in the cave to help out some of the people living near the lakes below and threw the dragon into the swirling waters. Then he’s said to have converted everybody in the surrounding areas from whatever pagan religions to Christianity. Sadly, my fear of caves has increased, and it was tough even being in the widened areas the tour took.
Post-cave, we headed to Thun, which is way more awesome than Interlaken (and you should go there instead if you ever contemplate a vacation in Interlaken). Though we only took enough time to get coffee and go for a brief walk, Thun has a very old city center and has the same kind of feel as many other fun European cities. (I’m basing this entirely on the short time spent in Zurich and Milan.) There are twisted, narrow, cobbled streets, a nice array of shops and restaurants, and a teal river/canal running straight through the middle. I would not have minded spending more time there, but we headed home to have our mini-brat things, spaetzle, gravy, and salad. Speaking of food, we also tried out some butter pretzels (literally, soft pretzels halved and spread with butter) and something in a metal tube that tastes strikingly similar to pate. Weather allowing, we’ll head to the Aletsch Glacier tomorrow.
P.S. The rivers are pretty close to breaching their banks. (One tree got pulled in from the bank as we went by in the train.) However, the clouds cleared briefly just after dinner, allowing for a gorgeous sunset and the clearest views up and down the valley we’ve had yet. There are some beautiful snow-capped mountains at the bottom of the valley that are almost always covered in haze, and the side hollow that feeds into Munster was also the clearest I’ve seen yet. Pinks and oranges reflecting off rocky/snowy peaks? Yes, please.
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