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14th
April
Ignoring
the lousiness of the dorm and after a hurried breakfast, we rushed
to the train station to catch the train to a place called Thun.
Interlaken is a place located at the neck of 2 lakes, Thunersee
& Brienzersee (Look how much of homework we had done!).
The train journey along the lake Thunersee was unique in itself.
At one side of the train was the beautiful lake and on the other
side were the huge mountains and lovely landscapes. We were quite
sad that the journey lasted only 36 minutes. Thun appeared to
be a small town, however, we didn't venture in to that. Rather,
we waited for the people from Basel - Natarjans & Vidhya to
join us.
The
touring gang grew in strength to 10 + 1 and we all hopped in to
the waiting boat. It is too big to be a boat and too small to
be a ship. The boating was exciting amidst a tranquil patch of
snow-clad mountains. The snowy Alps ranged above the water
and the stately homes alongside the lake presented a visual feast.
One has to imagine the backdrop at this point. A sunny
day with coolness in the air, wide lake with a monstrous but calm
mountain on one side and little villages on the other, green grass
everywhere in between, a couple of beautiful large homes, few
castles, a motorway and the train line running along the lake.
Simply speaking the nature was in full bloom on that day. On the
top deck of the boat were, we people enjoying every moment. I've
seen this kind of backdrop only in films.
The
boat had quite a few stops and we were actually proceeding to
Interlaken, the place from which we started our journey in the
morning. It took exactly 2 hours to reach Interlaken from Thun
by boat. When we were told that the boat would reach Interlaken
at 11:58, I thought it would reach around 12 o'clock. It was not
to be. We reached there at 11:58 sharp. I wondered how they maintain
such a precision with time. (Agreed! Not just the trains, even
the boats in Switzerland are too punctual!! :)
Then,
we decided that we visit St. Beatus Caves. Due to ethnic
problem in SriLanka, one could see the influx of refugees in many
countries. Switzerland was no exception. One such Tamil guy helped
us with the direction and the bus route for reaching St. Beatus
Caves. That place was a 15 minutes drive in bus from Interlaken.
The caves are tucked in to the cliffs on the shore of Thunersee.
It takes a while to climb up but it is worth a visit since the
falls from the caves and the Alps on the other side with Lake
Thun in between presents a picturesque view.
For
getting inside the caves, one has to take a guided tour spanning
50 minutes. The tour involves a walk through the dark &
chilly caves, filled with the noise of rushing underground
streams. Sadly, photography is prohibited inside the cave. The
place is nothing but a set of drippy caves filled with
stalactites and stalagmites (They are nothing but conical mineral
deposits formed from the dripping of mineral rich water) that
were formerly the residence of the Christian ascetic St. Beatus.
The history goes that St. Beatus came to the lake and was told
by the local people about the terrible dragon in the cave. This
brave ascetic climbed up the cave all alone and when the dragon
emerged, raised his cross thereby sending the monster in to the
water below and made the cave, his residence.
continues...
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