Wilderswil
Wilderswil is a small village located in the Interlaken district in the Canton of Bern Switzerland. It's situated between Lake Thun and Lake Breinz in a small valley surrounded by mountains. It's just 4 km from the city of Interlaken, and only a 20 minute drive or train ride to the towns of Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. It's also close to the main interstate highway as well as many other popular sites to the area, including the towns of Thun and Brienz, the Aare gorge, the Jungfrau mountain range, the Harder Kulm viewpoint, and many other hikes and attractions within the area. Like Interlaken, it's basically a perfect central location to stay in, which is why we chose it as a home base for two nights during our recent trip to the country. It's actually the same location that we stayed a year ago during our last trip to Switzerland.
The photos above were taken last year, during our hike up Harder Kulm to the viewpoint that overlooks the lakes and valley below. The photos mostly show the city of Interlaken, but you can see the town of Wilderswil as well. Its the slightly smaller cluster of buildings at the base of the mountains, above the main city.
Other than it's location, what I personally like about the small town is that it caters to tourists without actually feeling touristy at all. There are at least 16 hotels in town, some of which double as restaurants, but there are no shops or night life whatsoever. That may not sound like a good thing but I really liked the feeling of staying in a small mountain village. It was like staying in a regular town, only with a much better view.
But that is something to keep in mind if you do decide to book a room in town, there are a few restaurants but not much else. Luckily though, there is a train station in town and the train ride to Interlaken only takes about 8 minutes, so there is a lot of variety close by. Interlaken is much more touristy and basically feels like a town built for travelers.
My favorite part about our stay in Wilderswil this time around were these two Yaks that happened to be grazing in a field just outside our hotel.
I think they're Yaks???
My wife saw them immediately the first night that we went out for dinner and stopped by their enclosure to say hello.
She always talks to the cows on our trips, and the goats, and sheep and horses and pretty much any animal that we come across.
She stood there for a while talking to them and eventually they got a bit curious and came over to see what's up. Maybe they thought we had food for them or maybe they just liked the sound of my wife's voice?
I don't know much about Yaks but from what I read online there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between a yak and a cow, other than their overall appearance. They are both part of the same family of animal so basically the long hair and the shape of their horns and maybe a few other subtle details make up the difference.
After saying hello like 50 times and telling them how pretty they look, we eventually moved on and went to eat at one of the hotels in town. Rosti is the main speciality dish to get in the area and its served in pretty much every restaurant. It's shredded potatoes that are fried in the shape of a pancake and served with a variety of accompaniments. I ordered the Zurich style Rosti which was served with liver and gravy. It was quite good and I ended up getting it a second time during our vacation.
After dinner the Yaks were still outside and we stopped once again to say good night to them. They were there the next day as well and we said hi to them each time we passed. I guess you could say that they became our friends on vacation. I had never seen a yak before so they actually ended up being a cool little memory and one of my favorite parts of our stay in Wilderswil.