Switzerland Day 5 - Reichenbach Falls & more

The theme of Day 4 was mountains. That of the Day 5 was water. First we drove to the village of Meiringen to have breakfast. I saw a couple of waterfalls on the way. It looked that water is everywhere and casually falling in the mountainous country.

Meiringen was small but perhaps famous among Sherlockians. Parkhotel Du Sauvage, the late 19th century Art Nouveau hotel was where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed in 1893 and wrote the final ending of the characters Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty according to the hotel. The hotel was named 'Hotel zum Wilden Mann' back then. Conan Doyle was there with his wife for spa treatment. He got the idea of how to kill Holmes when he visited the Reichenbach Falls, a waterfall located just outside of the village.

The hotel looked old but nice. We thought it would be nice to have breakfast there. However, we were told that the hotel had many guests at that time and didn't have any space for non-guest visitors. That was unfortunate but at least we could peek a part of the ground floor of the hotel. 

There was Sherlock Holmes Museum right next to the hotel. A life-size bronze statue of Mr. Holmes was in front of the museum. 

Our alternative choice was Frutal Versandbäckerei, a local bakery-confectionery shop near the museum. There was a huge meringue outside of the shop! The village is considered to be the birthplace of the airy confection made with egg whites and sugar, which is popular in Europe. Based on the documents kept in the Kochkunst Museum in Frankfurt am Main, a confectioner named Gasparini in Meiringen invented meringue around 1600 and named his new creation after the place where it happened. Meiringen to be sure. The documents were destroyed during the WWII and there are some different stories of the origin. Moreover I am not a big fan of meringue. Although I knew that meringue was one of traditional Swiss desserts, I didn't plan to try one during the trip anyway.

The shop had other sweets that looked nice but after all I got a simple croissant. J had a cheese quiche. I believe he liked it.

It was time to go to the Reichenbach Falls, the climax stage for the Final Problem. It was located within a short walk distance from the village, on the other side of the river Aare.

The viewing points of the waterfall are on the middle of the hillside. There is a funicular service that conveniently takes people like us who don't have time or don't want to climb or both up there. We were the first passenger of the day and the only passengers on the funicular.

The village of Meiringen was over there and looked smaller and smaller as the funicular got higher.

We came out from the top station and the Reichenbach Falls was in front of us. We were covered with the mist and the sound of the waterfalls right away.

The tiny star marked the spot at which Holmes and Prof. M were supposed to have struggled. Who decided so?

We followed a hiking trail to take us much higher, which was uphill steps in the woods of the right side of the waterfalls. I was able to burn the calorie from the croissant. 

There was a short bridge set over the waterfalls. We were very close to the water. The water joins to the river Aare.

The trail also gave us a lovely view of the village of Meiringen and the river Aare, which runs in a very  straight line.

We took a funicular down and walked to the car park, crossing the river Aare again. The milky green color of the water was mysterious.

We followed up the enchanting river Aare and visited Aareschlucht, or the Aare Gorge, a 1.4km long and 200 meter deep natural wonder that was created by the Aare over tens of thousands of years. The series of the footbridges and the rocky tunnels allowed us to safely and easily walk though the 1.4km long and 200 meter deep natural wonder. 

Since it was the one way path, we turned back when we got close to the other end. It was the same path but looked different from the opposite direction, which kept me being amused on the both ways. 

It was time for lunch. We drove to Grandhotel Giessbach, the historic hotel originally built in 1870s. According to the hotel, "crowned heads and their entourage, statesmen, diplomats and celebrated artists" spent the summer there until the outbreak of WWI. Perhaps the current situation of the hotel may be different from the golden era, but the hotel remains its charm today, which I assume is because of the unbeatable location. The building was situated on a hill above Lake Brienz. There is a ferry stop at the shore below the hotel and also there is a funicular system that connects between the shore and the hotel. As its name implies, the hotel sits in front of the Giessbach Falls, a 500m waterfall spilling into Lake Brienz.

The hotel had two terrace restaurants for lunch. One was located around the hotel entrance, serving quick and casual meals. It looked a bit crowded with tourists. The other one was located behind the private gate, serving more formal meals. We certainly chose the latter. Then, there were two options of the dining space. One was on the deck, covered by a canopy. The other was in the garden behind the deck with the marvelous view of Lake Brienz. I was surprised that none of the guests were dining in the garden while some groups were on the deck. I guess they chose staying in the shade because it was a pretty hot day, but our garden table had a parasol and kept us away from direct sunshine. 

We were very comfortable under the parasol. The entire garden and the Lake view was only for us. J was refreshed with a glass of chilled beer. I was happily staring the magical turquoise Lake. How fortunate we were! 

I ordered homemade agnolotti pasta filled with cream cheese from Meiringen, served with confit tomatoes, Alpine cheese and garden herbs. J did Giessbach Veal Meatloaf After Grandmother's Recipe with mashed potatoes, fried onions, market vegetables and cream sauce. Actually we had a half of each dish to share. 

Since both dishes were very good and the seating environment was wonderful, we decided to have desserts. We ordered Romanoff Giessbach and Giessbach Cream Cake to share. They were freshly prepared for us and tasted wonderful. At the end of the lunch J announced that the lunch was our early anniversary celebration. What a surprise! A happy anniversary for us!

After the memorable lunch, we hit the hiking trail around the Giessbach Falls. The waterfalls, which has 14 stages, looked much bigger than the Reichenbach.  

The hiking trail ran behind the waterfalls. It was one of the filming locations of the episode The Final Problem of the Sherlock Holmes Granada series starring Jeremy Brett. Both the Giessbach and the Reichenbach were used for the episode. We are big fans of the TV series and glad we could visit both locations. 

The water goes into Lake Brienz, which is a part of the river Aare, which also runs around the city of Bern. All waters we visited on the day are linked together. The beauty of the waters is still fresh in my mind, along with the excellent lunch experience.

To be continued...