Interlaken: The Golden Pass RR, Changing Demographics.

Interlaken. 

Interlaken is a venerable, old Grand Tour Town between Alpine lakes, with famous peaks - the Junfgrau, the Eiger and the Monch nearby.  Some like railroads to get there - The Golden Pass Line, the narrow-gauge railway takes the scenic route from Montreux through Gstaad to Interlaken, see ://www.roughguides.com/website/travel/destination/content/default.aspx?titleid=86&xid=idh558351960_0160/; and ://www.switzerlandflexitours.com/goldenpass-line.html/. You can also take a scenic railway Jungfraujoch Top of Europe.  We were running out of time, and will do that next time.  Be careful of the high altitudes if you have heart and blood pressure problems. Go to the NYT Archives, Sunday January 19, 2003 at Travel section p. 11 for a fine overview and photos. The Aletsch Glacier is there.

You will probably not stay in Interlaken, however.  It has changed.
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1. Getting there: The Way to Interlaken. In the old days, passage was treacherous: carriages, horseback, mules and donkeys. Here are some donkeys.
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Donkeys, farm en route Montreux to Interlaken, Switzerland

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We like the drive. There were more switchbacks, indecipherable signs to the smallest possible destinations rather than a big town on a map that would have been more helpful, but finally we found Gstaad and the ski resort, farms, cliffs, valleys, and - exhausted - Interlaken.

2. The beauty. 

Here is the gorgeous view to Lake of Thun, from above Interlaken, the high cliffside route toward Thun, the town.

Lake of Thun, high cliff road Interlaken to Thun (town)

Switzerland is in the news lately with its recent ban on construction of minarets.

3. Now:  Fast forward to Current events, balance of interests. Minarets.

What is the place, in such a place as Interlaken, of tradition and whether tradition should be maintained at the expense of other people's desired architecture for their places of worship.  Would minarets here add to, or not, the breathtaking sight.

3,1.  Pro: a blanket ban on minarets preserves traditional views that lure tourists, foster a local and national economy, establish identity for its people sharing its history. 

3.2.  Con:  a ban on one group's desired architecture may be too broad.  Why not go a lesser route, to impose height restrictions.  Minarets are not necessary to the worship, but, like steeples, evolved and serve secular as well as religious-symbolism purposes.

3.3.  Require reciprocity.  As soon as the homelands of the newer people will foster steeples and churches for Western worship styles (United Arab Republic, for example, permits none) in their countries, then figure out a reciprocal fostering for Eastern worship styles in Western countries.
.Lake Thun, Interlaken, Switzerland

4. How to weigh the issues.

These height/zoning restrictions do not denigrate the Eastern religion, but instead balance the interests of vacationers from other cultures who may want, or do want, to settle, set up their own communities; against the nation's established tourism and the views that produce it.

Explore the issue. See it at ://www.myswitzerland.com/en/destinations/resorts/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland/interlaken.html/. The Bernese Oberland. Aljazeera is wrong to frame the issue as mere misogyny.  See ://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/ 200912281637353840.html/  It is more like Connecticut restricting home construction on mountain ridgelines - have your home, but preserve the view for the rest and, in Switzerland, a country dependent on photography and tourists, for its economic health.  Or allow steeples unrestricted in other countries.  Would that be fair?

5. Back to Interlaken itself.

Even Rick Steves says not to come here. Or of you do, you will probably stop briefly then move on, as we did.  It is a haven for backpackers, and a multitude of ethnic groups those styles of shops etc. have changed the town completely.  That need not be a bad thing financially because it looks like the town is prospering, with well-heeled visitors.  But it changes what the town means. 

• The name of this town, Interlaken, means between two lakes, here the Lake of Thun and the Lake Brienz, in lovely Alpine Switzerland.  The name used to mean large Victorian hotels, the Grand Tour of the Uppers,  a town where carriageways and private passages by horse and mule (luxury along the way, of course) and trains converged;  with the ladies in large hats with huge wooden trunks (the domed steamer trunks were preferred and indicated status, because they had to be at the top of the stack, in the baggage rooms, deep in the steamers coming over the oceans, and were retrieved first; the flat-topped steamer trunks were for others, or for less important accoutrements/ The trunks opened to reveal a side for hanging things, and the other, had drawers for the bloomers).
  
• We were here in the 1960's - a different family era.  It is little like that now, perhaps for the good, but the issue here is an industry.  Do a search on Maps - there are no easy roads over to Interlaken - either you take the autobahns going like huge pentagrams from urban center to urban center, Lausanne to Bern and down: or you go over the mountains and through the woods, and after a while, with all the beauty, it gets to be a slog.

6.  For us, see Interlaken, but do not expect it to be "Switzerland."  

We did the heavy narrow road sneak past the blind turns up and over from Vevey, Montreux, Villeneuve - across, not up easy and down. Dan and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the big hotel, still there, tablecloths, people discreetly bowing hither and yon, old days. Go outside, and that atmosphere is no more.

Now, Interlaken is a skeleton.

It has the bones.  It offers excellent food, fast service where you may want that, but only the shape is there:  Lake Brienz on one side, this little isthmus that is Interlaken, and Lake Thun on the other. The old hotels are still there, but the street levels that used to house fine watches and couture is immigration central, are now fast food, trinkets. Vacation central for all parts of the world. 

Enjoy it as the east-west global vacationer magnet that it is.  For the old Swiss Switzerland of the Grand Tour, head elsewhere.