[🏔️ yodel ⛰️] Day 6: St Beatus Caves
Hello from Darkest Peru!
Just joking. I'm still in Switzerland. Interlaken, to be exact.
I'm writing this from my too-small room, watching the Paddington Bear movie from the corner of my eye. This room is incredibly small for two people with two suitcases. There's hardly any room to put open our suitcases up, so SD worked something out. The bathroom is tiny and there is no A/C, only a fan (which is apparently very normal in Switzerland). But it is cosy, we've got all the essentials we need (clean towels, a strong shower with consistently hot water, enough power sockets, English TV channels) and most importantly, each other.
The weather has been chilly. It's been around 11 to 15 degrees celcius for most of the day, with pretty strong wind, so I've activated my UNIQLO Ultra Light Down jacket. I never thought I'd have to start wearing it, especially when I'm already wearing thermal underwear, but I guess I'm not as tolerant of the cold as I imagined. We've been keeping the window of our room open, since there's no A/C, but I got so cold last night I had to shut it. The residual heat — or cold — is nearly too chilly for me without being bundled up in my quilt. The fan is actually off now, because I was shivering even after a hot shower. Like shaking from the core of your bones kind of cold. It reminds me of bathing in the winter, when I was studying in Japan. Stepping out of a warm bathroom into another room, warm or cold, always made me shiver uncontrollably. SD just turned the fan back on (for ventilation) and back into the blankets I go.
And it's still only summer here!
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Look at this. I found another Marmot fountain. I love these. They're so ridiculous.
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The St. Beatus Caves, or St. Beatus-Höhlen, is a series of passages, grottoes and underground waterfalls and rivers that are part of the Niederhorn massif. It was also once the home to a dragon. (The Germanic Swiss folks really like their dragons.) Then a monk found the cave, wanted to make it his hermitage, and thus killed the dragon. Honestly, the dragon didn't do anything. Poor guy.
It's an amazing story though, and the Swiss seem to be able to weave pretty convincing tourism narratives. I want to find my own cave, cast out a dragon, and then spread the gospel of tsundoku.
After taking a short bus ride to the foot of the caves, we had to ascend a very steep climb to the entrance itself. It was insanely steep for someone of my fitness level (read: NONE). The signs said 10 minutes, but I am sure I took longer than that. Thank God the views were amazing:
This is just outside the caves! All that water? Comes from inside the caves. Crazy, I know.
The inside of the caves though? Gorgeous. It's all limestone and water. There were so many times I wanted to stop and turn back, because the journey inside just kept going and going — up many winding stairways that never seemed to stop. But we met many old people, kids with babies, people with dogs, and I just thought, alright I've got to give it a go. I don't regret it at all.
The experience was, dare I say it, pretty religious.
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So much that we missed our boat to Thun. Navigating the caves and trying not to slip on the wet cave floors proved to be very time-consuming. We still had to descend back down the cliff and walk another "15 minutes" (Swiss time) to the docks. It was not 15 minutes, at least at my pace. We still had to climb down another huge slope to get to the boat and my stamina was not having it.
I honestly wanted to tour Lake Thun by boat but I'm glad we didn't. We ended up having a wonderful lunch at a restaurant called Bear (in German of course). It was so enjoyable that I have a bit of indigestion now. (This is also exacerbated by having one too many fizzy drinks.)
Here's what we had:
Bernese-Oberland potato soup: Delicious! I was expecting a chowder, or thicker mouthfeel, but this version of potato soup was grainy (in a good way) and thinner.
Cordon bleu, which is a Bernese Oberland specialty, according to the menu. This was delicious as well, filled with beautiful alpine cheese that just ooooooooooozed out. It came with yummy veggies (always a plus), and a pan of oven-baked potatoes. I couldn't finish everything.
Horse meat and rosti. This was GREAT. I regret not ordering it as my main course and had to steal little morsels from SD. The horse was unbelievably tender. Later we walked past a couple of horse carriages and my mouth watered.
And while finishing up our tea, we heard a cacophony of bells and cheering from the outside. The cows were descending the mountain!
Not spending time in Thun also allowed us to meet Brad again:
And take in the town's incredible views.
And the fizzy culprits that have given me indigestion:
Look at me trying to save money and getting a 50% off meal for dinner. This is supposed to be Pad Thai. Don't ask.
Fizzy drink culprit 1: Volvic Peach Mate. I love the peach flavour but my gut hates the fizziness. I did not see the bubbles on the label and thought it was just a straight, still tea.
The drinks jail. I wanted to try Rivella, which is kind of like Switzerland's national drink. It's made from milk whey and incredibly fizzy.
For those who know that I have PCOS, sweet and fizzy does not sit well with me. I am regretting these choices now.
(Please ignore the last drink and do not report me to the authorities.)
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That's it for today! Plans changed but I feel alright. We might scrap a bit of tomorrow's plans as well, because my body's feeling the strain of walking so much more. I did 20,000 steps today, which is what I usually do in a month (just joking, but maybe not).
I hope today's newsletter was more engaging. I tried to be less introspective, because this is vacation newsletter after all.
See you all soon.