No memorable Wengen holiday is complete without a beautiful cruise on the Alpine Lake of Thun. Because the variety of experience is, unlike the lake itself, fathomless, we should perhaps enumerate. A cruise on Lake Thun can be of the hop on hop off variety, exploiting the water as a means of transport as in the pre-railway days of old. A cruise can also be a languorous journey from one end of the lake to the other and back, soaking up the sun and the Alpine scenery of the Jungfrau Region as we go. Or perhaps a nostalgic trip aboard the paddle steam ship, SS Blümlisalp, this is both educational and majestic in the extreme. A floating gourmet feast, fondue or breakfast cruise, are other appealing options and then we come to the SEASONS and the LIGHT.
Light Show on Water
To keep it simple – every school child knows our earth rotates around its own axis, moves around the sun, and the sun and moon appear to rise and set and do so in a different arc each day. So when and where we select to take our cruise on Lake Thun will determine our unique experience. A cruise in blowy, rainy weather can be an experience too, however the colours are stronger on a clear day. Winter and summer cruises are likewise, wholly different worlds.
Early Evening Sunlight
Casting off from Interlaken West at 5:10pm on a beautiful evening in mid-October, the sunlight is low and generously yellow, warm and casts long shadows. Our Lake Thun cruise is aboard the MS Berner Oberland and we shall zigzag across the lake visiting castles and harbours, finally disembarking at Thun and boarding the connecting train for our return to Wengen.
Intense Red Rays of the Setting Sun
6:40pm- The technicolour light on the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau Mountains, on this particular day in October 2021, although fleeting, is truly remarkable. Not least because of giving a rosy feeling of wellbeing, like a fire on a winter’s evening.
Add a Splash of Silvery Moonlight
7:04pm- As we travelled in a north-westerly direction along the lake, the moon appeared to rise out of the Schreckhorn Mountain, as if by magic. It was an exciting moment around 6:25pm, just out of Faulensee!
Since then our Lake Thun cruise has taken us to Spiez, Gunten, Oberhofen and Hilterfinger; the illuminated Oberhofen Castle at the water’s edge being quite spectacular.
At this point our Lake Thun cruise is almost at an end, the image below may well stay with us for a lifetime!
Wengen Holiday Accommodation
Explore the many sights, colours and sounds of the Jungfrau Region from a base in the world-renowned, mountain resort of Alpine Wengen. There is nothing quite like laying your head down to rest on the mountain plateau beneath the ever present Jungfrau Mountain. In an Alpine Holiday Services’ apartment in Wengen of course! Browse and book at lowest prices at alpineholidayservices.ch