The final day of the Albatross Mystery Tour was really no mystery, as we knew we would be ending up in Zurich, but we did have a lunch stop in Interlaken on the way. Interlaken, as its name implies, sits between two lakes. Lake Brienz and Lake Thun are connected by the Aare River, which flows on to Bern after exiting Lake Thun. The town is built on a narrow strip of alluvial land next to the river, the modern town is mostly to its south as the river runs close to the hills to the north. Our coach parked near the Casino, and we were left to find our way about, although we were led towards the town centre. I separated from the group as we passed a tall hotel. The Metropole (I think) is about 16 floors so it towers over the city, and has a café on the top floor with viewing platforms, so that is where I went. Unfortunately, there was not much of a view as low cloud obscured the mountains and the city was a jumble of roof-tops.  I decided to head for the river and walk along the bank. I headed in that general direction and found the river, and a river-side path. Across the river was a tall clock tower, so that became my next goal. I found a footbridge over the river, beside which I discovered a fish ladder, which allows fish to get upriver avoiding a weir. An information board provided the following: the river has been controlled by weirs and dams since 1433, when the monasteries controlled the fishing rights and decided to hold back the waters flowing into Lake Thun to increase their catches in Lake Brienze. However, this also cut salmon off from breeding waters in the eastern Bernese Oberland. Since the fish ladder was installed (I think in the 1850’s but it may have been as late as 1993) fish are again moving between the two lakes, including greyling, whitefish, barbell and trout, but not yet salmon.

Wending my way through a courtyard and finding another bridge, I found the old marketplace, with only one market type stall. The clock tower turned out to be associated with a church, and was locked up. A convenient information board intimated that this area was known as Unterseen, and was founded in 1279 as a strategic stronghold. Initially held by the Hapsburgs, it became a Bernese military base and marketplace in 1337. It was destroyed by fire twice, in 1364 and in 1470, but was quickly rebuilt because of its strategic importance for control of the Bernese Oberland and traffic along the lakes. The church was also rebuilt several times, most recently in 1851 when the roof collapsed under the weight of snow! The late-Gothic tower was undamaged.

When the town was founded in 1279, walls and fortifications were also built, and a moat dug. Not much remains, as most of the walls not burned down earlier, were demolished in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1572, as a result of the Reformation, Bern acquired the monastery mill on the river Aare. An administration building was erected as the seat of the Sherriff of the Unterseen district. However, as the information board states, “In 1656 Sheriff Hieronymus Stettler rashly had the building demolished and the authorities had no choice but to build a new castle”. I wonder what really happened! Possibly the building was in disrepair, and demolition seemed more efficient than further repairs. Did Sheriff Stettler keep his job?

I made my way towards the modern city centre, passing back over a branch of the river, gaily decorated with national flags for no apparent reason. Another information Board informed me that the island between the two branches of the Aare (or between the Aare and the ‘factory canal’) was a centre of the timber industry. As early as the Middle Ages rafts were bringing wood across Lake Brienze to Unterseen, where water wheels powered saw mills. In 1850 a wood processing plant, parquetry factory, matchstick factory and a factory prefabricating building components occupied different areas of the island. In 1856/7, ninety railway buildings were produced in only 18 months, for the Compagnie L’Ouest Suisse Railway Company. Parquetry flooring made here was used in the Parliament Building in Bern and was exported all over the world.

Yet another Information Board provided an insight into medieval politics, as well as the history of the bridges over the Aare. The Aare formed a natural boundary across the land between the two lakes. Relations between the town of Unterseen to the north of the river and the Monastery to the south tended towards hostility. Unterseen was in the Diocese of Constance, while the Monastery followed the orders of the Diocese of Lausanne. Fishing rights, control of the market and bridge tolls caused endless disputes. The Monastery mill gave its name to the village to the south of the river: Aarmühle. It was only in 1891 that the area was renamed Interlaken, although the area of the monastery had been referred to as Interlappen in earlier documents.

The region of Interlaken, and the Bernese Oberland generally, was gaining a reputation as a tourist destination from the early 19^th century. In addition, from the middle to the late 19^th century, Interlaken gained an unexpected economic boom due to the fashion for ‘goat’s-milk whey cures’. Apparently the first ‘cures’ were recorded as early as 1805, but it was the establishment of the new ‘Kursaal’ in 1859 that really established the city as a centre for the cure, and the Kursaal provided ‘all the amenities of a genteel summer sojourn replete with cultural and social highlights.’ The story goes that the whey, made from pure goat’s milk and enriched with herbs from the high alpine pastures, promised health benefits when taken over a long period. The whey cure ‘à la Interlaken’ was slightly sweet, possibly making it more palatable. The treatment regime was to rise early and take a small amount of the whey at fifteen-minute intervals and go for walks between treatments. In the evening, the cure-takers were so exhausted by the rigours of the cure that they sank into an early health-giving slumber (probably due to all the walking!). The last cures were taken at the Kursaal in 1898, and it is now part of a Casino complex. The tourist bus park was just beyond the casino gardens.

We all gathered together again, and the coach proceeded towards Zurich. We took the main road alongside Lake Brienz, then up and over a mountain pass, where we stopped at a service centre for a short break. There was a lot of snow, and a magnificent view over the valley ahead. I recognised it from the summer trip I did in 2017, so here is a comparison.

Before long we were back in Zurich and reinstalled in the Central Plaza Hotel. This time I was right up at the top of the Hotel, under the sloping roof with a dormer window. The city had a covering of snow, cleared away from the streets but still in evidence on the roof-tops and in gardens. Our farewell evening meal was in a restaurant on Neiderdorfstrasse. It was a lovely meal with lovely food and wine and good fellowship.

The following day we all met up at breakfast, and said goodbye all over again as we left. I had to pack and check-out as I was moving to a different (cheaper!) hotel for the next night. I stashed my bag with the Concierge and headed out to explore. There were some further photos I wanted to take, and a particular tower that I wanted to find, in case it was associated with the old city wall. After much walking about, I found it – it was just a tall building. I think that the old wall was further out and now a main road.

I discovered that Lenin lived in Zurich for about a year, February 1916 to February 1917. He and his wife lived in a small room in a house owned by a shoemaker which has since been demolished, but there is a plaque on the replacement building. Lenin returned to Russia as soon as the Tsar was overthrown. I passed some other interesting things, including a shop selling Harry Potter style wands.

I made my way to the Christmas Markets at Sechseläuten Platz. There was nothing I really wanted, so I sat on a bench beside the lake and ate a sandwich I had made at breakfast. Actually, I sat on a plastic bag on a bench, as all the benches were covered in snow.

I did not do much in the afternoon, I think I was a bit worn out! I returned to the Central Plaza Hotel and sat in the nice warm Foyer, and was joined by some other fellow travellers, also a bit tired. Eventually, I went and got my bag and moved into the other hotel. In future I will wear the cost of staying in the same hotel that the tour starts or ends in, for the convenience.

The next day, I discovered that the hotel did not have secure bag storage and I was advised to use the lockers at the station. I had found these at some point, so it was easy enough to go back and leave my big bag in a locker for about 9 Francs for six hours. Then I went for a walk on the other side of the river and up to the Lindenhof. There was still a little snow on the ground under the trees.

I decided to go and visit inside the Fraumünster. The Fraumünster Abbey was founded by King Louis the German for his daughters, Hildegard and Berta, who were the first Abbesses. It was founded as ‘Gotteshaus St Felix und St Regula’ in 853 CE. Down in the current crypt, the foundations of the central apse of that first church have been exposed. The various changes in the construction of the church are illustrated there, and some are shown in excavations in the crypt. The Fraumünster was a Benedictine convent for many centuries, and from the 13^th century the Abbess was also the official ruler of Zurich. However, with the Reformation, it became a Reformed parish church in 1524. Eventually the Convent buildings were demolished, but the church, somewhat altered over the centuries, has survived. Some Medieval frescoes are still visible in the Room of Silence, to the right of the Chancel. The Chancel is noted for its five stained glass windows, designed by Marc Chagall. These were inaugurated in 1970, Chagall attended the service, aged 83. When he was ninety, Chagall designed the rose window in the Transcept.

Outside again, I continued walking, after taking a photo the Münster across the river, looking very crisp in the cold air. Once I had walked a little way along the other side of the river, there was a good view of the three Chagall windows in the chancel of the Fraumünster, overlooking the river. Further downriver, there was also a good view of the Lindenhof, above the snowy rooves and with reflections in the river – It would make a good jigsaw puzzle!

I had my lunch in the park behind the Landemuseum, and again just enjoyed the way that the snow highlighted the rooflines. Tired of walking, I invaded the foyer of the Central Plaza Hotel. There, I met up with some fellow travellers again and joined them for coffee/hot chocolate at a nearby Starbucks. A little later, promising to keep in touch, I left for the Bahnhof and retrieved my bag with a few minutes to spare before the six-hour time limit expired. I repacked a little, so that my electronics were in my backpack, and set off for the airport. I was hours too early, but wrote, read on my Kindle app and spent my last few coins on a fridge magnet! Eventually I could check in for the late evening flight. It was a long trip home. About 23 hours Zurich to Sydney via Dubai, then about three hours on the train to get home from there.