Grindelwald

Whit Monday was a holiday in Switzerland (and other European countries) and with the Tour de Suisse making a stop in Grindelwald, it seemed a great opportunity to head for the big hills for a long weekend.
Despite tales of overbooked trains, no room for bikes etc we had no trouble getting 2 mountain bikes from Basel to Interlaken, then up to Grindelwald. Probably different in July and August, but I thought more would have been on board this weekend. On top of the normal fare, bikes cost 12SF. If you can wrap it up and put it in a bag then theres no cost. I'll have to try out the old rinko bag from Japan to see if it can recover its cost.
The train hugs the edge of Thunersee, and even on a cloudy day like Saturday the scenery was outstanding. I wont try to describe the scenery anymore, I'll just add more photos to this entry.
The first information center you see after leaving the train station in Grindelwald is the Japanese help center, this has to be one of the highest concentration of 日本人outside of Japan. I even got to use a few sumimasens when cycling through the crowds at times.
From the tourist info, you can pick up a list of 10 best mountain bike routes in Grindelwald. After cycling a couple, I can can only assume these routes are for the masses and the best single track routes are kept secret for the locals.
Saturday afternoon was spent following the shortest recommended route to Marmorbruch. The scenery was great, past the incredibly deep gorge formed by the meltwater from the glacier, views across the mountains and up to the bungee jump platform above the gorge. But from a biking perspective it was a steep road climb with no hint of singletrack. The only way we could find a more technical route was to leave the mountain bike signs and follow the footpath signs, but these often have steep steps and walkers so not advisable.
On Sunday, the skies cleared and we had magnificent views of the Eiger all day. We cycled up to Kleine Schiedegg, a long long climb up to 2061m. Most of this is tarmac as well, and a constant gradient so not even an interesting climb. Recently, as Ive been doing more road riding, this kind of climb would be a good challenge but it would be over in a relatively short time. But on the mtb, you sit there in the granny ring and spin away for hours - not a fun climb!
It was the top for us, but for many the start of the train to Jungfraujoch - still 112 francs from this point! We have a half price train ticket, but still today is not perfect conditions so its not worth going any higher today.
Instead, we have ice cream and coffee then put on the windproofs for the descent. The first section is great, looping away from the route we ascended and down to Alpiglen below the Eiger. Here were fields of cows clanging their bells loudly as we wheeled past. Once past Alpiglen, theres a sequence of hairpin bends then its tarmac again to the bottom as we scanned the hillside for possible footpaths and alternatives to the official route.
Must find a guide next time we bike here!
Monday was wet and cool, and though I could have biked around in the clouds, we decided to leave early and explore the lakes and Interlaken. It would have been nice to see the pros flash past at 70kph through town, but not worth spending all day shivering in the rain for. But good for them, the roads dried up before 4pm so they were able to descend the Grosse Shiedegg in relative safety.
I will definitely come back to this town though, the route of the race looks amazing, hiking potential is of course massive and then theres the snowy season...