Places » Switzerland
Spiez
Spiez is the largest town in the area I call home, on the shores of Lake Thun between Bern and Interlaken. It’s a smallish, quiet place, through which the main train lines travel from northern Switzerland and northern Europe to Interlaken, Kandersteg, canton Wallis and onward to Italy. The town affords great views across the lake and is overshadowed on the southern side by the Niesen: the town’s “Hausberg”. Boat trips from the harbour and shore-side restaurants, parks and lido make the town lovely in summer, whilst quick connections to many local ski resorts and mountain destinations make the town a great base in winter. Poet Josef Viktor Widmann once wrote that the view from the station, above the town, is “one of the most beautiful in the world“. The harbour is dominated by the rolling, vineyard-covered Spiezberg, as well as the historic castle and castle church, both around 1,000 years old.
