Thunersee and Brienzersee – Pure Switzerland
The region I’ve been calling home for sixteen years.
Niesen
The Niesen is a mountain, located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, overlooking the lake of Thun. It is often called “The Swiss Pyramid”.
Thunersee and Brienzersee – Pure Switzerland
Iseltwald am Brienzersee
A spring-like day and an afternoon stroll around a little village on the shore of Lake Brienz. …
Gwatt lake shore, Thun
The shore of Lake Thun at Gwatt is a great place to photograph the sunrise and the sunset.
In the shadow of the giants
The Niesen casts a clearly triangular shadow when the sun is low in the sky.
Faltschen, Kandertal, Switzerland
Dense, grey fog on the lakes in the Bernese Oberland means that it’s best to head for the surrounding hills and mountains to get above the cloud and into the sunshine. We took a drive up a road we’d never used before – an unrestricted, toll-free one for a change – and ended up high above the entrance to the…
The luck and beauty of life
We are ever grateful for the opportunity to live in such a beautiful country. For the luck which means that we are of sufficient means to decide, based on a weather forecast, to drive for fifteen minutes and ascend in a rattling funicular cabin to a place which feels like the top of the world. All to watch a sunset and…
Unterseen, Switzerland
I used to visit the Bödelibad leisure centre regularly. Before I had a car, I used to catch the train to Interlaken West station and walk from there. The route takes you along the river Aare, forming the border between Unterseen and Interlaken, leading to a footbridge with this view. In the foreground Unterseen, with its ancient church tower,…
Niesen, Switzerland
The pyramidal peak of the Niesen, in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, towers over the surrounding countryside. It heads a range of mountains leading from Adelboden and Lenk and is the “Hausberg” (home mountain) of Spiez and the Lower Simmen Valley, facing out over Lake Thun. There are folklore sayings about the mountain being a kind of barometer…
Merligen to Margel
In search of a bench with a view, we find a meadow with a view instead.
Spitzi Flue, Switzerland
Spitzi Flue is the very Swiss-German-sounding name of a huge promotory of rock on the “Sigriswilgrat” (or mountain ridge). Although the rock looks a bit small in this photo, it’s actually the tip of a rockface around 500 metres high. (Compare with this photo, in which a climber stands atop the pinnacle.) I hiked up to Unterbergli from Wilerallmi on…
Hondrich Hill, Switzerland
There are viewpoints all over the place near where we live. But this one proved to be a bit of a surprise. The sun had woken me comparatively early on a Saturday morning, so I wrapped up warm against the cold, donned my hiking boots, and set off and upwards from home with no particular goal. After crossing under the main…
Sigriswil, Switzerland
I’d heard people refer many times to the “Niesenbänkli”, a bench on the slopes above Lake Thun which afforded the absolute best view from its northern side to the Niesen on the opposite shore. As the weather forecast was wonderful, we packed a lunch and took the ship across the lake from our home to Merligen, then hiked…
Schlächtenwald
There are plenty of little, almost unnoticeable roads around here, which lead up valleys and through forests to remote farm buildings and dead-ends. I like to pore over the Kümmerly + Frey maps – the Swiss equivalent of the British Ordnance Survey – to see whether there are any worth driving up.
The Swiss Pyramid
The triangular Niesen towers over the Lower Simmen Valley and the towns of Spiez and Faulensee, on the shores of Lake Thun in Switzerland. The glowing clouds behind the mountains in the distance aren’t illuminated by towns, but by lightning storms above (respectively) Lenk and Gruyères.
Photos at Getty Images
I’m proud that international picture agency Getty Images invited me to submit photos for their Flickr Collection a couple of years ago. Since then, I get the occasional request to add more and my small set now numbers 52 photos, with a dozen or so more currently awaiting approval. Although the percentage that I get per photo is pretty…
Seenachtsfest Spiez
The Seenachtsfest took place last weekend in Spiez, so Jo and I headed up with our friend Beat to the vineyards near our home, where there is a commanding view across the castle, lake and surrounding mountains.
Niesen, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland
The Niesen is a mountain, located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, overlooking the lake of Thun and is often called the Swiss Pyramid. The summit of the mountain (2362 meters) can be reached easily with a funicular from Mülenen (near Reichenbach). The construction of the Niesenbahn funicular was completed in 1910. Alongside the path of the…