Spring 2024

Interlaken - 10 April 2024

10.04 - Bönigen (Interlaken)

It was a peaceful carpark. For once I slept better than Tintin. His brain wouldn’t switch off about all our options…

Managed to blow another 50amp fuse using my hairdryer this morning. It’s really strange - Dave is 7 years old - and it’s only ever happened once before in Spain - now it’s happened twice this trip - and we have new batteries!

Went into the Backerei again and bought some bread - does taste nice - just a bit brick like! Erring on being German instead of French.

We decided to go for it whilst in this area. Tintin drove today - about 30 minutes. We stopped at the tourist information in Thun hoping to buy the Swiss half fare tickets - but no - only at the train station in Thun or Interlaken.

We stopped off to top up with GPL - was a very easy experience. When I went into pay, thought it was a supermarket, so we parked up and went back in. The food items are at the front - the rest is more gardening/pet food and DIY. Anyway, bought a few bits. We also took out some more CHF in cash - just in case.

We didn’t think the weather would be good today - but has been better than expected. Been about 9°, with low cloud.

We’re parked up in a persons driveway! For the privilege he charges CHF 25, including electricity. However, electricity not available! We went off for the day, and the man came to the van this afternoon and gave us a CHF 5 refund due to no electric. Dave can survive without it - but we were going to charge the bike batteries. Interestingly - he has a 2021 Mobilvetta on his drive. He previously had a Carthago - he said Mobilvetta look the part, but they’re built to a price, and the quality isn’t as good as his previous moho.

The walk to the train station took about 20 minutes. We paid our CHF 240 for our Swiss half fare tickets. The man advised us not to buy actual train tickets as they offer no refunds if the weather suddenly changes and we decide not to use them tomorrow. He also suggested a trip up to Harder Kulm - the top of Interlaken at 1,322m - so that’s what we did. With our half price tickets it was CHF 38. Basically it’s a 10 minute ride on the funicular at a 64% incline! We got pushed aside by children on the way up, but made sure we were at the front for the descent!

There’s a short walk to the restaurant and viewing platform, from which you can view Lake Thun, Lake Brienz with Interlaken in the middle - and on a clear day you can see the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.

Surprisingly, Tintin said we should have lunch up there. He had his first lager, I had wine - we both choose the specials of the day - veggie soup with bread to start, then we shared the beef stroganoff and the rosti with salad - it was all very tasty, especially the beef. Gary - came to about CHF 66 - don’t even get a receipt! They add in service charge - but also ask if you’d like to give a tip!

I feel it’s a given that I’m going to spend my time complaining about the Chinese tourists, of whom there are many - I’ll try and rein it in!

On the way down, we were chatting to a Canadian lady. She is wondering why she’s here coming up mountains when she comes from Banff! She thinks the prices are very similar to Canada. Jo - watch out in August!

During our rainy day of nothing yesterday, Tintin Googled why is Switzerland so expensive. Here is an extract - “

Switzerland is an expensive country. If you asked a Swiss why this is so, he would probably talk about rents, the high standard of living, and high wages, but if you look more closely you will find that the main reason is the oligopolistic-corporatist structure of Swiss industrial, retail and distribution enterprises.

What does that mean? It means that people in Switzerland restrict competition as much as they can, organizing cartels and guilds to arrange oligopolistic prices which are far higher than the real value of the commodities or services involved. For example, with many imported goods the importer doubles the factory price and then sells to the retailer, who doubles it again. Thus the consumer ends up paying 4 times the factory price because there is no effective competition between sellers. In another country, sellers compete and lower their prices to attract more business, but in Switzerland they do not. Another example: In Switzerland, most trades are protected by corporations or guilds which restrict the number of people allowed to practise their particular trade, and set high, mandatory prices for their services. The funny thing is that these corporations are canton-based and so there are usually 26 different corporations for the same trade, each with its own price structure.

Why is that so? Switzerland is a very fragmented market, with different cultures and different languages every 50 Km. Moreover, people do not like to move and will remain in the same area all their life. So the retailers, for example, in any given area have a small, well-defined market where they know all their competitors well. Therefore, they are better off setting up an oligopolistic price than competing over a small market.

Why does it work? Swiss people are accustomed to paying high prices and they do not like to question them. They will merely say, 'That's the price!'
The Swiss economy has always been organized like this and many people profit from this system, so there is considerable resistance to changing to a freer economy. For example, if someone asks why driving lessons are 20% higher in the next canton, the only people likely to go to Bern to discuss this are the driving teachers, so in the end the odds are stacked strongly in their favor and the prices remain as they are. Besides, the Federal Government of Switzerland is weak politically - even weaker than in the USA - so the only possible vehicle for reform is not strong enough to challenge conservative interests.

All I can say is that I bought Lindt Chocolate in France last week, and it was cheaper than today in Switzerland!

Anyway, I digress. From there, we had a wander around Interlaken - and we were pleasantly surprised. We’d been led to believe it’s just a base to get to other places. However, there were lots of little boutiques, some lovely looking hotels and pretty scenery all around.

We’re playing a game to see if we’re offered any chocolate in the many chocolate shops - sadly not yet. I may be a chocoholic - but I won’t pay CHF 44 for 20 chocolates 😉