The name Interlaken comes from the fact that it sits between two lakes which form a V shape with Interlaken at the base.

The Thunersee (or Lake Thun) runs to the north west of the town, with the town of Thun at the far end. The Brienzersee (Lake Brienz) runs to the north east, with, you guessed it, the town of Brienz at the far end.

We had one full day left in Interlaken; the backup day for Jungfraujoch which thankfully was not needed because as you can see the weather had turned sub-optimal.

Our last full day saw us use up some of a costly but useful Swiss Rail Pass to catch a train from Interlaken along the left coast of the Brienzersee (during which, I note, I took pretty much no photos, sigh), then we hopped a historic paddle steamer (also covered by the Swiss Rail Pass) back to Interlaken for a final evening's dinner before we headed back to Zürich to catch a flight out to Dubai where we would rejoin the two who went to Paris instead of Switzerland.

There is not a lot to do in Brienz (some woodworking museums and gift shops, for example), but it has a lot to see. Most of this involves hiking, although there are also experiences like the Brienz Rothorn Bahn, a miniature railway with open sided carriages which takes you up into the mountains that surround the lake. It would have been a glorious experience...

... on a day that didn't look like it had a wet, thick, grey blanket thrown over it.

Looking back now, it had not been anywhere near as long a day as I thought it had been. We must have caught the train to Brienz somewhere between 10 and 11 am, arrived there a bit after midday, wandered around a bit, and were back on the paddle wheeler by 12:35, and were back in Interlaken just before 14:00. I don't think we even had lunch in Brienz.

Had the weather been a tad brighter, we may have been more inclined to linger, although it's 3 hours between the PS Lotschberg's sailings at 12:40 (the first of the day) and 15:40. (That's based on the 2024 timetable, but I doubt it was much different in 2016.)

I don't regret the day, but a bit of sunshine and it could have been so much more.