TRAVEL WRITING

I sometimes blog about life, food, and travel on Medium and share travel photography on Instagram. Well, that was before 2020. Hopefully, I’ll be back to my old globe-trotting ways soon enough.

The following post was featured in Medium’s Outdoors section.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LAKE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF

Having been born and raised in Switzerland, I’m a bit blasé when it comes to the beautiful scenery that Switzerland offers. Kandersteg made me think twice about my attitude. This was a place that I wasn’t ready for.

Kandersteg is a beautiful village in the middle of the Bernese Oberland. They speak Swiss German here, not regular Hoch Deutsch (or High German). My companion on this journey grew up in Germany, and there was a real “accent-barrier” whenever she spoke in German. I’d recommend sticking to English or even French. I stuck to French and was never lost in translation. Sorry Germans.

Not far from Kandersteg lies Oeschinensee (Lake Oeschinen). It’s nestled on top of a mountain overlooking the village. To get there, you have to climb into a cable car that will take you to the top. Once you get off at the station above, you have to hike downhill until you see the lake in all its blue majesty.

Oeschinensee is surrounded by mountains making it look like a dormant volcano. The snow caps lying on top of the Bluemisalp mountain melt to create the lake you see below.

The water is fresh and potable. If you’ve never tasted the water from the Alps, you are missing out on the freshest and most delicious — yes, delicious — beverage available to us poor mortals. It’s clear, full of minerals and cold enough to make your brain freeze.

Small tip: drink from the stream, not the lake itself.

If you ever have the pleasure of going to Kandersteg in summer, go take a hike to Oeschinensee and maybe take a dip. I would start with a toe though, and decide whether you want to go further. The water is extremely cold.