Spiez

Spiez occupies a crescent bay on the south shore of Lake Thun, with a castle standing on the point that closes it. It is the view from the train window that makes people get off, and the station is high above the town so you see the whole arrangement at once.

The castle

Schloss Spiez was begun in the eleventh century and grew over the next six hundred years, so it reads as a keep with a country house attached. It belonged to the von Bubenberg family and then to the von Erlachs, and it has been a museum since 1929 — the rooms are furnished by period, and the tower gives the bay.

Beside it stands the Romanesque church, from about 1000, one of the oldest in Switzerland, with faded medieval frescoes in the apse. It is small, dark and worth the five minutes.

The bay and the vineyards

The slope behind the castle is planted with vines — this is one of the highest wine regions in Switzerland and the northernmost of any consequence, making mostly Riesling-Sylvaner and Pinot Noir. A marked path runs through them, and the vintners open their cellars on some weekends.

The bay itself has a small harbour and a lakeside bathing area, and the water in the shallow crescent warms up faster than the open lake.

Boats and the Niesen

Spiez is a stop on the Lake Thun boat services — see the lakes — which makes it easy to combine with Thun at one end and Interlaken at the other, and with Oberhofen castle across the water.

Behind the town rises the Niesen, 2,362 m, a near-perfect pyramid reached by a funicular of 1910. Beside the track runs what is claimed to be the longest staircase in the world — 11,674 steps — which is closed to the public except for one day a year, when a race is run up it.

Getting there

• By train — Bern 30 minutes, Interlaken 20 minutes, Thun 10 minutes. Spiez is a junction on the Lötschberg line, so a great many trains stop.
• By boat — from Thun or Interlaken along the lake.
• On foot — the castle is fifteen minutes downhill from the station, and the walk back up is the price of the view.

When to go

May to September, when the boats run at full frequency and the bay is swimmable. October for the vineyards turning.

Spiez is a stop rather than a destination — two hours does it — but it is one of the best two hours on the Lötschberg line, and a good deal of the pleasure is simply sitting on the terrace above the bay.