Berner Oberland Lenk June 2026

[Pauline]

We’ve been in Lenk for two weeks, with one week left. It was good to get into the mountains after our sweltering week in Baden-Baden. We are doing all the usual things - easy walks along the river, some more adventurous hikes, driving into Gstaad and spending too much money at their fancy deli, enjoying the views.

I’ll post more later but here are a couple of photos.

Our first river walk.

Look at this beautiful goat! We saw him again yesterday in a different field and I think he recognised me.

Steve counting coins to purchase cheese.

 

[Pauline]

We are at the end of the trip, leaving tomorrow to drive home. We stop in Obernai in the Alsace (France), then Arras before taking the tunnel back to England. Hot weather is moving in. It is 80F in Lenk but will be nearly 100F in Obernai. Our hotel has AC and we won’t do our usual walk when we get there. In Arras I changed our booking from a hotel with no AC to the Mercure which now has overwhelming synthetic fragrance in the lobby but has AC and underground parking for the car. The forecast is 90F in Arras.

We’ve had hot weather this past week in Lenk. We’ve continued as we started doing easy walks along the river and a few with more adventurous climbs. It’s been a good trip and we really like this apartment.

Lenkersee, a small lake on the edge of town.

We did the climb up to Siebenbrunnen (Seven Springs) but it seems much steeper now!

Walking along the river in Zweisimmen, which we have done many times, we noticed this small waterfall for the first time.

Our favorite hike to Iffigfall on a hot day.

At Iffigfall.

Hiking up on Hornberg where the fields are full of flowers.

Our last walk up the river.

 

[BryanS]

Pauline, One of the things I miss from New Mexico was the smell of pines in the mountains, do you get a similar fragrance in these areas?

 

[Pauline]

The trees are not as aromatic as the Ponderosa Pines and Pinion in New Mexico. I don’t remember a scent from the trees. But I smell something from that rushing water fresh off the glacier - a fresh smell.

June is a busy time for farmers, cutting fields of hay, gathering it, storing it, and then mucking the newly cut fields. Our apartment is right on the fields so the aroma here in June is frequently of cow shit. Still, our view is good!

View from our apartment. Freshly cut and mucked fields.

 

[BryanS]

Our apartment is right on the fields so the aroma here in June is frequently of cow shit.

I had an aunt and uncle who had a farm in SW Ohio and there was a large pig farm across the road, I can still distinctly recall that smell when we visited in the summer!