Pepper_von_snoot

Kleine Scheidegg.

Melnq8

Thanks Thin.

I'm working on a return trip to Switzerland myself and your photos prompted me to look back through some of mine for inspiration!

Winter hiking above Lenzerheide

jacooper

PalenQ

Spiez sounds nice but I got the impression there’s a steep climb from the lake to the town. With my walking disability I thought Thun sounded better for me.

Pepper_von_snoot

Spiez is pronounced Shhhh-pitz.

Thin

swandav2000

Hi again,

Yes, you have it right, jacooper. The lakeside at Spiez is a bit far, and downhill, from the town. What I like about Thun is that the dock and train station are all close together and all are right in town. It's a lovely town, so pleasant to just stroll through.

Pepper, you have to pronounce both the "i" and the "e." Shh-piez.

s

Pepper_von_snoot

Well, I am pronouncing Spiez the way the owners of the Hotel Bellevue (Judi and Andi Engi) in Wengen pronounce it. Believe me, I practiced saying it with them.

They did not pronounce the I and the E. No way, Heidi's Grandfather.

​​​​​​I will never forget the time YOU told me that my family did not stay at the Hotel Bernriederhof in Garmisch, Germany when I have the photos to prove it.

I am going to look for them and then post them here.

I graduated from Darmouth College, one of the most prestigious schools in the world, and I don't like your patronising and haughty attitude towards me.
Thin

Ingo

Correct pronounciation is both the "i" and the "e".

See Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiez
Spiez ['ʃpiət͡s]
The source is listed, too: Hans Bickel, Christoph Landolt: Duden. Schweizerhochdeutsch. Hrsg. vom Schweizerischen Verein für die deutsche Sprache. Dudenverlag, Mannheim/Zürich 2012, S. 88; Bruno Boesch: Die Aussprache des Hochdeutschen in der Schweiz. Eine Wegleitung. Hrsg. im Auftrag der Schweizerischen Siebs-Kommission. Spiegel, Zürich 1957, S. 25 und 39.

PalenQ

Yes Spiez is on a prodigious slope from train station to boat dock. How about Oberhofen - a small but not tiny lakeside town with castle - but if want larger city sans lake views Thun is really nice as cities go.

jacooper

We leave in a week and the hotel in Thun is booked, along with a non-refundable train trip from Thun to Salzburg. But Oberhofen is sonewhere we could visit from Thun.

swandav2000

Thin, I do totally and earnestly apologize for offending you. I truly have no intention to be patronising or haughty. I do enjoy all of your posts and love your joyful embrace of life --

I'm so happy you are proud of your alma mater! I have also been impressed with your work history and the people you worked and moved among in your life!

I actually do not remember saying anything about the Hotel Benriederhof -- I think that is the Hotel that the German Army uses for recreation. Can you tell me the year you and your family stayed there -- maybe the Army ownership of the place is rather recent...? Yes, please do post pictures if you can find them. I have photos of my family at a hotel in Garmisch in the 1960s, and the hotel is almost unrecognizable.

Ingo -- thank you so much for confirming what I thought about the pronunciation! As a foreign speaker and a new guy in German, I am always doubtful. But before I posted that (rather blunt) note, I did check out the pronounciation with a German online speaking tool. Thanks!!

s

Hambagahle

Not really - more like "Speeee- its" It is Swiss German. But for a foreigner "Spitz" as in Spitzbergen will do.

For someone who needs a flat place then Spiez won't work. There is bus service in summer from the boat dock to the station but not all year round. Oberhofen has three advantages: flat, lovely castle (stately home variety not fortified variety) and superb views to the south which on a clear day include the northern flank of the Alps. There are some nice hotels all along the northern shore of the Thunersee in fact.

kja

Not to be confused with Dar.t.mouth College....

Cowboy1968

Swiss German is a box of wonders - even when you're fluent or native in Standard German.

The upside down "e" in IPA is a silent e, which after the "i" forms a sound somewhat like the diphthongs in the English words peer, tier or dear. Which, by the way, shows how absurd a language English is from the viewpoint of phonetics
So Spiez sounds like shpee-ats, with no pause between the two "syllables".

You can listen to the correct pronounciation in this fun video - where locals from Spiez are asked to repeat a tongue-twister which - among other words - contains the name of their town.

Somewhat similar as you would pronounce Lienz (not Linz), a town in Tyrol/Austria.
Which would sound in English as if you said "Lee Ann's" quickly.

kja

@ Cowboy1968:

farrermog

Thanks, brings back memories of a short stop at Spiez about 40 years ago. Right near the train station there was a Coop store where I bought a few things for lunch and walked down the hill (not all that steep I remember - maybe because I was 20 something at the time!) towards the lake and witnessed a wedding party coming from the castle, quite the fairy tale setting on a beautiful day. Fwiw the local pronunciation sounds like Shpeerts to me (whereas in my mug German I would have said Shpeets).

PalenQ

Schoeerts shrpells down to the lake.

farrermog

Spiez - another popular Russian 'tourist' destination -

"reported that the suspected agents were heading for the Spiez laboratory near Bern which analyses chemical and biological weapons, including nerve agent Novichok. "

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKCN1LV0B5

PalenQ

Yes was surprised that tiny Spiez somehow had such a high-tech laboratory.

jacooper

Just reporting back briefly. We had the wonderful problem of TOO MUCH good weather while in Switzerland. In sixteen days we only had one wet day, which was our first day in Wengen. On that day we ended up doing a boat trip on Lake Thun.

Later, when we stayed in Thun for four nights, we zipped off to see the Matterhorn from the Gornergrat one day, went to see Avenches and Murten another day, and on the last day ended up taking the little train up to Schnyge Platte and then spent two hours at the Ballenberg Museum.

Gruyeres seemed too far to go, and we didn’t get to Bern. The reason for the Schnyge Platte trip was just that the weather was so perfect and I wanted to spend one last day up near the alps.

Adelaidean

Wonderful for you. Love Switzerland!

(I think we were in Bavaria about same time as you, too, we had great weather there.)

Now refining our return to Switzerland for next year and planning similar day trips.