In one day you can visit three of mother nature's impressive creations located between Lucerne and Interlaken close to the town of Meiringen, one of which was made infamous by a piece of popular British literature. For it was at Reichenbach Falls, where literary figure Sherlock Holmes died falling from the observation platform above the 120m-high upper tier of the seven tiers of the waterfall. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought the Baker Street detective back to life later in his writing career). There is an exact replica of the original wooden funicular (the original was built in 1899) that takes you up to the base of the waterfall (open 09:00 - 17:30; May 4 - Oct 7, 2018, return fare 12/8Sfr), where you have views of the waterfall, the platform from which Sherlock supposedly fell and across the Hasli Valley. Once there, you can also hike for a further 90 minutes up to the Rosenlaui Gorge (open from May 19, 2018, 09:00 - 17:00, 8/4Sfr), where the wild glacier waters thunder down through the canyon (see www.grimselwelt.ch).180 packs of dynamite were used to blast out a walkway in the gorge as early as 1903. Both Reichenbach Falls and Rosenlaui Gorge can be reached by taking a train from Lucerne to Meiringen (1h 15min) and then walking for 20 minutes or you can take a bus (5min) up to the falls. The trip by car from Lucerne takes about an hour.

From the bottom fo the waterfalls it's an easy 20-minute walk to the renowned gorge Aareschlucht which is 1400 metres long and up to 200 metres deep with limestone either side. This series of public walkways and tunnels running alongside the gorge (45 minutes’ walk one way) is even older than Rosenlaui. It opened in the year 1888 and 12,000 visitors went through the gorge in that year. Open from April 3, 2015 (entrance Aareschlucht West) 08:30 - 17:30 and until 18:30 in July and August (8/5Sfr) Combo tickets are available for the Reichenbach funicular and Aare Gorge (15/11Sfr). From here you can take the train back to Lucerne, changing trains in Meiringen.