Fire was on his way into the shower at the hotel in Interlaken, while Dice had a little nap after rafting. We had agreed to meet the Australian couple at a restaurant not very long after. Dice woke up from the shouting of Fire. “Holy crap! It’s raining like hell outside! Take a look!”

It was like the end of the world
A bit puzzled, Dice tried to peek outside. It really was raining, and the raindrops were huge, like small water bombs. He could barely make out the buildings across the street because of the intense downpour. A small river had already started to form on the road outside the hotel.

And soon the waterdrops from the sky was going to freeze.

“It’s hail!” Fire sounded like he was seeing something he had never seen before. It took Dice a quarter of a second to realize that this was actually something very few had seen before. He ran for his camera and hit the play button.


The hailstorm was terrifying. Huge pieces like this one was crashing down from the sky!

At first it was an incredible and impressive sight. Hail as big as golf balls were crashing to the ground and on the balcony outside the hotel room. The small river outside had grown large in only a small minute. Panic-like laughter filled the hotel room. But soon the laughter dissipated, as they both realized something really disturbing.

Damage and destruction everywhere
“The car won’t survive this! People are probably getting hurt out there!” As Dice spoke the words, the hail smashed the back window of a white station wagon across the street. We hoped that none of the huge hails had broken the roof of our car, which mainly was made of glass.

As soon as the bad weather had started, it was gone. The hailstorm had lasted only 3 or 4 minutes. Dice ran down to the stairs and out the front door. He picked up the first hail that he saw, one of many that had gone straight through the plastic roof above the front door of the hotel. It was the size of an egg.


Poor Ursula at the hotel, her lovely rose bushes were torn apart by the hail.

Continuing towards the car, Dice had to jump over and cross huge piles of golf ball sized hail. At first glance the car looked all right, the roof was in one piece. But the hood and the side of the car was filled with maybe 100 small dents, and the taillight was also broken!

One simple word slipped from Dices mouth. FUCK!

After this, we had to call around to insurance companies and car rental companies to see if we were going to suffer from this economically. The answer to that is still unknown.


The hailstorm did terrible damage to Interlaken, the leaves had been torn off the trees, traffic was jammed, and sirens could be heard from every direction.

We went to meet the Australians, but of course we arrived way to late. On the way we got to see what effect the storm had done on the environment. All gardens were ruined. Windows on houses was broken. Cars were filled with dents. Leaves were ripped of the trees. Around us firetrucks, ambulances and police cars were driving in all directions. We’re hoping nobody was seriously hurt by the hailstorm.