Twin towns

Switzerland

Lauenen

Lauenen is situated in the south-west part of Switzerland at an altitude of 1250m with the highest mountain being Wildhorn at 3240m. It lies in the German speaking canton Bern region, even though there are the French speaking villages and towns of Montreux, Leusenne and Chateau d'Oex  around it. Lauenen has approximately 900 residents. There are 3 hotels with restaurants in the village (Alpenland***, Gelternhorn and Wildhorn).There is also a protestant church, 9-year school, nursery, retirement home and post office there. The old school was converted into a lodging-house. You can find bank, information centre, library and village council under one roof.
There are various sports activities available in Lauenen. In the winter you can use cross-country trails and ski slopes. In the summer there are a number of touristic lanes up to 3000m high on offer and cycling routes. you can also use a newly built gym all year round.

In 2001 there was a twin town children's exchange, where children spent a week in local families and had a rich accompanying programme both in the West Bohemia Region and the Lauenen Region.

Germany

Presently first talks about a new partnership with the German village Gleissenberg are in progress. In October representatives of the village, Volunteer Fire Brigade and Sports Union took part in the celebration of 130 years of the Volunteer Fire Brigade of the German village. During that visit a very good foundation for future co-operation was established. If you want to find out more about Gleissenberg you can visit it's website at www.gleissenberg.de [›].