On Sunday evening we arrived home from our four day adventure in the chocolate loving, cheese making, and purely beautiful Swiss country. Switzerland lived up to all of my expectations, surpassing many of them, and simply left us wanting more.
We piled in the car around 8 am on Thursday morning. Derek had taken off the last two days of the week so that we could take an extended weekend while Abby was in town. We had an uneventful drive to the border of Switzerland, about three hours away. When we arrived, however, we had to pay 40 Euros for a 2012 Swiss car pass, but oh well. Besides that, there were no customs and we didn’t need our passports that we had packed. We arrived at our first destination, Lauterbrunnen, after a stop at our first mountain lake, Lake Thun. Oh it was beautiful, and it sure was a great first impression of the gorgeous country. We couldn’t wait to get to our final destination to see what it had in store.
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| At Lake Thun |
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| Lake Thun |
Abby and I had researched areas within the Berner Oberland – the “Jungfrau” region of the Swiss Alps. The Bernese area (hence the name Bernese Mountain Dog) is known for its three large mountains – the Eiger, Monch, and the Jungfrau- and also for its mountain lakes, beautiful Alpine villages and the tourist attraction and Swiss architectural feat of the highest railway station in Europe, the Jungfraujoch. The valley we were headed to, the Lauterbrunnen Valley, is known for its 72 waterfalls, as well as the Uneseco World Heritage Site of the Trummelbach Falls. We had seen a video of the valley on YouTube, and Derek’s reaction was “Places like that don’t actually exist!”
So when we arrived in the valley, through a few winding roads, we thought: It is true; places like this do exist! The valley was lush green with steep cliffs defining each side as waterfalls poured down, chalet style houses dotting the green pastures and the cute town of Lauterbrunnen providing a gateway to a scene that I had only seen on TV and read about in a storybook. Our first views:
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| Lauterbrunnen Valley |
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| Overlooking the valley |
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| Staubbach Falls |
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| Looking over the valley |
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| Lauterbrunnen Valley |
Since we couldn’t check into our hostel, the Valley Hostel, until 4 pm, we decided to explore the town. We walked through the quaint valley town, filled with adventure seekers packing up their parachutes, campsites, and tourists snapping photos of the many waterfalls. After collecting Swiss Francs from the ATM, we headed to the Staubbach Falls- a 9740ft waterfall that frames the valley. The climb up and walk behind the falls was free, and beautiful. We then drove to the Trummelbach Falls, the only set of waterfalls that can be seen inside of a mountain. The river that flows through drains the Eiger mountain glacier. In total there were about ten waterfalls within the mountain, twisting and turning and providing a refreshing spray in the face. It was really interesting to see how the Swiss had created tunnels and viewing platforms to see each of the waterfalls. I’ll let the photos describe it better:
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| Derek inside the mountain |
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| Overlooking a fall |
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| Another fall gushing over |
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| Abby and I on the viewing platform |
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| Abby and I overlooking the waterfall |
After the Trummelbach, we gathered some “appetizers” from the local COOP grocery store and checked into the hostel. Our host, a wonderfully friendly Lauterbrunnen local, showed us our clean, lovely room with waterfall view, explained that we must wear slippers in the room and gave us a tour of the kitchen and bathroom. This was the nicest, friendliest and cleanest hostel I have ever stayed at. For 33 Francs each (about $35 USD), we had a triple room with sheets, duvet, free wifi and a balcony with this view:
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| The view from our room |
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| Our Hostel |
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| Perfect place to watch the world go by |
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| On our balcony |
After getting settled, we spread out our fresh, warm mini baguettes, triangular Swiss Brie cheese, and local salami for our appetizer and late lunch. Thinking the prices in Switzerland were going to be outrageous compared to Germany, I also brought two bottles of wine. Come to find out, many things in Switzerland are comparable in price to Germany. The only huge difference we noticed was the price of dinner at a restaurant. We had a wonderful two hours of just enjoying the view of the clouds rolling in and out of the valley and the waterfalls. It even briefly rained, and then blue sky reappeared. We met a couple from Michigan who shared our balcony and were on a two week holiday after business in France. They decided to join us for dinner and we headed to a campsite restaurant about a ten minute walk away, a place that was recommended by our hostel host. We indulged in local Swiss cuisine of rosti with eggs, alpler magrone and wine. We had a great, conversation-filled dinner and headed home around 10:30 pm to go to bed in preparation for our very early morning to come. Here’s a look at our dinner:
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| Alpler magrone: My dinner of a Swiss mac & cheese with onions, potatoes and apple sauce for dipping. It was delicious! |
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| Derek's dinner of rosti: A hashbrown with egg and sausage. |
DAY 2
We woke up to our alarms sounding at 6 am and headed out the door for our Jungfraujoch adventure. We had bought the tickets at the tourist office the day before in hopes of a sunny day to follow. The valley was filled with clouds and fog when we walked out the door, but we tried to be optimistic that the top of the mountain would provide a view. Jungfraujoch is the highest railway station in Europe at 11,332ft above sea level- built in and upon the Jungfrau Mountain. It opened for business in 1912 and is the top attraction in the Berner Oberland. I had first heard about this attraction from Where in the World is Matt Laurer?- a special segment from the Today Show. (You can watch it here.) The Jungfraujoch is one of those places that you see on TV or read about in National Geographic, but never actually think that you would be so lucky to visit it. (At least, this is what I thought.)
We took the train from the Lauterbrunnen station up the mountain to Kleine Scheidigg, a mountain checkpoint and large railway station that connects the world to the Jungfrau. Here we switched trains in the misty fog and boarded the Jungfraubahn, a cozy train that took us 50 minutes further up the mountain. It stopped at a few “scenic” overlooks, and this is what I was able to take a photo of:
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| This was a "snow lake"- part of a glacier. |
We had no such luck with the weather at the top. We got off the train and found our way to the Sphinx Observatory deck. Again, this is what we saw:
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| Lovely! |
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| I think this looks like something from Antartica |
But honestly, it was still an impressive feeling to know what lay beyond the abyss – mountain peaks, glaciers and the beauty of some of the highest peaks of the Alps. After our semi-disappointing look at the observation deck, we headed through the rest of “tour” of the railway station. The next stop was an ice cave in the glacier. It was impressive, with several carvings portraying scenic and folklore traditions of the Swiss and the landscape. There were penguins, eagles and a large ice carving of Sherlock Homes, said to have solved a mystery on this mountain. It was very, very cold. Just ask Derek in the shorts. After the ice cave, we found another area outside that provided an excellent experience of ice cold white air and blowing winds. We managed to find another crazy person to take our photo with the Swiss flag:
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| I think we may dress warmer next time. |
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| What a splendid view! |
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| At the observation deck |
After that adventure, our toes and fingers needed some feeling so we enjoyed some over-priced but delicious hot chocolate and coffee. With hope of the view clearing up and the ice melting away (yeah right), Derek and I headed back outside to for one last view at the top of Europe. Around 11 am we headed back down the mountain and snuggled in for a nap while it rained in the valley. When we awoke, we drove about 20 minutes to Interlaken, the “adventure sports capital of the world.” It was a nice raining day activity – we walked around the tourist-filled city, enjoyed watching some para-gliders land in the park and made our way to the COOP supermarket again to gather a hostel dinner of pizza and raspberry pie.
DAY 3
We awoke to a breath-taking blue sky filled with bushy white clouds. Our first thought: the Chinese family next to us sure lucked out- they have their winter coats on and are heading to the Jungfrau. We would have loved a view from the Jungfrau on a day like this. But, oh well. We checked out of the hostel and boarded a cable car for a two minute ride up a very steep mountain to the car-free sleepy village of Gimmelwald. If you’ve read Rick Steves travel books, you know he talks up this town like crazy. I had read his book and although I trust his advice for the most part, I wanted to see for myself what was nestled in this tiny corner of the mountains. When we stepped off the cable car, we saw why people love this hideaway so much. The view, for one, was unbelievable. There were waterfalls and green patches perched on the snowcapped mountains and wooden chalets with flower boxes dotting the little village. After a quick glance around, we headed for our second destination. We walked about 50 minutes uphill to the resort and mountain village of Murren. It was nice to get our blood pumping since we hadn't done much hiking yet, and Murren provided a great view of the Eiger, Monch and part of the Jungfrau. We explored a bit and the headed back to Gimmelwald for a longer walk around the town. At one point, we heard the cowbells ringing, but they were on sheep instead of cows and provided a wonderful alpine concert. It really was a beautiful sound. Here are a few photos:
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| Derek and Courtney (Me) in Gimmelwald |
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| Log cabin in Gimmelwald |
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| Barn made with no nails- just like Lincoln Logs |
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| Beautiful View |
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| And another view |
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| Derek jumping for joy! |
We started passing a barn on the way through town and the kids started running towards us. The baby goats thought we were going to feed them, but sadly, we had no food. This was their reaction:
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| Where's my food? |
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| Goats with bells |
Then we passed the cheese storehouse for the village and found a sign pointing to a house. So we walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. The owner of the house popped her head out of the window and I asked if she sold cheese. Sure enough, she let us inside to her cheese shack, and after getting used to the strong smell from the cheese rounds aging on the shelf, we tasted some Alpine cheese from 2010 and 2011 and decided on the 2011- it was softer and had a less intensive taste. The older the cheese, the more intense it is. Derek has become a cheese expert over the last four months, and he was very pleased by the delicious taste of this cheese. We asked the owner of the store if she actually makes the cheese herself. She said no, but explained that when her family sends their cows to the highlands to graze, the lady high in the mountains makes the cheese from the cows and then sends it back to Gimmelwald.
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| The cheese store in Gimmelwald |
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| The cheese house |
I would have loved to spend a few nights in this sleepy town. There were a few guest houses and a hostel perched on the cliff. This is a place to get away from it all. When we had gotten off the cable car to arrive, nobody else from the car actually came into Gimmelwald; they all boarded another car to take them higher to the mountain, probably to the Schilthorn mountain at Piz Gloria.
After saying goodbye to Gimmelwald and all of its beauty, we headed back down the cable car and drove to another valley and large resort town of Grindelwald. Here we had hoped to board another cable car to take us far into the Alps for an alpine lake hike, but it was too expensive so we headed to our next location: Lucerne.
We drove through the mountains and through many, MANY well-carved out mountain tunnels. By the end of the trip, we had concluded that the Swiss engineers love building tunnels and whenever they get the chance, they go through the mountain instead of over it. On our way to Lucerne, we added a pit stop for Lake Brienz, another large fjord-like lake on the other side of Interlaken. (Interlaken means “between lakes”- between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz). We immediately were drawn to the port area and Derek found us a steal on row boat rentals. So, we rented a row boat for an hour and enjoyed some lake time. Notice the color of the water – it really was this color. The prettiest and clearest lake water I have ever seen. Derek decided to jump in for a swim. He soon realized that the mountain lakes really do drain from glaciers; he got out before hypothermia set in. After our brief lake outing, we arrived at our hotel on Lake Vierwaldstättersee near Lucerne. Derek found another spot to jump in the lake, this one much warmer, and then we headed into Lucerne for dinner.
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| Lake Brienz |
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| Working hard in the row boat! |
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| Derek in the glacier lake |
Day 4
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| Picking our sunflowers! |
We enjoyed breakfast at the SeeHotel Sternen where we had booked a room from hostelworld.com. We used my National Geographic Swiss guidebook to find our next destination before driving back to Germany. We settled on a medieval town about 1.5 hours away, Stein am Rhein, and the Rhinefall, the largest waterfall in Europe. We packed up the car, drove through tunnels that were about 5 km long, and all to soon we were out of the beautiful Alps. Along the way, we spotted some yellow fields. Fields of sunflowers! Now that’s a dream come true! Derek, the wonderful husband that he is, found a remote farmland road that led to the large field, and Abby and I scurried over to take some photos. Once we found our way back to the main road again, we discovered that sunflowers are a specialty of this region – they were everywhere! I spotted a
selbst schnieden sign, which means “self cut”, so we pulled off the road and picked our own sunflowers to take home.
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| The town of Stein am Rhein |
We arrived in Stein am Rhein soon after and were surprised at the absolute cuteness of this town. All of the buildings within the Altstadt (old town) were painted with scenes, life-size people, flowers, etc. There were fountains with flower boxes, bicyclers enjoying a refreshing Eis (Ice cream), and street side cafes covering the pedestrian-only area. The city lies on the Rhine River and drains from the Bodensee (Lake Constance). We enjoyed some ice cream, Derek found the bakery, and we had a wonderful stroll through the charming town.
Our next and final destination before heading home was Rhinefall. After paying a small entrance fee, we made it to the observation platform. My first thought- That is a lot of water. It pours 11 million gallons of water over the rocks every minute.
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| At the Rhinefall |
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| The largest waterfall in Europe |
And that was our trip! It was a great four days, and we did luck out with weather for the most part. I would highly recommend the Lauterbrunnen area of Switzerland to anybody. Especially if you are touring Germany, Switzerland and Austria with a car, we had absolutely no problem getting there. It was a wonderful weekend spent with my husband and twin sister and I feel so lucky and blessed to be able to have and share these experiences with them.
My Side notes:
- Everything was so clean in Switzerland. Except when we drove through Zurich on the last day, we noticed that the cities, streets, and tunnels were spotless through the rest of our travels.
- The color of the glacier and mountain lakes still amazes me. It’s unlike anything I've ever seen. The lakes varied from a turquoise green, to an emerald green, to a turquoise/aqua blue.
- The largest expenses that we noticed were dinners out at restaurants and the Jungfraujoch tour. Our hostel offered multiple kitchens and a nearby grocery; so many travelers can save by eating cheaply.
- In my next trip to the Alps (someday!), I want to do more alpine hiking. If we hadn't spent a lot on our ticket to the Jungfrau (on a cloudy day), we would have been able to afford the cable car to the hiking kickoff point higher in the Alps.
- The Swiss make everything accessible. We could have traveled around the entire country, and into every nook and cranny, by train. By having a car, however, we saved a lot of money and we could stop when we wanted. The cable car system also makes it easy to visit car-free towns and to travel higher into the Alps for hiking.
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