SWITZERLAND
From Paris, we took a half day long train ride to Switzerland. If you've never been to Switzerland, GO! It is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The Alps were absolutely breathtaking and the views from the peaks were nothing short of astounding.
INTERLAKEN
We started our journey in Switzerland from Interlaken. Interlaken earns its name from its location between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and is the gateway to the Alps, more specifically the Bernese Oberland. From our hotel's balcony we had a breathtaking view of the Alps.
About a few hundred yards from our hotel we made a trip from a funicular railway up the 4,337 foot summit to the Harder Klum, commonly known as Interlaken's Mountain. The summit contains a restaurant that overlooks the surrounding lakes and the Alps. It rained most of the way up the mountain, but in Switzerland the weather changes frequently, so after waiting 30 minutes we got some really good shots of the lakes and the mountains.
Later in the day, we headed to the town of Spiez on Lake Thun to see Spiez Castle, a medieval Swiss Castle originally built in the 8th Century. As was the custom throughout Europe, the castle was added on to and expanded as the owners saw fit. The castle had some amazing views and the history was impressive.
The Swiss are a very independent and protective people. They take pride in their independence and have refused to join the European Union, due largely to their banking laws and regulations. In recent history, they have remained neutral, and thus protected their autonomous government while preserving their pristine landscape. The water in Switzerland looked like something out a painting. I have never seen water that blue in a landlocked region. The Swiss landscape seemed to be completely lacking from pollution and almost untouched from modern industrialism.
The following morning we headed to the Schilthorn. The top of the Schilthorn is only reached by a series of cable cars, or exceptionally well prepared hikers. The Schilthorn houses a revolving restaurant named Piz Gloria, where the Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service was set. They have a nice Bond exhibit at the top of the Schilthorn, and the revolving restaurant provides some stellar views of the Alps.
However, the best views we had from the Schilthorn were on the ride down the cable car. The view on the descent of the town of Murren was priceless. Murren sits on the cliffs overlooking the Alps and is supposedly the birthplace of Alpine Skiing. The town is practically deserted in April and early May, but still is extremely quaint and houses some of the best views in the world. There are multiple streams that run through the valley below, while the mountains encompass your surroundings.
Later in the day, we hustled back to our base in Lauterbrunnen, to catch another train up to the Jungfrau. The views on this train ride were the best views of our entire trip. The picture at the top of the post is the town of Wengen, which sits on a hill overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley, but the best view we had the entire time was taken slightly north of Wengen.
The Lauterbrunnen Valley with its waterfalls and lush green meadows was the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen. Everywhere you looked was pristine countryside; it was truly stunning. On the ride up the cogwheel train we stopped at Kleine Scheidegg for about an hour before we began our ascent up the Jungfrau. We took the last train up to the Jungfrau and had a total of 20 minutes to see everything at the Top of Europe, by way of the Sphinx Observatory, at 11,716 feet.
What they don't tell you is when you ascend that high that fast, you get altitude sickness. You really need about 15-20 minutes to get acclimated to the altitude before you start moving around at a normal pace. Well, we didn't have that luxury, so we ended up trying to see everything immediately, which basically equated to trying to move around at the Top of Europe while being drunk. Your motor skills are slowed and your brain struggles to process oxygen to your limbs, which makes simple functions such as walking extremely difficult.
There are several exhibits at the Jungfrau, one of which is an Ice Palace, which houses some very impressive ice sculptures. The only issue is, you have to walk on ice to see them, which if you have not acclimated yourself to the altitude makes for an interesting journey, luckily there is a handrail. After somehow seeing everything we could see we made our descent on the last train down the Jungfrau back to Lauterbrunnen and then finally to Interlaken.
Interlaken, while a beautiful town and a great jumping off point to see the Alps is filled with tourist traps. Virtually every shop on the main stretch is a watch shop, chocolate shop, or Swiss army knife shop. If you go a block or two off the main stretch you can find some really nice pubs and some good shops. My wife really wanted a new Swiss Army Rambler knife, and while we weren't able to find one in Interlaken, we did find one online with the Edelweiss logo in purple and I was able to get it for her. My best advice if you visit Interlaken is if you find something that you really want that you can't get anywhere else, buy it. But, if you can get it online, wait until you get home and get it at a better rate. Switzerland has some great gifts, but they are expensive.
The following day, we made our way from Interlaken to Luzern on an hour and a half train ride, with views that were nothing short of historic. We traveled through the Alps through small Swiss towns, most notably Giswil, that was everything you'd think Switzerland would be. It was clean, gorgeous, and classic to the point where you could imagine yourself in a different century.
LUZERN
The views from Luzern were unbelievable. When we got to Luzern it was raining, but the following day the sun came out and gave us some picturesque experiences. Our hotel sat right on the edge of Lake Luzern and the Kapellbrucke with a view of the Alps in the background.
We traveled up to Mt. Pilatus, on the steepest cogwheel train in the world. The grade was 48%. To give you an idea of what that is, here's a look of what it looks like when the weather is clear. Now, when we traveled up it, past the view you see in the picture above, it was almost entirely in the clouds, so you couldn't see more than 50 yards up or down, which was probably good, but you could feel that we were on the edge of a cliff and were climbing pretty high.
Mt. Pilatus is supposedly the home of dragons. I don't know where they got that from, or how they justify it being the home of dragons, but someone in 1421 claimed he saw a dragon, then in 1509 someone else claimed dragon powers could heal the sick, so now this is the home of dragons. Game of Thrones would not be impressed.
Switzerland is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The landscape, the culture, and the people are all just mind-blowing. You can drink the water straight out of lakes and rivers; it's that clean. The hiking trails and trips you can make from the mountain passes are unparalleled. I'm not a big hiker or someone who does exceptionally well with heights, but Switzerland makes it all worth it. If you have to pick one country in Europe to visit your lifetime, make it Switzerland. You will not be disappointed. It's well worth the trip. Auf Wiedersehen!
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