Category: Switzerland Trip, 2021

This is my last full day in Switzerland. I got a pretty decent amount of sleep last night and wanted to make the most of my day with the most ease. With a little help from Rick Steves I decided to take a cruise on Lake Lucerne before hopping a train to Zurich.

No, Steve and Ash didn’t join me for breakfast. This little guy did.

Lainey usually gets to lick my plate clean when I have breakfast. I’ve been missing that. I sent Mike the video of the bird this morning and he said Lainey was jealous and sent me this video.

Clearly I’m at the “homesick” part of the trip.

I repacked my bags after breakfast and headed to the train station to store the luggage. The train station is directly across from the pier where I was to catch my boat. Ease.

The cruise was very relaxing and absolutely charming. This wasn’t a tourist boat, it was part of the Swiss transportation system taking people to Weggis from Lucerne. Weggis is good he jumping off point to head up to the top of Mount Rigi. I was just on for the round trip ride.

It took just under two hours to get Weggis and back and that was a perfect length of time for me. Here’s some video clips.

The boat docked across the street from the train station. In fewer than 10 minutes I’d retrieved my bags and was on a train to Zürich. So efficient!

45 minutes later I was on the quick walk to my hotel.

I needed a coffee and a little bite so I headed down the road to the old town area and ate.

I walked off some of that quiche around old town. I just meandered.

I ended up back at the hotel around 6:30pm. I was ready to sleep but stayed up long enough to repack my bag since I’ll be checking it for the homeward journey.

My flight isn’t until noon but I’ll be heading into the airport early for several reasons. 1. I hate running late to the airport. 2. I took my COVID test but want to make sure I don’t run into any problems at check-in. 3. I’ll have lounge access and will want to take advantage of that, preflight while I work on my summary of the trip. Plus I’ll probably get some Duty Free chocolate to bring home.

Thanks for following along! You’ll never guess what bakery I randomly came across in Zurich…

My departure from Gimmelwald was difficult. I’ve enjoyed this area so much I’m sad to be leaving. I will return, sooner rather than later.

For breakfast I had an espresso and the rest of my Alp cheese and sausage. I considered getting some more of the smoked sausage and trying to sneak it into the USA (the USDA frowns on meat products crossing the border.) I’ve watched too many of those border patrol shows where people are caught in airports smuggling food that I think it would just stress me out the entire flight home. Anyway, I’ll be back for more.

I said my goodbyes to my new friend who helped me figure out the right hike yesterday. Johannes with his experience of the area and the adventures of Steve and Ash over the last few days show me that I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of this region. I could easily see a whole week here using Gimmelwald as my jumping off point.

Speaking of Steve and Ash, they agreed to give me a lift to the train station this morning so I took the 9:45am gondola down to the valley floor and enjoyed the paragliders landing as the boys made there way to pick me up.

Steve and Ash shuttled me to the Interlaken train station and dropped me off at the CO-OP so I could grab a quick croissant for the train ride to Lucerne. The ride was beautiful.

The train headed past the other lake that Interlaken is in between, Lake Brains. (Interlaken=locked between lakes. Sort of.) The lake had the silty blue green from the glacial runoff. After passing the lake the train stopped and reversed and began climbing out of the valley giving beautiful views down into the valley the further we went up. Eventually we were out of the valley and passing several little towns and villages situated around small lakes.

Around 20 minutes before arriving in Lucerne we began to ride on the coast of Lake Lucerne, another beautiful glacial blue-green body of water.

An overall lack of sleep had me crossing my fingers that my room might be ready for me earlier than regular check-in.

Devine timing won the day when they hotel clerk handed me my room key at around 1:05pm. I thanked her profusely for the early check-in and headed up to my room.

Now that is a European hotel room! Not much bigger than a hallway with a single bed this room is just perfect for one person. I quickly bathed to cool off from the walk from the train station to my hotel and crashed for a coupon of blissful hours.

In the distance from the view above you can see Mount Rigi. More of that at dinner.

First I had to shake off a funk. Going from a village with a population of 130 to a major metropolitan city was an abrupt and unwelcomed change. I just wanted to stay in the room and go back to sleep but I thought this might pass if I got out and walked it off. So I plugged in one tourist sight after another and let google maps lead the way. First stop, the Lion Monument.

The story is a long and interesting one, not interesting enough to type out here so here’s a LINK if you’d like to read more about this 30’ wide sculpture carved into the lovely grotto. For those of you who just want to look at pretty pictures (you are my people) here ya go:

Next stop, Jesuit Church.

I made my way to the church not to go in (it was closed by this point in the day) but as a destination point so I could check out other things along the way. I stopped by a couple of stores to get a few needed items and a new shirt on my way to the church.

Next stop, Chapel Bridge.

Again, lots of history here. The bridge and water tower were built around 650 years ago. The bridge burned down in 1993 and was rebuilt with several of the paintings that are placed under the eves of the bridge restored or preserved. more information HERE.

The funk was starting to pass and I was beginning to enjoy myself and this city.

Next stop, Needle Dam.

A needle dam is a weir designed to maintain the level or flow of a river through the use of thin “needles” of wood. These can be added or removed to control the flow out of Lake Lucerne. In 1968 Lucerne was clever enough to add two turbines to generate electricity from the flow. The water feature pictured below serves the purpose of showing how much electricity is being generated. The bigger the spurt the more energy.

I made a reservation for dinner at 6:30pm at this place.

I made this reservation a week or so before I flew over. I’m glad I did. The reservation put me on the semi-private outdoor balcony with a view of The Jesuit Church and Mount Rigi.

Dinner was just as good if not better than the view.

This was the second most Swiss meal I had and I loved every bite of it while enjoying the view. My funk was officially over.

After dinner I strolled around a bit to and took more pictures since the lighting was getting really nice. I also had some dessert.

It’s around 9:30pm ad I’m going to try and get some sleep. I imagine I’ll wake in the middle of the night (I’ll be adjusted to the time change on my flight home, I’m sure) and edit together a highlight reel of some of the video I shot today.

Woke after 4 hours of sleep (yay!) and took my online COVID test for traveling back home. Test came back negative. (Yay!) I spent a little time editing some video clips from the day together. Now for some more sleep. Enjoy!

Thanks again for following along. Tomorrow is more of Lucerne, then Zurich and then I fly home. ❤️

But first, my morning. It started out slowly, a little Alp cheese and sausage for breakfast and some fellowship with other travelers at the guest house.

Every morning I’ve been waking up and poking my head out the skylight to see the view.

I finally ran into the owner of Esther’s Guest House, Tobias. and met his daughter. She was just born the last time Mike and I were here.

I brought three Folkmanis finger puppets for their daughter, a monarch butterfly, a turtle and raccoon. In the picture above Tobias an his wife are looking up how to say “raccoon” in German and Matilda is playing with the turtle. They are incredibly lovely people. I will be back.

Around noon I caught the gondola up to Mürren.

One of my goals for my time in the Alps was to go for an easy hike. I’m not really a hiker. Every time my brother and sister-in-law go to Hawaii and go for hikes Mike and I just shake our heads. It’s not our idea of vacationing.

Even so, I wanted to experience more of the Alps and hiking is the way to do that here. I made a friend back at the Guest House named Johannes. He’s from Tennessee via South Africa and he visits the Berner Oberland regularly, always staying at Esther’s Guest House. He IS a hiker, big-time, and he had lots of suggestions for me knowing that a) I am a complete novice and b) I have a blister on my little toe. He suggested The Mountain View Trail. And gave me a bandaid for my toe.

A quick and steep ride up a funicular brought me to the beginning of the trail. I had no concept of how long or how far the hike would be. Frankly, I was intimidated.

I was on my way, no turning back. No turning back because the first 15-20 minutes were downhill and I sure as hell wasn’t going to climb back up! Being by myself was also a little intimidating but there was the occasional hiker either coming from the other way, or passing me, or me passing them.

I did bring provisions. I had a full bottle of water, a pretzel and an apple….Damnit. I’m going to die on this hike…aren’t I?

It was all worth it. At one point I teared up on the hike. I was just so grateful for the beauty I was witnessing, grateful for all of the swimming I’ve been doing this summer, grateful to be not be carrying the pounds I’ve lost this summer (thank you NOOM), and grateful for the courage to be on that hike.

So I enjoyed the hike. Here’s a highlight reel of some of the video I shot on the Mountain View Trail.

I took this little train back to Mürren.

I asked the conductor if my pass would be acceptable for this train and she said, “not really” and then hustled me on the train for free. ❤️

I shot Steve and Ash a message letting them know I was headed to Mürren for a bite and they decided to join me for coffee and dessert.

The view was incredible as was the meal.

Lunch/dinner was Rosti, the most Swiss meal I’ve had so far. It’s shredded potatoes, slices of ham, all covered with melted cheese and a fried egg. It was sizzling when it came out. It was so rich I couldn’t finish it, though I really wanted to. Very tasty.

Soon these two yahoo’s showed up.

We swapped stories from the day and had a mediocre Apple strudel. At least the coffee was good.

It started to rain so that was our queue to leave. I took the gondola back down to home base and showered off all the hike funk. I ran into Johannes and thanked him profusely for the great hiking advice. And the bandaid.

I ate my hiking provisions for a light dinner and am calling it a night.

Thanks for reading!

I headed out to find some dinner. I wanted to see the Square behind the Cathedral and thought I might find something over there.

It was Friday night so the restaurants that poured out onto the streets were full and the park pictured above was a gathering place for locals to enjoy the beautiful evening with friends. The views of the river and surrounding area from this perch were just perfect.

Strolling around during the early evening was magical.

I was failing at my mission to find a place to eat not from a lack of choices but probably just from decision fatigue. I decided to head to the COOP and get something simple.

I worked on the blog for a bit while watching an episode of The Simpsons in German (listed as “Die Simpsons“ on the TV guide). I managed to stay awake long enough to say good night to Mikey who is nine hours behind me and had just gotten home from work.

After a few hours sleep I woke up and was jet lag’s bitch until around 5am. I finally fell beck to sleep for a couple of hours and woke around 8:15am.

I went out to grab an espresso, and apple and croissant. Trams run up and down the main drag here and all over the old town.

I forgot to show this souvenir reusable bread bag I got from…the Ass Bar.

I spent most of the morning packing up my bags for the journey to Gimmelwald. The train ride was simple due to the ease of the Train App and the always on time trains, buses and gondolas of Switzerland.

I’ve been anticipating returning to the Bernese Oberland since Mike and visited there in 2019. I got really excited (stand up and take a picture across the train excited) when I saw these mountains in the distance.

Of course, these are just the foothills yet they look like the Sierra Nevada’s do from Sacramento on a clear day. Another 10 or 15 minutes down the track and I could see some actual snow covered Alp peaks which are so much bigger and taller. Now I was really excited.

I’d considered hanging out in Interlaken or one of the other little towns along the way to my final destination today but just kept going until I arrived in Gimmelwald.

Picturesque doesn’t even begin to describe this place. The views in every direction are simply jaw dropping. I got a little emotional being back here. And I was hungry.

In a town hanging off the edge of a cliff with a population of around 130 people there aren’t a lot of restaurants. In fact there’s none that are open like a typical restaurant during lunch. No matter. I’ve been craving Alp Cheese since the last time I was up here so after dropping off my luggage I strolled down the road until I found a barn with a sign that said the magic words. Alp cheese for sale. Just inside a rickety door there’s a small refrigerator where I picked up the above pictured items. there’s an open box of Swiss Francs where you drop your money in and take your change. Honesty Shop. I love it.

As hungry as I was I couldn’t help but walk the loop around the town so I chucked the cheese into my bag and walked.

Beautiful.

I found the stairs that lead back to Esther’s Guesthouse, which is where I’m staying.

A few things about the above photo. First, as I type this I am occasionally glancing out the skylight into more stars I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Second, the town is literally hanging on a cliff. Between the trees in the photo and the giant mountains behind them is a very deep valley carved out by a glacier thousands of years ago.

As I headed back down to the guesthouse it started pouring.

I stayed pretty dry under a couple of trees and enjoyed the show. It was over in 5 minutes.

That’s the gondola coming down for Murren, the next town up the mountain.

And I love the cheese and the sausage. My mouth is watering as I write about it. The cheese smells wonderful and has a mild but complex flavor. The sausage was nice and Smokey and dry. (Crap. It’s around 1am as I type this and I’m seriously hungry now. This next section isn’t going to help.)

The building to the right is Pension Gimmelwald, a small hotel that serves dinner at 7pm nightly. I’d made a reservation for myself for this evening.

As I sat on the porch relaxing the owner/chef was out I got the garden (seen in the picture above) picking what I’d be eating in just a few hours.

Dinner was a rustic affair. The food was good but it was really all about the view.

Full and fading quickly I headed back to the guesthouse and got ready for bed. Sleep has been a little hit or miss so I figured I’d crash when I got tired (it was around 8:30/9pm) and work on the blog when I inevitably woke up in the middle of the night, which I did at a little after midnight.

A few more things. I got to pet a dog on the train…

…which made me miss my family very much. I got to attend my fight club meeting online which was cool to do. And now as I finish this I get to stare at the stars for a while until I fall asleep again.

Thanks for continuing on this trip with me. I hope you are enjoying the ride. I sure am.

I was beginning to fade due to jet lag and not enough sleep so I grabbed an espresso outside the Bern train station before taking the 10 minute walk to my hotel.

The bagpipes were a nice touch. They echoed not unpleasantly through the street.

Here’s my room, large for a European Hotel, and very comfortable.

I’d power walked SFO, taken a 10 1/2 hour flight and walked a bit of Zurich so I was overdue for a shower.

Refreshed, I headed out to grab a bite before turning in. The woman at the hotel suggested Piu Restaurant just a few doors down in the Kornhaus building, an 18th century Baroque structure formerly used as granary to store extra provisions in case of famine or war. Or just in case the city went baroque. Sorry, that joke was a little korny.

Dinner was a simple affair of an artisan pizza (it was delicious) followed by a mild political protest for dessert.

Bern is the Capitol of Switzerland so protests make sense here. I like that the Swiss protest with cowbells. Really big cowbells. One of the signs roughly translated to “the executive branch is harming more than helping.” Switzerland is a semi-direct democratic federal republic with an executive branch that has 7 members on the Federal Council vs. a single President like us in the USA. This is to prevent a power grab by any one individual. Maybe not such a bad idea…

I headed back to the room and slept for a few hours. Jet lag woke me up around 2:30am and I got to chat with Mikey for a while when he got back from walking Lainey.

(I love the he still does the Lainey pulling him Schtick even when I’m overseas.)

I was able to fall back asleep around 4am and slept until 8am. Not too bad for the first night.

My morning exploration started here. At the Ass Bar.

First, it’s not what you think. Second, if your inner immature adolescent can’t help but make jokes about a place called the Ass Bar, I am glad you are my friend.

The Ass Bar (hee hee hee) is a store that is attempting to reduce food waste in the city. They work with bakeries around Bern to gather unsold baked goods and sell them here at a discounted price. I had an espresso and a wonderful chocolate hazelnut croissant that was out of this world. Great concept, nice execution, unfortunate name.

After my light and hilarious breakfast I walked toward a church spire down the road to here.

Across the road from the church is the Aare River. Bern is located at a hairpin turn of the Aare and the old town is within the hairpin turn. (Think easily defendable in the old days.)

I’m a sucker for old churches and cathedrals so I followed the next spire I spotted to here.

This is a gothic cathedral (the tallest in Switzerland) began construction in 1421 and was completed in 1893. Here’s some of the interior.

There was a lovely square on the backside of the Minster with a play area for kids and some nice views of the Aare River.

I headed back to the room to relax before heading out again a bit before noon. I wanted to catch the clock tower chiming at noon.

The Zytglogge clock (or as I like to call it, the ass clock) is a medieval structure built in 1201. It’s a pretty deluxe time keeper for the age with a mechanized animation, a regular clock and an astronomical clock. If you want to watch the video below, stick around to the end to here the rooster crow. I’m guessing this was the grand entertainment of Bern in medieval times.

Bern means bear so there are bears represented everywhere.

And there are also bears.

I’m not really a fan of zoos but I was pleased to see these bears have a very large roaming area set on a hill and a place to fish along the Aare.

They used to be kept in these horrible pits.

I’m glad they’re not anymore.

Lunchtime so I got an outdoor table at Altes Tramdepot (just above the bear habitat) and had a very German lunch.

The bears and lunch were at the top of the hairpin turn in the Aare so I’d made it to the end of the Old Town. I meandered back snapping photos along the way.

Here are some gargoyles I love from the Minster.

I wandered over to the parliament building (it seemed rude to not at least stop by since I’m in their Capitol). Remarkable how little security there was around the complex. Perhaps a side effect of neutrality.

I headed back to the hotel from Parliament to relax for a bit and stopped in the CO-OP (a small grocery store) for a quick pick me up.

Not sure what I’ll do for dinner yet. This seems like a good place to stop a pretty long post. Thanks for following along to this point! Here’s a moment of zen for you.

I was originally scheduled to fly from Sacramento to San Francisco at 6:30am. I’m so pleased the new flight had a very reasonable departure time of 11am. I was able to walk the dog and spend some time with Mikey before I headed to the airport.

I love hanging out in airport lounges. The bathrooms are nicer, there’s all sorts of yummy foods and coffees and being away from the frantic airport vibe is just lovely. It made the 8 hour layover very enjoyable.

Knowing I’d be sitting on the plane for 10 1/2 hours I walked through the airport several times. (My phone tells me I got in 8671 steps. Not bad.)

On one of my walks I went to my flight’s international gate to see if I could get a seat change. I got assigned a kind of crappy business class seat (I use the Seat Guru site to see which seats are best.) The gentleman that helped me got me into seat D4. Yes! Good seat!

Here’s a time lapse of one of my walks from the United Club to the international gate where my plane was.

Here’s the plane. For my fellow plane geeks it’s a Boeing 777-300er. A pilot I sat next to from Sac to SFO was piloting a 777-300 to Taiwan later that day and I got to ask him some geeky questions about the planes. Nice guy.

The flight was 99% turbulence free and after a lovely meal (cheese ravioli, Parmesan starter, delicious) I laid back and slept for nearly 4 1/2 hours, which for me is probably a record. I woke up refreshed and had a Swiss breakfast, deli meats and cheese, fruit, mini croissants and an espresso.

Customs was a breeze. I’m glad I had all of the paperwork filled out and a QR code to prove it. Had a lovely conversation with a woman from San Mateo who was arriving to spend a month with her Swiss parents.

It’s was 5pm and I was debating whether or not to do a quick run over to the Freitag Flagship store to grab a couple of things on my shopping list or to just hop a train to Bern. As I was vacillating I saw luggage lockers so I threw my luggage in and hopped a train to the Freitag Flagship Store.

I’ve been looking forward to visiting the Freitag Flagship Store for a long time.

Freitag is just cool. They make all sorts of custom bags, wallets and backpacks from recycled materials. Find more info here. They use old truck tarps, old seatbelts, old bicycle inner tubes, and even old car air bags to make their one of a kind products. Mike an I splurged on a couple of messenger bags we found at a little shop in Gimmelwald a few years ago. Today I went to grab a bag for my brother in-law, a little something for Rachel and a wallet for myself. (And maybe a few more things…) I’m not a shopper really but I love what Freitag is doing and I like the look to their stuff so, yeah. Souvenirs purchased.

The train system here is remarkably easy to navigate. The app allows me to look in real time what trains are available to where I want to go. Google maps showed me the stop for the Freitag store and the Swiss Train App allowed me to purchase a ticket.

I stored my bags at 5pm, took the first train to The Freitag Store, shopped, and by 6pm I was on a train to Bern. Easy peasy.

This seems like a good stopping point for now. Thanks so much for following along. I am thrilled to share this with you.

Six months into the pandemic I began to fantasy shop for plane tickets just for fun. I knew there was no chance of really going anywhere since vaccinations weren’t available and the world was pretty much shut down so a slaked my travel lust with fantasy trips.

And then in February a decently priced ticket to Zurich popped up in my fantasy searches. It was just too good to pass up so I pulled the trigger.

Why Switzerland? I’m so glad you asked. In 2019 Mike and I travelled to a little village called Gimmelwald. I fell in love with the place.

I knew I wanted to spend more time there at some point so why not now?

So, what’s the plan?

Many circumstances had to be in place in order for the trip to happen. First, the world had to open back up. Second, I had to get vaccinated. Check and check. And, as anyone who has booked plane tickets in the last nine months has probably experienced, the scheduled flights changed multiple times. (Which was a bit of a pain in the ass.) I originally booked a direct flight from SFO to Zurich. The changes now had me going from SFO to Newark, NJ, then on to Zurich. Not awful but not as direct as I prefer.

And then along comes Ida. Two days before departure I received a text from United letting me know flights would likely be cancelled or seriously delayed because the remains of hurricane Ida would be making its way through the Northeast. I hopped back on the phone with United where they allowed me to bump my flight a day early and fly direct from SFO to Zurich on a lovely SWISS 777-300er. (No fees or increase in cost. Way to go United.)

Of course, this was the plane I’d originally booked back in February before all of the COVID shuffling. The universe has a sense of humor and I’m grateful for a direct flight.

Now I arrive in Zurich at 3:45pm a day earlier than planned and hop a train to Bern for a couple of days. From there I train (and gondola) to Gimmelwald where I will spend several nights in the Alps. After lunch in Interlaken with friends I take a train to Lucerne for a day then back to Zurich for a day before my flight home. A few cities and lots of the Swiss Alps. That’ll be just perfect for me, I think.

I hope you’ll enjoy following along. There will be mountains and cheese and chocolate and puppets and probably some rain and hopefully a whole lot of fun. Thanks for coming along!