Annalynn's Trip Report: Switzerland and a wee bit of Italy, April/May 2010
May 11th, 2010, 12:59 PM
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Annalynn's Trip Report: Switzerland and a wee bit of Italy, April/May 2010
First of all, I want to thank everyone here at Fodors for all their help - even if you don't think you helped me, you did! I read through countless past threads and trip reports, and tried to limit the questions I posted, since most things had been covered before.
My husband and I left for Switzerland on April 27, and returned on May 8. We flew into the Milan airport, and out of Zurich. I'm copying this from my Blog, so hopefully all the references make sense.
The first night was in Italy, recovering from jet lag. My husband had OK'd the trip primarily for the train journeys, which is why I had to find a way to take the Bernina and Glacier Express, and still do the parts I most wanted (the cheese, wine, chocolate and mountains).
Wednesday, April 28
Seems odd starting a new day here, since I never really slept exept for an hour on the plane. I actually got a passport stamp for Italy, which was kind of exciting. This passport hasn't been nearly as many places as my last one, so its been feeling unloved. Plus. they don't stamp the way they used to. We took the Malapanesa Express Bus to the train station, and saw what must surely be the ugliest parts of Milan in the process. The highlight was the "Sexy Shop," which really isn't much of a highlight at all. Exchanged some money and the Euro exchange right now is just painful. Took the train to Varenna, which was our destination for the day. The train ride was just under an hour, and the first 1/2 was an extension of the Worst Highlights of Milan Tour. All the graffiti.. ugh... and the parts that are in English are just . I dozed a bit - jet lag catching up with me, and when I opened my eyes again, suddenly the ugly was gone and it was ... spectacular. Lush, green mountains, and crystal blue waters. It was Lake Como, and it was every bit as beautiful has I had imagined it to be. We saw some castles near Lenno, and I was tempted to hop of for a bit in this town - its definitely worth a future visit. But Varenna, and its promise of a shower, was calling.
As we approached Varenna, we are waiting near the exit doors when a man in his fifties approaches us. We start talking, and he is a professor who visits Varenna frequently to teach a class. He offers to walk us towards our hotel, and since I'm with my red-belt husband, we agree. Turns out 'Claudio' is the highlight of our day. He is incredibly knowledgeable, and helpful and was full of great little tidbits about Varenna and Italy. I'm still feeling guilty for thinking I was about to be robbed at every corner we turned, but he was great. He told us which restaurants are the best, which shop keepers are honest, pointed out the shortest river in Italy, where we would catch the boat taxi to Bellagio, and the perfect beach to sit and read. Our hotel, Hotel du Lac, was about a 15-20 minute walk from the train station, and if course, my room was not ready (it was only 11 am so I knew it was a long shot, but stilll... I really wanted to clean up a bit). But we left our bags and went our ways. First stop was the Villa Capresi. We toured the gardens while we waited for noon so we could eat lunch, and I don't think I can even find words to describe how breathtakingly beautiful this place was. The wisteria was just as fragrant as you can imagine, hanging everywhere. And the views of Lake Como... we had clearly died and gone to heaven. Lunch was incredible, we sat outside with white tablecloths, had wine, barley risotto, beef stew and gnocchi.
After lunch, we wandered over to the Villa Monatsero, where more beautiful gardens awaited us. We were a bit annoyed we had to pay 10 euros to see them, but there were a LOT more to these gardens then at the Villa Capresi. Next, we walked around the town of Varenna, and found a quaint little Church that was built in the 12th century, Chiesa di S. Giorgio. Its steeple can be seen in many of the photographs of Varenna, towering over the rest of the town. It was time for some gelato - had I mentioned its been a bit on the hot side here? Carl went with (what else) chocolate, while I opted for Sour Cherry. Like so many towns built around a lake, Varenna is a very steep town, with lots of long staircases that look as if the stones will crumble underneath your feet if you step on them. We walked back down one of the stairs towards our hotel, and our room was ready. Its often hard for me to get excited about European rooms - they are always smaller than I want them to be, but this one wasn't too horrid, and it came with our own balcony overlooking the lake. And our bed was actually two twins pushed together, a plus, since most European rooms are a max double or queen size.
After I freshened up and Carl napped for an hour, we took the boat over to Bellagio. It was ... eh. Its a tourist town, a big tourist town, just one junk shop after another, mixed in with a restaurant here and a hotel there. We weren't impressed, so we only stayed for about an hour before we hopped back to sleepy little Varenna, which is much more our speed. Our hotel had a lovely little bar, so we sat outside and decided that since I was in Italy, I needed a Bellini. They call cocktails "Long Drinks" in Italy, so I was expecting a long, tall glass, especially since that's how they come at the Macaroni Grill. Hotel du Lac's Bellini came in a martini glass. Go figure. Still, it was delicious, and I was sitting in a wisteria covered bar overlooking Lake Como, so I made do. We did more walking, and soon realized that no place serves dinner before seven pm. We did find a wine bar that was open, so what else could we do but go inside for a glass of the house red. This was a wine bar frequented by the locals, it reminded me of an Italian "Cheers." People would walk in, and they would say, in unison, "Ciao, Claudio!" Wine is truly the drink of choice here - some of the people stopping by were in their paint-splattered overalls. Any country that favors wine over beer is a-ok in Annalynn's book.
We had had two recommendations for the Lido Restauant for dinner (including from our beloved Claudio), so even though it was the restaurant furthest away from our hotel, we tried it out. We both opted for pasta, Carl's was the tastiest, a Pasta sauce with paprika and peppers mixed in. We shared a liter of wine (yes, we are apparently drinking our way thorugh this trip) and a tirimisu for dessert. And then they bring us two shotglasses of limoncello as an appertif with the bill. Again, I love Italy. I'd forgotten just how much I love it. We stumbled back to our hotel, and congratulated ourselves on surving our first day of jet lag until 9:30 p.m.
My husband and I left for Switzerland on April 27, and returned on May 8. We flew into the Milan airport, and out of Zurich. I'm copying this from my Blog, so hopefully all the references make sense.
The first night was in Italy, recovering from jet lag. My husband had OK'd the trip primarily for the train journeys, which is why I had to find a way to take the Bernina and Glacier Express, and still do the parts I most wanted (the cheese, wine, chocolate and mountains).Wednesday, April 28
Seems odd starting a new day here, since I never really slept exept for an hour on the plane. I actually got a passport stamp for Italy, which was kind of exciting. This passport hasn't been nearly as many places as my last one, so its been feeling unloved. Plus. they don't stamp the way they used to. We took the Malapanesa Express Bus to the train station, and saw what must surely be the ugliest parts of Milan in the process. The highlight was the "Sexy Shop," which really isn't much of a highlight at all. Exchanged some money and the Euro exchange right now is just painful. Took the train to Varenna, which was our destination for the day. The train ride was just under an hour, and the first 1/2 was an extension of the Worst Highlights of Milan Tour. All the graffiti.. ugh... and the parts that are in English are just . I dozed a bit - jet lag catching up with me, and when I opened my eyes again, suddenly the ugly was gone and it was ... spectacular. Lush, green mountains, and crystal blue waters. It was Lake Como, and it was every bit as beautiful has I had imagined it to be. We saw some castles near Lenno, and I was tempted to hop of for a bit in this town - its definitely worth a future visit. But Varenna, and its promise of a shower, was calling.
As we approached Varenna, we are waiting near the exit doors when a man in his fifties approaches us. We start talking, and he is a professor who visits Varenna frequently to teach a class. He offers to walk us towards our hotel, and since I'm with my red-belt husband, we agree. Turns out 'Claudio' is the highlight of our day. He is incredibly knowledgeable, and helpful and was full of great little tidbits about Varenna and Italy. I'm still feeling guilty for thinking I was about to be robbed at every corner we turned, but he was great. He told us which restaurants are the best, which shop keepers are honest, pointed out the shortest river in Italy, where we would catch the boat taxi to Bellagio, and the perfect beach to sit and read. Our hotel, Hotel du Lac, was about a 15-20 minute walk from the train station, and if course, my room was not ready (it was only 11 am so I knew it was a long shot, but stilll... I really wanted to clean up a bit). But we left our bags and went our ways. First stop was the Villa Capresi. We toured the gardens while we waited for noon so we could eat lunch, and I don't think I can even find words to describe how breathtakingly beautiful this place was. The wisteria was just as fragrant as you can imagine, hanging everywhere. And the views of Lake Como... we had clearly died and gone to heaven. Lunch was incredible, we sat outside with white tablecloths, had wine, barley risotto, beef stew and gnocchi.
After lunch, we wandered over to the Villa Monatsero, where more beautiful gardens awaited us. We were a bit annoyed we had to pay 10 euros to see them, but there were a LOT more to these gardens then at the Villa Capresi. Next, we walked around the town of Varenna, and found a quaint little Church that was built in the 12th century, Chiesa di S. Giorgio. Its steeple can be seen in many of the photographs of Varenna, towering over the rest of the town. It was time for some gelato - had I mentioned its been a bit on the hot side here? Carl went with (what else) chocolate, while I opted for Sour Cherry. Like so many towns built around a lake, Varenna is a very steep town, with lots of long staircases that look as if the stones will crumble underneath your feet if you step on them. We walked back down one of the stairs towards our hotel, and our room was ready. Its often hard for me to get excited about European rooms - they are always smaller than I want them to be, but this one wasn't too horrid, and it came with our own balcony overlooking the lake. And our bed was actually two twins pushed together, a plus, since most European rooms are a max double or queen size.
After I freshened up and Carl napped for an hour, we took the boat over to Bellagio. It was ... eh. Its a tourist town, a big tourist town, just one junk shop after another, mixed in with a restaurant here and a hotel there. We weren't impressed, so we only stayed for about an hour before we hopped back to sleepy little Varenna, which is much more our speed. Our hotel had a lovely little bar, so we sat outside and decided that since I was in Italy, I needed a Bellini. They call cocktails "Long Drinks" in Italy, so I was expecting a long, tall glass, especially since that's how they come at the Macaroni Grill. Hotel du Lac's Bellini came in a martini glass. Go figure. Still, it was delicious, and I was sitting in a wisteria covered bar overlooking Lake Como, so I made do. We did more walking, and soon realized that no place serves dinner before seven pm. We did find a wine bar that was open, so what else could we do but go inside for a glass of the house red. This was a wine bar frequented by the locals, it reminded me of an Italian "Cheers." People would walk in, and they would say, in unison, "Ciao, Claudio!" Wine is truly the drink of choice here - some of the people stopping by were in their paint-splattered overalls. Any country that favors wine over beer is a-ok in Annalynn's book.
We had had two recommendations for the Lido Restauant for dinner (including from our beloved Claudio), so even though it was the restaurant furthest away from our hotel, we tried it out. We both opted for pasta, Carl's was the tastiest, a Pasta sauce with paprika and peppers mixed in. We shared a liter of wine (yes, we are apparently drinking our way thorugh this trip) and a tirimisu for dessert. And then they bring us two shotglasses of limoncello as an appertif with the bill. Again, I love Italy. I'd forgotten just how much I love it. We stumbled back to our hotel, and congratulated ourselves on surving our first day of jet lag until 9:30 p.m.
May 11th, 2010, 01:05 PM
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Thursday, April 29
Breakfast was fairly standard fare for Europe - much, much better than anything we get back in the US, but nothing spectacular. Lots of cheeses, fruits, some meats (which I always find odd in the morning), rolls, chocolate croissants, and juice and coffee. No tea, though. I did have an amazingly sweet kiwi, homegrown in Italy - much sweeter than the kiwis we get from New Zealand. We slept as late as we could, and then walked leisurely back to the train station. It was a short visit to Varenna, but this was really just meant as a way to recover from the flight before starting our real trip through Switzerland, and I thought recovering would be much more pleasant in Lake Como than in Milan. We took the train to Tirano, which is supposedly in Italy although I noticed my phone was picking up "SwissCom" and lunch was charged in Swiss Francs rather than Euros. We had just under two hours in Tirano until we were ready to board the Bernina Express, so we had some very tasty pizzas and, of course, wine, at the pizzeria across from the train station. Tried calling the boys at the AT&T's 'discounted" International rate of one dollar a minute, as opposed to the regular two dollars a minute.
The Bernina Express is a rail route that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and when it was first built, it was considered quite an engineering feat. The train itself was immaculate. Lovely and clean, with a bathroom I wasn't afraid to use. We had upgraded to the panoramic windows, and they were crystal clear. Unlike the Italian trains which were dirty, graffiti-covered and don't even get me started on the bathrooms. Women are not meant to pee standing up, This is Italy - not a third world country. I even took a picture of the lack of toilet "WC," I was so horrified. Needless to say, I waited.
Back to the Bernina... I'd seen photos of it, and of some of the bridges and tunnels it goes through, and watched a video about great Train Rides in the World, so I was fairly pumped for this trip. This can often lead to disappointment for me. I'm happy to say that the Bernina was so beautiful it even surpassed my rather high expectations. There is this very cool circular viaduct we traveled over, the only one in the world, and you can actually see the first part of the red trains in front of you circling around it. There were three other people in our compartment (the beauty of traveling off-peak times when school is in session) and while we started out sitting down, there was very little sitting as we were constantly up and down, running from one side to the other to see what was awaiting us. Lots of vineyards and apple orchards, and according to my brochure, we went through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges and viaducts. We passed a few ski resorts and saw some snowboarders, and back down in the valleys I even saw some cows. The tourist in me has a goal of seeing a real Swiss cow wearing cow bells this trip. These guys were too far away to see if they had the cow bells on, and Carl was fiddling with the camera and couldn't get it to me fast enough to get a picture (yes, he is still alive. just.) So the photo is still to come.
Our destination for the day was St. Moritz, picked solely because it is a meeting point for the Bernina Express and the Glacier Express, the other famous Swiss train ride we'll be doing tomorrow. Our hotel for the night is the Waldhaus am See, which is conveniently close to the train station, and not so conveniently UP from the train station. Its situated at the end of the lake of St. Moritz, so its away from the noise and congestion of most of the town. It is also stunning, and we selected the half-board option, so dinner is included. We spent about two hours walking around the town - it has a big, glitzy ski area, so they have lots of shopping options, like Chanel, Dolce and Gabana, Gucci and Armani. Fun to look at, but its not like I would ever buy anything there. We did find an ATM and got some Swiss Francs - they have 200 ch bills, which is fascinating to me since we don't - and the exchange rate now is almost dead even. Its kind of odd walking around with 200 franc bills that actually are worth $200. We found a Co-op, and went in to buy some diet coke and investigate the chocolate situation. Its my current mission (next to the cow picture) to personally sample all the Swiss chocolate so that I can make a fully informed decision as to the best to bring home to loved ones. In the lead thus far is the Lindt Double Milk Chocolate - a milk chocolate bar with a creamy milk filling that literally melted in my mouth.
We then walked around Lake St. Moritz - it took about an hour, but it was lovely and we even had a snowball fight.
Then it was back to the hotel for dinner, which was nice, although I'm not sure it was as nice as the price seemed to think it was. The beds were... interesting. Apparently the Swiss don't believe in flat sheets - just a fitted sheet and a duvet cover. I suppose it could work, but it was hot in the room, so we opened a window. Then it was too cold, so I would close it. Then it was too hot, and I played this game for way too long into the night before I finally managed to fall asleep. Carl wasn't bothered at all. Typical.
Friday, April 30
Woke up nice and early for breakfast (which inlcuded a make your own omelet station, and my own tea pot, so both Carl and I were a bit happier). Today was our journey on the Glacier Express. It started out equally as spectacular as yesterday, with a few more waterfalls, more bridges and viaducts and an obscene number of tunnels. Its kind of freaky how they just blast through these mountains to make a tunnel, and it was odd going down from St. Moritz to some valleys, then back up into the Alps towards Andermatt before finally descending again. The train continues all the way to Zermatt, but we hopped off in Brig to catch our next train.
The glass on the Glacier Express train had a bit more glare to it than the Bernina Express so I don't think my pictures turned out too well. And it was a lot more crowded, so it was harder to run from side to side of the train for pictures. They serve a three course lunch during this train ride, which was way overpriced, but we did it anyway. With a bottle of wine, of course. It helped break up the journey which was LONG - too long. I don't think I'll need to do this one ever again. It was about eight hours total - 6.5 on the Glacier Express, and another 1.5 hours to Vevey. I did see lots of cows today, on a plus note. And some even were wearing their cowbells. Not the most ornate cow bells, but cow bells nonetheless.
We arrived in Vevey about 5:30 p.m., and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Les Negociants. Its a much smaller room than our last two, and an even smaller bathroom with a note warning us not to open the bathroom door after showering until all steam is gone or else it will set off the fire alarm. This should be fun. Vevey is beautiful, with a lovely promenade along the lake.
We're done moving around for a bit - it was a whirlwind few days so Carl could get his train journeys. Now its my turn for castles, wine trains, cheese factories and the Chocolate Train. Vevey has a fruit and flowers market tomorrow morning - I can't wait.
Breakfast was fairly standard fare for Europe - much, much better than anything we get back in the US, but nothing spectacular. Lots of cheeses, fruits, some meats (which I always find odd in the morning), rolls, chocolate croissants, and juice and coffee. No tea, though. I did have an amazingly sweet kiwi, homegrown in Italy - much sweeter than the kiwis we get from New Zealand. We slept as late as we could, and then walked leisurely back to the train station. It was a short visit to Varenna, but this was really just meant as a way to recover from the flight before starting our real trip through Switzerland, and I thought recovering would be much more pleasant in Lake Como than in Milan. We took the train to Tirano, which is supposedly in Italy although I noticed my phone was picking up "SwissCom" and lunch was charged in Swiss Francs rather than Euros. We had just under two hours in Tirano until we were ready to board the Bernina Express, so we had some very tasty pizzas and, of course, wine, at the pizzeria across from the train station. Tried calling the boys at the AT&T's 'discounted" International rate of one dollar a minute, as opposed to the regular two dollars a minute.
The Bernina Express is a rail route that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and when it was first built, it was considered quite an engineering feat. The train itself was immaculate. Lovely and clean, with a bathroom I wasn't afraid to use. We had upgraded to the panoramic windows, and they were crystal clear. Unlike the Italian trains which were dirty, graffiti-covered and don't even get me started on the bathrooms. Women are not meant to pee standing up, This is Italy - not a third world country. I even took a picture of the lack of toilet "WC," I was so horrified. Needless to say, I waited.
Back to the Bernina... I'd seen photos of it, and of some of the bridges and tunnels it goes through, and watched a video about great Train Rides in the World, so I was fairly pumped for this trip. This can often lead to disappointment for me. I'm happy to say that the Bernina was so beautiful it even surpassed my rather high expectations. There is this very cool circular viaduct we traveled over, the only one in the world, and you can actually see the first part of the red trains in front of you circling around it. There were three other people in our compartment (the beauty of traveling off-peak times when school is in session) and while we started out sitting down, there was very little sitting as we were constantly up and down, running from one side to the other to see what was awaiting us. Lots of vineyards and apple orchards, and according to my brochure, we went through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges and viaducts. We passed a few ski resorts and saw some snowboarders, and back down in the valleys I even saw some cows. The tourist in me has a goal of seeing a real Swiss cow wearing cow bells this trip. These guys were too far away to see if they had the cow bells on, and Carl was fiddling with the camera and couldn't get it to me fast enough to get a picture (yes, he is still alive. just.) So the photo is still to come.
Our destination for the day was St. Moritz, picked solely because it is a meeting point for the Bernina Express and the Glacier Express, the other famous Swiss train ride we'll be doing tomorrow. Our hotel for the night is the Waldhaus am See, which is conveniently close to the train station, and not so conveniently UP from the train station. Its situated at the end of the lake of St. Moritz, so its away from the noise and congestion of most of the town. It is also stunning, and we selected the half-board option, so dinner is included. We spent about two hours walking around the town - it has a big, glitzy ski area, so they have lots of shopping options, like Chanel, Dolce and Gabana, Gucci and Armani. Fun to look at, but its not like I would ever buy anything there. We did find an ATM and got some Swiss Francs - they have 200 ch bills, which is fascinating to me since we don't - and the exchange rate now is almost dead even. Its kind of odd walking around with 200 franc bills that actually are worth $200. We found a Co-op, and went in to buy some diet coke and investigate the chocolate situation. Its my current mission (next to the cow picture) to personally sample all the Swiss chocolate so that I can make a fully informed decision as to the best to bring home to loved ones. In the lead thus far is the Lindt Double Milk Chocolate - a milk chocolate bar with a creamy milk filling that literally melted in my mouth.
We then walked around Lake St. Moritz - it took about an hour, but it was lovely and we even had a snowball fight.
Then it was back to the hotel for dinner, which was nice, although I'm not sure it was as nice as the price seemed to think it was. The beds were... interesting. Apparently the Swiss don't believe in flat sheets - just a fitted sheet and a duvet cover. I suppose it could work, but it was hot in the room, so we opened a window. Then it was too cold, so I would close it. Then it was too hot, and I played this game for way too long into the night before I finally managed to fall asleep. Carl wasn't bothered at all. Typical.Friday, April 30
Woke up nice and early for breakfast (which inlcuded a make your own omelet station, and my own tea pot, so both Carl and I were a bit happier). Today was our journey on the Glacier Express. It started out equally as spectacular as yesterday, with a few more waterfalls, more bridges and viaducts and an obscene number of tunnels. Its kind of freaky how they just blast through these mountains to make a tunnel, and it was odd going down from St. Moritz to some valleys, then back up into the Alps towards Andermatt before finally descending again. The train continues all the way to Zermatt, but we hopped off in Brig to catch our next train.
The glass on the Glacier Express train had a bit more glare to it than the Bernina Express so I don't think my pictures turned out too well. And it was a lot more crowded, so it was harder to run from side to side of the train for pictures. They serve a three course lunch during this train ride, which was way overpriced, but we did it anyway. With a bottle of wine, of course.
It helped break up the journey which was LONG - too long. I don't think I'll need to do this one ever again. It was about eight hours total - 6.5 on the Glacier Express, and another 1.5 hours to Vevey. I did see lots of cows today, on a plus note. And some even were wearing their cowbells. Not the most ornate cow bells, but cow bells nonetheless.We arrived in Vevey about 5:30 p.m., and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Les Negociants. Its a much smaller room than our last two, and an even smaller bathroom with a note warning us not to open the bathroom door after showering until all steam is gone or else it will set off the fire alarm. This should be fun. Vevey is beautiful, with a lovely promenade along the lake.
We're done moving around for a bit - it was a whirlwind few days so Carl could get his train journeys. Now its my turn for castles, wine trains, cheese factories and the Chocolate Train. Vevey has a fruit and flowers market tomorrow morning - I can't wait.
May 11th, 2010, 01:13 PM
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Saturday, May 1
Its expensive here in Vevey. I'd heard a lot about how expensive this area of Switzerland can be, but I had been pretty excited about the decent, reasonably placed two star hotel I had found for us, Hotel Les Negociants. Um... not so decent. However, the next step gets us into over $400 USD a night, and I'm just too frugal for that. So we're making do with a beyond tiny room, which is not air conditioned, and which means we sleep with our balcony doors open (since there are no windows). Problem is, we are in the nice Vieux Ville section of Vevey, ie, where all the action is. And since we've been here over a weekend, the action is all taking place three stories down under my open doors until about three a.m. Add to this the lack of a sheet in a full size bed and I'm not sleeping well. So I'm a bit cranky.
Saturday is Market Day in Vevey. I was pretty excited about this market - I'd even arranged our itinerary to make sure we were there for it. So when I anticipate something greatly, its often a recipe for disappointment. I am happy to say that the market even surpassed my unbelievably high expectations! It was fabulous!!! I probably took about one hundred photos there alone, of every stall. Each vendor was even more exciting than the next... cheeses here, flowers there, fresh fruits and vegetables here, breads there, meats here, and more cheese there. And a man actually making caramels while you watched which he would then sell to you. Yummm... We bought two different Swiss Cheeses, an Emmental and a Moliere. Plus, some bread and croissants and perhaps a few other things that will remain a secret for those back home until they get their presents!
After the market, we made our way to the Chateau de Chillion, about two miles on the other side of Montreux. The Chateau de Chillion is the castle where Lord Byron was imprisoned for four years, and he wrote a poem about it called, naturally, "The Chateau de Chillion." I had been dreaming about visiting this castle for the better part of a decade, since I first started planning our last Italy trip, and had considered visiting Switzerland then. My co-worker, Tim, had also whetted my appetite for Chillion by calling it the most beautiful and amazing castle he had ever visited. So, again, we are heading here with high expectations.
So you can imagine my excitement when we walk across the moat, into the castle doors, and what do I see, but a knight in shining armor. That's right, a knight. In shining armor. In a castle. There were some other people in costume, and they start walking away from us. I'm looking through the guide I've been handed to see if there is some sort of timeline for events scheduled. But there is nothing. So I go running up to my knight, and it turns out he does not parlez l'anglais. But I manage to decipher that he, and his friends, are making a film today. In their hand-stitched costumes. Beyond that, its a mystery. Its a low-budget film, I can tell you that. Regardless, I am still on a pretty big high from actually seeing a knight - in a castle - so I rather enjoyed the rest of the visit, too.
Lunch was eaten at a restaurant across from the castle, which provided us with our first fondue of the trip. Unlike the Melting Pot back home, they only bring you bread to dip in the cheese - no apples, no carrots, no celery or broccoli. We could pay extra for onions or pickles, which seemed odd to me, considering my long standing intense hatred of pickles. I'd pay extra for them to keep the pickles away.
Tim, in his raves about the castle, had also raved about the walk from Montreux to the castle, also using the words "most beautiful ever" in his descriptor. Due to an unfortunate mishap on the trains not my fault (no matter what you might hear from Carl to the contrary), we weren't able to walk TO the castle from Montreux, and had to bus it instead from Villenueve. But I was determined to get my walk in. Carl wasn't so sure after seeing the sign that said, "To Montreux, 1 hr," but I pointed out that Rick Steves promised it would only take us forty-five minutes. Protestations aside, we began our walk. And happily, Tim was right. Although I'm not sure "most beautiful ever" can even begin to describe the flowers that were just everywhere on this promenade. And I mean, they are EVERYWHERE. Beautifully arranged, in colors I'm not sure I would have ever thought of putting together. But it works. I almost used up my whole flash card in this two miles alone. Some humor awaited us on the walk, too. For some reason, there were topiaries of the Madagascar characters every 500 feet or so. No clue why. I suspect they were green topiaries back last summer, and now they have dried to a brown coloring. The brown probably works better for Alex the Lion aka, le Roi de New York. It was too amusing for words. I finaly decided it must be a weird Swiss obsession, a la the France with Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm not sure exactly how long the promenade along the lake goes. It clearly goes all the way between Vevey and the Chateau, but I suspect it might even go as far as Lausanne.
After our walk, we went back to our hotel to rest for a short bit. It had been drizzling off an on this day, and so we decided to put our original plan of a hike through the Lavaux Vineyards, on hold, and hope for better weather. We ended up going to Lausanne for the rest of the day. I had originally thought of using Lausanne as out base for these three days along Lake Geneva, but my trusty buddies at the Fodors' forums had suggested Vevey instead, citing the largeness of Lausanne, as well as its hilly-ness (can that be a word?). Once we got to Lausanne, I was very happy I trusted them - it was too big, and too commercial, and did not have the enchanting quaintness of Vevey. I can see why Charlie Chaplin chose to live here.
Lausanne also has a castle, but its closed to the public. The rain was starting to come down quite heavily while we were here, so we didn't go very far beyond the old town, and never made our way down to the lake. Thus, we missed seeing Olympic Park. They did have a lot of lovely buildings, shops and resturants, and were it not cold and raining, I suspect I would have enjoyed it a lot more. We ate dinner here, before heading back for the night so I could attempt to sleep in our hotel.
Sunday, May 2
The weather is continuing to vex me, and the thought of waking up to catch the train to Gruyeres is not appealing. Especially since I've only just fallen asleep. Its literally pouring, but we perseved and happily by the time we eat breakfast and are ready to catch the train, its back to a light drizzle.
Only it turns out that we aren't catching a train, its a bus. They really should make this more clear on the Swiss TRAIN website, but who am I to complain. So we take the bus to Chatel St. Denis, and it winds up, up, up away from Vevey, through vineyard after vineyard, with the occasional cow pasture here and there. At Chatel St. Denis, we wait for our connecting train to Gruyeres with some hot chocolate as we attempt to warm up. The waitress seems irked when she tells me that will be "six francs" and I had her six francs. She repeats herself, twice, before I realise she is saying "six vingt," ie, 6.20. [for those of you who don't speak French, or pretend to speak French like I, "franc" and "Vingt" are pronounced quite similarly, just change out the F for a V.]
We arrive in Gruyeres, and the Cheese factory, La Maison de Gruyeres, is right across the street from la gare. We watch the cheese being made, which is interesting for about ten minutes. But we've both seen quite a few Discovery shows about cheese before, and its actually not that exciting to watch in person. And there is a fairly hokey audio presentation to listen to, as narrated by Cherry, a cow. Yes, that is right. A cow. The good points of the cheese factory: free cheese samples, free cheese samples, and free cheese samples. And a touch and feel display which I think was meant for children, but there was a cow bell, so you know I had to give in.
The train station is at the bottom of a hill, and the rest of the town of Gruyeres, including the castle, is at the top of the hill. I use the word "hill." Perhaps "mountain" would be more appropriate. Anyways... we arrive in the village, and its fairly incredible. Touristy, yes. Walt Disney couldn't have created a more perfect European village if he had tried. I absolutely, positively loved it. We ate lunch at the Hotel de Ville, outside under their nicely covered awnings (d*mn rain), and ordered fondue and wine again for lunch. When suddenly, just across the cobblestoned road from me, is something even more out of a Disney theme park: four men blowing Swiss Alphorns. And a fifth man waving the Swiss flag around, throwing it in the air, and doing a little jig. Unreal. If you've never seen an alphorn, they are pretty cool. I saw Samantha Brown playing one on a travel show, but I never thought I would actually get to see one. And there they were.
For dessert, we had amazing Gruyeres double cream with fresh raspberries, another Fodorite suggestion. Positively sinful, let me tell you. And then my alphorn players stopped. And I hear something else. Something sounding like an accordion. And then... something even more magical. Cow bells. Cow bell music. And not just any cow bell music, but "Edelweiss" itself. I transported myself and suddenly I was Liesel Von Trapp, bonding with my father the Captain over our love of the sound of music and all things Edelweiss. So I get up from my raspberries and cream, to watch the cowbells in action. When suddenly, he starts pulling people from the gathered crowd to come ring some bells. I wasn't prepared for this. It was like when we went to Disneyland and my son wanted to be picked for Jedi training to fight Darth Vader, and I saw all the kids with handmade signs like "My Midi-Chlorian Count is higher than yours," and felt woefully unprepared for the harsh competitiveness of being a chosen one (yes, Star Wars pun intended). Sadly, I was not plucked from the audience to ring the cow bells. But still, I heard cow bells ringing, and I made up my own little ditty, to the tune of "Winter Wonderland."
Cow bells ringing
Are you Listening?
In the Alps, spring is coming.
A beautiful sight, we're happy today
Walking in a rainy Switzerland.
Next was the Castle, which was cool, but didn't have a knight waiting for me. One cool thing Gruyeres did have, though, were cows. And several of them were wearing cow bells. The cows were protected by an electric fence, though. It gives a nice little shock should someone think about trying to jump the fence and get closer to the cows. Not me, of course.
The we headed to Broc, and after another unforuntate train mishap, again, NOT my fault (totally Swiss Rail's fault for not properly labeling that there are TWO stops in Broc on their maps), we were at the Callier Chocolate Factory. I had a longer rant written about what a waste of time this place is, but somehow it was deleted and I'm tired. Lets just say that if I think free chocolate is a waste of time, you can only imagine how hideous the tortorous thirty minute tour was that preceeded the free chocolate.
Its expensive here in Vevey. I'd heard a lot about how expensive this area of Switzerland can be, but I had been pretty excited about the decent, reasonably placed two star hotel I had found for us, Hotel Les Negociants. Um... not so decent. However, the next step gets us into over $400 USD a night, and I'm just too frugal for that. So we're making do with a beyond tiny room, which is not air conditioned, and which means we sleep with our balcony doors open (since there are no windows). Problem is, we are in the nice Vieux Ville section of Vevey, ie, where all the action is. And since we've been here over a weekend, the action is all taking place three stories down under my open doors until about three a.m. Add to this the lack of a sheet in a full size bed and I'm not sleeping well. So I'm a bit cranky.
Saturday is Market Day in Vevey. I was pretty excited about this market - I'd even arranged our itinerary to make sure we were there for it. So when I anticipate something greatly, its often a recipe for disappointment. I am happy to say that the market even surpassed my unbelievably high expectations! It was fabulous!!! I probably took about one hundred photos there alone, of every stall. Each vendor was even more exciting than the next... cheeses here, flowers there, fresh fruits and vegetables here, breads there, meats here, and more cheese there. And a man actually making caramels while you watched which he would then sell to you. Yummm... We bought two different Swiss Cheeses, an Emmental and a Moliere. Plus, some bread and croissants and perhaps a few other things that will remain a secret for those back home until they get their presents!
After the market, we made our way to the Chateau de Chillion, about two miles on the other side of Montreux. The Chateau de Chillion is the castle where Lord Byron was imprisoned for four years, and he wrote a poem about it called, naturally, "The Chateau de Chillion." I had been dreaming about visiting this castle for the better part of a decade, since I first started planning our last Italy trip, and had considered visiting Switzerland then. My co-worker, Tim, had also whetted my appetite for Chillion by calling it the most beautiful and amazing castle he had ever visited. So, again, we are heading here with high expectations.
So you can imagine my excitement when we walk across the moat, into the castle doors, and what do I see, but a knight in shining armor. That's right, a knight. In shining armor. In a castle. There were some other people in costume, and they start walking away from us. I'm looking through the guide I've been handed to see if there is some sort of timeline for events scheduled. But there is nothing. So I go running up to my knight, and it turns out he does not parlez l'anglais. But I manage to decipher that he, and his friends, are making a film today. In their hand-stitched costumes. Beyond that, its a mystery. Its a low-budget film, I can tell you that. Regardless, I am still on a pretty big high from actually seeing a knight - in a castle - so I rather enjoyed the rest of the visit, too.
Lunch was eaten at a restaurant across from the castle, which provided us with our first fondue of the trip. Unlike the Melting Pot back home, they only bring you bread to dip in the cheese - no apples, no carrots, no celery or broccoli. We could pay extra for onions or pickles, which seemed odd to me, considering my long standing intense hatred of pickles. I'd pay extra for them to keep the pickles away.
Tim, in his raves about the castle, had also raved about the walk from Montreux to the castle, also using the words "most beautiful ever" in his descriptor. Due to an unfortunate mishap on the trains not my fault (no matter what you might hear from Carl to the contrary), we weren't able to walk TO the castle from Montreux, and had to bus it instead from Villenueve. But I was determined to get my walk in. Carl wasn't so sure after seeing the sign that said, "To Montreux, 1 hr," but I pointed out that Rick Steves promised it would only take us forty-five minutes. Protestations aside, we began our walk. And happily, Tim was right. Although I'm not sure "most beautiful ever" can even begin to describe the flowers that were just everywhere on this promenade. And I mean, they are EVERYWHERE. Beautifully arranged, in colors I'm not sure I would have ever thought of putting together. But it works. I almost used up my whole flash card in this two miles alone. Some humor awaited us on the walk, too. For some reason, there were topiaries of the Madagascar characters every 500 feet or so. No clue why. I suspect they were green topiaries back last summer, and now they have dried to a brown coloring. The brown probably works better for Alex the Lion aka, le Roi de New York. It was too amusing for words. I finaly decided it must be a weird Swiss obsession, a la the France with Jerry Lee Lewis. I'm not sure exactly how long the promenade along the lake goes. It clearly goes all the way between Vevey and the Chateau, but I suspect it might even go as far as Lausanne.
After our walk, we went back to our hotel to rest for a short bit. It had been drizzling off an on this day, and so we decided to put our original plan of a hike through the Lavaux Vineyards, on hold, and hope for better weather. We ended up going to Lausanne for the rest of the day. I had originally thought of using Lausanne as out base for these three days along Lake Geneva, but my trusty buddies at the Fodors' forums had suggested Vevey instead, citing the largeness of Lausanne, as well as its hilly-ness (can that be a word?). Once we got to Lausanne, I was very happy I trusted them - it was too big, and too commercial, and did not have the enchanting quaintness of Vevey. I can see why Charlie Chaplin chose to live here.
Lausanne also has a castle, but its closed to the public. The rain was starting to come down quite heavily while we were here, so we didn't go very far beyond the old town, and never made our way down to the lake. Thus, we missed seeing Olympic Park. They did have a lot of lovely buildings, shops and resturants, and were it not cold and raining, I suspect I would have enjoyed it a lot more. We ate dinner here, before heading back for the night so I could attempt to sleep in our hotel.
Sunday, May 2
The weather is continuing to vex me, and the thought of waking up to catch the train to Gruyeres is not appealing. Especially since I've only just fallen asleep. Its literally pouring, but we perseved and happily by the time we eat breakfast and are ready to catch the train, its back to a light drizzle.
Only it turns out that we aren't catching a train, its a bus. They really should make this more clear on the Swiss TRAIN website, but who am I to complain. So we take the bus to Chatel St. Denis, and it winds up, up, up away from Vevey, through vineyard after vineyard, with the occasional cow pasture here and there. At Chatel St. Denis, we wait for our connecting train to Gruyeres with some hot chocolate as we attempt to warm up. The waitress seems irked when she tells me that will be "six francs" and I had her six francs. She repeats herself, twice, before I realise she is saying "six vingt," ie, 6.20. [for those of you who don't speak French, or pretend to speak French like I, "franc" and "Vingt" are pronounced quite similarly, just change out the F for a V.]
We arrive in Gruyeres, and the Cheese factory, La Maison de Gruyeres, is right across the street from la gare. We watch the cheese being made, which is interesting for about ten minutes. But we've both seen quite a few Discovery shows about cheese before, and its actually not that exciting to watch in person. And there is a fairly hokey audio presentation to listen to, as narrated by Cherry, a cow. Yes, that is right. A cow. The good points of the cheese factory: free cheese samples, free cheese samples, and free cheese samples. And a touch and feel display which I think was meant for children, but there was a cow bell, so you know I had to give in.
The train station is at the bottom of a hill, and the rest of the town of Gruyeres, including the castle, is at the top of the hill. I use the word "hill." Perhaps "mountain" would be more appropriate. Anyways... we arrive in the village, and its fairly incredible. Touristy, yes. Walt Disney couldn't have created a more perfect European village if he had tried. I absolutely, positively loved it. We ate lunch at the Hotel de Ville, outside under their nicely covered awnings (d*mn rain), and ordered fondue and wine again for lunch. When suddenly, just across the cobblestoned road from me, is something even more out of a Disney theme park: four men blowing Swiss Alphorns. And a fifth man waving the Swiss flag around, throwing it in the air, and doing a little jig. Unreal. If you've never seen an alphorn, they are pretty cool. I saw Samantha Brown playing one on a travel show, but I never thought I would actually get to see one. And there they were.
For dessert, we had amazing Gruyeres double cream with fresh raspberries, another Fodorite suggestion. Positively sinful, let me tell you. And then my alphorn players stopped. And I hear something else. Something sounding like an accordion. And then... something even more magical. Cow bells. Cow bell music. And not just any cow bell music, but "Edelweiss" itself. I transported myself and suddenly I was Liesel Von Trapp, bonding with my father the Captain over our love of the sound of music and all things Edelweiss. So I get up from my raspberries and cream, to watch the cowbells in action. When suddenly, he starts pulling people from the gathered crowd to come ring some bells. I wasn't prepared for this. It was like when we went to Disneyland and my son wanted to be picked for Jedi training to fight Darth Vader, and I saw all the kids with handmade signs like "My Midi-Chlorian Count is higher than yours," and felt woefully unprepared for the harsh competitiveness of being a chosen one (yes, Star Wars pun intended). Sadly, I was not plucked from the audience to ring the cow bells. But still, I heard cow bells ringing, and I made up my own little ditty, to the tune of "Winter Wonderland."
Cow bells ringing
Are you Listening?
In the Alps, spring is coming.
A beautiful sight, we're happy today
Walking in a rainy Switzerland.
Next was the Castle, which was cool, but didn't have a knight waiting for me. One cool thing Gruyeres did have, though, were cows. And several of them were wearing cow bells. The cows were protected by an electric fence, though. It gives a nice little shock should someone think about trying to jump the fence and get closer to the cows. Not me, of course.
The we headed to Broc, and after another unforuntate train mishap, again, NOT my fault (totally Swiss Rail's fault for not properly labeling that there are TWO stops in Broc on their maps), we were at the Callier Chocolate Factory. I had a longer rant written about what a waste of time this place is, but somehow it was deleted and I'm tired. Lets just say that if I think free chocolate is a waste of time, you can only imagine how hideous the tortorous thirty minute tour was that preceeded the free chocolate.
May 11th, 2010, 01:33 PM
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Sitting on board the Golden Pass train between Interlaken and Lucerne, and I thought this was a nice time to blog. We're going past beautiful green meadows sprinkled with yellow wildflowers, and the cows are grazing on these flowers. Lots of cows. I've seen so many cows in the past week, that I've stopped taking pictures of them. Shocking, I know.
The train started off along Lake Brienz (one of the two lakes that Interlaken is "inter") and it was beautiful - waters more pale green than blue, with little towns periodically appearing, and the occasional large building - a castle, a chateau, who knows? I rather like the mystery of these buildings - not everything has to be labeled in a guidebook.
Ok, I lied. I did find a cow picture from this train ride.
So our time in Lauterbrunnen was not what I expected. We enjoyed ourselves, but the weather definitely hindered our planned activities. We had four nights here, and I felt certain that with the possibility of five days surrounding those four nights, certainly we would have at least one good weather day and be able to ascend to the Jungfraujoch, or at the very least, to the Schlitthorn, the tall mountain on the other side of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and famous for being the site where James Bond had a big fight at the Piz Gloria in "Her Majesty's Secret Service." But no. We couldn't even see anything from Murren or Wengen.
Monday, May 3
Our last morning in Vevey, and we check out of the hotel (good riddance), check our bags in the lockers at the train station, and board the "Train des Vignes" (Wine Train) up to Chexbres. It crawls along through vineyard after vineyard, all of which are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Lavaux Vineyards. It takes about twenty minutes, and we then start our walk back down to Vevey. There are dozens of wine caves along the way, all individual sellers. Some have signs outside their vineyards that they have been purveyors of wine since 1600 and something.
We spent about 1.5 hours walking down, until we reached the town of Rivaz. Its adorable. If I ever come back here, I think I might prefer to stay here than in Vevey. Its much sleepier, and I don't think I'd be kept up late until the wee morning hours here. Several Fodorites had recommended stopping for lunch at the Auberge de Rivaz during the wine hike, and I was so very glad. We sat outdoors, on a terrace overlooking more vineyards and Lake Geneva, and had a delicious lunch and bottle of wine.
We took the train the rest of the way back to Vevey, and then boarded our train to Lauterbrunnen. I say 'train' - we actually had to transfer three times, and they were fairly short connection times. Racing up and down stairs in train stations, moving from platform to platform, with an increasingly heavy suitcase made the connection times even more impossible. Still, we did it.
We arrived in Lauterbrunnen late afternoon. Its a little town in a valley, which is between two large, famous mountain ranges. On one side is the Jungfraujoch (the highest in Europe) and the Eiger, and on the other side is the Schlitthorn. Lauterbrunnen is also famous for being the valley of seventy-six waterfalls (or something like that). We had three nights booked in a one-bedroom apartment at the Chalet Horner, another Fodorite recommendation.
What a deal! It was only 110 Swiss francs a night, and was about five times the size of where we stayed in Vevey, at twice the price. We had our own kitchen and a beautiful balcony looking out towards the Staubbach Falls and six other waterfalls that we counted (and the Schlitthorn, if we could have seen it). From our bedroom, you could see more waterfalls facing the Jungfraujoch side of the mountains. Lauterbrunnen is a small town, with a mini-Co-op (grocery store), one baker, one butcher, some souvenir shops, an internet cafe, a bank, a bike/ski rental store, and a laundromat. And numerous hotels/chalets/campgrounds. We loved the town, and since we were on our own for breakfast, bought some eggs, cheese, bread, wine, and coke/diet coke. After walking around the town for a bit, we headed back to our chalet, and opened some wine to enjoy the view.
We went to eat dinner that night at the Hotel Oberland, just across the street from our chalet. The food was wonderful, and we were the only ones eating outside, which was even more special. It was a bit chilly, but they had something like bear skins over the chairs, and the wine warms you up quite well. I ordered fondue for dinner, and they brought a huge plate of different spices, garlic, and onions, so that I could 'make my own' fondue. I added lots of garlic, chives, a few onions, and some pepper. Carl ordered German Sausage and rosti for his dinner.
Tuesday, May 4
Having checked the weather the night before, we realized we would be implementing a Bad Weather planned day. So we slept late, and set out to see some waterfalls. Lauterbrunnen is home to the Staubbach Falls, the main waterfall seen in countless photographs of the valley. It is also home to the Trummelbach Falls, about a one hour hike from the town. It was a gorgeous walk, with lots of cows and barns, and while it was foggy and overcast, it was happily free of rain.
The Trammelbach Falls are a series of waterfalls actually inside a mountain that are accessible. Its pretty darn slippery, though, and up quite a few stairs that don't really have handrails. Plus there is one sign they felt was important enough to put in in five languages - warning you that glacier water is below freezing and will lead to death, and that they bear no responsibility for any accidents or injuries. Adding to my comfort level inside these falls was the man adding caution tape to the next set of stairs we were about to climb, and sealing it off to visitors. My mind was on overload - had someone already been hurt (or worse?) today? Is there a moisture level on these steps that was reached? How does he make such a determination? Is danger du mort awaiting me as I walk back down these steps? So, I can't really say that I enjoyed these falls. It was stunning when you were there. But I was a bit too freaked to really enjoy it.
Before we had left in the morning, we looked at the mountains cams on the computer. There are live cams at all these points in the Berner Oberland, and I was checking them regularly. At one point, it looked as if we could actually see something beyond fog at the Schlitthorn. Not as much as I would have liked, but enough to justify the expense, time, and panic attacks at riding the cable cars. So we rode the bus from the Falls, over to the other end of the Lauterbrunnen Valley to buy our lift passes for the Schlitthorn (these lifts aren't covered by our rail passes). The weather had changed again, though, so the ticket seller cautioned us against going up. He suggested we ride the cable car to Murren (which is covered by our passes) and then decide from there if we wanted to continue. We got up to Murren, and it was so foggy that we could barely even see each other, let alone any buildings. Seeing a vista to the valley floor or to the Jungfraujoch across the way was completely out of the question. And since the lift tickets are pricey (about $100 each) we passed.
When I had been trying to decide where to stay in the Berner Oberland, many people said Murren or Wengen was the way to go. I was a bit concerned that these towns were mostly shut down during April and May. Yes, each seemed to have one or two restaurants and hotels, but otherwise, nothing. Some of the Fodorites said we should still go with Murren or Wengen, because its not as if the views shut down. But I didn't want to not be able to buy water if I needed some. So I went with Lauterbrunnen. When we got up to Murren, and couldn't see a bloody thing, I've never been more happy in my life that we had chosen Lauterbrunnen.
As disturbing to my plans as the weather has been while we're here, I would have been massively depressed to have gotten up to Murren, solely for the views, and then not have been able to see a thing. We took the cog-wheel train and cable car back down to Lauterbrunnen.
Next, we took the train up to Wengen, on the other side of the valley. It wasn't completely immersed in the clouds - I could at least see more than my fingers - but still, there was no view, and visibility was limited to about fifteen feet. You can start catching the lifts to the Jungfraujoch from here, so I chatted a bit with the train-master here. Again, the cams are annoyingly quite accurate, and you can't see anything. Current weather forecast is that on Sunday (its Tuesday) it will start to clear. Most annoying.
We hiked back down to Lauterbrunnen from Wengen. One thing about the Swiss - they like to hike. So they have excellently marked trails and paths everywhere, and there are often benches along the way. Its about a one hour hike down - but it is steep. Very steep. Two days later, my calves are still complaining about the steepness. By the time we got back to Lauterbrunnen, we were pretty tired. We went back to our chalet, and started on some wine. We finished the bottle from yesterday, and before you knew it, we had finished the other bottle. We're not sure which one of us opened the third bottle - events from this time on have become a bit hazy. At some point, we went back to the Hotel Oberland for dinner. We had enjoyed it so much the night before, and its close proximity to our current location was a bonus. I had wienerschnitzel for dinner, and then we shared a chocolate fondue for dessert - our first chocolate fondue of the trip.
Wednesday, May 5
Woke up AGAIN to bad weather. Today, in addition to the fog, there is an unpleasant rain. Checked the cams, and its not any better up at the top of the mountains. Went back to sleep in hopes it would miraculously improve. Um, no, it didn't.
I was running out of Bad Weather Day options, so we left the Berner Oberland, and went to Thun. What a delight Thun is! It is located on Lake Thun (the other lake that Interlaken is between), and neither my Rick Steves or my Fodors guidebook had anything to say about it, other than it has a nice castle. But some of my Fodorite buddies had recommended it, and we were so glad. (the fact that it didn't rain while we were in Thun was a nice bonus)
Its a charming town, with two rivers intersecting it, and a castle perched at the top. Its an annoying thing, these castles always being at the top of a mountain. Clearly back in the 12th century they weren't thinking about making it easy for twenty-first century tourists to visit. But we also found a market (!) and bought some cheese, pears and apples, and we had a picnic up on the castle's grounds.
We also found lots of shops, so we bought lots of goodies for ourselves and family members. There were lovely buildings everywhere, with lots of flags hanging from them. I think the Swiss might be even more into their flags than us Texans, and that's saying something!
I was fascinated by these 'double-decker' streets. You would have to walk up and down each street four times to make sure you didn't miss anything. We also found a delicious pretzel vendor, who was selling more varieties of pretzels than imaginable.
Thursday, May 6
ANOTHER BAD WEATHER DAY!!!
After a depressing look at the cams, we decide to head to Bern. Bern is the capital of Switzerland, and I had read it is a perfect rainy day city because they have numerous covered walkways. We walked down the main street, saw the church, and the famous Bern clock tower. We visited some more shops, saw Albert Einstein's house (where he developed the Theory of Relativity) and made our way down to the Bears. Bern keeps two bears in a bear pit alongside its river. Kind of odd. The bears are the symbol for Bern, so you see bears everywhere in this city. We had some wine in a bear cafe, for instance. They have some amazing fountains every so often, and again, even more flags flying from the buildings. They aren't all Swiss flags - the different cantons of Switzerland are represented. We spent the afternoon at the Paul Klee museum, which involved some bus rides as its on the outskirts of town.
We took the train back to Interlaken (where we would have to change for Lauterbrunnen) and decided to try for dinner in a restaurant recommended as having the best potato soup in the world. Alas, there was no potato soup today, but Carl did get some Bread Soup that was positively sinful with its cream. I had chicken schnitzel, and Carl ordered cheese fondue with beer and bacon. Not the best fondue combination we've had, so he helped me with my dinner. Interlaken has two train stations, and the restaurant was in the middle. So we had a nice walking tour of Interlaken. It doesn't get dark here until about 9pm, so there was still plenty of light to see everything. Its a huge place, much larger than Lauterbrunnen, but there are definitely some lovely parts of Interlaken. It was a twenty minute train ride back, and then we were in our chalet, planning our next day.
This wasn't the trip I had envisioned the past four days, but we've had a great time. And not being able to see the Jungfraujoch and the Schlitthorn simply means we'll have to come back some day. So I can't cross this one off my Bucket List just yet.
Friday, May 7
Woke up early on my last day in Lauterbrunnen and there are a few more mountains visible to me. Run to the computer but... the cams still aren't showing anything but blue-gray constant fog and snow.
We pack up, and head the fice minutes to the train station. Check with the train masters to make sure their cams show what our computer shows, and we could, possilby, go about 1/2 way to the Kleine Sch... (however its spelled) and see some mountains, but ... after much deliberation ... no. We've already made our plans for the day, and already decided we simply must come back in the future some time, so we are just not going to settle for a less than perfect visit to the top.
We take the train to Interlaken, and then board the Golden Pass train, which will take us to Lucerne. Lucerne had been a two night city stop on my original itinerary. It was the last cut I made, so that I could give more time to other places, and partly because the hotel prices were by far the most astronomical ones I was finding. So I was happy that I was getting about 1/2 a day to see some of the sights, and the weather wasn't too bad. It only started raining towards the end of the afternoon. We had quite a bit of bread left over from the past few days, so Carl fed it to the swans on the lake. I think pretty much every swan on Lake Lucerne got the memo he was there - at one point I counted over twenty-five swans with him!
We saw the famous "Lion" of Lucerne - a statute of a sleeping lion. Unlike the Bears of Berne, which were real, live bears, this is simply a marble statue. Lucerne is also famous for its covered bridge. I was saddened to hear that the original bridge caught on fire in 1993 - so much of what we see today is a rebuilt bridge.
After Lucerne, we continued on our way to Zurich (another 45 minutes). We checked into our hotel at about 4:30 p.m., and then went for a quick tour of the town, basically down its main street, the Bahnhofstrasse. My main goal was to see the Fraumunster church, and I knew they closed at 6pm. The Fruamunster is not the biggest church in Zurich, but its definitely the coolest -- its stained glass windows were created by Marc Chagall.
We then went to our most touristy dinner of the trip, at the Zeughauskeller, a relatively new restaurant that has been in business since 1487. I even ordered myself a "masskrug" of the local beer. The food was decent enough - but the atmosphere is really why you go here.
We called it a night fairly early - packed our suitcases for the final trip home and were asleep by 10pm. Our flight home on Friday was scheduled to leave at 10:20 a.m. Alas, it did not leave on time - it was 3.5 hours late, causing us to miss our first connecting flight back to Austin.
From Zurich, they went ahead and re-booked us on a new connecting flight. Which we then missed.
So upon landing at JFK, we were then re-booked again on a new connecting flight, out of LaGuardia, and told to take a taxi to the other airport. Which we did, and which flight also was delayed by 1.5 hours.
Which would cause us to miss the final connecting flight to Austin of the night, so did we want to sleep in Chicago or New York? We opted for New York, and hopped back in a taxi to my husband's 91 year old grandma's house (except without luggage). Went to dinner with Grandma and to Walgreens to buy toothpaste, deodorant, allergy pills, and cheap clean underwear. Tried to drive home in Grandma's rarely driven 1993 Buick, and it decided this was the perfect time to die. Forever. Waited 1.5 hours for a tow truck, finally went to sleep at 6:00 a.m. Zurich time. Flew home the next day so I could at least spend part of my Mother's Day with two very happy little boys.
The train started off along Lake Brienz (one of the two lakes that Interlaken is "inter") and it was beautiful - waters more pale green than blue, with little towns periodically appearing, and the occasional large building - a castle, a chateau, who knows? I rather like the mystery of these buildings - not everything has to be labeled in a guidebook.
Ok, I lied. I did find a cow picture from this train ride.
So our time in Lauterbrunnen was not what I expected. We enjoyed ourselves, but the weather definitely hindered our planned activities. We had four nights here, and I felt certain that with the possibility of five days surrounding those four nights, certainly we would have at least one good weather day and be able to ascend to the Jungfraujoch, or at the very least, to the Schlitthorn, the tall mountain on the other side of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, and famous for being the site where James Bond had a big fight at the Piz Gloria in "Her Majesty's Secret Service." But no. We couldn't even see anything from Murren or Wengen.
Monday, May 3
Our last morning in Vevey, and we check out of the hotel (good riddance), check our bags in the lockers at the train station, and board the "Train des Vignes" (Wine Train) up to Chexbres. It crawls along through vineyard after vineyard, all of which are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Lavaux Vineyards. It takes about twenty minutes, and we then start our walk back down to Vevey. There are dozens of wine caves along the way, all individual sellers. Some have signs outside their vineyards that they have been purveyors of wine since 1600 and something.
We spent about 1.5 hours walking down, until we reached the town of Rivaz. Its adorable. If I ever come back here, I think I might prefer to stay here than in Vevey. Its much sleepier, and I don't think I'd be kept up late until the wee morning hours here. Several Fodorites had recommended stopping for lunch at the Auberge de Rivaz during the wine hike, and I was so very glad. We sat outdoors, on a terrace overlooking more vineyards and Lake Geneva, and had a delicious lunch and bottle of wine.
We took the train the rest of the way back to Vevey, and then boarded our train to Lauterbrunnen. I say 'train' - we actually had to transfer three times, and they were fairly short connection times. Racing up and down stairs in train stations, moving from platform to platform, with an increasingly heavy suitcase made the connection times even more impossible. Still, we did it.
We arrived in Lauterbrunnen late afternoon. Its a little town in a valley, which is between two large, famous mountain ranges. On one side is the Jungfraujoch (the highest in Europe) and the Eiger, and on the other side is the Schlitthorn. Lauterbrunnen is also famous for being the valley of seventy-six waterfalls (or something like that). We had three nights booked in a one-bedroom apartment at the Chalet Horner, another Fodorite recommendation.
What a deal! It was only 110 Swiss francs a night, and was about five times the size of where we stayed in Vevey, at twice the price. We had our own kitchen and a beautiful balcony looking out towards the Staubbach Falls and six other waterfalls that we counted (and the Schlitthorn, if we could have seen it). From our bedroom, you could see more waterfalls facing the Jungfraujoch side of the mountains. Lauterbrunnen is a small town, with a mini-Co-op (grocery store), one baker, one butcher, some souvenir shops, an internet cafe, a bank, a bike/ski rental store, and a laundromat. And numerous hotels/chalets/campgrounds. We loved the town, and since we were on our own for breakfast, bought some eggs, cheese, bread, wine, and coke/diet coke. After walking around the town for a bit, we headed back to our chalet, and opened some wine to enjoy the view.
We went to eat dinner that night at the Hotel Oberland, just across the street from our chalet. The food was wonderful, and we were the only ones eating outside, which was even more special. It was a bit chilly, but they had something like bear skins over the chairs, and the wine warms you up quite well. I ordered fondue for dinner, and they brought a huge plate of different spices, garlic, and onions, so that I could 'make my own' fondue. I added lots of garlic, chives, a few onions, and some pepper. Carl ordered German Sausage and rosti for his dinner.
Tuesday, May 4
Having checked the weather the night before, we realized we would be implementing a Bad Weather planned day. So we slept late, and set out to see some waterfalls. Lauterbrunnen is home to the Staubbach Falls, the main waterfall seen in countless photographs of the valley. It is also home to the Trummelbach Falls, about a one hour hike from the town. It was a gorgeous walk, with lots of cows and barns, and while it was foggy and overcast, it was happily free of rain.
The Trammelbach Falls are a series of waterfalls actually inside a mountain that are accessible. Its pretty darn slippery, though, and up quite a few stairs that don't really have handrails. Plus there is one sign they felt was important enough to put in in five languages - warning you that glacier water is below freezing and will lead to death, and that they bear no responsibility for any accidents or injuries. Adding to my comfort level inside these falls was the man adding caution tape to the next set of stairs we were about to climb, and sealing it off to visitors. My mind was on overload - had someone already been hurt (or worse?) today? Is there a moisture level on these steps that was reached? How does he make such a determination? Is danger du mort awaiting me as I walk back down these steps? So, I can't really say that I enjoyed these falls. It was stunning when you were there. But I was a bit too freaked to really enjoy it.
Before we had left in the morning, we looked at the mountains cams on the computer. There are live cams at all these points in the Berner Oberland, and I was checking them regularly. At one point, it looked as if we could actually see something beyond fog at the Schlitthorn. Not as much as I would have liked, but enough to justify the expense, time, and panic attacks at riding the cable cars. So we rode the bus from the Falls, over to the other end of the Lauterbrunnen Valley to buy our lift passes for the Schlitthorn (these lifts aren't covered by our rail passes). The weather had changed again, though, so the ticket seller cautioned us against going up. He suggested we ride the cable car to Murren (which is covered by our passes) and then decide from there if we wanted to continue. We got up to Murren, and it was so foggy that we could barely even see each other, let alone any buildings. Seeing a vista to the valley floor or to the Jungfraujoch across the way was completely out of the question. And since the lift tickets are pricey (about $100 each) we passed.
When I had been trying to decide where to stay in the Berner Oberland, many people said Murren or Wengen was the way to go. I was a bit concerned that these towns were mostly shut down during April and May. Yes, each seemed to have one or two restaurants and hotels, but otherwise, nothing. Some of the Fodorites said we should still go with Murren or Wengen, because its not as if the views shut down. But I didn't want to not be able to buy water if I needed some. So I went with Lauterbrunnen. When we got up to Murren, and couldn't see a bloody thing, I've never been more happy in my life that we had chosen Lauterbrunnen.
As disturbing to my plans as the weather has been while we're here, I would have been massively depressed to have gotten up to Murren, solely for the views, and then not have been able to see a thing. We took the cog-wheel train and cable car back down to Lauterbrunnen.
Next, we took the train up to Wengen, on the other side of the valley. It wasn't completely immersed in the clouds - I could at least see more than my fingers - but still, there was no view, and visibility was limited to about fifteen feet. You can start catching the lifts to the Jungfraujoch from here, so I chatted a bit with the train-master here. Again, the cams are annoyingly quite accurate, and you can't see anything. Current weather forecast is that on Sunday (its Tuesday) it will start to clear. Most annoying.
We hiked back down to Lauterbrunnen from Wengen. One thing about the Swiss - they like to hike. So they have excellently marked trails and paths everywhere, and there are often benches along the way. Its about a one hour hike down - but it is steep. Very steep. Two days later, my calves are still complaining about the steepness. By the time we got back to Lauterbrunnen, we were pretty tired. We went back to our chalet, and started on some wine. We finished the bottle from yesterday, and before you knew it, we had finished the other bottle. We're not sure which one of us opened the third bottle - events from this time on have become a bit hazy. At some point, we went back to the Hotel Oberland for dinner. We had enjoyed it so much the night before, and its close proximity to our current location was a bonus. I had wienerschnitzel for dinner, and then we shared a chocolate fondue for dessert - our first chocolate fondue of the trip.
Wednesday, May 5
Woke up AGAIN to bad weather. Today, in addition to the fog, there is an unpleasant rain. Checked the cams, and its not any better up at the top of the mountains. Went back to sleep in hopes it would miraculously improve. Um, no, it didn't.
I was running out of Bad Weather Day options, so we left the Berner Oberland, and went to Thun. What a delight Thun is! It is located on Lake Thun (the other lake that Interlaken is between), and neither my Rick Steves or my Fodors guidebook had anything to say about it, other than it has a nice castle. But some of my Fodorite buddies had recommended it, and we were so glad. (the fact that it didn't rain while we were in Thun was a nice bonus)
Its a charming town, with two rivers intersecting it, and a castle perched at the top. Its an annoying thing, these castles always being at the top of a mountain. Clearly back in the 12th century they weren't thinking about making it easy for twenty-first century tourists to visit. But we also found a market (!) and bought some cheese, pears and apples, and we had a picnic up on the castle's grounds.
We also found lots of shops, so we bought lots of goodies for ourselves and family members. There were lovely buildings everywhere, with lots of flags hanging from them. I think the Swiss might be even more into their flags than us Texans, and that's saying something!
I was fascinated by these 'double-decker' streets. You would have to walk up and down each street four times to make sure you didn't miss anything. We also found a delicious pretzel vendor, who was selling more varieties of pretzels than imaginable.
Thursday, May 6
ANOTHER BAD WEATHER DAY!!!
After a depressing look at the cams, we decide to head to Bern. Bern is the capital of Switzerland, and I had read it is a perfect rainy day city because they have numerous covered walkways. We walked down the main street, saw the church, and the famous Bern clock tower. We visited some more shops, saw Albert Einstein's house (where he developed the Theory of Relativity) and made our way down to the Bears. Bern keeps two bears in a bear pit alongside its river. Kind of odd. The bears are the symbol for Bern, so you see bears everywhere in this city. We had some wine in a bear cafe, for instance. They have some amazing fountains every so often, and again, even more flags flying from the buildings. They aren't all Swiss flags - the different cantons of Switzerland are represented. We spent the afternoon at the Paul Klee museum, which involved some bus rides as its on the outskirts of town.
We took the train back to Interlaken (where we would have to change for Lauterbrunnen) and decided to try for dinner in a restaurant recommended as having the best potato soup in the world. Alas, there was no potato soup today, but Carl did get some Bread Soup that was positively sinful with its cream. I had chicken schnitzel, and Carl ordered cheese fondue with beer and bacon. Not the best fondue combination we've had, so he helped me with my dinner. Interlaken has two train stations, and the restaurant was in the middle. So we had a nice walking tour of Interlaken. It doesn't get dark here until about 9pm, so there was still plenty of light to see everything. Its a huge place, much larger than Lauterbrunnen, but there are definitely some lovely parts of Interlaken. It was a twenty minute train ride back, and then we were in our chalet, planning our next day.
This wasn't the trip I had envisioned the past four days, but we've had a great time. And not being able to see the Jungfraujoch and the Schlitthorn simply means we'll have to come back some day. So I can't cross this one off my Bucket List just yet.
Friday, May 7
Woke up early on my last day in Lauterbrunnen and there are a few more mountains visible to me. Run to the computer but... the cams still aren't showing anything but blue-gray constant fog and snow.
We pack up, and head the fice minutes to the train station. Check with the train masters to make sure their cams show what our computer shows, and we could, possilby, go about 1/2 way to the Kleine Sch... (however its spelled) and see some mountains, but ... after much deliberation ... no. We've already made our plans for the day, and already decided we simply must come back in the future some time, so we are just not going to settle for a less than perfect visit to the top.
We take the train to Interlaken, and then board the Golden Pass train, which will take us to Lucerne. Lucerne had been a two night city stop on my original itinerary. It was the last cut I made, so that I could give more time to other places, and partly because the hotel prices were by far the most astronomical ones I was finding. So I was happy that I was getting about 1/2 a day to see some of the sights, and the weather wasn't too bad. It only started raining towards the end of the afternoon. We had quite a bit of bread left over from the past few days, so Carl fed it to the swans on the lake. I think pretty much every swan on Lake Lucerne got the memo he was there - at one point I counted over twenty-five swans with him!
We saw the famous "Lion" of Lucerne - a statute of a sleeping lion. Unlike the Bears of Berne, which were real, live bears, this is simply a marble statue. Lucerne is also famous for its covered bridge. I was saddened to hear that the original bridge caught on fire in 1993 - so much of what we see today is a rebuilt bridge.
After Lucerne, we continued on our way to Zurich (another 45 minutes). We checked into our hotel at about 4:30 p.m., and then went for a quick tour of the town, basically down its main street, the Bahnhofstrasse. My main goal was to see the Fraumunster church, and I knew they closed at 6pm. The Fruamunster is not the biggest church in Zurich, but its definitely the coolest -- its stained glass windows were created by Marc Chagall.
We then went to our most touristy dinner of the trip, at the Zeughauskeller, a relatively new restaurant that has been in business since 1487. I even ordered myself a "masskrug" of the local beer. The food was decent enough - but the atmosphere is really why you go here.
We called it a night fairly early - packed our suitcases for the final trip home and were asleep by 10pm. Our flight home on Friday was scheduled to leave at 10:20 a.m. Alas, it did not leave on time - it was 3.5 hours late, causing us to miss our first connecting flight back to Austin.
From Zurich, they went ahead and re-booked us on a new connecting flight. Which we then missed.
So upon landing at JFK, we were then re-booked again on a new connecting flight, out of LaGuardia, and told to take a taxi to the other airport. Which we did, and which flight also was delayed by 1.5 hours.
Which would cause us to miss the final connecting flight to Austin of the night, so did we want to sleep in Chicago or New York? We opted for New York, and hopped back in a taxi to my husband's 91 year old grandma's house (except without luggage). Went to dinner with Grandma and to Walgreens to buy toothpaste, deodorant, allergy pills, and cheap clean underwear. Tried to drive home in Grandma's rarely driven 1993 Buick, and it decided this was the perfect time to die. Forever. Waited 1.5 hours for a tow truck, finally went to sleep at 6:00 a.m. Zurich time. Flew home the next day so I could at least spend part of my Mother's Day with two very happy little boys.
May 11th, 2010, 09:00 PM
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Hi annalynn,
Great report! It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Lots of your impressions are so similar to my own opinions. It was a nice treat for myself to visit Switzerland vicariously this May morning as I read it!!
(I do hope though that you'll get back to the Alps sometime in September when the weather is perrr-fect!)
I'd just like to correct something. Of course, Byron himself was never a prisoner at Chillon. He wrote the poem "Prisoner of Chillon" in 1816 about François Bonivard, who was a prisoner there from 1493-1570.
Anyway, loved reading your report. Thanks!!
s
Great report! It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Lots of your impressions are so similar to my own opinions. It was a nice treat for myself to visit Switzerland vicariously this May morning as I read it!!
(I do hope though that you'll get back to the Alps sometime in September when the weather is perrr-fect!)
I'd just like to correct something. Of course, Byron himself was never a prisoner at Chillon. He wrote the poem "Prisoner of Chillon" in 1816 about François Bonivard, who was a prisoner there from 1493-1570.
Anyway, loved reading your report. Thanks!!
s
May 12th, 2010, 03:39 AM
#8
Wonderful report. We have had bad weather everyday in May so far. Yesterday, we even had major hailstorms in many parts of Switzerland. Tessin's weather has been worse than the German part of Switzerland.
For the past three years, the last two weeks in April have been marvelous and the first weeks in May have been horrendous. This year has been the worst. We are all getting sick of it.
Glad you didn't let the weather spoil your trip.
For the past three years, the last two weeks in April have been marvelous and the first weeks in May have been horrendous. This year has been the worst. We are all getting sick of it.
Glad you didn't let the weather spoil your trip.
