Sunday, 7th May: Rapperswil

Here is my journal on our recent trip to Switzerland in May,2006. I was there on vacation for a week with my husband, son Soham, and daughter Srishti. After extensive research I prepared the perfect itinerary for us, encompassing scenic places which would delight our kids plus appeal to me and my husband. I planned to spend 8 days in Switzerland and zeroed in on staying at three places – Rapperswil, Lugano and Brienz.

We arrived at Zurich airport at 2:30pm and took a train from Zurich airport to Rapperswil – a 40 min ride away.

Rapperswil, the town of roses, is a medieval old town located at the east side of Lake Zurich. Our hotel at Rapperswil was a comfortable Best Western hotel called ‘Hotel Speer’ bang outside the railway station and we were happy to check in to a clean and cheerful family room. We decided to take a walk around the place and found the lake front just next door. Rapperswil is a very pretty town with quaint old-style houses and a very pretty lake side promenade dotted with cheerful cafes and lined with trees. We ambled through the sleepy streets in the car-free “Hautplatz” (main square area) and admired the old buildings and houses. After an okay-is dinner of spaghetti and soup at one of the lake side restaurants called Dieci, we retired for the night.

Monday, 8th May: Rapperswil and Lugano

Next morning we headed off towards the enchanting Knies Kinderzoo, a small zoo especially for children, where one could interact with the animals from up close as if they were household pets. The zoo is just a pleasant 10 ins walk from the train station along an avenue lined with nice villas with pretty gardens. Just as we spotted the entrance to the zoo, I gasped in wonder to see the tall necks of the giraffes visible from outside! At the giraffe enclosure we were delighted to see tall platforms next to the enclosure where we could climb and touch the giraffes and feed them grass! We fed grass to other animals like zebras, ponies, donkeys and goats too. There were pony rides available as well as a tram ride pulled by a horse. The zoo had huge play-areas as well – with sand pits, climbing jungle gyms, swings, magic fountains and the whole works. Soham and Srishti refused to leave the place and we had to beg them to come with us as we had a train to catch!

Sadly though, we had to leave that afternoon for Lugano and could’nt see the rest of Rapperswil. While we were in the train on our way out of Rapperswil, we got a glimpse of one of Rapperswil's famous attractions - a wooden footbridge across Lake Zurich which was built by Jacob pilgrims during the Middle Ages and recently restored.

Our train ride to Lugano was very nice. We seemed to lose track of time, immersed in the scenes as we passed quaint villages, rolling green valleys and magnificent mountains and didn’t mind the three and half hour journey at all!

We reached Lugano station at 5:30pm and a car-pickup was waiting for us. We reached our hotel ago Di Lugano located in Bissone, after a 20 minute drive. I had booked all our hotels from the Internet, and was looking forward to staying especially at this hotel because it was a designated as a ‘Kids Hotel’ – which is a certification, offered to hotels that cater especially to families with kids.

The Hotel Lago Di Lugano is a modern 4 Star hotel located right on Lake Lugano. Though it comes under Bissone, it is actually at the border of the town Campione. We had booked a family room with two attached bedrooms. The rooms were huge – something that is a novelty in most European hotels. The kids’ room was very cute with two bunk beds on which the staff had very sweetly kept a welcome gift of two soft toys for our kids. The room had a balcony with lovely views of the lake and the mountains and overlooking the children’s outdoor play-area.

We refreshed ourselves and left to have a tour of the hotel. The gardens were pretty and lined with date palms. The swimming pool was beautiful. It was nice to see a small private pier belonging to the hotel next to the lake which catered to ferrying guests to Lugano. The hotel has a club for children called Pinocchio Club where children could be left to play for the whole day. The staff would take care of them and entertain them with various toys and games plus take them outdoors or for excursions. We left the kids for a few hours in the Pinocchio Club after which we had a nice dinner at the in-house restaurant.

Tuesday, 9th May: Gandria

We had a sumptuous buffet breakfast in the morning, and after leaving the kids at the Pinocchio Club, went off to explore Lugano city. There’s a bus stop right outside the hotel and it took us straight up to the Lugano Central Bus station.

I found Lugano to be a busy, modern city with lovely lake side promenades lined with flowering trees and fountains at the squares. Lugano is only 40 miles from Milan. Hence, close on the heels of its more fashionable neighbor, Lugano too boasts of designer shops and famous brands. Via Nassa is one of the ‘luxury’ streets with fashionable boutiques and world famous brands like Armani, Ermenegildo Zegna and Bucherer etc and also lined with cafes, perfumeries etc.

We spotted loads of modern looking hotels clambering the lake front. There were lots of cars and quite some traffic. I was glad that we had chosen our hotel in a more peaceful town, away from the noise and the hustle and bustle of crowds.

We planned to visit Mount Bre – called as the sunniest mountain in Switzerland and with supposedly great views from the top. But when we reached the funicular station, we found it firmly shut for siesta! How weird – I had heard of siesta time in Italy, but handn’t imagined it would infiltrate Swiss cities as well! So we next took a bus to the fishing village of Gandria.

It is the tiniest village I have ever seen – the only walking path in the village takes all of 15 minutes to traverse and runs in between tiny houses and restaurants piled next to each other and bordering the lake! The village is famous for its beautiful location next to the lake and the superb food offered by the restaurants dotting the lake. We checked out all the restaurants and chose one of them with a good lake view. We were told that one could get amazing fish delicacies at Gandria and the restaurant lived up to that reputation. I had an excellent grilled sea fish with saffron sauce and baked vegetables.

Gandria can be reached by foot from Lugano in two hours through a path along the lake called the "olive path" between Gandria and Castagnola leading along fields of olive trees and offers a splendid view of the Lake of Lugano. We tried walking along the narrow "olive path" that runs through the villages lining the lakes. We returned back after a while to the pier at Gandria and went back to Lugano by boat. The lake looked so pretty – a spectacular hue of blue with ducks and swans swimming in the waters.

At Lugano we did some window-shopping at Via Nassa and I even managed to buy myself an Armani top from the Emporio Armani store as the store was offering a discount sale. How lucky for me! Then after having coffee and pastries at a cute cake-shop, we left for our hotel by bus.

In the evening, we decided to try out the local restaurants in Campione for dinner and started walking towards the Campione pier, a 10 minute walk. The road to Campione had posh villas all along and we had a good time admiring their old style architecture. The lakefront promenade at Campione has quite a few nice restaurants and pizzerias and we chose one recommended by our hotel. The kids treated themselves to massive pizzas while I and hubby had yet another mouthwatering grilled fish preparation.

Wednesday, 10th May: Mt. San Salvatore

We decided on a mega-tour today and I drew up an ambitious plan to visit 3 places: Mt San Salvatore, Swiss Miniature Park at Melide and the beautiful village of Morcote. It was a sunny day today unlike yesterday and so we got a complimentary boat ride from the hotel right up to Lugano Paradiso. From Paradiso pier we walked around 10 mins to reach the funicular stop. Fortunately there was no ‘siesta’ concept at this funicular station and we took the 10 min funicular ride up to the mountain top.

Mt San Salvatore is 912 m high and offers superb views of the lakes below and magnificent range of Swiss and Savoy Alps. There is a church at the top which has a terrace where one can climb up and get stunning panoramic views. We could see at least 2 other smaller lakes from the top, apart from Lake Lugano. We observed that there was a walking path that leads to Corona (Ciona) and then Morcote in 3 hrs. If the kids weren’t with us we might have perhaps ventured on for the hike. We had a quick lunch at the self-service restaurant and the kids later amused themselves at the nearby games park.

Getting back to Paradiso we decided to take the train to Swiss Miniature in Melide. This is a park which has models of all monuments and landmarks of Switzerland with Swiss Alps, lakes, castles, farms, cathedrals etc. There are small trains, funiculars and toy cars whizzing automatically on the roads and tracks lay out. It is a virtual ‘toyland’ for children since they can see all of Switzerland in miniature form. One can see the Rotating cable car rising up to Mount Titlis in miniature form, the funicular chugging up to Jungfraujoch or the toy sailing boats on Lake Zurich. We spent a whole lot of time over here and later the children tried their hand at the various games available.

As a result of all this we missed the next boat connection to Morcote and had to forego that trip. I was most disappointed as I had read so much about this charming village from the travel brochures and really wanted to see the quaint place. Anyways the children were thrilled at spending so much time at the Miniature Park, so it was well worth it.

Thursday, 11th May: Brienz

We bid adieu to lovely Lugano and took the train to Brienz in the morning. It was a long four and half hour journey with one change at Lucerne; but same as our earlier train journey, we were neither bored nor realized that the journey was so long. The scenes of lush green valleys, yellow fields, snow capped mountains and tranquil lakes were so spectacular that we had our eyes peeled to the windowpanes.

We reached Brienz at around 3:30pm and the sight that awaited us at the railway station was simply breathtaking! Brienz is a small town located at one end of Lake Brienz, about 15 mins from the more famous and touristy town of Interlaken. We chose Brienz over Interlaken because we wanted to avoid the crowds and rather enjoy the ambience of a quiet scenic town. True to our expectations, we found Brienz to be my ‘dream come true’ – breathtakingly beautiful and a spectacularly pastel green lake completely surrounded by snow-capped misty mountains and gushing waterfalls.

We had booked ourselves at a hotel called Hotel Lindenhof which is situated a bit uphill; about 10 mins walk from the station. The hotel luckily provided us a car-pickup from the station; else we would have to struggle with our luggage.

Lindenhof is the CUTEST hotel I ever stayed at! We had taken a family apartment on two floors. The ground floor had a living room, kitchenette and bathroom. It was so creatively decorated with wooden tree-trunk benches and tables, a tree inside the room and 3 stuffed creatures perched on the tree! Upstairs there were two tastefully decorated bedrooms and the kids’ room had bunk beds and a skylight on the ceiling. There was a small balcony from where one could get a superb view of the mountains, waterfall, a bit of the lake, a train track, the hotel’s own greenhouse and cows grazing in the distance. We took a tour of the rest of the hotel property and found well-tended gardens with nicely placed deck chairs where one could get great views of the lake below and a small outdoor play-area.

Later we went for a short walk in the town – which seemed to consist of one main street with a few shops, boat pier and train station. All the residential houses and hotels are situated on elevations along uphill paths. We went to the tourist office to get more information about visiting a famous waterfall in that area called Giessbach waterfall and other attractions.

We booked ourselves a dinner table at the Grandhotel Giessbach next to the waterfall and then proceeded along an uphill path to find the Brienz Wildpark – an open park with local animals of the area. As we trudged uphill (my 3 year old daughter Srishti demonstrated great stamina in walking bravely without complaining) we spotted cows with cowbells grazing in the fields and goats who peered at us in amazement! Finally after some 20 minutes of huffing and puffing we located the wire-walled enclosure with mountain goats and rams. We were too late to spend too much time there and hurried back to the hotel for a shower, before we left for our special dinner at Grandhotel Giessbach.

We hired a cab which took us through mountain routes to the Giessbach waterfall about 20 mins away from Brienz town. The hotel was located in a spectacular setting with views of the mountains surrounding the hotel, lake below and thundering waterfall right next to it. The hotel and restaurants had an ornate décor with oil paintings adorning the walls and other artifacts. We had a sumptuous dinner to the accompaniment of live piano music. I wanted to savor local Swiss food so I had Rosti with baked Chicken. Yumm… it was simply divine! Add to it the ambience of the restaurant with the backdrop of the waterfall and the soft tunes of the piano; the most romantic setting that I have ever eaten dinner in!

Friday, 12th May: Titlis

We left for a day trip to Titlis in the morning. It is a two and a half hour journey from Brienz to Engelberg, the starting point of the Titlis cable car; with a change of trains at Hergeswill. Both the trains that we took were jam packed with Indians and with all the chattering in Hindi going all around us, it seemed like we were traveling in a luxury train in India! Most Indians like us stay in hot, dusty cities and towns and never get to experience snow. Hence all of us who come to Switzerland mainly come to experience glaciers and snow and make a beeline for Mt. Titlis which offers ice and snow throughout the year. My kids had been waiting expectantly for this part of the trip and they were understandably excited.

At Engelberg we took a short 10 min walk to the cable car station from where we climbed aboard the revolving gondola ROTAIR. Once we landed at the top, our children went crazy with excitement looking at snow all around and Srishti started eating handful of snow! She couldn’t just believe that she could have all the ice and snow in the world to eat without asking us to bring out ice from the refrigerator! My hubby took Soham to top of a snow mound and both of them slid down to the base. Srishti soon followed suit clambering up and sliding down and I was soon caught up in clicking snaps furiously amidst peals of laughter.

The weather was wonderful that day – bright and sunny and we soon started discarding all the coats and jackets that we had worn. We had thought that Titlis would be frightfully cold, hence padded up ourselves thoroughly. But with the bright sunshine around us, all we needed were our glares and it didn’t seem that cold at all.

We took the Ice Flyer Lift- a chair lift to go to the Titlis Glacier Park, an area where there are loads of easy snow games available like snow tubing, snow scooters, sledges etc. We found that this place had only Indians all going mad with excitement and chattering away in Hindi while trying out various equipments to slide down the snowy slopes. They were even shouting off instructions in Hindi to the pretty Swiss lady who was regulating ‘traffic,’ asking her to hurry on and let them slide down.

Soham did a scooter ride pretty well while hubby tumbled off mid-way on his scooter. Then Soham and I did a double sledge ride right up to the end and Srishti and hubby did a few more good sledge rides. It was such good fun! After a thorough fill of snow games we had a hearty lunch of fries, burger and coffee at the outdoor restaurant.

We could see other skiing enthusiasts whizzing past us on the glacier and it was good to see them zoom off marking intricate patterns on the snow. Later we visited the Glacier cave – which is a 150 meter tunnel ringed by glittering ice walls under the glacier surface. The place has lights and sounds to guide one to the depths of the glacier and one can experience the freezing ambience of a glacier cave in safe surroundings.

After spending several hours at Titlis, we got back to Brienz close to 6pm. Soham insisted on a swim in the hotel’s indoor pool and we all had a swell time relaxing in warm waters, after the day’s tiring activities. The swimming pool has glass paneled walls, so one can get a view of the mountains and meadows while taking a dip.

Suitably rejuvenated we had a superb dinner at our hotel’s restaurant. The restaurant is furnished in old-style manner with brass pots and pans decorating the walls and an ancient looking fireplace and brass stove. I chose a dish which was a medley of three kinds of fish – grilled prawns, grilled salmon and crispy fried sole in saffron sauce. It was a huge portion and utterly delectable! I kept thinking to myself, Brienz is Heaven – spectacular scenery and outstanding food!

Saturday, 13th May: Schilthorn

It rained heavily last night and the morning was misty and cloudy. We were afraid our journey to the Schilthorn summit would be spoilt by rain. But luckily we had decent weather all through. We took a train up to Interlaken and then changed trains to Lauterbrunen. From here we took a bus to Stechelberg and then the cable car to Schilthorn.

En route we stopped for a while at Murren, a pretty car-free mountain village about which I had read so much from the travel websites and had almost finalized on staying here. I changed my plans because of the several changes we would have to make to get to Murren and opted for staying at Brienz instead. To our kids’ delight we found snow scattered all over the village and they dashed off to play in the snow. But surprisingly, in Murren, though being advertised as a tourist area with quite a few hotels and restaurants, we hardly saw a soul stir in the village. We spotted nobody in either the houses or the hotels – it just seemed like a deserted village! It is a pretty enough place surrounded by dazzling snowy mountains really close, but I am glad I didn’t chose to stay here – it would be even more lonely and dreary in the evenings!

We continued our cable car ride up to Schilthorn from where one can get panoramic views of all the mountains like the Titlis, Jungfrau, Mönch, Eiger, over the Bernese alps and the Jura mountains right up to the Vogesen and the Black Forest. There is a circular viewing platform built at the summit with a revolving restaurant called Piz Gloria which has been made famous by shooting of the James Bond movie ‘On her Majesty’s secret service’.

Unfortunately we had lucked out by the time we reached Schilthorn and the whole place was shrouded in mist. We couldn’t see any of the famous mountains and had to spend our time sitting at the cheerful revolving restaurant and trying to catch a glimpse of the mountains around. We came down after a while, and on reaching Stechelberg, decided to walk to Trummelbach falls.

It was the most beautiful walk that we ever took – a long road in between meadows of bright yellow flowers and surrounded by mighty mountains and waterfalls. Srishti and Soham walked along boldly for a while but complained after a while and hubby had to carry Srishti on his shoulders.

Trummelbach is a waterfall fall created by the confluence of melting snow from the glaciers of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. The thundering stream of waters cut through the hard rock with a deafening sound, carving crevices and caves inside the mountain. You can take a lift up inside the mountain, and you start climbing up to the 10 cascades. The stairs and caves are all damp and often one is sprayed with water from the cascading falls bouncing off the rocks. There are view points created for tourists and one can admire the force and fury of water from real close. The reverberating noise of the falls made Soham and Srishti shout at the top of their voices to make themselves heard.

After climbing down to the base we spent some time sitting on the rocks next to the stream formed from the falls. There was a notice put up about the strong water currents, hence we didn’t dare dip our feet in the stream – that would have been fun! We had a small snack at the self-service restaurant at the base and then headed off to our hotel. No sooner did we reach our hotel, it started pouring heavily. We were so lucky to have gotten back in the nick of time! After another round of my favourite dish, ‘medley of three fish,’ we retired for the day.

Sunday, 14th May: Ballenberg Museum

Our last day in Switzerland and we had to see one last attraction – the Ballenberg Open-Air Museum near Brienz. This is a unique concept which showcases rural Switzerland as it was in the bygone days. Spread over sprawling acres of hilly forests and meadows, the museum boasts of century-old buildings from all over Switzerland, loads of farm-yard animals and demonstrations of traditional crafts like cheese-making, baking bread, farming, needle-work, smithy, wood carving etc. I had seen something similar at Lillehammer in Norway where there is an open-air museum with old buildings and farmhouses; but Ballenberg beats the Lillehammer museum in terms of size encompassing 660 000 square metres of land.

The whole area is divided into different regions or cantons of Switzerland (like Bernese Oberland, Ticino, Vaud, Valais, Mitteland etc) and in each of these cantons there are people dressed in farming clothes of that region, demonstrating the different skills and crafts. We saw bakers putting dough in huge coal-fired ovens to make bread, cheese-makers stirring up a huge cauldron of curds and whey to make cheese (he was even offering glasses of whey to visitors), farmers threshing grain by beating their flail to synchronized beats and ladies in old-style pinafores weaving baskets or knitting sweaters.

At one place which depicted a village square we saw all these village folk busy at their trades while an old gentleman was playing the accordion. It was such lively music that Srishti and I did a short jig!

After crossing this place we walked a good 10 minutes through a forest path where we came to another canton which had farm animals like cows, goats, pigs, donkeys and rabbits. We could go right up to them and feed them grass. It was such a delight to watch the donkeys hungrily tear away the grass from our hands and munch on it happily. There were huge brown rabbits too who had their share of leaves and grass from our hands.

We next went to checkout the interiors of some farmhouses and were surprised to find fully furnished kitchens, bedrooms, living rooms and work-rooms of reconstructed original houses and farm buildings from past centuries, with artifacts and furniture from that era. We had very little time that day, so we hurried through a good part of the grounds in under 2 hours. It’s a pity we couldn’t spend more time here. We had to leave the place after buying packs of their freshly made cheese.

We had to pack up at our hotel and leave by 2 pm as we were taking a flight to India that evening. We said a wistful goodbye to beautiful Brienz and after taking a few last-minute snaps, boarded the train to Zurich Airport. When our flight took off I could see the Alps stretching down below us for miles and miles and for almost half an hour we were flying over Switzerland and could make out all the relief features below very clearly. It was amazing to note the awesome mountains rising high and it seemed I got an extended half hour to say my final farewell to Switzerland.

Bye bye mesmerizing Switzerland; I’ll surely come back again!

Thank you for this lovely trip report! My husband and I visited some but not all of these places four years ago - his first trip to Switzerland and my second after many years. We've just finished planning a return visit this September. Can't wait!

Thanks for wonderful trip report. Yes, we visited these places more than once but all driving and during different seasons. We will revisit all except Lugano, a good place but very crowdy thus would not fit our options. To stay-over in Brienz and Rapperswil are the best choices any one can make. You would have really enjoyed if you had taken long boat rides both from Rapperswil and Brienz. Good that you enjoyed the trip..........plan for the next in either April or late September - by car if possible.

Enjoyed reading your trip report - thanks for sharing.

Modeb,
Thank you for taking the time to do such a great trip report, I enjoyed it so much.
We are planning on being in Brienz this time next year so your observations are really welcome. We have been wrestling with Brienz or Lauterbrunnen but have finally made up our minds. We figure Brienz will be the right base for us to go exploring. We are looking at staying in an apartment on the quai, near the ferry station.
We are also hoping to go to Lugano via the Bernina Express.
How did you cope with your luggage, did you have any problems getting on and off the trains?
Thanks again.

Hello everybody,
Thanks so much to all of you for your appreciative words! It's really heartening for me to note that you all have read my report and liked it. This will enthuse me to write such detailed reports after each of my holidays.
Maudie, you have chosen right with staying at Brienz instead of Lauterbrunnen. We found Lauterbrunnen to be quite touristy and perhaps not as scenic as Brienz. Infact if you plan to go to Brienz after end June, then a lot many places in Meiringen and Hasliberg (like the walking trails, Alpen tower etc) would also be open (which were alas closed when we went since it was too early for Summer). We missed visited these 2 towns though they were right next door coz all the hiking paths were still inaccessible.
Luggage is no problem. If you plan your train journeys in advance using www.sbb.ch, you will get perfect connections and will not have to hurry to board the next train. These trains are so passenger-friendly, there are special compartments for hikers who carry huge backpacks or cycles. And the normal passenger compartments have a separate area to keep bigger suitcases etc. So you should have no problems. Hope u have a good trip next year!

Modeb,
Thanks for your kind words. We have already put the Swiss part of our trip back by two weeks to try and get better weather so we will have to stick to early June. That is a realy shame the hiking paths will be closed but I am sure we will make up for it.

That's great news about the luggage, puts my mind at ease. I have spent many hours on the sbb site too!

I am sure we will have a great time, thanks.

Maudie

Nice report! We had a very rainy month in May but it sounds like your vacation had also sunny bits.

I love Gandria and I live near Rapperswil. It was great to read about those places from an English tourist's point of view.

modeb,

What a wonderful trip report! Well written and lots of good information.

Thanks for sharing.

MvK

Thanks so much for sharing. Our family leaves on Friday for 3 nights in Wengen before going on to Northern Italy. We plan to visit some of the same sights you did - very helpful and useful descriptions.

Wonderful report, modeb. I printed out to save in my "Switzerland" file---you went a number of places we haven't been yet, but hope to soon.

Hello modeb,

You're right to describe your trip as mesmerizing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Sounds like everyone had a wonderful time.

I was very interested in your comments about the open air museum in Ballenberg. Although we have been to the surrounding area many times, this has not been a place we have visited. But it sounds quite lovely, and I'm adding it to my upcoming itinerary. I've been to the one in Lillehammer and enjoyed that very much.

Good job!

Your trip report came at the perfect time with us leaving for Switzerland 3 weeks from today! I'll certainly be using some of this information so thanks for taking the time to write such a great post!

Looking at the ballenberg.ch website, during the days we could visit, it talks about "Lime burning", and describes it as:

"Before the advent of large-scale cement production, almost every Swiss village had its own lime kiln. We built ours four years ago and will again fire it up this summer. We have become expert at heating the kiln interior to an even 1000 degrees C. Our output of lime and slaked lime is used to make mortar for construction and maintenance projects at Ballenberg. 10am-5pm."

So now my question, re lime burning. Is this something we'd want to see or something we'd want to avoid? Smoke everywhere or just in the area of the kiln? Anyone seen this?

Hi Kopp---I seem to be following you around Switzerland today. Happy Fourth!

My sons watched lime burning in India last fall, and described the process as fascinating to watch (and not unpleasant). Before their report, I had never given any thought to the term "lime kiln" and what they were used for. But they seem to be everywhere---there is even a Kalkofen on the trail above the Aletschgletscher, far from any village. And here in Washington state we have a Limekiln State Park in the San Juan Islands.

I'm glad you caught good weather for Schilthorn.

Thing about the rain thing. Spring and summer weather in Switzerland can be similar to weather on the East coast, midwest and Southern USA weather. They can have those pop up thunderstorms at anytime and clear out fast.

Glad you had great weather!