Just got back from 7 days in Switzerland. This was the last third of a three week trip, the first part of which was spent in Sicily. I posted that as a separate trip report. In Switzerland we spent five nights in Interlaken and did two days hiking in the Bernese Oberland, a day trip to Bern and Murren, and a day on Lake Thun visiting the castles.Then we went to Luzern for two days, and I went to Zurich for a few hours just to check it out. We had a great time despite the weather not exactly cooperating. We kept playing peek-a-boo with the Jungfrau. It wasn't totally cloudy, there was lots of sun, but most of the time the big peaks were either partially or totally in the clouds. I kept seeing postcards of the bright blue sky and white peaks, and we just didn't see that. Oh well.

As wonderful as the mountains are, I encourage people going to Switzerland to also visit some of the cities and towns. Bern, Murren, and Luzern are as interesting as cities in other parts of Eurpoe but it seems when people go to Switzerland they feel they should spend all their time in the mountains. Bern is a UNESCO world heritage site for it's medieval town center, on a peninsula in the Aare River, surrounded on three sides by the water. It was wonderful, despite it's main street currently being under construction. Murren is a fabulous little town with ramparts you can walk in, aracaded main street, clock tower, castle, etc. And Luzern is just a beautiful, picturesque city on a lake, split by a river spanned by covered bridges with pedestrianized center full of beautiful buildings.

My main impressions of Switzerland are: tidy and punctual. The trains are amazing, they run like clock work, are clean, make announcemnts in four languages, leave from the track they say they will, and connect almost every city, town and hamlet in Switzerland. Switzerland is spotlessly clean. From big cities to tiny Alpine villages they are, well, they are as "tidy as a Swiss village". Whoever came up with that phase knew what they were talking about. They even have street sweepers in car free Wengen!

The only downside to Switzerland is the cost. Everything is considerably more than a lot of other areas in Europe, especially Italy, where we had just come from. The food was twice as expensive and half as good.

I will try to get my photos on line in the next week or so.

I don't think there are any clock towers in Murren. Did you mean Murten?

Hi isabel,

Lovely report, thanks!!

Also think you mean Murten, not Muerren -- no castle, ramparts you can walk in.

s

Yep, you guys are right. That's what you get for not proff-reading. Anyway, Murten was the town with the great ramparts, clock tower and arcaded street. Murren was a cute little Alpine village. They were both great.

Hello, Isabel, don't feel bad about not seeing Jungfrau clearly. Our tour guide told us: even on a clear day it usually covered by clouds, visible only very few days a year.