Adelaidean

Wow, that is a hike. So beautiful, wonderful variety in the landscape.

On another topic, while we have booked hotels for this trip....next time I'd do less bases for a longer stay and try rental apartments which you seem to do exclusively. You often mention paying on arrival, so you are booking online in English with no deposit?

Melnq8

Ingo - yeah, well it IS Switzerland!

Adelaidean -

"Next time" - I like that You already know there will be one!

Several years ago I approached an apartment owner whose apartment I'd found online - she'd normally request a money transfer to rent her apartment. I explained that transferring funds was very expensive - we were living in Australia at the time, but we were paid in US dollars so transferring funds would require a double transaction plus two bank transfer fees (Swiss banks charge a fee on the receiving end too). I asked if she would consider cash upon arrival. She agreed - we were visiting in the off season and staying for five nights, so I guess it was a risk she was willing to take. Fast forward several years - we've now booked the same apartment 4-5 times for 5-7 nights at a go, always cash upon arrival. The owner knows we're trustworthy, she knows we leave the apartment clean, she knows we're low maintenance. This year she even offered us a low season 'for you' rate for the entire month of December, which is high season.

I made the same offer to the apartment owner in Ilanz, also in low season. She has accepted the same terms, at a slightly higher rate for December, high season.

I made the same offer to a VRBO owner last year in Nuremberg. She accepted. It was an ideal arrangement.

I made a similar offer to a small hotel in Dresden. The owner asked for a check in US funds to hold until we arrived and then we paid cash and he tore up the check. I'm not sure how he would have cashed a US check, but that's what he wanted. It worked, both parties were happy.

I trust people and give them no reason to distrust me.

I tried to find a similar arrangement for Lenzerheide, but I could only find apartments listed through booking sites, so it didn't work this time. Probably doesn't help that it's high season in a ski resort

Finding an individual apartment owner, visiting in low season and visiting off-the-beaten-path is key.

As for the English - I just translate their site to English, then approach them in both English and German. If they respond in German, I just translate it to English. I so love the internet!

Melnq8

Ingo - you want price shock? Go to Iceland! High prices, low value.

Ingo

I cashed a US check once, it was no problem. Took a week until the money was in my bank account.

Is the apartment in Lenzerheide already booked? Maybe I still could help ... PM me on TA

LOL, Iceland is not on my list. The exchange rate Euro - CHF got a bit better lately, btw.

Adelaidean

Thanks for that, Mel, I had to do a bank transfer for our apartment in Ortisei last year, worth knowing I could probably negotiate.
I only have 5 nights in Sils Maria next month, so am going to need a Scuol base for a week another time...my wishlist got too long and I think I just need to accept that combining upper and lower Engadin from 1 base just isn't feasible, plus there really is so much to do, I would need a lot longer (and any further trips will be from apartment bases, rather than hotels).

Melnq8

I shall send you a note Ingo.

Adelaidean - let me know when you need that Scuol base and I'll give you the details on the apartment we rent there. It's on a hill, so lots of mountain climbing if you're traveling by train.

Melnq8

Day 10 –

More sunshine! Bill walked to the Allmenalp Luftseilbahn station, and zipped up to the top on one of Europe’s highest cable cars (14 CHF return with guest card discount - ½ fare card not valid) while I stayed behind to rest my wrecked knee.

From the top of Allmenalp he watched the paragliders (including an aborted attempt) logged 4.5 miles on a couple of trails, watched some fearless rock climbers and soaked up the views across to Oeschinensee and down to Kandersteg. He was quite chuffed with his outing, making me wish I’d gone, but I was consoled somewhat when I heard how steep the trails were.

http://www.allmenalp.ch/aktivitaeten/wandern/?L=1

We met up at the apartment. Despite my protesting knee I was unable to pass up our last chance to visit Oeschinensee, especially on such a spectacular day.

The Oeschinensee is said to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the Swiss Alps. We’d walked up to it from Kandersteg (and back down) during our April visit several years ago; the gondola wasn’t operating at the time and the lake was a sea of snow. We both wanted to see it after the thaw, in all its glacial blue, jagged cliff surrounded glory.

So we walked to the Oeschinen Gondelbahn, purchased a return ticket (13 CHF each with ½ fare card) and were whisked up the side of the mountain.

Immediately at the top there’s a Bergstubli, a mountain coaster run (alpine slide) and extraordinary views. Unexpectedly, there was also a waiting Electromobile to transport visitors needing assistance from the upper station to the Oeschinensee and back (8 CHF per trip). I was momentarily tempted, but my pride got the better of me.

Several walks originate from here, the easiest and most popular being the 20-30 minute walk to the lake.

Hoping for one final Bergrestaurant lunch, we walked to the Panorama Restaurant zur Sennhütte, where we settled in at a table on the terrace overlooking the stunning Oeschinensee. Here we soaked up the glorious views on this flawless summer day over a simple lunch of bratwurst, salad, bread and a small bottle of wine (not one of our better values this trip, 48 CHF). The disadvantage of alfresco lunches is smokers, and as bad luck would have it, two chain smokers chose to sit right across from us; fortunately, they didn’t stay long; fresh air was eventually restored.

http://www.oeschinensee.ch/english/

Eventually, we backtracked to the gondola station, and settled in on the terrace of the Bergstubli to watch folks on the Rodelbahn and enjoy more of those fabulous views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZMBzHHgPt0

We took the gondola back down to Kandersteg, and called into the Ermitage Hotel for one final ‘Summertime’ sorbet extravaganza, this one topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries, whipped cream and floating on diced apples. Delicious (9 CHF).

https://www.ermitage-kandersteg.ch/i...100000&lang=en

Without meaning to, we’d logged another 3.5 miles, but so it goes in Switzerland.

We called in for one last dinner at Chalet Hotel Adler, assisted once again by the now familiar Portuguese waiter, with whom we had a nice chat, he beaming every time Bill tried out his limited Portuguese vocabulary and he telling us we must visit his hometown of Porto. We shared a very spicy chili cheese pizza and 5 dl of Pinot Noir (41 CHF).

As we approached our apartment, we ran across our Portuguese waitress from the previous night at Hotel Zur Post, who was behind the restaurant having a smoke; she waved to us and asked about my knee. Another chat followed, and we learned that she too is from Porto.

Photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/melnq8...57687422443436

Going home...

Adelaidean

My favourite kind of day.....blue skies, green landscape, sorbet...

Definitely want to do a Wengen to Kanderstag daytrip for a look at the Oeschinensee. That shot you have of a hut overlooking the lake, looks like an uphill climb, how did you get there and is it difficult? (Assuming that with your knee it was not too hard a walk, I don't want to accidentally get on one of the challenging hiking trails by mistake, LOL)

massimop

Hope your knee won't prevent you from going to Porto, which is quite steep but fascinating. You can easily pair it with the great outdoors of the Duoro, or the Azores.

Due to some very poor policy decisions inside the European Union, a staggering 1 in 5 Portuguese now live & work outside their home country.

Melnq8

Adelaidean -

Mine too!

<<That shot you have of a hut overlooking the lake, looks like an uphill climb, how did you get there and is it difficult?>>

Easy walk from the gondola station, slight incline, about 20-30 minutes each way. If I could do it with my messed up knee, you should be fine!

That photo was taken from the terrace of the Panorama Restaurant zur Sennhütte. Note that there is more than one restaurant up there, you'll want to go left, not right. Although views from the other restaurant are no doubt wonderful too. Get a map before you go up and it will make perfect sense.

massimop -

Porto is definitely in my future, but so is a knee procedure, so we shall see. Interesting about Portuguese workers, I had no idea.

Songdoc

Great report! Looks like it was a fantastic trip to the Switzerland of my fantasies.

Your photos were awesome. I'm officially jealous!!!

Melnq8

Nice try Songdoc, he who lives on Kauai cannot be jealous

Melnq8

Day 11 –

We looked online at train schedules and decided to take the 9:13 am train; as the 8:13 looked very full. With time to spare, we sought out a bakery for breakfast, croissant, coronet and lattes (13.90 CHF), then returned to the apartment to pack up.

Under cloudy skies we walked to the Bahnhof, the village quiet other than the ongoing road construction. We purchased train tickets to Zurich Flughafen (39.50 CHF each with ½ fare card) and set out on the 2-1/2 hour journey via Bern, once again marveling at the very active older generation of Swiss; throughout our stay we’d encountered several groups of biking and hiking seniors on various trains and buses, today was no different; an inspiration to those of us yapping at their heels.

The journey was easy with only one train change (Bern). There weren’t many passengers until we stopped at Zurich Hauptbahnhof, and by then we were almost to our destination.

We arrived at the Zurich airport two hours before our 2:30 pm flight to KEF (Iceland). Check-in and security was a breeze.

Having learned that a sandwich in Zurich is less expensive than a sandwich in Iceland or on Iceland Air (5.70 CHF vs. 1.1 Krona), we picked up two each, one for now and one for the second, longer leg of our trip from KEF-DEN (Iceland Air doesn’t provide food, although they do sell limited items onboard).

As we worked our way to the gate, they announced our flight would be departing 30 minutes late. So I did what any self-respecting chocoholic would do, I made a beeline to the Confiserie Sprüngli and ordered two mugs of decadent hot chocolate – oh-so-delicious (15 CHF); a fattening end to a wonderful trip.

Our flight to KEF was smooth, a very good thing in my book, but we arrived 40 minutes late...eating up most of our 55 minute connection time. Most everyone on the plane seemed to be in the same situation. The crew assured us we’d all make our connecting flights, and gave us Fast Passes, permission to jump the queue at Immigration; they worked a treat, we were through in minutes; thankfully there was no additional security.

We entered a large room full of transit passengers – I mean FULL. Every seat was taken, people were sitting and dozing on the floors, luggage was strewn everywhere; it was chaos. I’d read that KEF’s international visitor numbers had doubled in the last five years; I believe it.

Stress was high, my knee was unhappy; Bill grabbed the backpacks and gave me a hobbling head start; we hurried through the airport, dodging people and luggage, jostling, excusing and apologizing, arriving at our gate just as our plane was scheduled to depart...and came to a screeching halt. We joined the short queue of passengers, and proceeded to wait for 15 minutes for a bus to take us stragglers to our plane. The crew was right; we made it; I suspect this is business as usual for KEF.

Our flight departed 40 minutes late, but we were promised an on time arrival, making me wonder, not for the first time, how much fluff time is built into airline schedules.

We binge watched the entire series of Trapped (filmed in the tiny seaside town of Siglufjörður, on the northern coast of Iceland, which we’d just visited a few weeks prior). We were thankful we’d thought to pick up plane provisions in Zurich; we didn’t even have enough time to pee in KEF, and the food for purchase selection onboard was pretty dismal. But the flight went well; there was more leg room than we’ve had on most other econo-box flights; we took off, we landed. All things considered, we were pretty happy with Iceland Air.

We re-entered the US with our newly acquired Global Entry; other than an issue with my fingerprints (which took six attempts as evidently I wasn’t pressing down hard enough) it went smoothly, no line whatsoever.

We caught a shuttle to the Alamo rental lot, collected a car, drove directly to our favorite Denver Mexican food restaurant for a dose of chile rellenos smothered in hot green chile, and then checked into a nearby hotel. The following day we drove the 100 miles home and began plotting our next trip to Switzerland.

The numbers:

Accommodation: 10 nights, apartments - 825 CHF, approx USD $848

Transport: train/cable car/gondola - 11 days, inclusive of Half Fare Cards – 700 CHF, approx USD $719

Laundry: $0

And just because I griped about how expensive and low value we found Iceland, here’s a comparison (yes, I know its apples and oranges in some respects, but it’s a comparison none-the-less).

Accommodation: 10 nights, one hotel, one hostel with shared bath, one guesthouse with shared bath, five guesthouses with private bath, three breakfasts – approx USD $1,881.00

Transport: car rental, petrol & tolls, 10 days - approx USD $826

Laundry: $30

Food:

We spent approx USD $200 more on food/drink in Switzerland than we did in Iceland. This included what we spent on self-catering (breakfasts, snacks, etc). But, we ate a heck of a lot better, more often, and even had dessert (and the views were free)!

We skipped meals in Iceland, often eating snacks we’d brought from the US instead, or a tub of Skyr here and there. We brought several bottles of wine from the US and purchased a few more in duty free, saving a bundle over what we’d have paid in restaurants.

For our money, Switzerland is much better value, although it’s certainly not cheap!

Adelaidean

Re inflight meals...my parents recently flew Jetstar from Adelaide to Cairns, booking online and buying a package that included a check in bag and a meal each. Well, the steward has a single meal left which my mother gets, so my father gets a tiny pack of olives and a beer in lieu of meal.....!!! So they sold the same meal twice, having the cart go up the aisle selling to those that hadn't pre ordered. Wasn't long haul, and as my mother said, the meal was awful, so no loss. But pretty shabby service.

Melnq8

I'm not surprised Adelaidean. Sometimes it's best to just self-cater, at least you know you'll get fed. They should have at least given your dad multiple beers or a voucher or something, geez.

I think the flight from Denver to Iceland is the longest flight I've been on that didn't offer some sort of food (other than for purchase and that was pretty limited). I've been fed on flights of under an hour in Europe.

When I flew Virgin Australia from Perth to Sydney I wasn't expecting much, but they fed and wined me, and as a bonus the food was surprisingly edible.

I'm no fan of airline food, but sometimes you just need food, especially if you're connecting from one flight to another, one flight is late, there's no time to pick up anything, etc.

Adelaidean

Off topic (or back on to Coober Pedy) here is my brother's recent trip

http://advrider.com/index.php?thread...ssing.1246768/

Incredible how vast Australia is.

Loved your report, makes me feel a bit closer to my trip, thanks again.

Melnq8

Great read Adelaidean - I particularly like this bit -

<<We can be described as guys somewhere between Mid Life Crisis, and geriatric, fighting to hold on to the fading remanents of our virility.>>

I remember Glendambo! Home to 30 humans, 22,500 sheep, and 2,000,000 flies!

Melnq8

Adelaidean -

I wasn't sure where to find you, so thought I'd try here.

I saw your Swiss photos on Flikr - SNOW! Beautiful!

Looking forward to your trip report!

Adelaidean

Hi Mel,

We sadly left Sils Maria yesterday.... am in Trezzone, north Lake Como now, heading home soon, will do a report. Switzerland is easy to photograph, everything so picturesque.

I was so excited at the snow, the locals not so much

I didn't get near your beloved lower Engadin, but if it is anywhere near as lovely as the upper Engadin, it must be wonderful.

Back in Adelaide in a week, left the boys home, bet there will be a flurry of housecleaning happening in about 6 days, LOL.

Melnq8

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!