We decided not to go home for the holidays this year because we just arrived a few months ago. Instead, we took a 10-day trip to Switzerland. At first, we were thinking about going to a warmer climate as many people do in winter. We decided, instead, to embrace the cold weather and to try and have a white Christmas. Europe, like everywhere else, is currently experiencing a heat wave and many ski resorts in the Alps have not had much snow this year. The locals claim that it has been the worse ski season in decades. We felt lucky because there was plenty of snow in the higher elevations and it snowed quite a bit while we were there. I guess it doesn’t take much snow to impress those who have grown up in Georgia and Florida! We visited Zurich, Lucerne, Interlaken (a base for exploring the Jungfrau Region of the Alps), and Montreux. Here is a collection of memories from our trip:
We started our trip with two nights in Zurich. We spent a lot of time just walking around the city and the lake. We followed the self-guided tour recommended by the Lonely Planet guidebook. It’s a beautiful city, but I think it would be more fun to visit during the summer when the lakefront bars/ restaurants are hopping and everyone is swimming and boating. Also, a lot of things were closed b/c we were there on Christmas and the day after. We still enjoyed our visit. 
Next, we headed to Lucerne. We took a cable car up to Mt. Pilatus (on the outskirts of Lucerne) for an amazing, panoramic view of the snow-capped mountains. It was a cloudy and foggy day in Lucerne, but it was clear and sunny above the clouds. We decided to be tough and hike down the mountain rather than take the cable car back down (guess whose idea that was). The beginning of the hike was great because the sun was setting. However, the remainder of the hike took place in the cold and the dark and it was difficult to follow the trail. It was also slippery in spots. Luckily enough, we met a local guy on the trail and he showed us a short cut. We were thankful to have him as a tour guide and he was happy to have the company. It’s always interesting to meet the local people. You can learn a lot from them. One thing we learned from him is that Swiss German is a completely different language than what they call "high" German. It’s not just a different dialect. Apparently, the Swiss can understand the Germans because they have to learn "high" German in school, but the Germans don’t understand Swiss German. We also found out that his brother was killed in a mountaineering accident while climbing with the famous mountaineer, Reinhold Messner.
We spent the next day walking around Lucerne. Again, we took the self-guided tour. Out of all the cities we visited, Lucerne was our favorite. There was something fairy-tale like about it. Our tour took us to a museum that had a mirror maze. It was pretty freaky. As if one pair of us is not scary enough! Our day in Lucerne ended on a steep hill overlooking the city. Later in the day we drove to Interlaken, where we spent 5 nights.
The first night in Interlaken we went to a bar/restaurant to get a bite to eat. They had a live band that night so the place was packed. We saw that many people were asking strangers if they could sit with them so we did the same. We ended up getting to know two really great women. One was from New Zealand, but had been in Switzerland 20 years and the other was Swiss. One of the women, Leigh, invited us to a cheese fondue at her boyfriend’s house on January 2nd. We were planning on heading to Montreux early that day, but we could not pass up such a great offer. Furthermore, here boyfriend’s house was basically on our way to Montreux. We would just have to take the scenic route rather than the highway. This was the same night that someone came up to Rick and asked him if he was Michael Stipe (lead singer of rock group REM). I thought he should have milked that for all it was worth, but he was honest with them. All of this and a delicious dinner too. This was a banner night!
We spent a couple of days sledding in the Jungfrau Region. It’s pretty cool because the transportation to the ski resorts consists of a combination of trains, cable cars, and funiculars, all of which run very efficiently, as does everything in Switzerland. You can actually go from one ski area to another with all of your gear via the trains and cable cars. The first day we went to the big sled run on top of Kleine Scheidegg. We had a rather exciting day because we accidentally went down a ski run instead of a sled run. I, by the way, realized this right away. Rick on the other hand, was convinced that he was following the directions we were given correctly and just wanted to go for it. I didn’t think it was wise to allow skiers and sledders on the same run, but what do I know? We spent more time lying in the snow laughing hysterically than we did actually sledding and it took all day to get down the mountain, but we had a blast.
The second day we did an easier, but more picturesque SLED run in Murren. We also rented two sleds instead of one. This time I was terrified b/c I was now in charge of my own steering. I haven’t even driven a car in 4 months so this was a bit challenging. We realized that the sled runs are very different than the ski runs—not so many bumps and drops. Frankly, we thought the ski run was more fun. We didn’t sled for long because it was warm and the snow was melting so the runs were kind of icy. We just kind of hung out and enjoyed the scenery.
During the day on New Year’s Eve, we drove around a bit and then headed to Thun, a small but beautiful town surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The town sits on Lake Thun and also has several rivers running through it. It was a lot like Zurich and Lucerne, but more laid-back and funkier. There were several castles, but they were closed for the season. It was a warm, sunny day so we just walked around and had a picnic lunch on one of the lakeside benches.
New Year’s Eve was uneventful. There was not much going on in Interlaken. In usual form, we were asleep before midnight. New Year’s Day was more fun. We took a cable car from a town called Beatenberg up to the top of Niederhorn. There are apparently great views of Lake Thun and the surrounding mountains from there, but we could not see a thing because it was snowing. There is a restaurant at the top where we read and drank hot chocolate. It was a good day to relax. We were planning on hiking back down, but the light snow turned into a blizzard while we were up there. Instead of exercise, we got entertainment. We were sitting in the restaurant when a group of about fifteen very drunk people, mostly men, got off the cable car and came inside the restaurant. They were dressed up in bizarre costumes like it was Halloween and started singing loudly in German. We found out from the waiter that this was an annual tradition for this group. They start drinking on New Year’s Eve and continue into the night of New Year’s Day. They take the cable car up to Niederhorn on New Year’s day, where they are fed a warm meal and more alcohol. We were also told that we should be glad that we could not understand the words to the songs. They were apparently pretty raunchy. There were a couple of guys who had their heads down on the table already —they had a long night ahead of them. Because the weather was so bad, all of the remaining patrons and restaurant staff were gathered together and sent down the mountain at once so they could stop running the cable car. We spent the rest of the evening in Interlaken where they had an annual, outdoor festival with rock bands and fireworks. January 1st and 2nd are a bigger deal than December 31st.
We left Interlaken on January 2nd and headed to the mountains for some fondue. Leigh’s boyfriend, Hans, lived in an amazing mountain chalet. It was decorated with traditional Swiss antiques and he did a lot of the carpentry himself. He thought the fondue was the worse he ever made and the three of them laughed at it, but Rick and I thought it was delicious. The cheese and wine separated giving it a weird texture. It didn’t affect the taste though. He uses mountain cheese, which makes the fondue tastier than normal. It has something to do with the cows’ diets. After stuffing ourselves with wine and fondue, we were served mini-apple pies, fruit, and coffee. What a gorge-fest! We left about 3:30 p.m. for Montreux, which was supposed to be a 1 to 1.5 hour drive. Thus begins our final adventure.
It was not easy to get to the highway from where we were so we were advised to drive through the mountains. We were happy to take the scenic route, but by the time we left Hans’ the snow was really coming down. We had bought chains for our tires before leaving Brussels, but had no clue how to put them on. The sun was setting and we didn’t want to take time to pull over. It was a slippery, nerve-wracking, slow drive over mountain passes. We finally got to a point where we were afraid to go on, so we pulled over to try to put the chains on. Rick tried for about 20 minutes. He was getting more and more anxious by the minute as the daylight hours passed. We were afraid the car was going to get stuck in the snow. One thing we knew for sure is that we were not going to make it over the final pass without the chains. The temperature was dropping and the roads were going to get icier. Once again, we got lucky. A woman stopped and told us that there was a mechanic back in the town and that he has a house next to his shop. He was just out shoveling snow in his driveway. If we hurried, we may be able to catch him. This was important because January 2nd is a holiday in Switzerland so everything is closed. We drove to town and the mechanic took all of 5 minutes to put the chains on.
All was good. We were heading down so we knew at some point the temperatures would rise and that instead of snow there would be rain. We got to a point where the roads were clearing and it seemed like the chains were scraping. We decided to pull over and take them off. However, we made the huge mistake of pulling over in a spot where there was no light and not much shoulder. While Rick was trying to get the chains off, I had the task of knocking on someone’s door to borrow a flashlight. We were now in the French-speaking region and a rural one at that. Thus, not much English spoken. The poor woman who answered the door did not know what hit her. Let’s just say she resembled the crazy, cat lady. After 5 minutes of bad French and pantomime, I had a tiny flashlight. Twenty minutes later, Rick was frustrated, freezing, and soaked from lying in the snow, but the chains were off. I returned the flashlight to the crazy, cat lady and we were on our way. Guess what? By then it was snowing again so down the mountain we went slowly and carefully. We finally arrived safely in Montreux, four hours from the time we started. I must say, Rick did a stellar job of driving. It was like riding with Allstate.
Our final day was spent in Montreux visiting Chateau de Chillon, which lies one the shore or Lake Geneva. It was a big castle complete with period furniture. Unfortunately, that’s all we had time for. We had a long drive back to Brussels. Switzerland bid us goodbye with a nice 40 Swiss Franc parking ticket. We didn’t really care. We were just happy that we arrived in Montreux in one piece. We’ve already discussed going back to Montreux and also visiting Geneva. Now we have some friends to visit as well.
It was an awesome trip. You can’t beat the scenery—snow-capped mountains in every direction and tons of lakes and rivers. There’s so much to do for the outdoor enthusiast too. I would love to go back and do some hiking and water sports. The country is also very clean and the transportation system runs like a well-oiled machine. In addition, the people are friendly and speak English very well, at least in the German-speaking areas.
If you would like to see the full photo gallery, please e-mail me and I will send it to you through Kodak EasyShare.
