Switzerland

I thought it was about time to share another travel recap post of my trip to Europe! I seriously can’t believe that was all the way back in summer 2018. When we last left off, we were in Germany. If you want to read the first couple recaps, here is the summary of Italy and Austria! I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to sort through my pictures on my iPhone to make these posts…but here we are. Better late than never.

The main event in Switzerland was hiking the Swiss Alps. Our first day in Switzerland was mostly travel to get there. We (my mom, aunt, and cousin) took about 5 trains from Heidelberg, Germany to Verbier, Switzerland. It was a long day of train travel from like 7-3 PM! We took 2 gondolas to top of mountain. Here’s a picture of the view from the gondola ride!

We then hiked approximately an hour and 45 minutes to Mont Fort. It was beautiful scenery hiking up mountains! Absolutely breath-taking. I’ve never seen anything like this in the US. Pictures honestly don’t even do the views justice!

Here are some of the pictures from hiking!

Here’s the cabin we stayed in the first night!

 

View from the balcony:

Our room/bunk beds:

Dinner the first night! We were all hungry after hiking. Delicious dinner of super creamy tomato soup, salad, and spaghetti Bologna (meat sauce) and fruit cocktail.

Coffee the next morning…with a view!! 🙂

I wrote some brief notes from each day (so I’d remember!) on my phone as a recap of each day. I wrote we ate muesli and bread with jams/honey for breakfast. I also enjoyed delicious coffee and hot chocolate as well which we drank on the deck overlooking the mountains.

We then hiked what was supposed to be a 4 hour hike…but it took us from 8:45-3:45 (7 hours!). I wrote we got lost a little in the beginning. Although, none of us are experienced hikers so I think the main reason was is that we just were much slower than many people!

I don’t have pictures of the most dangerous sections (because I was literally nervous of a single mis-step and falling to my death…not even exaggerating). I wrote it was “very steep and treacherous climbing over snow and steep rocks.” Seriously…I vividly remember hiking along an extremely narrow cliff that was icy/snowy. It was a bit nerve-wracking!

We had packed a picnic (aka mostly apples, nuts, and lots of granola bars) for lunch.

The first half of trail I took tons of pictures on my phone. I wrote that it was much more beautiful views than first day.

We knew when we saw this lake we were close to our next cabin. I wrote that “the second half of trail I was so focused on the trail and not losing my footing it was difficult to take pictures and sometimes appreciate the view! We were all thankful to finally arrive at cabin. My toes hurt from steep decline and back hurt from carrying backpack.”

Spotted the cabin ahead! It was a welcome site after a long day of strenuous hiking!

Some of my notes:

• Had to wait 3 hours for dinner at 7:00 PM
• Dinner was an interesting vegetable and rice soup, then coleslaw and then beef (Swiss steak?) with noodles and bread. We were definitely hungry!  Coffee cake chocolate espresso icing with hot chocolate for dessert
• Read my book a little and played card games
• Met and talked with  interesting people from Norway and Israel (all over the world!)
• Cabin wasn’t as nice as first night; had to share large bunk room with other people and only 2 bathroom stalls
• Rained in evening but thankfully we were inside (muddy/wet tomorrow?!) yikes!!
• Went to bed early
• Can’t believe I had the opportunity to hike in the Swiss alps. Opportunity of a lifetime and while I was genuinely scared for my life at times (dead if you tripped and fell off the cliff!), it was worth it
• Glad we have a much shorter hike tomorrow though!

The next morning, we hiked 3 miles (1.75 hours) down the mountains from Cabane de Louvie.  We enjoyed hiking, but were also glad to be finished. It rained in very final part of hiking and we had to use our ponchos. Thankfully not too slippery though and I used my aunt’s old hiking boots which helped with traction. It was downhill hiking the entire way. We then took a bus and Gondola to Verbier where we had left part of our luggage/bags.

We took two trains to Montreux, Switzerland. We toured the Chillon Castle that dates back to the 1200s!! (Apparently I unfortunately didn’ take any pictures of this). We ate dinner at a small cafe (I wrote we were all super hungry by this point!). I split this Swiss dark chocolate bar with my cousin (topped with crunch peanut butter we had bought) for dessert which hit the spot.

Our hotel was super nice and we even got a free upgrade to an apartment style suite…which had a private balcony! I wrote I was thankful to have WiFi to catch up on emails and social media. I wished we had this hotel set up longer…but into Paris tomorrow!

Up next in the travel serious…Paris!!