American Mom in London: Chocolate, Cheese, Cowbells, and Cable Cars: Our Weekend in Switzerland

With less than two months in Europe before we return to the US, we are trying to cram in as much last minute travel as possible. We took advantage of a bank holiday weekend (David had this past Monday off for the "Early May Bank Holiday") to travel to Switzerland. We followed the advice of my best friend Rick Steves and headed straight for the Alps after our arrival in Zurich. We found the Swiss train system to be extremely efficient and extremely expensive, like most other things in this country. As a bonus, there are playgrounds on the top levels of some trains. Colin was a big fan! After a 4:00am taxi ride to the airport, a 7:00am flight to Zurich, and three train rides, we finally made it to our hotel in Lauterbrunnen by early afternoon.

Lauterbrunnen is a small, picturesque village located in a valley of the Alps, between giant rock faces and mountain peaks. After checking into our hotel, we set out to explore the area. Unfortunately, we got our first dose of bad weather this afternoon with near constant rain. We managed to take a small hike and explore the waterfall behind our hotel, Staubbach Falls, before deciding we needed to postpone more serious hiking for another day. After drying off at our hotel, we had our first Swiss meal of the trip at Restaurant Oberland, cheese fondue for me and rosti (a Swiss dish consisting of hash brown potatoes, cheese, and various other toppings like ham and mushrooms) for David. We were already big fans of the Swiss cuisine.

We are pretty sure cows do not sleep as we were kept up most of the night by the noise of cowbells outside our hotel room's windows. Oh well, part of the Swiss experience! On day two, we had planned to head up to the Schilthorn. The revolving restaurant at the 10,000 foot Schilthorn summit, the Piz Gloria, was the setting for a James Bond movie. Getting to the summit requires taking a cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp, a train from Grutschalp to Murren, and then two additional cable cars to get to the top. Unfortunately, the rain we were experiencing in Lauterbrunnen had turned to a heavy snow by the time we reached Murren. We checked out the live cameras showing the weather at the Schilthorn summit, and it was basically white out conditions. The weather at the top was not expected to get any better so we decided to save the $200 or so it would cost to get to the top and just explore Murren for a bit. We walked around the quaint ski village and had another cheese based Swiss lunch (raclette, a melted cheese served with potatoes and pickles, and more rosti) before taking the train and cable car back down to Lauterbrunnen.

Fortunately, the weather had improved in Lauterbrunnen by the time we returned so we took a hike to Trummelbach Falls. Trummelbach Falls are a series of 10 glacier-waterfalls located inside a mountain. They are reachable by a combination of an elevator and a hike up the inside of the mountain. The experience was very cool, a bit scary (slippery stones, steep ledges, and lots of warnings to hold on to your children made me super nervous having Colin along), and very wet. We hiked back to our hotel enjoying the scenery, random cows in the road, and some Swiss chocolate on the way.

The following day, we bid a sad farewell to the beautiful Swiss Alps and headed to Lucerne. After storing our luggage at the train station, we spent a few hours exploring this beautiful city. Lucerne is best known for its famous Chapel Bridge, a wooden bridge that was once decorated with paintings depicting the development of Lucerne. Unfortunately, the bridge caught fire in 1993 and many of these famous paintings were destroyed. After some sightseeing and a lunch of pretzel sandwiches, we were back on the train heading to Zurich.

The final day of our trip was spent exploring Zurich before flying back to London. There aren't very many "must-see" sights in Zurich, but you could tell the city has a lot of money due to the banking industry and would be a very easy place to live. The weather was beautiful so we spent a lot of time just walking along the river and lake and letting Colin play at a playground. It was a relaxing way to end our vacation. I think we all agreed that Switzerland is a country we definitely plan to return to one day!