After 2 months traveling through Europe, Switzerland was a breath of fresh air. Why? Two words: chocolate and mountains. In all the seriousness, the chocolate is awesome, and the Swiss Alps are undeniably beautiful, but they are literally a breath of fresh air, and this is what I loved most about Switzerland. We had spent a lot of time in big cities, so it was nice to slow it down and get back to nature. Since we had been to so many big cities, we decided to skip Zurich all together and begin our week in Switzerland in the adorable city of Bern. Bern has a population of just under 150,000 and is probably one of the cutest little cities I’ve ever been to. It has a crystal blue fresh water river running through it, and after experiencing rivers, such as the Siene in Paris and the Thames in London, it was nice to see a clean looking river. Even better, we could swim in this river! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to swim in fresh water as I was in Bern. On our first full day in Bern, we spent the morning riding rented bikes throughout the city, and the afternoon jumping time and time again in the river. It was pure bliss!
As we wandered the cobbled streets of Bern, seeing the city’s bears (yes, you read that right), and visiting Einstein’s house, it became very clear that the prices in Switzerland were not for the budget minded backpacker. A Big Mac from MacDonald’s runs for about $20 CDN, so there was no chance we could afford any form of real food. Although I felt frustrated by how expensive Switzerland is, I was thankful that they had proper grocery stores there, and we were able to make some fairly affordable food. With each grocery shop, we splurged on a Toblerone bar, so that made cooking our own meals worth it! Fun fact: Swiss people don’t eat Toblerone, it is only for tourists. I felt both shocked and disappointed to find this out, but ate it regardless. It’s just too delicious to resist!
We spent a few days in Bern before we made our way to the adventure capital of Europe: Interlaken. This little gem is in the heart of the Swiss Alps between 2 lakes, and is known for sky diving, bungy jumping, canyoning, wake boarding, hiking, etc. Regardless of what sort of adrenaline activity you are interested in, Interlaken can most likely meet those needs. If you’ve read my post on New Zealand, you would know that sky diving and bungy jumping were something that I really wanted to do on our 6 month trip, and it took everything in me to refrain from spending all my money on a sky dive and bungy jump in Interlaken. The only real problem with doing these activities in Switzerland is that they are extremely expensive. Looking back now, I’m happy that I waited until New Zealand, as the cost of these activities was nearly half as much than it would have been in Switzerland… especially the way the Canadian dollar was at the time compared to the Swiss Franc and the Kiwi dollar. Nevertheless, we couldn’t go to the adventure capital of Europe and not do anything adventurous, so we decided on canyoning. For those of you who don’t know what canyoning is (like I didn’t prior to doing it), it is making your way through a water filled canyon using only your body and the natural contours in the rocks. We began our canyoning adventure with a 30 meter repel into the canyon, and then began sliding down naturally made slides, jumping into pools, and climbing over rocks. It is definitely no sky diving, but it was difficult and put me out of my comfort zone in a way I hadn’t really expected.
While in Interlaken, we stayed at a hostel called Balmers, which reminded me of a summer camp. The rooms were located in wooden cabins with bunk beds, and there was a large communal dining area, kitchen, and living room. Although the kitchen was slow (apparently we weren’t the only ones trying to save money), it was a great place to meet people, and we ended up becoming close with 2 sisters from New Zealand. After bumping into each other twice in the kitchen, we decided that we mine as well eat together and hang out. It was nice to get a bit closer to people, and spend some time getting to know them. Traveling is great for meeting people, but you often don’t get past the basic small talk; “where have you been”, “where did you come from”, “how long are you here for”, “where are you from”, etc.
We had decided to go to Interlaken to see the Swiss Alps, so of course, we spent a few days doing that. In Switzerland, it is cool because there are trains that go deep into the Alps, so that you can get a good hike in in the Alps. This was awesome to me, because you often have to hike for 10 hours, or for a few days, to get deep into the Canadian Rockies. Our first day hiking, we took a train to Lauterbrunnen, and then walked through a beautiful valley to Trumbellbache falls. Here, there was a set of 10 waterfalls and we walked through caves and passage ways in order to see them all. The hike was only about 2 hours, and was definitely on the easier side, but it was some of the most incredible scenery I have ever seen. The following day, we embarked on a longer hike. We took a train to Schynige Platte, which is at the top of a series of rolling mountains. The first part of the hike was over rolling hills and through cow fields, with a picture perfect view of Interlaken, Jungfrau (the tallest mountain in the area), and the surrounding mountain ranges. We made our way up, and I found myself out of breath and panting from the altitude. We stopped multiple times to snap photos, rest, and eat, and although the hike was quite challenging, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and completely worth the physical exertion. After hiking for 6 hours, we took a gondola into the town of Grindelwald, where we caught a train back to Interlaken.
The week that we spent in Switzerland went by far too quickly, and before I knew it, it was over. Despite being so expensive, Switzerland has easily made the cut for my top 10 favourite countries I have ever visited. I’m looking forward to spending longer in Switzerland, hiking, exploring, eating chocolate and perhaps eating out… if I have more money!