Switzerland

So, I am still behind on the blog! We are now in Austria and I am just starting to right for Switzerland! Hopefully I can get this up before we leave Austria and start a new country haha! Below is our itinerary for Switzerland:

Zurich- Overnight

Lucerne- 2 days

Bern- 1 days

Lausanne- 3 days

Zermatt- 2 days

Lugano- 2 days

Interlaken- 3 days

(Re-do) Lucerne- 1 day

We arrived in Zurich in the evening, had to get our rental car and then drive to the hotel. We knew we were getting in late and didn’t really plan to spend time in Zurich, so we just booked a hotel right by the airport. Getting the rental car took forever! I think Hertz was completely out of cars so people who had not made a reservation in advance couldn’t get a car and they weren’t happy. We also had some difficulty getting our car because we were doing such a long rental. Evidently all the cars in the category that we booked were unavailable for a 9 week rental. Although it took a while to sort out, it wound up working in our favor as Hertz was forced to give us a free upgrade! We wound up with a really nice Lexus hybrid with leather seats, navigation, and a moon roof! Honestly, I think this is the most excited I had seen Ross during the entire trip! He immediately starting googling all the features of the car and as soon as we got in it he was playing around with all the features. I actually thought he might sleep in the car haha. That night and the next morning were pretty uneventful. It rained the whole night and was pretty overcast the next day. We headed out of Zurich the next afternoon for 2 days in Lucerne.

We had done a ton of research on Lucerne and had seen from pictures online how beautiful it was! Bright blue skies over a beautiful city on a lake, surrounded by mountains. Well, unfortunately for us, that was not the picture we got. It was cloudy, foggy, and cold the whole time we were there. We had planned to do this whole day excursion where you take a boat to hike up Mt. Pilatus and then take the cog wheel back down. The views were supposed to be unreal up there. We also planned to take a boat tour on the lake where you can see all the different surrounding mountains and lake views of the city. Well, in reality, all we could really do was walk around the city a bit. It was still very pretty and we still enjoyed it, but we knew we were missing out! We spent our 1^st day walking around the city center. We took pictures at Chapel Bridge and the surrounding area. Probably our favorite part of the first day was walking up to the top of the hillside to these old historical towers. There was a nice park up there and the views, although grey, were still very nice. We also found a soccer field up there. Ross was chomping at the bit to go kick a ball around so we went down there for awhile. We were going to stop at a bar near Chapel Bridge for a drink on our way back in to town…man were we in for a shock! We were told how expensive Switzerland was but we didn’t fully understand until that moment. A pint of beer was $10! Then we looked at the food menu and it got even worse! We basically threw in the towel for the day and decided to get McDonald’s to-go and eat in our hotel room. Even that was expensive! 2 meals was over $30! 

Side Note: After posting pictures from Lucerne I had a friend, who lives in Germany, comment on how expensive it was there. He said he had been and all he could afford to eat was the McDonalds at the train station. We had a good laugh at that because that was the exact place we ate for 2 nights!

Our saving grace was that breakfast at our hotel was amazing! The hotel itself wasn’t great, but breakfast made up for it. The bread…oh the bread! We must have eaten a whole loaf between the 2 of us hahaha! This was the day we turned into little kleptos as well. Understanding how expensive it was going to be to eat, we decided to make sandwiches at breakfast and sneak them into my bag for later. We also took some fruit and hard boiled eggs to round out the meal. The joys of travel on a budget in a super expensive country! We were hoping the weather would clear up for our last day in town, but it did not. We tried to do a boat ride on the lake anyway and that wound up being a waste. Poor Ross was in shorts so he was absolutely freezing and it was so foggy that you wouldn’t even know there were mountains there. We couldn’t see anything! Ross was so cold that he gave up and headed back to the hotel after the boat ride. I was feeling very stir crazy and decided to stay out and just walk around town a bit. The streets around the city center were very nice. There were lots of little unique shops so I just spent a few hours window shopping. I even found a place called Chocolate World that had a chocolate fountain on one of the walls and coupons for free Lindt Truffles…score! So, that was it. Lucerne was a bit of a bust. Not it’s fault…we just had bad weather. Don’t worry though, we actually got a bit of a do-over later in our trip.

Ross freezing on the boat tour 

Chapel Bridge

Our next stop was Bern, which was only a 90 minute drive west. It was still pretty overcast the morning we left Lucerne and all we could do was hope for sunshine later in the day. 

Side Note: Parking…when I was looking at hotels in Switzerland, I made a point to only book places that had parking, since we had the car. I learned the hard way that I needed to search “free parking” not just “parking” both Lucerne and Bern had really expensive parking rates at the hotel and very limited spots. This was basically the problem we had everywhere we stayed and we didn’t really account for such high parking fees in our budget…whoops!

The parking at our hotel in Bern was crazy. We had to pull the car into this tiny car elevator, then go down a floor or 2 to park the car. Getting in and out of the elevator was such a tight squeeze and then trying to turn the car to maneuver it into a spot was even more difficult! On a positive note though, by the time we got the car parked and checked in to our room the sun finally came out! We were so excited that we immediately hit the streets to start exploring Bern. As the capital city of Switzerland, it was a nice mix of newer, modern buildings and then well preserved architecture in the old town. It also sits in the crook of the Aare River. We walked through the UNESCO-listed old town first exploring the old buildings and Renaissance fountains in the old city center. We then headed across the bridge to the Bear Park and then walked along the river for at least an hour. The water in the river was so blue! After walking along it for a while we started to see heads bobbing up and down in the water…people were just floating in it! At first we thought it was just a few random crazies but then learned that it is a big tradition in the city to float down the river. There were even directional signs on where to exit the river. It was such a nice day and so many people were out in the park. Floating the river, lying on the banks, doing yoga and playing volleyball…everyone was out and about! Near sunset we decided to walk up to the Rose Garden. It is another park that is up on a hill overlooking Bern and it was beautiful. There was a restaurant at the top and tons of people were having drinks there or just sitting in the park for the sunset. We absolutely loved Bern and were sad we only had one day there. 

Bridge over the Aare River 

Sunset from the Rose Garden overlooking Bern

The next morning we were on the road again. We stuffed ourselves at the yummy breakfast, stole a bunch of stuff for lunch, got our car out of the crazy parking garage and headed on to Lausanne. We decided to spend 3 days there because there is a lot to see and do in that region and we could have a home base for a few days. Our first day in Lausanne was a Saturday and I could tell Ross was itching to watch some sports. Both football (aka soccer) and ruby were on. We decided to hold off on the sightseeing that day and go watch some sports instead. We found a pub down the street, grabbed some beers and had a lazy day and early evening there. We spent our entire budget on beers that day hahaha! At 9 Swiss francs a pint we went broke pretty fast! Luckily we had stolen stuff for sandwiches at breakfast so we were able to just have those for dinner…score! 

The next day we were up early to drive to Montreux to hike Rochers de Naye. The drive to Montreux was very pretty. It was about a 30min drive through rolling hills and vineyards along the lake. We drove up through the city on this windy road until we reached the last place you can park. You can either take a train to the top of Rochers de Naye or hike up, which takes about 2 ½ hours and we decided to hike it. It was a really nice hike and the views were spectacular over the lake. We even saw a group of people paragliding off the top. Our original plan was to hike up and back down but we changed our mind after the very end of the hike. For the most part it was a pretty gradual incline on a decent path but the last half mile was awful! It was straight up and there were tons of slippery small rocks that made it hard to get a grip with your shoes. There were people hiking down and they were slipping everywhere. We decided to scratch the hike down and take the train instead to save my knees. There was a small restaurant at the summit with lounge chairs overlooking the views down below. It was a beautiful day so we grabbed a lounge chair, had some snacks and relaxed. To the left you could see over the lake and the city of Montreux and to the right you could see out over the mountains…it was spectacular! We hiked around a bit at the top and then took the train back down to the car. We decided to drive through the city to see Chillon Castle, which is perched on the side of the lake. The city of Montreux was beautiful and we got some really nice pictures of the castle. Per the usual and our budget,  we had McDonalds for dinner and went to bed. 

Hiking Rochers de Naye

Views from the top of Rochers de Naye

Chillon Castle

We decided to spend our last day in Lausanne exploring the city. Lausanne, Montreux, and Geneva all sit on Lake Geneva which is massive! We walked down to the lake and the area called D’Ouchy, which I kept calling “Ouchy,” like what you would say to a kid who has a cut or a boo boo haha. You could tell that D’Ouchy has a lot of money. There were huge houses on massive lots all along the lake. This is also where the Olympic headquarters are and the Olympic Museum. We spent a few hours just walking along the lake. There were tons of people out sunbathing, playing in the water and hanging out in the parks. While we were walking along the lake we saw this huge house up on the hill with beautiful gardens in the front. There was a sign out front of the gate and it turned out to be the FIVB (federation of international volleyball) headquarters! When I was playing in Europe, that was the league I played in, so it was cool to see the headquarters. We wound up stoping at a little café near the water for crepes. Ross had Nutella and banana and I had chocolate and banana. The crepes were massive! We basically spent the whole day down by the lake just walking around. That night we changed it up for dinner and found a kebab shop. Typical me, my eyes were bigger than my belly, and we each got a kebab and I asked for a side of fries. The kebabs were probably the biggest I have ever had and the fries were enough to feed 4 people…whoops! They were really good though and it was a nice switched from McDonald’s. 

Ross enjoying his huge crepe

Lake Geneva

Views from the lake of D’Ouchy

We were headed to Zermatt in the morning and we decided to check the weather that night. Our heart’s sank when we saw the forecast. Of our 3 days in Zermatt, only the morning and afternoon of our first day were supposed to be nice and rain was scheduled the rest of the time. We had our hearts set on this hike called Five Lakes. It takes you on a loop past five lakes and has views of The Matterhorn the whole time. We would not be able to do it in the rain. We made the executive decision to get up very early to drive to Zermatt so we could hike Five Lakes the afternoon of our first day there. The drive to Zermatt was epic! I tried to take videos of the scenery but there is no way they did it any justice. Beautiful mountains, green green hillsides, dozens of waterfalls and quaint little ski towns. It was breathtaking. Zermatt is a car free city so we had to park about 10 miles away and take a train in to town.

Side Note: My parents went to Zermatt when they were living in Switzerland and my dad has talked about it constantly during my 36 years of life. “You have to go to the Matterhorn!” “Zermatt is the coolest city every…you better go there!” “Matterhorn Matterhorn Matterhorn!” And on and on and on hahaha! I wanted to visit Zermatt but it became a must see after dad talking it up all these years!

We arrived in the city and I was immediately blown away! The mountains were unbelievable! It was so green and all the wood ski lodges were covered in hanging flower baskets. Since it is car free there are just horse drawn buggies, golf carts, and bikes in the streets. I was in love the second we arrived. The walk to the hotel was a pain in the butt though. We had to walk up a huge hill with all these tiny steps…the ones that are just a little too short to comfortably take them one at a time but not quite short enough to take them two at a time. We were tired, sweaty and a bit grumpy once we got up the hill but it was worth it! Hotel Capricorn was an absolute gem! We chose it from the pictures we saw online of the outside. It was a wood ski lodge with bright red writing, bright red shutters, and tons of flower baskets…we had to stay there! It looked just like the pictures and our room was so nice. We had a huge bed, couch (score) and a huge balcony with a view of The Matterhorn! It was perfect. We quickly dropped off our stuff, changed into our hiking gear and headed to do the Five Lakes hike. We had to take a funicular half way up the mountain and then a ski lift to the top. The 2^nd we got off the ski lift I knew the hike was going to be amazing! The views of The Matterhorn were already impressive and we hadn’t even started the hike yet! The trail was a circular loop that started at the ski lift, goes around 5 different lakes and ends at the funicular that you take back down to the bottom. The first lake was breathtaking! The sky was so clear and lake was so blue that it was making the most incredible reflection of the mountains. We continued around past the first lake to start our decent down to the second one. There was a bench just sitting there overlooking the lake below and The Matterhorn in the background. We decided to stop and have lunch here. I cannot explain how in love with this hike I was. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been. The last three lakes were not as impressive but it had also gotten a bit cloudy so I think that took away from it a bit. We took so long time exploring the begining part of the hike that we didn’t have much time to catch the last ride back down on the furnicular so we had to book it on the last 40 minutes, which were all up hill. We made it in 20 minutes though and had plenty of time to spare. We got back to our hotel, cracked a few beers and sat on our patio to enjoy the views. We could now rest easy if we had bad weather the next two days.

My new buddy, Curtains

Ross & The Matterhorn

Our lunch view on Five Lakes hike

Hotel Capricorn

I was so excited for the next day because Casey, Malerie, and Cameron were coming to town! I wasn’t sure if we would be able to meet up with them at all in Zermatt but it turns out they would be in early enough that we could see them! We met them at the train station and road in a horse drawn buggy with them to their hotel. It was so good to see them and I couldn’t believe how big Cam had gotten! He had just turned 1 and had changed so much since I last saw him in February. We let them relax for the afternoon and met them for dinner that night. We went back to our room to relax ourselves. We were sitting on the patio with the door open. Ross went inside and discovered a bird had somehow gotten into our room! Poor thing was so confused and scared. It kept trying to escape and kept smacking into the windows. It was so sad. I ran inside and was trying to help it….what does Ross do???? We runs out on the patio, hides from the bird, starts filming me. He doesn’t help at all! Meanwhile, I’m screaming at him to help and am running around trying to save this poor bird before it runs into the window and breaks it’s neck! He finally hit the window so hard he knocked himself out. I was able to grab a towel, wrap him up in it and take him outside. It was quite a spectacle and Ross caught it all on video hahaha! I told him if it is a spider next time, it’s on him to save it, not me! That night we found a yummy place in town that served local Swiss food and fondu. It rained off and on that day so we told Casey and Malerie to keep their fingers crossed for good weather the next day so they could do some hiking. We wound up back at their very fancy hotel after dinner. They had a hot tub so we hung out there and then just chilled in the bar (which was closed) and caught up. Ross had not met Casey or Malerie yet so I was just happy that they were finally getting to know each other. 

The next morning we woke up, crossed our fingers, and looked out the windows…it was sunny! We were so excited that Casey and Malerie were going to be able to get out and enjoy some hiking! They decided they wanted to do the Five Lakes hike and we loved it so much that we decided to do it again with them. They have this amazing Osprey hiking pack for Cam. Casey can hike with him on his back and he loves it…it’s like he is king of the mountain up there! I didn’t know it could be possible, but our second time at Five Lakes was even better than the first! It stayed clear the whole day and was just stunning. I have looked at the pictures so many times and they place doesn’t even look real. They sky was so blue and the clouds so perfectly white that it all looks photoshopped. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day. I know I will look back on this beautiful day with my favorite people, doing what I love most, as one of the best days of my life! 

Five Lakes hike day 2

With the fam at the 1st lake

Matterhorn in the background!

Cam the adventure baby!

We spent so much time hiking that we didn’t get out of Zermatt until late afternoon and we still had to drive 3 hours to Lugano that day. There were two ways to get to Lugano: A straight shot across that was a shorter drive through Italy or up and around that was longer but would keep us in Switzerland the whole time. We, regrettably decided to take the shorter route through Italy. The drive started out fine. We were winding up through the mountains but the roads were large enough and well paved. Then we hit Italy…yikes! We had to switch back up and over the mountains and the roads were insanely scary. Literally, one lane for 2 cars passing each other and switchbacks that were so windy you couldn’t see around the bends at all. And then there were the Italian drivers! They would just come flying around the bends like they were on a suicide mission! We would be coming around a bend blind just praying there wasn’t a crazy Italian whipping around the other side. I pretty much held my breath through that whole stretch of road. I never thought I would ever be so happy to be back in Switzerland! We somehow made it safely to Lugano, got checked into our place and got the car parked. 

We rented an AirBnB for our 2 nights in Lugano so that we could all stay together. It was a 2 bedroom apartment on the hills over looking the city center. It was perfect for Casey, Mal & Cam because it had a crib, and tons of baby toys. It was also overlooking Lake Lugano, which was beautiful! We decided to come here because our parents lived here for a year when my dad was playing pro basketball back in the 70s. They loved living in Lugano and loved Switzerland so much that we knew we had to come see the city they fell in love with and talked so much about with us.

Side Note: My mom made scrapbooks for all the places they lived and traveled in the 70s. They were huge, thick, heavy books full of pictures of their lives abroad. I used to pull them off the shelves in the family room as a little girl and look through them. I was in awe of all these far away places, especially Switzerland. I would flip through the pictures and say, “someday I am going to go to these places and have great adventures just like my parents.” I would not be doing what I am doing today if it weren’t for them.

We had a lazy morning that first day. We were all exhausted from Zermatt and all the travel. We finally had a kitchen so we cooked a big breakfast and just relaxed. Later in the day we decided to take the funicular up Mount San Salvatore. We walked through the city center and down along the lake to get there. The city center was beautiful with its winding roads and old buildings. The walk along the lake was so pretty as well. The walkways were lined with these old trees on each side that came together and formed a tunnel shading us. Unfortunately, Cam was having a bad day. Casey and Mal made the mistake of trying to put a hat on him and you would have thought they were trying to kill him with the fit he went into! He then decided to hold a grudge for the rest of the day…babies I tell you haha! The funicular ride up Mount San Salvatore was very pretty and views at the top were insane. You could see all of Lugano, across the whole lake and all the way to Milan! It was so clear! Casey and Malerie had to take Cameron down a little early because he was still holding his hat grudge so Ross and I stayed a bit longer, had a beer at the top, and then came back. We watched the sunset from the patio at our apartment and then cooked dinner and had a wonderful evening in!

Walking along Lake Lugano

Sunset over the lake

Views from Mount San Salvatore

We had to check out the next day. We were trying to decided what to do that day before the drive to Interlaken when Casey asked if we were planning to go to Valle Verzasca. I had no idea what he was talking about! He reminded me that it was a place, up in the mountains near Lugano that mom and dad had talked about. There was a river that runs through the area and huge boulders you can climb around on. The river has run over the boulders for so long that it created rocks slides, swimming holes and places to cliff jump. I couldn’t believe it, but I had no memory of mom and dad talking about this place. We looked it up on the map and decided to go. It was about an hour drive from Lugano and man was it worth it! The river runs through this little city that looks like it hasn’t changed since the 1600s and there is an old pedestrian bridge across the river that dates back to Roman times…it was insane! We decided to explore and walk along the boulders that run through the river. The water was so clear and blue, it was unbelievable! For my St. Louis friends, it reminded me of a less crowded version of Johnson Shut-Ins. People were swimming and jumping off the rocks into the river. It looked really cold but Casey and I decided we had to jump in, in honor of our parents. Holy shit was it cold! I hit the water and I swear I thought my lungs were going to come out of my mouth! It took me a minute to catch my breath before I could even swim to the edge to get out! It was so cold, but so worth it! We made our way over to the old bridge where a bunch of people were jumping off into the water. It was insane…the bridge was sooo high! Casey jumped off one of the big boulders near the bridge and then we went and changed and headed out. I am so glad Casey remembered this place and that we got to go! From Valle Verzasca we headed to Interlaken for 3 days. 

Old Roman bridge over the river

Valle Verzasca

Valle Verzasca with my brother

Old city on the river at Valle Verzasca

The drive took forever because there was a huge backup about hour into our drive! For some reason they had a traffic light system set up on the freeway to get through this tunnel. It would let a few cars through and then we would wait a few minutes and then it would let a few more cars through. It wound up delaying us over an hour! The tunnel we drove through was insane. I am not sure exactly how long it was but I think it was about 20km long…definitely the longest tunnel I have ever driven through! Once we got through the traffic we had a nice drive. We had to go up through the mountains to reach the valley where Interlaken is. The drive through the mountains was beautiful! Waterfalls and lakes and lush green everywhere! As we came to the peak and started our decent down into Interlaken it started pouring down rain! We couldn’t seen anything but I could tell that the views must have been breathtaking. We arrived in Interlaken around 6pm and checked into our apartment. It was so nice! It had 2 huge bedrooms, a very nice kitchen and big balcony! The beds were the most comfortable beds we had in months…it was the dream! We got kebabs for dinner and sat on the patio and had a few beers. Randomly, one of Casey’s friends from college was in Interlaken as well so he came and met us for a bit.

The next day we drove to Lauterbrunnen to spend the day. It is only about a 30 minute drive from Interlaken and is down in the same valley. There is a huge waterfall there called Staubbach Waterfall. We went and took pictures there and walked around the town. This part of Switzerland was hands down the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It took my breath away. We tried to go to another waterfall but we couldn’t take Cameron in so we decided to park the car and just walk around and explore. We wound up on this side road that wasn’t really a road, more like a walking path. There was a campsite and a few houses but other than that it was just mountains, waterfalls, trees and streams. There were other people out walking or riding their bikes around the area. It was absolutely stunning! Honestly, This was the prettiest place I had ever been! And this is when the most random thing happened…Casey’s bad toe was bothering him so Ross was carrying Cameron on his back in the pack. We had been walking for about a mile when it started to rain. We could see that it was going to start really coming down hard at any minute. Neither Casey or Malerie could run and Ross had Cam on his back so I offered to run back to the car and drive it back to come get them. I took off running back down the path and through the campsite. It was a lot further than I thought it was! I came out of the campsite and turned left onto the little road where we had parked. As I started down that road I passed a covered bus stop where 2 people were standing with their bikes to stay out of the rain. All of a sudden one of them yelled, “OMG, Lindsey Noll???” I looked up and it was my good friend and old volleyball teammate from Huntington Beach, Bethany, and her husband, Jeff! I mean, what are the odds?!?! I ran over to them and we hugged and jumped up in down out of excitement. Then, I told them to wait there while I went to the car and picked up everyone. We wound up hanging out for a bit under an awning in the campsite just catching up. I still cannot believe that happened…the world is so small sometimes! The rain cut our day of exploration short so we headed back to the house, cooked dinner and just hung out. It had been so nice having a kitchen the last few days and being able to cook!

Walking around Lauterbrunnen

Cam at the waterfall

Beautiful Lauterbrunnen 

Randomly running into my friends Bethany & Jeff

The next day it rained the whole day! It was definitely a bummer because we basically lost an entire day in that area. Ross and I used the day to play catch up and Mal and Casey took Cam to an indoor play park, which he loved! We had decided that if it was clear the next day we would go to Jungfraujoch, which is the highest train station in Europe. 

We were a little unsure about doing Jungfraujoch. We didn’t know a ton about it and it was really expensive! Basically, the most expensive thing we would do during our whole trip. We read a ton of reviews online and talked to friends who had done it and they all said it was worth the money so we decided to go for it. We drove to Grindelwald, parked the car and hoped on the first of 2 trains to get to the top. The first train ride was beautiful! The mountains were so green and lush and the views back down on the cities were spectacular! We had to change trains about ¾ of the way up and that stop look amazing! Tons of people were getting off the train to hike and we were a little jealous. About an hour later we reached to station at Jungfraujoch. The peak is 13,640ft and there is an Observatory as well. Sadly, we were very disappointed in Jungfraujoch. We were expecting to have a lot more historical information at the top about the building of the station, the people who first summited the peak and about the scientific research at the Observatory. It was mostly just a tourist trap with restaurants, souvenir shops and a couple tacky exhibits with not much information. You could go outside and see the peak and the glacier and also go tubing and zip lining, but you had to pay extra for that. The whole experience was definitely a let down, especially considering how much we paid for it. The only highlight from the trip were all the tourists who had never been in the snow before! People were lying in the snow taking pictures and getting their clothes completely soaked. Also, watching them try to walk on the snow was hilarious! They could barely move and were constantly slipping and sliding around. A couple people even slipped and fell! We stayed for about 2 hours and then we were over it and we took the train back down. Looking back and knowing what we know now, we would not have spent our money to go. We were all a little bummed when we got back down. Casey and Malerie had to catch their train to Lucerne but we didn’t have to be anywhere fast so we decided to stay in Grindelwald for a few hours and explore. The town was beautiful! I had read about a toboggan run you could take in the mountains right by the city and it was supposed to be super fun so we decided to check it out. We had to take a gondola up the mountain and then buy tickets to do the toboggan run. We had already spent a bunch of money that day so we decided to just buy 1 ticket each and if we liked it we could buy more. It was AWESOME! We basically sat on these little sleds on wheels that had a hand break in the middle. If you pushed the break forward you went fast and the more you pulled it back, the more it would slow you down. Ross immediately made a comment to me about not hitting the break for the whole ride. Me, being as competitive as I am, decided I was going to show him and not hit the break at all! Ross took off first and I followed after him a few minutes later. It started out kind of slow but as I went down the hill and gained momentum, I really started to pick up speed. On the second to last turn I was going so fast that my butt actually flew out of my seat. The only reason I stayed on the toboggan was because I was holding onto the hand break. As I came into the last turn there was a huge sign that said, “SLOW DOWN.” All I could hear was Ross taunting me about not using the break, so I did not slow down. I hit that turn so fast that I actually flew off my toboggan! I crashed pretty hard and skinned my knee and my shoulder…it was worth it though! The run was really fun but also super pretty. As you are coming down the mountain side you have beautiful views of the city of Grindelwald below and the surrounding mountains. Everything is so green! We had such a good time that we decided to buy a bundle pack of tickets so we could ride a bunch more times. I am so happy we decided to do the toboggan run because it put a smile on our faces and ended the day on a positive note!

View from the train up to Jungfraujoch 

Top of Jungfraujoch 

View from the mountain where we went tobogganing

On the toboggan run

Since we had such bad weather the 3 days we were in Lucerne, we decided to drive back up and meet Casey and Malerie for a “do over day”. We stayed in a cheap hotel outside of town and just took the bus in the next morning to meet up with them. We saw them for a bit in the morning and then said our goodbyes. It was so nice getting to spend the week with them in such a wonderful place. As much as I love traveling I miss seeing my family. Ross and I decided to take the same boat tour we had taken our 1^st time in Lucerne. This time it was a beautiful day and the sun was shinning! It is amazing what a difference a clear and sunny day can make…everything was so much more beautiful! The boat tour was wonderful and the views of the mountains and the city from the boat were perfect! Since our re-do boat trip we have gone back and looked at the pictures from the cloudy day and just laughed at what a waste that was…we didn’t even know there were mountains to see from the boat hahaha! Even though we didn’t get a ton of time I am happy we got a bit of a redo because Lucerne was such a beautiful city and we did not get to appreciate it the first time around.

After our boat tour we went back, grabbed the car, and took off for a few hour stop in Liechtenstein and then on to Austria!

Chapel Bridge-last day with the fam 

Re-do of our boat tour

Enjoying the sun on our boat tour

Overall Thoughts: Switzerland is by far the most beautiful, amazing place I have ever been! I cannot believe it took me this long to visit, but I finally made it. It was even more special that I got to see it with my brother and got to some of our parents favorite places. Yes, it was super expensive but honestly worth it! Ross and I have already been discussing our next trip back!

Negative: The only bummer for us was Jungfraujoch. We definitely did not think it was worth the $200 per person they charged. If we could do it over we would have gotten off at the stop before Jungfraujoch and spent the day hiking or spent $200 on toboggan runs!!!