With the Swiss Pass, you can easily catch the train and city hop your way across the country, but knowing my family, it was best to not go overboard with it. Instead, we chose a few cities to settle down and get comfortable in over the course of a week: Lausanne in the Western region, Gimmelwald and Mürren in the Bernese Highlands, and Lucerne in the Central region. So it seems that we didn’t go very far North, South, or East, but I’ve learned to make peace with the fact that I’ll never be able to see everything I want to, and this realisation has allowed me to soak in the present moments without stressing about the next destinations (at least, without stressing out about it too much). Vacation is meant to be enjoyed leisurely after all!
Lausanne (West)
I would have been happy spending my whole time in Lausanne on the balcony of our penthouse suite of Hôtel de la Paix, overlooking Lake Geneva! Heck, I would have been happy spending my whole time inside the room, sitting by the non-working fireplace with a book! But one thing you can count on me leaving the room for? Food.
After dropping off our luggage, we went looking for dinner. A “Sushi Shop x Tetris” sign caught our eye. It was terrible. Would not recommend. Easily the worst meal of our entire trip, including our meals in Vienna and Budapest. My teriyaki salmon bowl wasn’t that bad, but the stuff everyone else ordered didn’t taste like anything. But at least our curiosity about the Tetris collab was satiated and it was a laugh; for those wondering, the collab was take-out boxes for sushi shaped as Tetris pieces.
To make the most of the cool evening air, we strolled around the cobbled streets before heading back to the hotel. We stumbled upon La Grappe d’Or and spent 15 minutes standing in the middle of the street snapping photos of the gorgeous pink exterior complemented by teal shutters and draping plants. The warm glow and chatter emanating from within was so inviting, but alas, we had already eaten! I think the bistro might have been too hip for me anyway. Apparently David Bowie and Grace Kelly dined there before?? (Here‘s an informative blog post I found of someone else’s dining experience.)
Another discovery was Cuppin’s. I was drawn in by their chalkboard advertising bubble tea and returned the next day when it was open to investigate. It was just fruity tea with mushy tapioca (no milk tea). The apricot cupcake was really good though. That I would recommend. Good enough to go out of your way for? Maybe not. But if you’re in the area, why not nip in for a bite? They also sell cute accessories and home goods that would be fun to browse.
Now for the touristy stuff, we wandered Old Town, guided by the farmer’s market (the peony stall was poppin! People swarmed around to buy them, not just to hang back and take photos like me), and hung around at Place de la Palud to see the animated clock chime behind Fontaine de la Justice.
We had the best fries of our trip at Holy Cow!, including our meals in Vienna and Budapest. Another good eat was Pz Pizza, where you can create your own pizza or order a special from their menu.
Gimmelwald & Mürren (Bernese Highlands)
From Lausanne, we caught the Golden Pass panoramic train to Interlaken. (Peep the first photo of this post, which was taken from the panoramic train!) You could also order food and drinks on the panoramic train. My dad ordered a cappuccino, which I stole a single sip of. It was the only coffee of the whole trip that didn’t taste burnt or bitter; it was actually sweet and delicious! Sometimes I think I imagined it. I’m still not sure. I wish I got one for myself!
From Interlaken, we hopped on a bus to Stechelberg, and then transferred to a gondola to make our way up the mountain. The gondola takes you through Stechelberg, Gimmelwald, Mürren, Birg, and Schilthorn, in ascending order. The gondola is super convenient, and a trip to another village only takes a few minutes. Or you could hike.
With all these villages so close to each other, it was bad planning on our part to stay two nights in Gimmelwald and one night in Mürren when we could have just stayed put in Gimmelwald (or in Mürren, but Mürren is a resort town and more expensive) and then made day trips.
In fact, on our first full day in Gimmelwald, we took the gondola up to Schilthorn to have a breakfast buffet at the Piz Gloria, the rotating restaurant with a view of the Alps featured in James Bond: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, made a pit stop on our way down at Birg to see the Alps from another perspective and warmed up in Bistro Birg with coffee, then made a pit stop at Mürren to buy and stock up on snacks since Gimmelwald doesn’t have any grocery stores (and only has one restaurant, Pension Gimmelwald), and finally made it back to Gimmelwald. All in a day’s work!
Now, before I move onto our time in Mürren, let me say a little more about Gimmelwald. We weren’t prepared for how sparse it was, though we could have figured that out if we did any bit of research. Anywho, it’s just a few hotels and B&Bs; we stayed at Esther’s Guesthouse (the first photo of this section was the view from our room). Again, there were no grocery stores and only one restaurant, Pension Gimmelwald (second photo of this section), which is actually part of a hotel, and you have to make your meal reservation a night in advance, and they only have one set menu. It’s a very homey and charming vibe though.
However, since we weren’t prepared, we didn’t make a meal reservation for the first night. Once we dumped our luggage at Esther’s Guesthouse, we lamented about how we were stranded in the middle of nowhere. Not one to let her cubs starve, Mom caught the gondola from Gimmelwald back down to Stechelberg to look for food, figuring that there must be a little shop down there where the bus stop was. Sure enough, we got a text from her in our family chat announcing, “Congratulations! We are saved! I bought 4 sausages & some food for lunch or breakfast. NEVER GIVE UP! I’ll take the 7:25 gondola back.” Iconic.
Okay, now onto our one day in Mürren. I actually started getting sick, so I spent the one day in Mürren in our hotel, Hotel Eiger. My brother stayed behind with me because he doesn’t like going out in general. My parents, on the other hand, ventured to Jungfraujoch, the top of Europe! They brought back souvenir baseball caps for us lol. I don’t feel too bad about missing out on Jungfraujoch though, because the weather was bad that day (actually it was bad our whole time in the Bernese Highlands, but luckily we had a few moments where the clouds cleared out, as you can see in my photos) and I don’t think my parents were able to see anything out the windows or observation deck, but they made the most of it and checked out the indoor ice palace. Anyways, as my mom says, it’s not about seeing there so much as being there and getting bragging rights. Iconic, I tell you.
My brother and I did make one adventure in Mürren though. I dragged him out with me to grab a hot drink at Cafe Liv to soothe my cold. When we made it back to the hotel, he said the benefits of the cafe trip were negative, as it was very cold out and we got caught in a little drizzle. But hey, you can’t measure the pricelessness of adventure!
To close our time in the mountains, we warmed up over dinner at Hotel Edelweiss, which was recommended for its view, but again, it was too foggy to see anything that day. Nevertheless, we had a great meal with our first Swiss cheese fondue of the trip, sizzling steaks on hot stones, and burgers.
Lucerne (Central)
Not to be dramatic or anything, but our Lucerne Lake View Apartment inspired me to reinvent my whole lifestyle. I only have this one measly photo of the living room with a view of Hofkirche St. Leodegar, but I’m currently pestering my dad for his photos of the apartment, and maybe you’ll get a whole apartment tour from me obsessing about this gorgeous space. We also had a roof deck, which is where the second photo in this section was taken from.
Down the block from apartment was Amorino, which we visited twice for gelato. Another notable eat was Schiff Restaurant Wilhelm Tell, a restaurant on a boat, docked on Lake Lucerne. They had cheese fondue and “meat fondue,” but for some reason their cheese fondue is seasonal and it wasn’t in season, so we just went for the meat fondue. It’s basically hot pot haha. But I like hot pot a lot more. I think the meat fondue was more about the cold sauces (of which there were five), but I didn’t particularly love any of them and just went for the barbecue sauce. It was a fun experience though! If meat fondue sounds appealing to you, you’ll be happy to know that you can get unlimited meat refills. I could barely make it through my first platter though.
We polished off our time in Switzerland in a sweet way with desserts from Confiserie Bachmann, brought back to my beloved apartment.
Next up: Vienna travel diary
PS: snapshots from switzerland