Switzerland in Photos

Lucerne: September 24 - 26

Interlaken: September 26 - 28 (Mt. Pilatus September 28)

This entry has way too many pictures because Switzerland is just so phenomenally beautiful. We visited Lucerne and Interlaken, both in central Switzerland, both near lakes and surrounded by mountains. Best scenery ever.

Lucerne is probably my favorite place that we've visited so far. It's a very old city, with a medieval wall and a bridge, shown here, called Kappellbrucke that dates back to the 1300s. The historic architecture of the city sits on a crystal clear lake, nestled in a valley at the base of the Alps, including Mount Pilatus.

We got off the night train in Lucerne around 9 am. I was expecting to see magnificent mountains rising high above the city, but we instead found it to be cloaked in a dark fog, with no mountains to be seen. Tired and disoriented, we made our way to the tourist office to try to find a hostel. With the help of a very nice Swiss woman, found the Backpacker's Lucerne, a lovely hostel within walking distance of town and just steps away from the lake. The cozy accommodations made us feel right at home. The hostel's numerous amenities included scooter rentals, so we took advantage and rolled away to explore the city.

After about an hour of exploring together, Max decided he needed some rest and a shower, so he went back to the hostel and I decided to continue exploring on my own. I wandered through various squares, "Kornmarkt" (corn market) and "Weinplatz" (wine plaza) admiring the painted facades of every building and taking tons of pictures. Lucerne is home to zillions of swans and ducks who patrol the lake, following tourists with bread and generally looking beautiful and serene.

One of Lucerne's beautiful swans.

Paintings inside of the Kappelbrucke. They depict scenes of medieval Lucerne. Part of the bridge burned down in 1993 and had to be rebuilt.

The bridge also had these beautiful red flowers hanging all along its exterior.

The fog finally cleared up in the afternoon. Though the mountains were still invisible, the blue sky made the lake even more beautiful.

Max wading in the lake.

While we were picnicking by the lake for lunch, Max spotted a pickup soccer game and eagerly ran over to see if he could play. He hadn't gotten to play soccer at all during the trip and he was really excited to join in. The guys were from all over the world: Argentina, Egypt, Italy, Spain, another guy from the US, and actually no one from Switzerland. They stopped playing before I could get a picture, he's pretty sweaty here. Meanwhile, it was so sunny and hot by this point that I went swimming in the lake. That afternoon was a highlight of the trip for both of us.

We took the rest of the day pretty easy and the next morning we awoke to clouds again. Undeterred, we headed into town to continue our sightseeing, starting with the Dying Lion of Lucerne, called Lowendenkmal. Designed to commemorate the members of the Swiss Guard who protected Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution, Mark Twain called it "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world." It is definitely a very sad lion, and is made even more moving by its enormous size. Max and I estimated that it was probably about 10 feet high and 20 feet long.

This picture gives an idea of the scale of the memorial.

We continued exploring, heading up for the hills above town. We took a break at this playground along the way and had some fun with this merry-go-round type ride.

We continued higher, passing cow pastures and traditional wooden Swiss houses until we came to this apple tree overlooking the city. I couldn't really get a good picture of town because it was still foggy at this point, but the meadow itself was beautiful. The apples were delicious and free!

Past the apple tree we came to some cow pastures overlooking another city on the other side of the hill. Pristine and deserted, it seemed like quintessential Switzerland, and the cows made me nostalgic for Vermont.

The whole time we'd been in Lucerne, we'd been curious about this strange castle overlooking the city. It is small, and it has these weird lit up letters like the Hollywood hills. We hiked up the stairs to the top (had to be about 2 km from the city center) and found a very fancy restaurant at the top. The cheapest thing on the menu was wine and chocolate for 26 Swiss francs (a franc is basically equal to a dollar), so we decided to splurge on that. We had a wine from 1979 and it was thick and molasses-y. I'd never tasted wine like it before.

We were still curious about the castle so we went to explore and found it eerily deserted, no people or lights at all. There was no scaffolding or anything to indicate that it was being renovated, and no signs to give any reason for its desolation. It was spooky. After we explored, the waitress did tell us that it was scheduled for renovations starting in 2010, but it was still bizarre.

We set out the next morning for Interlaken, a resort town also in a valley between the mountains. The largest mountain in the area, the Jungfrau, is visible from town. Unfortunately, it was also cloudy most of the time we were in Interlaken, and Max was suffering from a cold and a canker sore, so we didn't get to take much advantage of the mountains.

After settling into our hostel, we wanted to explore the mountains around us. We went to the train station and asked the ticket agent's advice and she recommended a trip to Murren. The towns in the mountains are very isolated - we took a train and a funicular and still had to hike to make it to Murren. As isolated as the town is, they have a squash court!

On the hike to Murren. Max is taking the picture, and he still can't keep his eyes open. :)

The beautiful hike. Jungfrau is hard to see but still visible in the background (it's covered in snow and fading into the cloudy white sky).

The fields along the trail were full of cows. Way before we could see them, we heard their bells. The sound of clanging bells was actually really loud. The cows also weren't just chewing grass, they were rubbing their heads on these big piles of timber and machinery in this work site, making it even louder.

In Murren with Jungfrau in the background.

In Murren.

We met this dog in the squash court restaurant complex. It's called an Appenzeller and it's like a miniature Bernese Mountain dog with thinner fur and lots of energy. We almost missed the last tram down the mountain because we couldn't stop playing with it.

Walking around town the next morning, we saw a beer advertisment with the same kind of dog.

Interlaken is famous for its adventure sports. While you can explore the surrounding peaks and mountain villages on foot by way of various hiking trails, many choose to see the area from the air - hanggliders, skydivers, and paragliders abound in town. Thinking that this may be our only opportunity to see the Alps from the air, we decided to try paragliding.

Our guide drove us up to the top of this big hill just outside of town and we got suited up. Then we ran off the mountain. You literally run as fast as you can down this steep steep hill, and then the wind swoops you up and carries you forward. The takeoff is unexpectedly fast; you don't just float gently up into the air.

Soon we were 2,400 feet above the ground, using the updraft around the mountains to stay up. The view was amazing - we could see the mountains in the distance, and the whole city of Interlaken, and the two lakes that flank it (Interlaken means "between lakes").

My guide and me. The guides need to do one thousand solo rides before they can do a tandem, so they have spent a lot of time in the air.

The mountains.

Max.

Max was tired after paragliding and still sick, so he went back to the hostel and I decided to walk around the neighborhood behind the hostel away from town. While the other side of town is very touristy, oriented towards selling visitors Swiss army knives and watches, this part of town seemed very traditional. The houses all looked like this, like they came from a storybook with Heidi walking through the yard carrying pails of milk.

It was close to sunset by the time we met up, and we decided to head over to the neighboring lake to watch the sun go down. After seeing Interlaken and the surrounding area from the air, we were convinced we had a pretty good idea of the geography and distances. However, being 800 meters above the ground has a funny way of skewing distances. What looked like a short walk that couldn't have been more than a leisurely 20 minute stroll along the riverbanks turned out to be an hour long walk through residential neighborhoods and cow pastures. We could see a big space where the lake should have been, and every time the road turned we were sure we were there. The sun was well below the horizon by the time we made it to the lake, but the lights reflecting off the water were very beautiful. We had a vermicelli dessert (a traditional Swiss dish of chesnut chocolate paste pressed to look like pasta) at a restaurant on the lake shore and discovered that there were no more buses back to Interlaken because it was too late, so we had to walk back also. We were probably about half and hour from the lake on our way there when I took this picture, so it was pitch black on the walk home. We slept well that night.

Our last day in Switzerland was the clearest and sunniest. We headed back to Lucerne on our way out of the country to visit Mount Pilatus and finally see what the city is supposed to look and where the mountains are.

Boat from Lucerne to Pilatus.

The cog railway up to Mt. Pilatus. It is the steepest cog railway in the world. (It's tiny and red in the center.)

Max tentatively peering over the edge of the mountain. He was slightly terrified by how high up we were.

The view that made Max so terrified. A church teeters on the ridge below the summit (slightly visible in the center of the photo).

One hotel wasn't enough for this mountaintop, so there are actually two different ones at the Pilatus summit.

Notice how far from the edge Max is standing.

Overcoming his fear.

The real reason we had to leave Switzerland - a hamburger at Burger King costs 14 Swiss francs, basically equivalent to 14 dollars. On to Germany.