Switzerland Travels: Zurich, Interlaken, Grindelwald & Jungfrau Region
I had wanted to go to Switzerland for years. But it is known to be expensive, so it never happened until 2013, when I just decided to do it! I would be adventuring to Switzerland with my family; including my husband, daughter and mother for our annual summer holiday.
A few days before, we flew the panic set in…. would we have enough money do the things we wanted as well as eat ?? But it was too late as we were all set to go.
Discovering Zurich
After landing in Zurich, we made our way to the hotel, Ibis Budget Zurich. The hotel was basic and to the point but right beside the tram stop, making it most ideal! Our time in Zurich is a bit of a blur. However, I do remember our breakfast consisted of croissants and yogurts bought from a local shop and eaten in the hotel room. We do thing in such style!
Our first day in Zurich was a public holiday. So we were greeted with a street procession, stalls and fireworks over the lake at night. All of which was unexpected and a lovely surprise. In the morning we headed straight for the lake area and were all stunned by the views that awaited us. Lake Zurich was beautifully blue, with boats, ferries and in the distance a horizon full of stunning mountains.
We spent a lot of time around the lake, walking and cycling around, and even risking a short dip in Lake Zurich. I don’t remember much about Zurich town itself but the Lake had a lasting impression for me!
When we visited there was a train which took you around the whole of Lake Zurich. So we made sure to advantage of this, jumping on and off to explore the lakeside towns including the stunning Rapperswil-Jona, aka. the town of roses. Using the train was a fun way to explore a vast number of settings in a very easy way and one I would highly recommend.
One thing that stood out to me was the sheer amount of water fountains in Zurich. It was really hot and we were very thankful for, and made good use of all the free water fountains around the city which saved us a fortune on bottled water !
Despite Zurich being beautiful, most of my memories are from Interlaken, which is primarily what this blog will be focusing on.
Exploring Interlaken & Lake Thun
After a few days exploring Zurich, and armed with our Swiss Pass we headed to Interlaken and the Jungfrau mountains.
After dropping our bags off at our rental home, which was a pink apartment (& very cute) we set off to explore. After leaving the apartment, we quickly found a boat on Lake Thun which was just about to set off. We had no idea where it was going or how long it would take but it didn’t matter, the Swiss pass meant that the trip was free and we had nothing else we needed to do so we jumped on board! We used this boat several times that week visiting different places around the lake including Brienze and Thun.
We also took the local trains out to the capital city of Bern, famous for its clocks and its bears, (of which I’m a huge fan). We also visited the pretty town of Lucern.
The whole Jungfrau region was beautiful and we spent the next week either up in the mountains, on the lakes or visiting the cities nearby. The weather was mixed, very hot and sunny during the day with heavy thunderstorms at night, starting at 5pm every night, honestly we started setting our watches by it! Interlaken appeared to have its own weather system and just a few miles made a huge difference!
Using the trains and our passes we could easily get up into the mountains, giving us some fantastic days out and memories. One of our favourite things was the “First Flyer” at Grindelwald, which had been recommended by a friend.We were each strapped into chairs on a death slide and then released at 85km per hour to fly down a 800m run. It only took 45 seconds to complete the run but was great fun.
The views at the top of the mountains are beautiful, but don’t panic, like us you can use the cable cars to get up towards the top areas up if you don’t want to walk!
Another highlight here was the Trottiebikes, a combination of a scooter and a bike, allowing us to free-wheel down the mountains. We all loved every minute of this activity, but our hands were sore and sunburnt by the time we reached the bottom station as we had to pull the brakes the whole way down !
The mountain is quite steep in places and you do travel at quite some speed coming down, hence lots of pulling on brakes. We all loved this so much that when we found some trottiebikes were available above the lake at Interlaken at the Neiderhorn we repeated the experience.
There were a number of trains into the mountains which allowed us to explore some of the quieter towns including Murren giving us a mix of active and busy days as well as more relaxed ones, but all of which showcased the stunning scenery of the region. The views around Murren were simply magical and we sat and just looked at the mountains in front of us for quite a while. Murren is a car free town and so we were free to wander slowly through the town taking in all it had to offer. We also visited the Trümmelbach falls, a short bus and then cable car ride away from Murren, where we were able to feel and hear the full force of the water as it cascaded through the mountain before us.
What didn’t we do……
We didn’t buy any watches, we stayed firmly outside the shop door (please remember these were the prices in 2013 so I shudder to think the costs now)! We also did not eat out at restaurants, but we did not starve and I was very happy that the local supermarket prices were more realistic than café and restaurant prices…however we did survive on pasta, smoked sausage and cheese for most of the week!
Paragliders for the tourists are common in Interlaken, but being cowards we decided not to do this (i’m scared of heights) ! We also decided not to visit the “top of Europe” due to the costs involved and the fact that we did not have any warm coats which we would have needed, so reluctantly we decided that it was not the best use of our time or money. Perhaps one day I shall return with a coat!
All in all a fabulous family holiday, with wonderful memories for all of us.
