Third Anniversary in the Swiss Alps

On July 22, 2017 my wife and I were standing on a beach in St. Joseph, Michigan saying “I do.” Fast forward exactly three years, and we found ourselves giddily exploring our way around the Swiss Alps. I am going to do a slight humble brag here and mention that we have now officially seen the Alps in every one of the eight countries that they stretch through. I can tell you right now that they take your breath away no matter what country you are looking at them in. This was our second trip into Switzerland. The first trip was in January of 2019, when we visited the other side of the Swiss Alps in Zermatt to see the Matterhorn. We saw Switzerland when it was a giant snow globe of magic, but this time we wanted to see Switzerland with the cow bells clanging and grass as green as Tiger Woods’ Masters jackets. Luckily for us, the weather decided to cooperate for the majority of the trip. While we got soaked once or twice in torrential downpours, overall the sunny weather added to the backdrop of mountains that absolutely needed zero help being beautiful. This sunny weather may have also contributed to rather uncomfortable sunburns on our legs, but that is neither here nor there.

Due to COVID-19 this was our first getaway since March, and as much as I love our apartment in Maastricht, it felt great to get out into some nature and see some elevation. To make this a totally stress-free trip, we decided to rent a car for the seven-hour journey to our hotel in Grindelwald. When the rental agency called the evening prior to our departure and told us our BMW would be ready in the morning, I was giddy. At the three- or four-hour mark in any road trip I generally start to get a little bored, and driving becomes a chore. As someone who has an appreciation for luxury vehicles, I knew I wouldn’t spend a second of this journey indifferent towards driving. Against my better judgement I didn’t spend a second of our journey on the autobahn in “sport” mode, but you would be crazy if you thought I didn’t spend the majority of our journey hovering around 100-105 MPH consistently. The highest speed I reached was 125 MPH (a nice even 200 KMPH on the speedometer) to which Katie replied, “did you get it out of your system?” The joy of being able to drive a brand-new BMW down the autobahn was amplified by the addition of some good old American road trip snacks. Katie and I are no strangers to extensive road trips, and the essential pin that holds our road trips together is the road trip snacks that we devour along the way. Luckily the night before we left for this trip, we got a package in the mail from my sister that included Watermelon Sour Patch Kids, a bag of Sweet and Salty Boom Chicka Pop popcorn, and good old Swedish Fish. Literally all of our favorite road trip snacks in one box, added to finding out we were taking a BMW, morale was sky high.

Take the cable car up to First and you will be greeted with this ridiculous view of the Alps

Luckily the drive to Grindelwald largely went without any curveballs, and we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way. Once we drove about 45 minutes past Basel, that is when Switzerland’s natural beauty started to show itself. Add another 30 minutes to that and we were greeted by the west end of Lake Thun and our first views of the Alps. Once we reached the outskirts of Interlaken, that’s when we began the gradual drive up into Grindelwald. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a dreary evening, so the views weren’t revealing their true beauty, but man were they still ridiculous. We pulled into a parking space next to our hotel and scurried into the lobby to avoid being pelted by the hail and drenched by the cold rain that was relentlessly pouring down. We decided to stay at Hotel Bel-Air Eden in “Double Room with Balcony.” After doing a few nights of research, we came to the conclusion that this place offered one of the best values in the city. The price averaged out to be about $150 a night, which is very good in this area, and that price also included breakfast. There were cheaper hotels in the area, but we thoroughly enjoy having a balcony with a view, so that justified paying a little bit more. This was our anniversary trip after all! After admiring the incredible view outside on our balcony, and allowing the rain to dissipate a bit, we decided to go get dinner out on the town. Last time we visited Switzerland we indulged in cheese fondue, and it was delicious. We decided to dive right in on night one and see if we could replicate the great fondue experience we had in Zermatt. We checked some reviews and ended up at Bistro Memory, about a five-minute walk from our hotel. Unfortunately, while the food was just fine, the great fondue experience from Zermatt wasn’t quite replicated. The fondue was just meh, and the noodles we had were also pretty meh. Once you cross into Switzerland’s borders, you may as well just take out a second mortgage on your house. Even for average food you are going to pay through the nose, which is tough to swallow for a guy like myself who loves to find a cheap, hole in the wall for dinner. Fortunately, the bright spot was having a beer from Haarige Kuh Brauerei in Interlaken. If you happen to come across them while in Switzerland, I highly recommend the Kama Citra pale ale. The next morning, we indulged in a nice hotel breakfast and headed to the Grindelwald to First lift about 10 minutes walking from our hotel. The entirety of this journey up, and around First, was really a highlight of the trip. There are a few stops in between Grindelwald and First that offer different activities, but we decided to take the lift all the way to the top and work our way down later in the afternoon. Once we got to the top of the lift, we headed to the First Cliff Walk and were absolutely blown away by a panoramic view of the Alps. As far as you can look left and right, you can see snow-capped mountains and beauty that is honestly indescribable. Fewer things make me feel more alive than seeing natural beauty. I have been lucky enough to see some truly beautiful scenery in Europe, but the Alps will leave me in awe every single time without fail. Being the astute travelers we have become, we got up to First very early before the crowds did, so we got to enjoy the cliff walk, and the hike to Bachalpsee in relative peace. The hike to Bachalpsee is about an hour, and after the first 20 minutes or so uphill, it is mostly just a beautiful walk to a beautiful alpine lake. There are some benches around the lake to sit down and enjoy the views and have a snack before you either continue on the path or turn around to First. We headed back to First and enjoyed a drink on the restaurant terrace overlooking the valley and the mountain range. If you ever have a chance to just sit and enjoy a drink while soaking in the views, you have to take it. I mentioned before that there are a few different activities you can do at different stops on the way up to First, but the only one we decided to do was the First Flyer. First Flyer is a zipline that takes you down to the next stop on the cable car route. If you’re going to also pick one activity to do, make it the First Flyer. In total you’re up in the zipline for about two or three minutes, but it is freaking awesome. Talk about feeling absolutely alive. After spending the day on top of First we headed back down to Grindelwald, found some cheap takeout pizza at Tea n Take Away, and enjoyed a bottle (or two) of wine on our hotel room balcony talking about how great our first three years of marriage have been, and reminiscing about how lucky we are. When you talk about ideal days, this is up there for me.

As you can see, it was a grey day, but that didn't stop Lauterbrunnen from being charming as heck

After enjoying Grindelwald to its fullest, we decided to move on and take the short drive to Lauterbrunnen. Lauterbrunnen is about a 20-minute drive from Grindelwald, and the entire drive is quite scenic. I imagine that wandering around Lauterbrunnen is a delightful and gorgeous experience on a nice day, but it was a dreary, rainy day that wasn’t very conducive to wandering around this quaint city. The rain didn’t stop us from getting out of the car and climbing the stairs up to see behind the Staubbachfall on the edge of town. The climb up the stairs is relatively painless, and even on a rainy, grey day, the views from the grotto behind the falls were quite spectacular. After making the climb and wandering around Lauterbrunnen for a little bit, we decided to drive a little further to the Stechelberg gondola station. While driving the 10 minutes or so, you can get great views of a few different waterfalls. If you want to venture up to Murren, this is the lift station that allows you to do so as well. We decided against going up to Murren, but it does come highly recommended by a lot of different people. After our rainy adventures in Lauterbrunnen, we drove into Interlaken to get some lunch and see what the city had to offer. I have to admit that Interlaken was a bit lame in comparison to what we had experienced in Grindelwald and the surrounding mountain areas. To be fair, we only spent about two hours in town, but within the city I didn’t see any reason to stay any longer. We did make a stop in at Funky Chocolate Club to get some chocolate covered strawberries, and a few different kinds of chocolate to take home, which was a great idea. The chocolate covered strawberries from there were marvelous.

The Famous Chapel Bridge in Lucerne with some pretty casually stunning scenery in the background

After getting our chocolate and hopping back in the car, we made the drive to the final destination of our journey in Switzerland, Lucerne. It was about an hour drive from Interlaken to Lucerne, and as you could expect, it was a very beautiful hour. The beginning of the drive takes you along the shoreline of Lake Brienz and then Lake Lungern and Lake Sarnen not long after that. In between those lakes you start to gain elevation and make twists and turns through some tight, low-level mountain switchbacks. Finally, you reach the edge of Lake Lucerne, and just when you think Switzerland can’t get prettier, it does. While in Lucerne we stayed in The Tourist Hotel. The hotel was about $150 per night, breakfast included, but for Lucerne that was a great deal. The hotel is situated right along the edge of the river Reuss and is about ten minutes walking from the famous Chapel Bridge. As you wander around Lucerne, you realize that walking distance doesn’t matter, because you just want to spend as much time walking around and taking in the truly stunning views that the city has to offer. Lucerne really is one of the prettiest cities I have ever been to. Our first night in town we got dinner and drinks at Bierliebe and Friends. Situated right on the Reuss, with great views of the Chapel Bridge and surrounding area, Bierliebe and Friends offers a great selection of beer, and overall pretty good food. It is Switzerland, so your eyes may get a little wide when you get your bill, but for being a restaurant in such a great area, the food, drinks, and service were pretty great. We had one full day in Lucerne, so we decided to do the Golden Round Trip. The Golden Round trip starts with a ferry in Lucerne that takes you across Lake Lucerne, to a cogwheel train station in Alpnachstad that takes you to the top of Mount Pilatus, gradually back down to Kriens via cable car, and then finally a bus from Kriens back to where you started in Lucerne. This is a pretty full day, so starting relatively early in the morning was a good choice. The boat ride across Lake Lucerne is beyond awesome. The views from the boat were so beyond spectacular that I found myself on a Swiss realty website on Monday morning to see if we could ever afford a house on Lake Lucerne. The results were about as dream shattering as you would expect. Anyway, the boat ride takes a little over an hour, and every second of it is equally as awesome as the second before. Once you get to Alpnachstad, you are directed to the cogwheel train station, and you begin the thirty to forty-minute journey on the steepest cogwheel railway in the world. That part of the journey has some nice views, and I recommend elbowing for a window seat so you don’t have to crawl over your fellow passengers for one or two nice pictures. Once you get to the top of Pilatus, the views are pretty beautiful. It’s fun to watch some of the paragliders take off from the platform up there, and the setup is pretty conducive to just wandering around for an hour or so. There are a few paths you can take, and I recommend bringing some lunch up with you so you can enjoy your lunch with a view. Of course, there is a restaurant and a gift shop up at the top, so if you want to buy lunch up there you can do that as well. Once you get your fill of the top of Pilatus, you can take the cable car down to Fräkmüntegg, Krienseregg, and then finally down to Kriens, where you can find the bus to get you back to Lucerne. I fully recommend getting out at the Fräkmüntegg stop and riding the toboggan for at least one ride. The Fräkigaudi Toboggan ride is the longest toboggan ride in Switzerland, and man it is fun. The ride lasts about 3 to 4 minutes, and you get to control how fast or slow you go barreling down the metal toboggan run. The entirety of your ride has the beautiful backdrop of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding area. It is likely that the video of this toboggan ride has popped up on your Facebook feed at one point or another, and I can tell you that it is as awesome as it appears. We closed out our day back in Lucerne getting pizza from this great place called Made in Sud. As far as Switzerland goes, the prices here were pretty solid, and the pizza was actually great. It is a little bit of a walk from the city center, but I do highly recommend stopping there for a “cheap” dinner. We spent the final part of our last night in Switzerland sitting on a bench on the Reussbrücke, watching the sunset, eating a Toblerone bar, and reflecting on how lucky we are to have been able to go on this trip.

The boat portion of the Golden Round Trip is just views like this for over an hour. Not a bad morning at all.

At this point if you couldn’t tell, Switzerland is easily in the top three of my favorite places to go in the world. There are very few places that exist in this universe that match the sheer beauty and awe-inspiring views that Switzerland does. Katie and I are incredibly lucky to have had the pleasure of visiting a good 70 to 80% of what this great country has to offer in our time over here in Europe. Do I wish it wasn’t $15 for a pint of beer? Yes. Is it worth $15 to enjoy said beer and overlook the alps on a beautiful sunny day in July? Hell yes. The saying goes “you get what you pay for,” and with Switzerland that couldn’t be more accurate. This was our last anniversary while living in Europe, and I can’t think of a better way to go out. While this probably won’t be our last trip while we are living over here, I’m certain this will be a trip we remember forever. Over seven hours in the car, and I loved every second with Katie. It is trips like this that remind me that I did pretty darn good for myself.