10 Days in Switzerland

This August, I was fortunate enough to spend a week bumming around Switzerland! I took a week’s vacation while abroad for work and, after years of prodding from my brother-in-law, decided Switzerland would be the perfect spot for my trip!

This ended up being a stupidly long post, so I’m including links to the different sections! As fair warning, I am far too lazy to add in accent marks, so yes, I know I’ve done a great disservice to the German and French languages.

• Top 12 Tips for Traveling in Switzerland
• Trip Overview
  • Day 1: Arrival in Zurich
  • Day 2: Exploring Zurich, Train to Lucerne
  • Day 3: Exploring Lake Lucerne, Dinner in Zurich
  • Day 4: Arrival in Interlaken, Hiking Harder Klum
  • Day 5: Hiking from Grindlewald to Lauterbrunnen
  • Day 6: Visiting Schilthorn, Hiking from Allmendhubel to Lauterbrunnen
  • Day 7: Hiking in Zermatt
  • Day 8: Meringen, Thun, and Bern
  • Day 9: Train to Geneva, Exploring Montreux
  • Day 10: Exploring Neuchatel, Misadventures at the Callier Factory, and Gruyeres
• Best Things I Brought
• Things I Wish I Had Brought

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Top 12 Tips for Traveling in Switzerland

1. Bring a real camera, like an adult. Something that I failed to do, once again, as I took pictures on a loaner iPhone 6. There is something somewhat decidedly depressing about trying to capture the awesomeness of the Alps with dinky phone camera resolution.
2. If you like hiking, load up your time in the Bernese Oberland. This will give you the most Heidi-esque experience. The area around Zermatt (i.e. near the Matterhorn) is also stunning. I spent 5 days in the area and could have done more, honestly.
3. You’ll need a different converter. While the plug parts are technically the same as in the rest of Europe, you need a skinny hexagonal plug shape instead of the usual circle.
4. Buy a travel pass. This is a particularly good deal if you’re staying for a longer trip. I was a bit on the fence here since with a 15 day pass (for my 10 day trip) I dished out almost $550 USD, but it’s well worth it for giving you free travel on all buses, most trains (except some special ones in the mountains), and many of the cog wheel and cable cars up into the mountains (and discounts on others). It also gets you up Schilthorn, though unfortunately not up Jungfraujoch (two of the most popular peaks). It also gets you free admission to most museums, castles, and even chocolate factories. The best way to buy the pass is online (there are several sites that work for this but I went with the official SBB site) so you have a digital copy on your phone and don’t need to validate it but, as a word of caution, you are required to keep a printed copy on you (though I was never asked to provide it) and you only need to show the QR code on public transport but they will ask to see the details of the pass at museums, so just a screenshot won’t cut it for museums (though that’s fine for the trains).
5. Expect to pay twice as much as you usually would. Not everything in Switzerland is twice as expensive as it is in the states (and the rest of Europe), but if you budget twice as much as you usually do, it will land you in about the right zone. I ate almost exclusively bread and cheese throughout the trip as the two least expensive items at the grocery store, which was delicious but I can’t wait to go back to states and eat some non-bread food. The exchange rate at the moment is about 1-1 with USD, so it’s easy to figure out how much you’re spending.
6. Always carry a 2CHF and 1CHF coin on you. These are used commonly as locker deposits and you often are required to store your backpack when visiting museums and castles.
7. Drink everywhere! This was one I had to confirm for myself to be sure about, but Switzerland has no open container laws, so it’s totally chill to crack a beer on the train or at the summit of a hike.
8. Talk to visitor’s information in the cities. This isn’t something I normally do when traveling (because I’m a millennial who feels the need to be unique) but the offices were incredibly helpful and well-versed on what was and was not covered by the travel pass and offered a lot of helpful suggestions and maps for hikes.
9. Bring hiking shoes, socks, and a backpack rain cover. There is literally no reason for me to tell you this since you’re an intelligent person, but I brought none of these things and regretted it. I ended up buying hiking socks and a rain cover part-way through the trip, and was much happier for it.
10. Most of the trains have power outlets. This took me a while to figure out since they’re sometimes a bit hidden but you can usually find them either under the table, between the chairs, or above the headrest. It was a real lifesaver since I discovered my loaner phone had a dying battery.
11. The doors are weird. This isn’t really a tip per se but apparently is something that Americans commonly discover. Something about their design is super confusing and leaves you particularly unsure as to whether to push or pull. Just expect some irritation here.
12. Always take the adventure trail. Though this sounds like something you’d see tattooed on 20-year-old, it’s actually practical hiking advice. Swiss trails are remarkably well-maintained and marked with signposts for towns at every fork, often with estimated travel times. There are two main types of Swiss trails – basic trails and adventure trails. The basic trails are really easy and often flat enough to push a stroller along (as I saw people doing). The adventure trails, denoted by white/red/white stripes on signposts and maps, are more like trails in the Pacific Northwest, with some scrabbling – but still remarkably well-marked with signposts at every fork and periodic red/white/red striped marks throughout the trail. Unless you do need to push a stroller or are impaired in some way, go with the adventure trail – it’s usually more fun and scenic and less populated.

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Trip Overview

I spent 10 days in Switzerland and followed the general path of Zurich -> Lucerne -> Interlaken (Bernese Oberland) -> Geneva. I spent most of my trip in the Bernese Oberland and, if I could do it again, I might have put even more time into that area, since it was my favorite part and I didn’t end up being very impressed with Swiss cities (with the exception of Bern, which is of course in the Bernese area).

I was prepared to really shell out a lot during the week (though I didn’t have a strict budget I was working off), but really my largest expense was the $550 travel pass for 15 days, with another approximate $500 for 10 days in hostels, $200 in flights to and from Brussels, $200 in cash over the week – mostly used for food, $100 spent on my card on miscellaneous items. I was being very economical in what I did based on what was covered by the pass (and mostly just ate bread) and only ended up spending about $1,550 over the 10 days, including travel expenses.

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Day 1: Arrival in Zurich

This doesn’t really deserve to be a day at all – I arrived in Zurich late Friday night and easily got to my hostel. It wasn’t raining but there was someone sleeping in my assigned bunk, which was a bit annoying, especially since it was a nice bottom one.

Overall, I would recommend the hostel, Youthhostel Zurich. It was very affordable at CHF53.28/night for a bunk in a shared 6 person room. The hostel is a bit outside of the main Zurich area, though near a train station and a Migros (the two main markets in Switzerland are Migros and Coop, which was my preference). There were lockers, though you needed a 2CHF coin as a deposit (which I didn’t have at the time). Towels weren’t included but there was a nice breakfast with free coffee machines, cereal, and toast (with creme fraiche). The atmosphere in the hostel was clean, modern, airy, and friendly, with families staying there as well. As one downside to the hostel, the showers were very perplexing and released water in 0.5L bursts, to conserve water.

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Day 2: Exploring Zurich, Train to Lucerne

On the way over to Zurich, as I perused the guidebook, I learned that my one day in Zurich corresponded with one of Europe’s largest EDM festivals. It was a free street fair and my initial thought was “oh cool!” followed by “oh no…” as I walked through the festival and remembered that I don’t actually like crowds, large parties where I don’t know anyone, or people trying to dance with me. There were literally a million people there – so I think my social anxiety was well justified.

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It was pouring rain until mid afternoon, so I walked around in soaked shoes all day.

Here are a few of the places I went in Zurich:

• FIFA Museum (free with travel pass) – this was fine but I’m not a big sports person. Also you literally had to watch a 7 minute video that you could only get into every 7 minutes to exit the building, so I ended up begging special exit from the front desk because I didn’t want to stay another 14+ minutes. Worth it if you’re into FIFA.
• Swiss National Museum (free with travel pass) – this was actually pretty fun, especially since they had an exhibit on the Japanese anime Heidi.
• Some churches (at least ones that were free) – honestly, I don’t know that I’d really bother with Swiss churches; I wasn’t very impressed with them and don’t feel like they had many interesting design elements compared to French or Italian churches.
• Lindenhof – this is the one thing that I would say definitely is worth it in Zurich! It’s a hill you have a great view of the east part of Zurich.

Overall, I wasn’t super impressed with Zurich and think it could easily be skipped over.

After wandering around and through the totally overwhelming street fair (still with wet shoes), I headed back to my hostel to grab my bag and an Egyptian guy in his mid-thirties tried very unsuccessfully to convince me to go party with him but I had to go to Lucerne to check in to my hostel and also just started the engrossing fantasy novel Uprooted by Naomi Novik and wanted to finish it.

As a last note on Zurich, as I was leaving, I figured out that a friend from college was living in the city and we made plans to meet up for drinks the next night.

I got into Lucerne late (I had been delayed wandering around Zurich to find an adapter for Swiss outlets) and checked in to the hostel at sunset.

The hostel I stayed at, Backpackers Lucerne, was small but clean and it didn’t include any breakfast (or coffee), which meant that by the second day there, I was very caffeine deprived and falling asleep on trains. The hostel came in at a very reasonable CHF42.36/night and towels weren’t provided but they did provide shampoo and soap in the showers, which was a nice surprise. There was laundry facilities available but I didn’t want to shell out the CHF6 for washing and CHF4 for drying. I think the hostel might have been the only one in Lucerne (not a lot of hostels in most Swiss cities), so there were signs directing there from the train station. It was also close to a popular beach and, while I didn’t try swimming, I heard the water was pleasant (not warm, but not cold).

I had a lovely conversation with an Australian woman in her mid-forties who was traveling around the world after the recent loss of her brother and deciding that she hated her job. She was just wrapping up a 4 month tour that had included Bali and Slovenia. I think she was planning to try her hand at interior decorating when she got back to Australia and said that she missed home and encouraged me to travel to New Zealand.

I wandered around the city that night and saw the old bridge walkways that spanned the river – one of the iconic features of the city. I didn’t go up to the wall or see the stone lion carving (something I was later chastised for), but I don’t think there’s much more to see in Lucerne.

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Day 3: Exploring Lake Lucerne, Dinner in Zurich

I decided that I had seen most of the city (though I apparently had missed the very important lion) and, on a whim, stopped by the tourist office to learn if I could take a boat trip on Lake Lucerne using my travel pass.

On learning I could and that it would cover the cable and cog wheel cars going up to a scenic lookout, I decided to run across to a steamboat to Weggis, take the cable and cog cars up to Rigi, and then down to Vitznau and then boat back to Lucerne.

In total, this process ended up taking about 5 hours with an hour spent picnicking at Rigi and the weather was lovely so it was well worth the trip and afforded some amazing views!

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It looked like you could hike up there as well but I simply didn’t have time, because I had to train to Zurich for dinner.

Back in Zurich for the evening, I met up with my old college friend, who is doing his post-doc at the University, and we wandered around for a while in the rain before stopping at a place to get veal sausages (after I ordered, I remembered what veal was and was sad) and then to a bar to grab a few beers and gossip about mutual acquaintances.

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I grabbed a late train back to Lucerne and crashed, ready for a travel morning to Interlaken.

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Day 4: Arrival in Interlaken, Hiking Harder Klum

I left Zurich late in the morning to travel to Interlaken, a town so called for being between two lakes. The train ride ended up taking several hours and got me into the hostel mid-afternoon. The train trip was gorgeous but I was so coffee-starved that I slept through most of it, draped over my bags.

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I got in too early to check in to the hostel but they had copious secure bag storage (again with a 2 franc coin), so I stuffed most of my backpack’s contents in and decided to go to the grocery store to pick up beer, powdered coffee, and cocoa, since I really wanted to drink hot chocolate in the Bernese Oberland.

On the way back from the market, I spuriously decided to do a 5 hour round trip hike to the top of Harder Klum because it stopped raining for a few minutes. Of course, on the hike it started raining again, I was still carrying groceries in my backpack, wearing tennis shoes and Costco ankle socks (because I decided not to bring my hiking shoes or socks on this trip, who knows why since I knew I wanted to hike), and was holding an umbrella to keep myself dry. I had to pee at several points throughout the hike, which was fortunately only sparsely populated, as sane people chose to take the cable car to the top (which wasn’t covered by the pass). It was kind of a huge disaster all around and I got some slight blisters on my heels, but I was still happy, appreciated the view all the more, and remembered to bring alcohol, which I promptly broke into at the top (a radler, though lemon, not grapefruit).

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The hostel, Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof, was my favorite of the trip and even rated highly in the guidebook I borrowed. It’s located just a short 12 minute walk from both the Interlaken West and East train stations and was a cute mix of new and old with a conjoined modern and traditional building. Upon check in, they give you 2 tokens for each night, which you can use for coffee (1 token), computer use (1 token per half hour), or laundry (2 tokens to wash – including detergent, free to dry). I had powdered coffee and didn’t need to use the computers, so I did my laundry twice for free and still had a glut of tokens at the end of my trip that I left at the coffee machines. (As a tip for laundry, do it during the day if possible because it gets very Hunger Games at night.) Breakfast of toast, cereal, and free tea were included with the stay, as were towels(!) though no toiletries, and the atmosphere at the hostel was very relaxing with lots of lockers, lounges, kitchens, fridges, and shelves for food. Check in and out hours were limited (as they were at all hostels I stayed at, besides my Geneva hostel) but I would heartily recommend this to anyone staying in the Bernese Oberland area. It was one of the more expensive hostels I stayed at, clocking in at CHF54.55, but was well worth it.

I was very brave my first night and invited myself to a card game between a group of South Koreans (a brother, sister, and the sister’s friend) and an Asian American from Iowa, who, endearingly, was doing magic card tricks for them. They were lovely and collectively we learned just how difficult it is to teach the card game BS to non-native English speakers. I ran into the South Koreans several more times throughout the week, even in Murren, and they waved at me from the cable car in Shilthorn, which was adorable.

Day 5: Hiking from Grindlewald to Lauterbrunnen

Because it was only drizzling when I got up, logically, I opted to go for a 8 hour hike for stunning views I would be physically unable to see due to cloud cover.

I took the train to Grindlewald (a quick 20 minutes), which was too touristy for my taste, but serves as a great base for hikes. The Lonely Planet guidebook I was using suggested a hike from Grindlewald to Wengen (close to Lauterbrunnen) so I opted to just walk the extra hour downhill to go all the way to Lauterbrunnen.

As my one smart idea of the day, I stopped by an outdoor gear shop and shelled out $50 for hiking socks and a backpack rain cover that mostly covered my bag.

After having difficulty finding the trailhead, I eventually got going in the right direction (i.e. up) around 10AM. The first quarter of the hike was an extremely steep upward climb that had me panting and had me unclassily stripped down to my sports bra in the drizzle to stay cool. Apparently I looked very impressive (or very exhausted) to a group of adorable South Korean tourists who had taken a cable car to the peak because they all said “fighting!” to me in encouragement – which was all incredibly sweet, further solidifying in my mind that South Korean tourists are the best.

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Upon reaching the top of the hike, I was at Klein Scheidegg, an absolutely stunning view of the three main peaks of the area – Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau – that I could see about 10% of, which was still stunning but I knew that it wouldn’t capture well on film.

If you don’t want to make this a full day activity, you can stop at the same amazing vistas I passed, including Klein Scheidegg, by taking a tram up – though not one that’s fully covered by the travel pass. At minimum, if hiking, use the free transit station bathrooms. I would definitely say whether you walk or take the tram, go see the view from Klein Scheidegg.

The walk down the other side was a relief (though it was very cold near the mountains) and I got stuck in a traffic jam behind some cows that were being herded along one of the trails. While it was a challenge not stepping in cowpats, it was still very quaint.

I got into Lauterbrunnen a bit before 6 and decided that I would try to hit up the main waterfall in town, Staubbach Falls, before it closed. The lookout was fine but you don’t get a very good view of the falls while at the top. After sprinting up, I sprinted back down to the train station and very tiredly took the train back to the hostel, where I then spent another 3 hours doing laundry and got to bed around midnight.

While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend hiking around Switzerland in poor weather (it really defeats the purpose, which is seeing stunning vistas), the fog on the landscape was very dreamy and I couldn’t stop myself from singing The Misty Mountains for most of the day.

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Day 6: Visiting Schilthorn, Hiking from Allmendhubel to Lauterbrunnen

In spite of being rudely awakened at 6AM by an Indian girl who was on the phone with her husband in bed (thus becoming my enemy) and tiredly leaving my shampoo and soap in the shower where it got used up, this was my favorite day of the trip.

This was the first really nice day with no rain promised, so I kicked off the day early with a trip up to Schilthorn. While this peak isn’t as famous as Jungfraujoch (sorry, sister), the whole trip up is covered by the Swiss Travel Pass. You start at Launterbrunnen (a 20 minute rail ride from Interlaken), take a cable car up the mountain, tram over to Murren (cute but too touristy), then another cable car up to Birg, where you can do a “thrill walk” on a catwalk to see the view – something I would have done if Birg wasn’t in a cloud the whole day. From Birg, you take another cable car up to Schilthorn, the location of the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” with George Lazenby’s Bond.

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There was a 007 museum at the top (obviously) and I enjoyed touring this and admiring the impressive view.

From there, I took the cable cars back to Murren and opted for an “easier” hiking day of only 7 hours (though this included some breaks and was mostly downhill), hitting the trails around 1PM. From Murren, I walked up to Allmendhubel, a great view and picnic spot (you can also take a cable car up). The walk up to Allmendhubel was nice but somewhat unremarkable (beyond the standard gorgeous view) but the walk back down I took a path on the north face and was blown away by the view of the valley and the mountains. This was one of my favorite parts of the day and I sat down on a bench, uninterrupted, drank a beer, and admired 360 degrees of alpine splendor.

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From here, I walked back down through Murren, through Gimmelwald, through Stechelberg, back to Lauterbrunnen.

Each locale was certainly charming in its own way, but Gimmelwald was one of my favorite stops and had been given to me as a recommendation before my trip. It’s a very tiny town (maybe 20 or so houses) with a brewery, Schwartz Monch, that had a tasty dark lager. In addition to sampling the lager, the town has several houses that have “self serve” dairy fridges, where you can buy a block of cheese or butter and leave some money in the fridge. I bought a bottle of milk in an apple juice container for a franc and (though I was a bit tipsy), it was the best milk I’ve ever had and I sipped cold (cow? goat?) milk for the next hour as I wandered further down the mountain.

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In Stechelberg, which is also very charming, you pass several waterfalls (Lauterbrunnen is the valley of waterfalls, with Lauterbrunnen meaning “clear water”) and I somewhat dangerously climbed up a gravel pile to see a waterfall up close – falling on my butt and sticking my hand in some stinging nettles in the process.

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After scrabbling back down the pile, I wandered back into town to take one of the last trains back to Interlaken – stopping at a local dairy vending machine on the way back to get a bottle of coffee goat milk – an obvious good decision at 7PM.

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Day 7: Hiking in Zermatt

The weather had turned back to drizzle again when I woke up, so after very little consideration, I decided to take the train to the south to chase the sunshine and see the Matterhorn.

The train ride down to Zermatt took almost 3 hours, so I didn’t hit the trails until 12 – an unfortunately late start to the hike, which the book estimated to take between 6.5 and 7.5 hours and I crammed in at 6.5 hours, though with some downhill sprinting at the end.

The hike suggested in the guidebook was a loop that took you past two hikers hotels (hotels you could only reach via backpacking) and far back into a valley to see glaciers and some truly stunning views of the Matterhorn, which is not overhyped. (It was at this point that my phone ran out of space and I had to start furiously sorting through photos on a mountainside to take more.)

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In addition, you walk by the hamlet of Zmutt, which was friggin charming. I don’t really know what I expected with the word “hamlet” but it equated to a dozen very old cottages in the middle of the valley on a hill, surrounded by nothing. The cottages in this area were all very quaintly fashioned and most had slate roofs from the ample material in the valley, shingled in diamond pattern that reminded me of dragon scales.

If I hadn’t had the best day on Day 6, this would have been my favorite day, but I was starting to get very tired by the end of it and this ended up being the last hiking day of the trip because I got my period the next morning and felt really yuck.

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Day 8: Meringen, Thun, and Bern

As mentioned previously, I wasn’t feeling great when I woke up, the previous 4 days with 26.5 hours of hiking really catching up to me and my uterus trying to kick its way out of my body.

I did wake up early (prompted again by the dulcet sounds of the girl talking with her husband at 6AM) and decided to start by day by taking the train to Meringen, birthplace of the meringue and home of Reichenbach Falls, as featured in Sherlock Holmes. It turns out this is the only two things going on in Meringen, so I had a meringue for a franc at 9AM and then hopped right back on the train.

From here, I took the train to Thun, which is a small medieval city with one adorable street, men weirdly surfing in the river, and a darling picture-book castle. Particularly with having seen a hamlet just the day before, I could strongly picture being a medieval villager, coming to Thun, and being awestruck by the “huge” buildings and city bustle. The old town area is clustered in one section on a hill, so it’s easy to mentally strip away the newer parts of the small city.

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After walking around Thun for a little, I felt awful, downed some more ibuprofen, and went back to the hostel to do some laundry and start up a new book, Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest by Matt Haig (another fantastical European tale for younger readers I enjoyed – though with a few jarringly violent scenes in an otherwise lighthearted story).

After resting up, I decided to head to Bern, even though I wouldn’t get there until 6, which meant that most attractions would be closed. Even still, I found my three hours wandering around Bern to be utterly enchanting and would love to move there. Bern reminded me a lot of both Vienna (as well as Lisbon) – vibrant and trendy with a casually cool urban culture in the setting of artfully blended new and old architecture.

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Bern, like it’s namesake, has a lot of bears. The bear is the city’s heraldic beast (i.e. mascot) and there is an enclosed park downtown with two bears that I watched eat some berries and grass.

In Bern, I wandered through the city, looking at the outsides of buildings, and walked along the river, watching kids and adults get into the river, let it pull them downstream, and then re-emerging from one of the many sets of steps to walk back upstream and do it again. Sprinkled along the many green spaces and waterways, there were little pop-up summer bars with seating. I grabbed some gelato from an absolutely amazing place, Gelateria Di Berna, with creative flavors and got two scoops – one of a more standard amarena (cherry) gelato and one of grapefruit, which was SO GOOD. It was a weird flavor combo but both types were independently excellent! After I ordered, I saw their banana basil flavor and was sad I didn’t try that.

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Day 9: Train to Geneva, Exploring Montreux

With a heavy heart, I checked out of my hostel in Interlaken and started making my way to Geneva by way of the Golden Pass – the only (explicitly) scenic Swiss trains I took on this trip.

I will say, with calling this this Golden Pass route, I was under the impression that it was a single train but you actually change to multiple trains and the real “golden pass” part is a panoramic train to the east side of Lake Geneva.

The Golden Pass route is covered by the Swiss Travel Pass and you can choose to reserve a seat on the panoramic train (for an additional fee) but I didn’t have any issues finding a seat (though I couldn’t decide which side had the most scenic views, hence the Chinese family in a majority of my pictures). For the other scenic routes, such as the Glacier Express, I believe you are required to reserve a seat, though at no additional cost, and the route is covered by the pass. It was a little confusing, out of the way, and I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of sitting on a train for 8 hours, so it wasn’t something I did this trip.

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After about four hours of travel, I arrived in Geneva and checked in to the hostel, which was open for check in by early afternoon.

I stayed at the rather generically named Geneva Hostel and don’t know that I would recommend it, though in general I wouldn’t recommend spending much time in Geneva. The hostel itself, as I had read online when booking, is very reminiscent of a prison with key card access required for everything – even the bathroom – and signs all over the place warning of pick pockets. There is limited lounge space with no kitchens, so overall it doesn’t feel like a very friendly place, though it does have 24 hour reception, which I needed for my Monday morning checkout at 4AM. Breakfast of toast and cereal with coffee are included in the stay and the bathrooms are clean enough (though very old, and with a similar “push” style to water flow that I had in my first hostel), with no towels or soap included. It was a short 13 minute walk from the main Geneva train station, which was why I picked it, and I was grateful for that Monday morning, though honestly the airport was only an hour walk away (if not something I wanted to do at 4AM).

In some ways, I feel bad saying I stayed in Geneva at all because, as I realized as I was taking the train out of the city Monday morning, I didn’t explore the city at all. This was largely because I was a bit depressed coming from the stunning countryside to Geneva, which was kind of industrial blah with a few historic buildings sprinkled in. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it reminded me a lot of Brussels as they’re both multicultural, multiethnic cities (largely French speaking), standing as major meeting places for international groups (the EU in Brussels, the UN in Geneva – as well as WHO and other global orgs). I probably would have enjoyed myself more if I had booked a CERN tour in advance but, as it stood, I was ready to get out of the city as soon as possible.

Because of this, I took the train back to Montreux, which I had passed through earlier in the day, to see Chillon Castle, as it was one of the places that was highly recommended in my travel book.

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While the castle itself afforded me a great tour (covered under the travel pass), I didn’t find the city interesting at all and it felt exactly like Waikiki walking along sidewalk by the lake to the castle. I think the region is more interesting if you do wine tasting (Valais is quite the wine region) but it was Saturday evening and all the wineries were closing down for the weekend and wouldn’t reopen until Monday, so I decided to call it quits with the region when I headed back to my hostel that night.

The one nice thing about leaving the Bernese Oberland was that I could finally put my French skills to use and communicate with people on the street, so I took a lot of pleasure in the casual “Bonjour” I dropped to people on the street, asking for directions, or inquiring about prices.

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Day 10: Exploring Neuchatel, Misadventures at the Callier Factory, and Gruyeres

This was my last full day in Switzerland and largely bittersweet (like most of the chocolate I’d eaten that week – sorry, couldn’t resist), but I was getting pretty tired and sort of dragged myself through one last day of adventuring.

I decided to go north for the day, venturing into the land of flat farmland with low rolling hills and, oddly, cornfields.

I planned to go to Neuchatel (which I incorrectly thought was the origin of the cheese neufchatel – actually from Neufchatel-en-Bray in France), Murten, and maybe Gruyeres – instead I ended up going to Neuchatel, the Callier factory in Broc (sort of), and Gruyeres, which was my favorite destination of the day.

Neuchatel took a while to get to and I had a later start, so I didn’t arrive there until almost noon. It wasn’t actually a city recommended by the guidebook but it was nice enough with a central castle that I mistook for a cathedral that I couldn’t find a way to enter and a museum that included some very steampunk automatons that could do complex actions with their teensy gears.

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From there, I kind of said screw it with going to Murten and south to Avenches (where there is a small Roman amphitheater) because it was afternoon and instead went straight to Broc, where I arrived at 3PM and attempted to go to the Callier chocolate factory but learned there was a 2 hour wait (though it was covered by my travel pass) – a good reminder to plan ahead. Even the prospect of free chocolate samples couldn’t keep me stationary in a tiny factory town surrounded by corn fields for two hours so, with the limited public transport in the region, I decided to hoof it to Gruyeres, an hour walk away.

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I had seen Gruyeres on the train over to Broc and it was such a charming sight that I decided I had to go there – in addition to being the origin of the Gruyere cheese. Gruyeres is an adorably teensy town and from a distance all you can see is the fortified castle perched atop a hill, surrounded by the forest.

The walk over the pleasant enough and I got in a lot of “Bonjour”s to some old men walking along the country road.

Once I arrived in Gruyeres, I did the castle tour (also covered by the travel pass), which was lovely and huge with a beautiful garden and, oddly, a lot of sci-fi fantasy paintings – apparently because Gruyeres has ties with H.R. Giger – an artist behind the designs in the film Alien, which explained the Alien themed bar in the otherwise very quaint old town. I missed seeing the H.R. Giger museum, but it’s just saved for my next visit!

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On my way out of town, I picked up some “double creme” from a shop and ate too much of it with bread considering it was essentially extra thick whipping cream. I haven’t looked up the calorie count out of fear, so please, don’t share.

I started the three hour train trek back to Geneva, packed quickly upon arrival, and then attempted to sleep for four hours before my flight as the craziest lightning storm raged outside with flashes every few seconds and booming thunder rattling the windows.

And thus ended my week in Switzerland!

I’ve decided that I loved it immensely (because of course my brother-in-law was right) and am now totally committed to figuring out some kind of lifestyle where I can summer in the Alps. Also, I definitely looked up how difficult it is to live and work in Switzerland and/or to get Swiss citizenship and it isn’t quite as difficult as I thought, so who knows.

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Best Things I Brought

1. Backpack. Honestly, it would have been smart to bring a secondary day pack, so I should pick up a teensy collapsible one.
2. Waterbottle. Even though I ditched it on the hikes for lighter disposable bottles.
3. Umbrella.
4. Towel. This is a given if you’re used to staying in hostels (or have read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) but I have a great lightweight one that folds down very small and has been my best buddy for trips. I’ve even considered bringing two when traveling and reserving one for the beach.
5. Menstrual cup, backup tampons, and ibuprofen. TMI but I love my menstrual cup with a passion – though you do need to sterilize it prior to use, so carrying some backup is always a good idea.
6. Tiny hotel soap and shampoo.
7. Athletic clothes that looked enough like normal clothes. In the different climates that I moved between, layering was key and I realized early into the week that I was just going to be in athletic gear. Sports bras, lightweight tanks, a fleece, a raincoat, and a pair of basic black “quickdry” travel pants from Costco were my uniform for the week and worked for walking around cities and hiking up into the Alps. Tennis shoes completed the functional look, but it would have been better with some neutral hiking boots and hiking socks high enough to prevent heel blisters.
8. Earplugs. I have fancy $10 reusable high fidelity ones for concerts I carry around and honestly, it’s a good tip just to carry around some earplugs in case of the impromptu concert or loudly snoring roommate (though I usually use earbuds and podcasts for this).
9. Bottle opener.
10. Guidebook. Not usually something I buy (this was on loan) or bring with me, but super helpful.
11. Pen. Great for marking said guidebook, maps, and writing impromptu travel plans for the day.
12. Questionably good French.
13. Three gallon size ziploc bags. Basically the every tool for keeping bugs out of your food and waterproofing your electronics on hikes.
14. Reusable shopping bags.

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Things I Wish I Had Brought

1. Hiking boots and hiking socks.
2. Rain cover for backpack.
3. Universal adapter. This would have saved me from scrabbling to find something to fit the weird Swiss electrical sockets.
4. Sunscreen.
5. Wine bottle opener. Would have really expanded by Swiss supermarket wine options.
6. Any amount of German. You can get by without it, but it certainly helps, particularly since 70% of the population speaks it.
7. A real camera with lots of extra memory cards.
8. Sharpie. Great for marking random possessions (especially food) with your name.