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Europe Part 4: Interlaken and Zurich

SWITZERLAND
Lauterbrunnen

We headed to the Jungfrau Region the morning of the next day. We went through Interlaken to a smaller town called Lauterbrunnen. It was still touristy, but even touristy towns in Switzerland look like what I expected from a small Swiss town. In Lauterbrunnen, we went to the Trummelbach Falls, which is a waterfall from the glaciers in the region that is actually inside a mountain. It really doesn't look like much from the outside, but on the inside, you can barely hear because of the 20,000 liters of water that it carries per second. After that, we had traditional Rosti for dinner, which is basically hash browns that have been lightly fried and smothered in cheese. Mmmmm.

The next day we took a trek, by train, up to the top of the Jungfrau, which is a glacier 11,000 feet tall and home of Europe's highest train station. It was freezing (literally), but the view was amazing! It was crazy to have gone from 100 degree weather in Greece to 32 degrees in Switzerland. It's hard to convey with pictures, but here you are:


After coming back out of the snow, we hiked for about 3 hours through the Apls below the glaciers. It truly felt like we were in The Sound of Music. I can't describe how green and gorgeous the sites were. There were also wildflowers, cows with bells you could hear across the mountain, and waterfalls everywhere. Really, trust me, go to Switzerland to hike if you can! That evening, we enjoyed cheese fondue and had wine and cookies on the porch of our hotel overlooking the valley and Staubbach Falls. I need Jen to help me write right now and somehow convey the beauty of nature!





Zurich
The next day, we headed to Zurich, and luckily we were able to stay with Swati's friends sister. Zurich is a very expensive and nice town with a few nice churches, but not a lot of other sites. Over the next 2 days, we hung out with Swati's friends, toured the churches and walked along Zurich's 5th Avenue, and went shopping for chocolate. The best part was a bike ride we took along Zurichsee, the lake next to Zurich. We got a chance to gossip away from Swati's friend and see more of the residential Zurich. Zurich also had vegetarian restaurants, so we actually continued to find good things to eat!

St. Peter's (with the largest clockface in Europe):



Overall, the trip was relaxing and amazing. It felt like 2 vacations in 1 since we went to two completely different places, and I would highly recommend both!

posted by Biff @ 1:08 PM