Eleven Miles and Six Gondola Rides — The Towering Travelers

After leaving Italy, Jason and I headed to Switzerland for a few days. We’d never been before, and we had decided to split time between Zurich and Interlaken to experience both the city and the Swiss Alps. My two expectations coming into the trip were that it would be absurdly beautiful and very expensive, and Switzerland definitely delivered on both.

We took the train from Florence to Interlaken, where we stayed in one of the old hotels downtown. It’s always odd for me, as an American, to be in a place where there is such well-established tourism infrastructure dating back hundreds of years. I felt a bit like this in Yellowstone National Park, but Swiss mountain towns are definitely a whole other level.

The afternoon that we arrived, we took the funicular from town up to Harder Kulm. The ride was steep and showed off beautiful views. At the top there is a viewing platform and restaurant.

Photo looking out the front of a funicular over the heads of two riders — The view from the funicular on the way up to Harder Kulm (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a Swiss building with a red, pointed roof with a lake and mountains in the background — The view from the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Interlaken with mountains in the background and lakes on either side — The view of Interlaken (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up photo of a wooden sculpture of a man blowing into a horn — One of the decorations at the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a hotel in Interlaken with glowing mountains in the background — Alpenglow in Interlaken (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we followed an itinerary I had found online that included two train rides, six gondola rides, and 11 miles of hiking in between some of the mountain towns.

The first leg of our journey was a gondola up to Grütschalp and then walking to Murren. The walk was beautiful; it was a clearly marked path that wound through the forest and meadows. We saw cows and lots of flowers.

Photo of a water trough that says 1912 with an animal engraving — A water trough in front of a cow barn on our hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a cow under a large pine tree — A whole meadow and this cow was looking for food under a pine tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of seven bees on a flower — There were so many bees on these flowers (photo/Jason Rafal)

We took a gondola up to Birg, where they have installed a walkway midway below the top of the cliff that allows you to walk around the edge. While the walkway was slightly unnerving, and I’m not sure I can recommend it for people who are afraid of heights, the views were amazing. It also included some scarier elements, like walking along a cable or over a plexiglass floor.

Photo of a catwalk around a rock face with mountains in the background and a sign that says "photo point" — This made us laugh because it was an insane view all the way around the mountain…but this one point was designated for photos (photo/Jason Rafal)

Panoramic view of mountains — The amazing view from Birg (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking along a cable with the mountains in the background — The Birg catwalk had a lot of fun and alarming challenges hundreds of feet off the ground (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a gondola going up to Brig with the mountains in the background — Gondola views (photo/Jason Rafal)

From Birg we took another gondola to Schilthorn, which was full of information about the James Bond movie that was filmed there. It had 360 degree views of the mountains all around, and while it wasn’t as fun as Birg in my opinion, it was very enjoyable.

Photo of walking paths along the top of the mountain at Schilthorn — The view at Schilthorn (photo/Jason Rafal

Photo of small flowers growing out of rock shale — Tiny flowers among the mountaintop rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

After hanging out for a while at Schilthorn, we took the gondolas back down to Murren and then hiked to Gimmelwald. It was more stereotypical Swiss pastoral beauty, always with the striking mountains in the distance.

Photo of a butterfly on a purple flower with a meadow in the background — A butterfly in the meadow on our hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a wooden building with a sign that sais "Willkommen in Gimmelwald" — Our welcome to Gimmelwald (photo/Jason Rafal)

Once we got to Gimmelwald, we took the last gondola of the day down to Schilthornbahn and then began walking back to Lauterbrunnen to catch our train home.

Photo from the inside of a gondola with a waterfall in the background — More gondolas (photo/Jason Rafal)

We walked down the valley through flat pasture land and watched the crazy base jumpers landing.

Photo of a person with a parachute between two tall rock cliffs — A base jumper comes in to land (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a meadow with a high cliff and a waterfall in the background — More meadows, cliffs, and waterfalls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of gliders coming in to land with mountains in the background — Gliders in the park in Interlaken (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we headed to Zurich for the next part of our trip. We both really liked Zurich - it’s beautiful, easy to get around, has great vegetarian food, and generally feels very livable. It also oozes money, but in a very casual, classy way. At least half the cars were over $100k, and there were drivers waiting for their clients everywhere. When I would see a normal-looking brown Nissan or something similar, it was always a surprise.

It was also quiet. People seemed to use inside voices all the time, and I almost felt the need to whisper while walking around. The dogs were incredibly well behaved and just as quiet as their people.

One of my favorite parts of the city was the fountains. There are about 1200 of them, and they all provide drinkable water, which was lovely. The ones that were too large to reach always had a smaller, more convenient option for filling up a water bottle to the side.

Photo of a fountain in a square in Zurich — One of the many beautiful (and drinkable!) water fountains in Zurich (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of multicolored buildings — Some of the beautiful buildings in Zurich (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a cat walking down a deserted street — A cat wanders down the street (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a chair on a sloped street with a propped-up piece of plywood keeping it flat — The tiniest porch (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of our activities was visiting the university botanic garden, which was beautiful. It has three domes each featuring a different climate, and also had lawn and gardens around the domes as well.

Photo of a yellow flower — One of my favorite plants, the South American *Brugmansia suaveolens* (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole climbing stairs to a platform in a garden dome — One of the beautiful domes at the botanic garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking across the river in Zurich at dusk — Zurich at dusk (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a street at dusk with Swiss flags and a clocktower in the background — Quiet nighttime streets in Zurich (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the recommendations we got from a local was to go to the Lindt factory, which was on one side of Lake Zurich. After some confusion about the ferry system, we arrived at the giant building, which features an impressive two-story chocolate fountain.

If you’re interested in chocolate production, it was a really impressive tour. We spent about an hour but could easily have spent two if we listened to all of the audio clips and read every sign. My favorite part was the room wallpapered with spectacularly high-res photos of a cacao forest, but the descriptions of chocolate additives (and the associated taste testing) was also a good section.