TO Switzerland we Go!
August 24th - August 28th
To start the week off, we left Florence and headed north with a very yappy Kuzco. Mr Meows spent the first train of the day being very loud for the entire 2.5 hours - much to the dismay of the rest of our silent train car. Literally the most quiet train we have taken in 3 months. He had a very chaotic stop in Milan when he continued to meow at the park, but luckily he got distracted trying to chase piegons from his jail cell and eventually tuckered himself out. He was so tired that he napped the whole rest of the way to Switzerland! The family next to us even noted that it was crazy how well behaved he was the whole time (LOL). After his 3 hour nap, we arrived in Bern and headed to the apartment so he could explore a new stop.
The first night in Bern was full of rain and thunderstorms, so we made a grocery run and grabbed some take out pizza to start planning what hikes to do during our time there. Kuzco quickly adjusted and found many spots to take naps throughout the afternoon!
We woke up the next morning and started with a tour around Bern. The tour started with us walking up the steps to the top of the Bern Minster bell towers while the bells were going off. It was very loud but cool to see them in action! After the bell tower, we walked over to the Bear exhibit to see them in action. We continued touring around town before heading to dinner that night which an early morning ahead.
The first day of hiking started with a train ride to Interlaken! After trying to figure out the best routes to take we had decided on the Harder Kulm Loop which included a 3.8 mile hike to the top with 3,400 ft of elevation gain. The walk up was pretty rough and took us about 2 and a half hours but the views were worth it! We stopped at one of the overlooks to catch our breath for a minute and a butterfly landed on Haley’s shoe, and it stayed there the whole time we were at the overlook (Kuz would have gone crazy). At the very top, we were able to enjoy our lunch alongside the views with only 2 other people. We were able to see the full 360 of all of the mountains and lakes around us! After the incline to the top we decided to enjoy the lower viewpoint and then take the funicular down the rest of the way. There were multiple spots on the way down where we were able to see the trail that we had just come up on our way down, so we could see just how steep it had been! At the bottom, we headed straight to the train station and back to Bern for dinner and Below Deck time!
Our outdoor adventures continued the next morning as we headed out of Bern once again — this time to Lucerne. We took about every mode of transportation we could think of throughout the day as we went straight from our train to a boat as soon as we got into town. The boat took us through the water to the base of a cogwheel train that would drop us off on the top of Mt Pilatus! We decided against hiking up the trail option this time and were very grateful for the decision as we saw the trail switchbacks from above. We spent a couple hours walking around on the short trails at the top and watching some paragliders taking off from the side of the mountain.
Once we started heading down, we took the cable car down to a lower campsite where we got in line for the longest summer toboggan run in Switzerland — Fräkmüntegg. It was a stressful 1,350 meters down to the bottom, but a much more relaxing and slower ride to the top as you were pulled back up through cows and hills. After our toboggan side-quest, we took another cable car and then a bus to get back into Lucerne. Once we made it back we had just enough time to jump on next train back to Bern.
Our last day in Bern was very rainy, so we spent most of the day shopping around town and staying inside. We found some unique stores as we walked around and were able to see the 3 o’clock puppet show at The Zytglogge clock tower. We also had to make a rare stop at McDonald’s to try the hot sauce collection! It was unfortunately not that good but it was very spicy. We also were able to see a touring beach volleyball tournament set up in the city center, and were given free boxes of pasta and come coffee to sample. After that, we headed back to repack and get ready for another day of trains on our way to France!
