When I started thinking about taking the kindle out to write a blog about Switzerland, I got pretty overwhelmed. I already wrote 16 pages in my journal, trying to capture the breathtaking scenery and moments that made Switzerland my favorite stop so far. But don't worry, I won't put you through 16 pages. I'll just put the disclaimer out right now that Switzerland is a place that no combination of words or photos can do justice. I know I've mentioned awesome views in other blogs, but believe me when I say that nothing compares.
We arrived in Switzerland five days ago on the most beautiful train ride of my life. Coming in we saw so many rivers, lakes, and towering mountains that it was impossible to take pictures of them all. We arrived in Interlaken around sunset, and took it easy at our hostel, Balmer's, for the night.
The next day we packed in a full day as usual. We enjoyed our free hostel breakfast with the best Swiss mountain cheese, and headed off to Lauterbrunnen, a small town just out of Interlaken. From there we hiked for about 40 minutes up to Trummelbach falle, a mountain that you can hike up and into to see the waterfall that runs through it. The waterfall comes from melted glacier water, so when we finally hiked up inside the mountain, it dropped about 10 degrees. The sound of the rushing water echoing through the caves and seeing the water twist and turn down the grooves was well worth the hike. Not that the hike wasn't well worth it on it's own.
At almost all times throughout our stay, we could look up and see the Swiss Alps covered in snow with lush green hills in front of them. Everything around us was green. There were expansive grassy fields everywhere, colorful gardens, icy blue lakes and rivers... I could go on forever (but don't worry, I won't). When we were hiking, I felt like I just left the Shire and now I was exploring all that Middle Earth had to offer. It was awesome.
Over the course of our hikes, we found plenty of picture perfect scenes, but a few stood out more than others. One was when we were trying to get to the lake and we stumbled upon ruins of a castle from the 13th century. We ended up having lunch at the top of its lookout tower, and the entire time we weren't bothered by lines of tourists or anyone for that matter. After we found those ruins, we set out to find more and found another castle, more well preserved, and explored the stoney walls- all the while not seeing any other tourists. Being constantly surrounded by natures made for a very peaceful trip.
Another highlight of the trip was when we decided to splurge and do one of the excursions. Switzerland is all about extreme sports. You can do basically anything there: paragliding, skydiving, canyoning, bungee jumping... you name it, they have it. We opted to go white water rafting. I had never gone before, and the rivers were so gorgeous that we just had to. The other options all sounded awesome, but this was a 6 hour experience, so we chose to fill the day with it.
I will admit, that in the beginning I was a little apprehensive. White water rafting through melted glacier water? The hour tutorial about how what to do if you fall in didn't help much either. The rapids ranged from classes III to IV. Even though I was a little worried about how it would go, once we got the raft in the water I had such a fun time. After I got past the fact that I couldn't feel my hands, I had a great time paddling the team as we manuvered the raft around massive boulders and tricky currents. Luckily, no one fell in; however, we did all have to jump in to do a rescue test. After experiencing both peaceful floating where we could enjoy the beauty around us an adrenaline pumping rafting, we ended in a lake. I am definitely glad I took the plunge (pun intended), and went on the excursion.
Overall, I don't have any complaints about Switzerland. The scenery was more than I ever imagined. The hostel had an awesome bar, reading room, kitchen, etc... Everything about it was picturesque. I hope that one day I will be back to explore more of Europe, but I know Switzerland is somewhere I will visit again.
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