Switzerland 2015

Yeongmi and I travelled to Switzerland this past May and June.  We spent several days in Zurich for a conference at the University of Zurich UZH there.  Then we spent two nights in Lauterbrunnen in Bernese Alps.  We spent a night in Zermat in the shadow of the Matterhorn, and then stopped in Montrose on the shores of Lake Geneva before flying home.

The Matterhorn from Gornergrat

Both of us loved Switzerland.  The people are friendly, the scenery is amazing, the transport system is fast and efficient, and the food was great.

Zurich

We arrived in Zurich at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 31st having taken a connecting flight via JFK airport in New York.  The landing was spectacular with the alps in the distance and the green fields all around.  We stayed in the airport for a couple of hours, had breakfast, talked with a former student who arrived around the same time attending the same conference.  At 12:30 we met a tour bus in the parking lot and spent the afternoon seeing downtown Zurich, and the sites nearby.  This was a great way to fight off jet lag, since it kept us out and about in the sunshine until 5:00 p.m. or so.

We spent five days total in Zurich and three of those were occupied by the conference at the university.  The organizers had wonderful meals planned for each of the nights of the conference in fabulous restaurants in the old part of town, so we did get to see the sights even on conference days.  

Zurich is an amazing city built on the outlet of Lake Zurich and the old town lines the banks of the river at the outlet.  We stayed in an Airbnb apartment near Zähringerplatz which put us not too far from the university (we walked to the conference every day), but still in the picturesque tourist part of town.  The view of Zurich from the university is breathtaking, by the way and not to be missed if you are in the neighborhood.

Monday night after the first day of the conference we had dinner at Zeughauskeller, an old armory that dates back to before Columbus.  Here I was introduced to rösti, a traditional Swiss dish that is a lot like hash browns, but with sauces and garnish that you don't normally eat with hash browns in the US.  I am a big rösti fan now, thanks to Simon Scheidegger.

Along the banks of the Limmat River 

The Grossmünster, Helmhaus and the Münsterbrücke 

View from the University of Zurich
We stayed next to the church in the center

Fraumünster, across the river from Grossmünster

Hotels along the Limmat River

The shores of Lake Zurich

Rhinefall

The day after the conference ended, we took a morning trip to the Rhinefall, north of Zurich.  We travelled by bus and got to see the countryside after spending four days in the city.  The falls are very impressive.  We took a boat out to an island in the middle of the falls and generally had a great time.

Boat to the island in the middle of the falls

View from the island

Bern

On Friday, the 5th of June we took the train from Zurich to Bern.  We only stayed a couple of hours there, but enjoyed the sightseeing.  We took the bus from the train station to Bärengraben where the city has kept bears for centuries.  Unfortunately, the bears were all indoors, so there wasn't much to see.  We walked back toward the center of town across the bridge and along the main road (Gerechtigkeitsgasse?) to the large tower with the animated clock (Zytglogge).  We'd missed the big show at noon.  At 1:00 p.m. the show was minimal and a bit of a letdown.  The church was interesting and the sights along the way, including the many fountains in the middle of the road, were quite picturesque.

View downstream from Nydeggbrücke

View upstream from Nydeggbrücke

Old house in Bern

Zytglogge

Bernese flag

Lauterbrunnen

The Valley of Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Alps was the inspiration for Rivendell in J. R. R. Tolkien's books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  We spent two nights here after stopping in Bern.  We stayed in the village of Lauterbrunnen near the waterfall there at a nice hotel called the Hotel Staubbach, which is named after the spectacular waterfall nearby.

During our stay we explored the nearby villages of Wengen and Mürren.  The former is accessed by an alpine railway that starts in Lauterbrunnen and runs to Kleine ScheideggZermat.  The latter is accessed either by a tram from Lauterbrunnen and then an alpine railway, or by taking a bus to Stechelberg further up the valley and then taking a series of trams.  These trams continue beyond the village of Mürren to a moutain peak called the Schilthorn, which is topped by a revolving restaurant where the James Bond movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was filmed.

This was my favorite part of the whole trip.  The valley has stunning scenery and the villages are charming and lots of fun.  My legs have weakened to the point I can no longer hike, but this would've been a place to spend a week trekking if I had been able.  I did get some great photos, though.

View of the valley from Wengen

The church in Lauterbrunnen

Staubbach Falls and the cemetery in Lauterbrunnen 

Tennis court in Mürren

House in Mürren 

View from Mürren

Peaks across the valley from Mürren 

Along the Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen–Mürren nearing the upper tram station

The Village of Mürren

Looking down the valley from Mürren

View from the Schilthorn

A lower tram station on the Luftseilbahn Stechelberg-Mürren-Schilthorn 

Looking north from the Schilthorn

The fields near Stechelberg 

View down the valley from Stechelberg

Waterfall near Stechelberg

Zermatt

Zermatt is the town located below the Matterhorn in Switzerland.  How can you go to Switzerland and not see the Matterhorn?  So we left Lauterbrunnen on the morning of the 7th and took the train there.  It required changing trains several times.  The last was in the Town of Visp and from there we had a scenic ride up the valley to Zermatt.

We dropped our luggage in a locker at the train station (down one floor from the platform if you're ever there and can't find the lockers).  We then took the Gornergratbahn to the top of Gornergrat Peak , which sits at an altitude in excess of 10,000 feet, and of course has a five-star hotel.  This was a real plus about Switzerland for people like me who have difficulty walking - there is a train, tram or bus to just about every point in the country! We had excellent views of the Matterhorn and Findel Glacier.

We explored the village afterward and spent the night in a rather spacious apartment with a view of the Matterhorn.

The Matterhorn on the railway to Gornergrat 

Below Gornergrat Peak

Another view from the railroad

View of the glacier from Gornergrat 

The church in Zermatt

View from our hotel room

In the Village of Zermatt

Montreux

On the morning of the 8th we left Zermatt and headed to Geneva to fly home the next day.  Along the way we stopped in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva.  To Americans my age Montreux is well-known as the setting for the classic rock anthem, Smoke on the Water, by Deep Purple.  That alone was not probably enough to warrant a stop, but the view of the lake, the statue of Freddy Mercury, and the amazingly well-kept castle, Château de Chillon, made it a must-see.

The castle was my favorite place we saw this day.  We spent hours there exploring all the nooks and crannies and learning alot about Swiss history and castles in general.

Freddy Mercury

"We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty, cold and bare"
lyrics from Smoke on the Water

Château de Chillon

Château de Chillon's main tower

Window at the castle

Coloful lichen on the slate roof at the castle

We spent the last night in Switzerland in Geneva at a hotel near the airport.  We caught a very early flight to Amsterdam and then a nonstop from there to Salt Lake.  My last meal in Switzerland was the night before at the hotel.  I had "rösti complete" with everything on it.  It was awesome!

We flew over Greenland and Hudson Bay on the way home.  The arctic looked cold.