Day 1: Mom and Dad arrived in Zürich airport early in the morning, and Juna and I picked them up. Basel to Zürich is about one hour by train. First thing, we bought their 8-day Swiss Passes (2nd class, CHF 393 each) which covered almost all train, tram and boat travel for their trip. For the kind of trip we did, with frequent travel covering almost every region of Switzerland, this pass was a good deal, especially because it also gave them free entry to every museum we went to. Then, with their suitcases, we took a tram to Tibits, a vegetarian restaurant with a great buffet, and got brunch food to take and eat by the lake. I wanted them to see a little bit of Zürich since they flew in there. Afterwards, we headed back to Basel, they took a nap and then we walked around, seeing the Rathaus, Müenster, Tinguely fountain, and a nice part of the Rhine near Wettsteinbrücke. We ate raclette for dinner (the Swiss never do this in the summer but we didn't care) and went to bed early. Some people told me when I was planning the trip that I should care more about my parents' jet lag, but after the first day it wasn't a problem for them. They were too excited (and busy) to care about sleep!
Day 2: We took a 9:30 train to Montreux to see the Chateau de Chillon, with transfers in Bern and Lausanne. For a bit of geographical context, Basel is in the northwest corner of Switzerland and Montreux is about three hours away in the southwest (on Lake Geneva). It seemed kind of out of the way to go there, but I thought my parents should see a formidable castle while in Europe, and it would also be the only time we got over into French speaking Switzerland. It was really nice, but I enjoyed Chateau de Gruyeres more, which was less touristy and smaller, furnished with lots of tapestries and preserved furniture and art. Chillon has the advantage of being on the lake--we took a boat to get there--and it has been visited by far more celebrities, as I found out from the art exhibit on display when we were there (blurry portraits of famous visitors including Dostoevsky, Dali, and Charlie Chaplin). But there was somehow a feeling of inauthenticity, which continued to bother me throughout the trip in high-traffic tourist areas, no matter how spectacular they were. This is really personal to me and in no way takes away from the rich history and beauty of the castle.
After we had our fill of the castle, we planned to take the boat back to Montreux and catch a train to Interlaken. Everything I read online about how to get to Chateau de Chillon led me to believe that we could take one there AND back. However, the boats run a giant loop and if you want to take one back to Montreux (which only took 15 minutes on the way over), it takes hours. This put me into a panic, briefly. But fortunately we could take a bus, the friendly English-speaking boat tour guides told us. But there was no clear bus stop for the train station, and the bus driver spoke no English. I remembered how to say train station in French so I said "Gare?" and he said yes, this bus went there. I was still unsure of which stop it was, so planned to keep my eyes peeled and trusted that the driver would make sure we got off at the right place. He didn't, we missed it by two stops, and we had to book it to make our panorama train.
What I read online about these mountain railways gave me the impression that 1) they ran a different route than any other regular train and 2) we very much needed to make a seat reservation lest the train fill up (which it would because of the jaw-dropping views). So we paid a little bit extra, but it soon became apparent that we didn't need to. The train didn't fill up and there were lots of people just using it to get home from work. We also discovered later that an IR train we planned to take just to get to our destination was a panorama train because that was the only train that ran that route. AND that some of the trains I take several times a week to get to school in Zürich are considered part of a "panorama" route. Basically, Switzerland is a panorama country and if you take a train through mountains, of which there are many, you will be on a panorama train whether you call it that or not. Rant aside, it was still pretty awesome to ride through mountain villages to end up in Interlaken Ost, the springboard for all Berner Oberland adventures.
From Interlaken, we headed in the direction of Gimmelwald, the tiny mountain village I fell in love with from Rick Steves' TV show, where we would stay overnight. To get there, we had to take a train, a bus and finally a gondola lift up what seemed like a sheer vertical cliff (it's the only way to access the village, but it still seemed just too special for our Swiss Passes and GAs to cover, which they did!). I couldn't believe there were PEOPLE up there, in this cloud-obscured place above the waterfalls. Aside from the (very friendly) college-aged boys from Newcastle who seemed to be running the Pension Gimmelwald where we stayed, Gimmelwald completely satisified my desire to get away from all traces of tourism. It really seemed like there were only 3 or 4 small guest houses for hikers/skiers and everything else was people's houses and small stores. I couldn't believe the views out our window in the morning, or how much of a grade you'd have to climb just to get to your neighbor's place! We explored a little bit and met some goats and a friendly cat, but I never got my fill of Gimmelwald. I really want to go back, hang out with some locals and eat Alpine cheese.
 |
| See that cliff with the waterfall? We stayed up there! |
 |
| Gondola lift up to Gimmelwald |
 |
| The view out of our room in the morning |
No comments:
Post a Comment