Travel Journal- The Swiss Alps

Tasche, Randa, Lauterbrunnen, Bern, & Lucerne, Switzerland | August 28-September 1, 2019

We were sad to see the family leave, but the journey must go on! Instead of continuing down further south into Italy, we decided to take an excursion up to Switzerland to see what it looks like in the summertime before visiting it with the Vaughan family in October. 

Our first destination was Zermatt which is a town you can’t reach by car. This town has the best view of Matterhorn Mountain. Instead of riding the tram up to the town, we chose to camp in a small village called Täsch Village just outside of the town of Tasche. This village is the sight of many trailheads leading all through the area.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

So we decided to hike one of the trails toward Zermatt until finding the best view of the Matterhorn. We didn’t have to go far before the massive Mountain presented itself. There were some clouds lingering at the summit, but that didn’t change its impressiveness. We sat for a bit watching the clouds roll over the top, and then started our trek back to Kuzco.

• 

• 

Once back to the car, we decided to drive to a town called Randa instead of hiking the trail from the village (would have taken hours). This put us closer to our next destination; the longest suspended pedestrian walking bridge in the world! The hike from Randa was pretty tough! It was all uphill, and it was really steep. We were both super tired by the time we got to the bridge, but it was totally worth it! 

The Charles Kuonen suspension bridge is 494 meters long and 85 meters high. We both got jello legs walking across and it was a bit scary to look down! But it was well worth the experience and the beautiful views. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We took a different trail down the mountain; it was much easier than the way up! There were plenty of things to see along the way and we encouraged those that were struggling to go up just as we had earlier in the day haha.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

At our camp spot that night, we met a nice couple from Czech who were on holiday. We chatted for a long while before they went to bed. They said they had to be up early to go climbing! 
Unlike our new friends, we did not feel like climbing or doing anything physical after our big day of hiking. We were surprisingly and embarrassingly sore haha. So we spent most of the day driving through some beautiful Swiss towns like Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald, and Interlaken. The rivers and lakes were such strange colors and there were so many waterfalls!

• 

• 

We stretched our legs in Lauterbrunnen where we followed a trail that led underneath a large waterfall right in the center of town. This short walk made us even more tired and, still feeling our legs from the previous hike, we decided it was best to keep driving. 

• 

• 

Bern was our next stop. Here, we visited the LDS temple and performed baptisms for the dead. Ben was happy to speak German and the temple workers were impressed with him! We decided to save sight-seeing for October when the family gets here. So we continued our journey into Lucerne. 

We stayed the night by Lake Lucerne. It was very peaceful and the view was breathtaking. We sat on a bench overlooking the lake, fed the ducks, and watched the sunset as we ate our store bought bread and other goodies. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Side note: The fresh bread in Europe has been absolutely heavenly. There are bakeries on every corner, so we can’t help ourselves everywhere we go. However, Switzerland is quite expensive! So we had to cool it while traveling here in fear we would spend all of our money in one place!

Lake Lucerne greeted us in the morning, but we only stayed a short while before heading to church. This time, Ben was able to understand the message, but I had no idea what was going on ha. It was still nice to be there and take the sacrament. We spent the rest of the day driving down toward Milan.

• 

• 

After crossing the border into Italy, we drove around Lake Como for quite a while. We were looking for a place to park for the night, but it was so busy and the roads were so narrow, we ended up getting frustrated and just moving on. Apparently this is the lake where a scene from Star Wars was filmed (which would explain the crazy amount of tourists). Ben geeked out for a moment, but then we were happy to drive away from the crowds. Next, Milan!