September 20
My friend and I arrived in Zurich early this morning and started exploring the old town of the city. We took a stroll along a few bridges and visited the Grossmunster, an old Protestant church. Personally, I didn’t find the church very impressive given the austere nature of Protestant services, but it’s free to enter so I didn’t really mind.
As we were walking around for lunch, we suddenly realized how expensive Switzerland is. A regular lunch in a restaurant usually costs around 30 CHF, which is close to 45 CAD as of the time of writing. We balked and found a fast food German chain called Sternen Grill to eat a cheaper lunch of currywurst and bratwurst.
We then took transit (which is also really expensive) to the FIFA museum. I quite liked the FIFA museum as it did a great job explaining the evolution of soccer and the various official tournaments. One of the coolest parts of the museum was seeing the real World Cup.
Afterwards, we made our way to the Swiss National Museum. I would highly recommend visiting this museum if you are curious about Swiss history and politics. I had a good time and the museum was pretty cheap compared to the other museums that we visited.
We then took an evening train to Lucerne and checked into our hostel, crashing for the night.
September 21
We got up early this day and got a quick breakfast at Heidi’s Patisserie (a chain of cheap bakeries all around Switzerland). Since we had a whole morning to kill before a another friend arrived in Lucerne, we decided to go to Lake Lungern, located about 1 hour south of Lucerne by train. This was a really good decision because the lake was absolutely beautiful. The meadows nearby looked incredible in the morning sunlight, the temperature was almost perfect and the water was a glacier blue colour that I have only seen in places like Lake Louise and Maligne Lake. I like this view a lot more than the views in the Rockies simply because Swiss nature is more “civilized” where humans actually live in the nature and have tamed it by creating beautiful meadows and clearings. We did a 2 hour walk around the lake and then got on a train back to Lucerne.
In Lucerne, we met up with our other friend and started to explore Lucerne in more depth. We explore the Lion’s Monument, the Musegg Wall, their luxury watch street (this is only because another friend and I are watch nerds), and Chapel Bridge. To be brutally honest, the Swiss old towns are not as impressive as the Spanish old towns. They are somewhat boring because people are not usually bustling outside and the sights can be seen in a few minutes.
We then got dinner at Made in Sud, a cheap Italian place. Slowly, each person on this trip realized that Swiss food is not worth spending too much on, so the quality of our food slowly declined.
September 22
We woke up early again to take a boat ride to Witznau from Lucerne and then a train ride up to Mount Rigi as part of the Queen of the Mountains ticket package. The view from the top of Mount Rigi was splendid, with clouds ocassionally bufetting the peak. We could see most of the Lucerne canton from the top which was pretty sick. I wasn’t as impressed compared to the rest of my friends simply because I have seen similar views before in Western Canada but it was pretty interesting nonetheless. Before we went to the top, we stopped by a Coop, which is a local Swiss supermarket which has premade sandwiches and lunches. Getting this before we went to the mountain was a huge blessing because food can be very expensive up there. We took our lunch and ate it at the Rigi Stauffel train station as the Rigi Kulm station was quite busy and cold.
After lunch, we descended back to Witznau and took a boat to Lucerne. I spent the rest of the day walking around the Lucerne Lake. I got some beautiful sunset views of Lucerne and got to meet some Swiss people outside of your regular touristy interactions.
September 23
We took an early morning train to Interlaken from Lucerne. This is an incredibly scenic train ride (even with the regular train, I am sure the scenic train is even more scenic but this was good enough for me). Try to choose the right side of the train departing from Lucerne
Once we arrived at Interlaken, my friend and I made our way to a skydiving center and suited up for our first skydiving experience! We took a helicopter to 13,000 ft and got some incredible views of the Swiss Alps peaking out from a blanket of clouds. My friend dived first (she jumped out so fast I barely caught her dropping). Soon it was my turn. I inched out and instantly felt the cold in my bones, but I was too excited and nervous to even care. Before I could even count down, I suddenly dropped out of the helicopter. My stomach instantly made its way into the top of my chest as I hurtled down to Earth. We did a bit of a flip when we dived so that I could see the underside of the helicopter before we flipped back to face the ground. Since the day was quite cloudy, I could only see the blanket of clouds hurtling towards us. Soon we were in the clouds, which was a little damp but otherwise a pleasant experience. After about 10 seconds, the clouds opened up and I got to see the entire Interlaken experience as I freefall-ed down. It was an incredible view. Before long, the parachute got deployed and the instructor and I guided our way down to the landing area. All in all, an incredibly crazy but fun experience!!
After the skydive, we got a light lunch at a nearby Coop and made our way to Grindelwald. This is an incredibly scenic (bit too touristy) village nestled in a valley near Interlaken. We dropped our bags off at the hostel in Grindelwald and did a short hike to Cafe 3692. I have gone to many cafes with my coffee-loving friends and I have to say that this is the only cafe that impressed me. The views were incredible and the wild berry drink was out of the world. I would strongly recommend visitors to check out this cafe if you are in Grindelwald.
Eventually, we made our way back to Interlaken and tried out the famous Funky Chocolate Factory which has famous chocolate covered strawberries. I personally thought that it was quite average but my chocolate-loving friends thought otherwise. We then did another Coop run, got some Shin Ramen and made our way back to the hostel to eat. We met some other exchange students on the way as well and exchanged some of our stories!
September 24
I woke up early to get some free breakfast from our hostel (God bless Eiger Hostel, free breakfast is so clutch) and then did a morning walk around Grindelwald to catch the mountains views in the sunrise (would strongly recommend).
We then checked out and made our way to Interlaken to take a funicular to Harder Kulm. We were blessed to get very clear skies early in the morning when things weren’t too busy to get some nice views of Interlaken. We then grabbed a Coop lunch, took a train to Zurich and checked into our last hostel of the trip.
Afterwards, we went to the Lindt Chocolate Factory for a self-guided tour on how Lindt produces chocolate. I thought it was a great tour of the whole chocolate history and process of creating world-famous chocolate. I personally ate too much chocolate and got a bit sick but it was worth it.
We then explored Zurich at night. I have to say, Zurich old town is actually quite nice at night, much better than the morning. We made our way to Lindenhoff to see Zurich’s skyline at sunset, which I would recommend. We then our made our way back to the hostel and crashed.
September 25
We had an extra day in Zurich as our flight was on this day. I just checked out the Swiss Finance Museum, but wasn’t too impressed by it and made my way to the airport. I would have tried to cut out this day to get back home to Madrid earlier.
Tips
- My philosophy towards food cost changed drastically in this trip. I realized that it’s simply not worth eating at restaurants every day when you are on a trip, especially if you are not a fan of the regional cuisine. This was amplified when I realized the cost of a typical Swiss dinner. My friends and I opted for pre-made meals or instant noodles from supermarkets instead. In Switzerland, I would strongly recommend Coop or Migros as they have decent quality food at affordable prices.
- The biggest hidden cost of Switzerland is the transit cost. Public transport is quite expensive here. The Swiss Travel Pass might be worth it, or find creative ways to reduce this cost ;)
- Swiss stations often have lockers to store your luggage. I would recommend using this to store your luggage in case you are going on day excursions from a particular station
- This is a no-brainer for any sort of mountain visit, but make sure you wear multiple layers. Be prepared for drastic weather changes as well (one minute it can be rainy, the next minute can be hot and sunny)
- Skydiving tips:
- This is a huge financial cost but I view it as an invaluable and unique experience that I will never forget
- To that end, make sure you get the best recording and photos possible so that you can never forget! I would recommend going for raw GoPro footage (which most skydiving centers usually have) so that you can grab screenshots and edit to your liking
- Wear multiple layers. Most centres provide jumpsuits, but that is not enough. I would recommend athletic pants (eg. joggers), beater shoes (double knotted so they don’t fly out), shirt and a jumper
- Eat light before you go skydiving. The adrenaline from the jump will do a serious number to your digestive system so it’s best to not eat heavy
- Do Harder Kulm in the mornings and in clear skies; otherwise it’s not worth it and your experience might get ruined