Switzerland!

Here is a recap of our trip, with some pictures.

Zurich

We started in Zurich. What a beautiful city! It was in the 90's and humid (with no air conditioning anywhere), so it was hot, but we had a great time anyway. We stayed at Hotel Rössli. It was ok, but not equipped to deal with the heat. We only got a tiny little itty bitty fan, which didn't really do much. The room was fine though. I can't complain.

Boat on the Zurichsee

Chocolate at Cafe Sprungli

Bern

Our next stop was Bern. We were only there for one night, but we managed to see the Parliament, the famous Bear Park, and walk around the beautiful city. The Aare River, which flows through the city, is a popular place to swim. But the current in the river is so strong, so what people do is they jump in and float down the river for a few miles, and then get out. We thought about doing this but decided against it since we didn't know our way around at all, and were worried we'd end up somewhere really far away.

Clock tower in Bern, supposedly where Einstein got his inspiration for the Theory of Relativity

We stayed at Hotel Kreuz. It was all right, nothing special. Overpriced, in my opinion, but all the hotels in Bern were super expensive.

Bern (taken from the Bear Park)

Lucerne

Then we headed to Lucerne. We splurged for a nice hotel (Hotel des Balances) and it was worth it. Not only because of this killer view from our balcony (from which we ate a lot of pretzels and chocolate):

View from our hotel balcony

But also because the weather was total crap. So we were forced to spend time indoors, but at least we had a nice place to hang out. It was a beautiful hotel, and I would definitely recommend it.


Interlaken

After that, we took what was supposed to be a scenic train ride to Interlaken. However, it was pouring rain so we didn't see much of anything other than rain and gray clouds.

We stayed at Hotel Rössli (no relation to the hotel in Zurich. Everything in Switzerland was named Rössli). It was more of a hostel, but we had our own room and bathroom. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the reservation. Long story, but we had booked through hotels dot com but changed the dates of our stay at one point. We were told that they had informed the hotel, but they hadn't. So we ended up having to stay at another hotel for the first night. It was really stressful, but the nights that we were at Rössli were fine. Great breakfast that was included.

After the rain stopped and the clouds dispersed, we got our first glimpse of the alps from our bedroom window.

View from Hotel Rössli in Interlaken

I had never seen anything like this, and I could not stop looking at the mountains. They were breathtaking.

Our first full day in Interlaken, we went up to the Schilthorn/Piz Gloria. It's a summit you can reach via cable car and train. The weather was great on the way up, and we stopped in a few villages and had awesome views. But as we went up the last cable car, we ended up in this gray cloud:

And couldn't see a darn thing from the summit. We were just in a huge cloud. Bummer. We did do a hike in the afternoon, from Gimmelwald to Murren. It was steeeep but very pretty.

The next day, we went up to Jungfraujoch, an almost-summit you can reach by train. We lucked out and had great weather. It was amazing! You could walk out onto a glacier that was 1km thick. It was so, so cool.

Summit of Jungfrau from Jungfraujoch

Don't know which mountain this is. But wow.

Glacier

We took the train partway down and then hiked from Kleine Scheidegg to Männlichen, which was a beautiful (and pretty flat) hike.

View from the hike

View from the cable car station in Männlichen.

Zermatt

From Interlaken, we hopped on the Glacier Express (panoramic train) and headed to Zermatt. Zermatt is a car-free town at the base of the Matterhorn. We got picked up by our hotel in an electric taxi!

The Matterhorn

Yeah, this was the view from pretty much everywhere in the town. Absolutely gorgeous. We also ended up staying at a hotel that was the steal of a lifetime. The Coeur des Alpes is a family-run hotel that was considerably cheaper than many of the hotels in the town. We had an excellent room, awesome breakfast, outstanding service, a free Hammam and spa/pool area in the basement, and countless other perks. We had the cheapest room, and it really was a steal. If you ever go to Zermatt, I highly, highly recommend it. I can't say enough good things.

Hiking on the Matterhorn Trail

Gornergrat Bahn

Montreux

Our next stop was Montreux, a lakeside town in French Switzerland on Lake Geneva that we mainly visited to see the Chillon Castle. We stayed at the Best Western, which was surprisingly nice!

Chillon Castle

Sunset over Lake Geneva

Geneva

Our final stop was Geneva. A really pretty city! We stayed at the Ibis Centre Nations, which is a brand new hotel not super centrally located, but it was a really good deal.

Square in Geneva

We had a great time and I highly recommend going to Switzerland!