Vacation in Switzerland

 Our first international vacation since COVID, this was a wonderful getaway. 

OK flight, original through Paris got cancelled last minute and we flew through London, Heathrow. Turned out to be a shorter flight that way anyway without the layover in SFO.

Anyway, managed to get to Interlaken late in the day. 

Not going to post a detailed travel log here, but thought I'd share some of the pictures I took on our various adventures. I've spent some time in Switzerland before, but this is the first time I've stayed for an extended time. It is everything that you see in pictures and more.

The chalet where we stayed in Frutigen. Lovely little place, small but clean and just right. We had cows just outside the front door with all the amenities including peace and views.

This is the quintessential Lauterbrunnen view. This was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Hard to say, there are so many beautiful places here.

Up the canyon of Lauterbrunnen.

If you turn around from where I took this picture

you'd see this 

These sheep came running toward me as I tried to get footing to take that shot above. I tried to avoid them at first, sort of scurrying away. Then, realizing that these are sheep, after all, and I stopped. They walked up to me friendly like, I patted them on the head, scratched the nose of the one on the left, then they went on their way.

Lauterbrunnen from the mouth of the canyon

I took this in Grindelwald. As you can see, a storm was moving into the area. It was so dramatic. The picture doesn't do it justice.

You can't drive/park in Zermatt, you have to park in Täsch down the road a few miles. Then you catch a train that takes you into Zermatt. There is a little trail along the mountainside we took to look around while we waited to catch the train. This is what we saw. Unexpected views surround you here.

The Matterhorn!

This was at the higher part of the trail in Kandersteg. The lake below is Oeschinensee

Our last day before leaving, we felt like we had a pretty good sampling of Switzerland. We thought we'd find one last place to visit and wanted to stay close to Frütigen. We noticed a little town not more than a few miles up the canyon called Kantersteg. So we headed up in the morning, picked a trail and started walking. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Certainly in my top three all time hikes!

Coming back down from the trail. Up on the right you can see where we were earlier on the hike where Whitney was standing for the last picture.

A nice Swiss couple agreed to take our picture. This is at the end of the trail. We're about to go have some bratwurst and pretzels with Apfelsaft, mit gas. Yummmm! My favorite. :)

Headed home the next day.

For those wanting to see some of these areas in Switzerland, here's a map. Pretty much everything here was within a 45 minute drive from where we were staying in Frutigen. The Matterhorn was a drive. We went through a very long tunnel south. Drove the car onto a commuter train, went through the tunnel, emerged into what appeared more like Italy than Switzerland. Drove a little further south to Tasch, and spent the day there. The Matterhorn is on the border with Italy, so it's a trek to get there. But worth seeing.