Apologies for the lack of posting – it’s been a crazy football season!
Our trip to Switzerland from Paris was quite possibly the longest day ever. Switzerland was the place that I had been looking forward to visiting the most on the whole trip (honestly, mainly because of the Amazing Race!). After my first visit to Salt Lake City in May, I was in awe of the mountains and how close they were, so I was so excited to see the Swiss Alps on the bus from Paris to Lucerne.
We took a train to Basel first, then arrived in Lucerne around dinnertime for a quick bathroom & food stop. I got pretzels with raclette on them from Brezelkonig at the train station – an incredible welcome to the food in Switzerland! The currency is the Swiss franc, but they accept euros in most places. However, they’ll just give you francs as change.
Lake Lucerne had the bluest and clearest water that I have EVER seen. I was seriously in awe of how stunning it was. The architecture in the city was so beautiful, it was impossible to take a bad photo. After buying pretzels and wandering into the Migros market in the train station for snacks, our group took the bus straight into the mountains to our hostel.
We stayed at Ski Lodge Engelberg, the prettiest place ever. The drive winding up into the mountains was incredible. Everything was so green and vibrant. It was exactly what I pictured, complete with cows with bells around their necks that rang in the distance!
After settling in, my friends and I walked around the (very small) city and decided to eat at Urchig. There were only two restaurants open and the other was Mexican (?) so we went for Urchig. Our waiter’s English was good and he was great with us, but we all struggled with the German menu! It was expensive (like all of Switzerland) but seriously some of the best food I’ve ever had. My friends loved their meals too. After walking around a little, we went to bed. It was more of a hostel-style, but I had the best sleep ever. I seriously wish I could have taken the duvet home with me!
The next day, we got up early for a day in the Alps. We took the bus to Kriens then rode the world’s steepest cable car up to Mt. Pilatus. We took the alpine slide down part of the mountain – totally worth it. If I didn’t have a job or if I knew German, I would move to work there in a heartbeat. We went to the top of the mountain and had an incredible view above the clouds. It was only 7000 feet of elevation but it felt way taller. Photos can hardly serve to show how beautiful it was.
When we were up there, I met a kid from KU! He was wearing a shirt from the Jayhawk Cafe (the Hawk if you really know) and had just been studying abroad. After going down the mountain in a tram, we cruised across the lake to get back to Lucerne. Almost everyone fell asleep, got sunburnt or both – I’m guilty of both! The one thing I wanted in Switzerland was chocolate, but because of my allergy, I decided it wasn’t worth it.
Once we made it back to Engelberg, some of us got fondue at Hotel Engelberg. I had an incredible lemon ricotta ravioli to start and seriously thought about it the rest of the trip. We split a sausage fondue and a regular cheese fondue. After fondue, we hung out outside the hostel with some of our group and I had the BEST hot chocolate ever. It was the perfect ending to a short two days in Switzerland!
Here’s the link to the map of all the places listed! https://goo.gl/maps/r2Wm3D5gwzBTMZxU9