Swiss Waterfalls: Better or Worse than Casa Bonita?

We faced a fairly epic travel day voyaging from the villa in Grasse to Geneva, arriving in the late afternoon without a real plan of how we would get from the station to the apartment. After some fumbling about at the station we hopped the very modern bus to our friend's place, where we fixed an easy dinner of salad and scrounged pasta, paired with wine and conversation, followed by ice cream while we watched The Constant Gardener.

The next day we headed out to explore. I found Geneva to be...nice. Extremely clean with new-looking buildings, even the historical ones. Beautiful though with the lake, river, and mountains surrounding. Feels like it lacks a distinct culture, although that's hard to judge from one day. Molly thought perhaps that was due to the international population residing there.

Future delegate right here.

Walked down the hill from the apartment past the Red Cross International Headquarters and Museum as well as the United Nations Headquarters (Molly was pumped). Spotting a tree-lined and fountain-spouting entranceway, we poked our heads in to find a ceramic museum, small and cool looking enough to warrant a lap. Back outside and down the hill to the Place des Nations, the center of which holds a giant brown chair sculpture with one leg blown off in support of landmine cleanup efforts worldwide. This plaza is used for demonstrations—indeed, while we were there we saw Syriad and Indian anti-child labor tents—and is fitted with waterjets built into the concrete to disperse unruly crowds.

Further on and into town past some very cool whimsical apartment buildings known as the Schtroumf buildings (the French word for Smurfs), and on to the main bridge in town, hung with flags for Peace Day. The lake meets the river here in the center of town, with an enormous Jet d'Eau in the middle, shooting water skyward at least 100 feet. Walked down the lake shore to a cool pier area were swimmers and cafe goers congregated, a tiny lighthouse at the end. Sailboats and a group of brave swimmers glided past in the chilly water.

At the Jet d'Eau.

Across the bridge and into a well-maintained park that held an impeccably manicured clock made entirely out of flowers and hedges, which gets redesigned every year. Then uphill to the historical center, a nice pedestrian area, where we stopped at a golden-gilded Russian-style synagogue and the Cathedral. Walked about inside and found it pretty austere compared to the Spanish decadence we had just seen, but there was one baroque room off to the side with impressive painted ceilings.

More wandering through the old town past cannons, golden tile murals laid out in the 1500s, down a long hill to a great medium-sized park where I defeated Molly thoroughly in giant checkers and we also checked out the Reformation memorial wall. We meandered our way back past the river and lake, insanely clear blue water especially for the middle of a city, and back to the apartment where we made a batch of sangria to enjoy with sandwiches and salad.

Victorious.

Surprise Festivals and the Top of Europe

Our next stop was Interlaken, a beyond-beautiful, like seriously what-is-this-place-head-scratching-gorgeous mountain region in the center of Switzerland. We pulled into the station late afternoon, on the East side of the town, which sits between two large alpine lakes nestled among large peaks. Got coffee next to the station as we waited for a bus to the hostel, a ride along the insanely blue lake and up thin winding roads, belching out a loud melodic horn blast as we ascended a particularly narrow stretch.

Our hostel was in Istelweld, a very tiny town about halfway around one of the two lakes. A nice but sparse room, the building fashioned log cabin style, with the added plus of our own private patio and the huge added plus of free kayaks to take out on the large lake! We checked in, dropped our bags and as soon as possible secured the double kayak for a quick paddle trip, out past a floating birdbox with nesting waterfowl, a large chateau-like gray mansion on a point jutting out into the water, and around a small wooded island. One of the prettiest places we've been—maybe ever.

Right outside our door.

Brought the boat in as the sun approached the edge of the peaks beyond the far rim of the lake. We ate previously assembled sandwiches on our patio, enjoying the crisp mountain air, lamenting only the lack of free towels. As dusk set in, we voyaged into town, about 50 houses scattered around the port and up into the foothills. A cute Swiss tourist town with a couple hotels and restaurants. Outside of one we discovered today was the day of Chasteilet, an annual festival when the cows are dressed in flowers and marched down out of the mountains. We had missed the flower cows, but we could still catch the party! Located the tents just uphill from town in a small lot past a rushing stream. Biergarten tables set up, brats frying, live polka music supplied by teenagers. What luck!

We got a hefty slice of classic black forest cake, served up by a little old lady who didn't speak a lick of english, and split a bottle of the local brew. Bought cheese made from the happy cows who had recently vacated the premises as well as some chiliwurst for later.

Beer and cake, the perfect combo, at the Chasteilet fest.

We were up pretty early the next day to munch our included tasty breakfast (pumped to find oatmeal with raisins on a chilly morning). Our destination: Jungfraujoch, one of the highest points in the Alps and in all of Europe. Despite the brief hiccup of forgetting our Eurail passes, which would have entitled us to a significant 25% discount on the ridiculously expensive rail tickets to the highest rail station on the continent, the voyage was excellent. A series of distinctly old-school trains carried us up in sections. After our first transfer, they were all cog-wheel trains, with large gear tracks int he center of the rails. Up and through resort towns and villages, wood homes and farmers' shacks dotting the hills, pine forest and gushing mountain streams complete with waterfalls. The final train mostly tunnelled under the peak to deliver us to the chilly underground station at the top, the stops in the bunker along the way revealing views of increasingly rocky and snowcovered landscape.

Jungfrau was packed with tourists and soon revealed why tickets were so expensive. Definitely a bit of a tourist trap but still unique and fun. The pamphlets informed us that, "for many visitors, this will be the first glimpse of ice and snow." The tour route through the tunnels included a projected show on angular walls depicting the scenery outside (we skipped it to go see it for ourselves), an observatory tower, sledding/ski mini-piste for extra charge, a silly lit-up room with twinkly plastic stars and a giant snowglobe model town, an ice palace with sculptures (actually cool), a painted wall with moving walkway, and an absurdly dramatic sculpture of the dude who had the idea for the railway in the first place that looked like he was rearing up out of snow while the floor vibrated as the music climaxed and little lasers drew out the rail map above his forehead (no joke).

Gorgeous ride up Jungfrau.

I didn't need all the showy bits, just wanted the snowy bits, which we did get to enjoy, taking a nice hour long walk about near the peak on steep and slippery snowpack with ice chasms appearing in the voids around the trail. Above us on the rock small pieces tumbled down along the face as the real climbers carefully stepped their way along the ridges, poles held out for support. It was surprisingly warm in the sunlight up here. Absolutely incredible views. After a little snack of Swiss chocolate bar, we caught the descending train, stopping at one station for a short hike up to a man-made lake. Past munching cows complete with huge cowbells and dipping our feet in a pond with bubbles coming up next to benches for footbathing.

As Swiss as it gets.

We took a different route down, through Lauterbrennan, a little town big on adventure sports in a valley that apparently has 72 waterfalls. Hiked through town to see one of them, the largest, with a path built up and behind it through a cave in the cliff. Molly got homesick for Casa Bonita, though she didn't practice her cliff diving off the 75 foot drop unfortunately. Got hot chocolate at a coffeeshop then back on the train to Interlaken, where we were dismayed to find pretty much everything closed and settled for ramen and beer at the mini grocery instead of proper cooking supplies. After munching on our patio, we crashed, getting up to have a more leisurely breakfast (stuffing our faces and making sandwiches to go, the true backpacker way) and head onward into Germany.