Around Switzerland
Autumn trip to Switzerland
This is one of the parts dedicated to our trip to Switzerland in early November. Almost immediately after crossing the German border towards Switzerland, we recognised the first mountains. We enjoyed this beautiful landscape for the first time in our lives – that was so amazing!
However, we still had a way to go and the next short stop was near Geneva Lake; it was even more impressive – a huge lake on one side and mountains all around. The Autumn colours of trees made this landscape even more beautiful and enjoyable. During the next few days there were planned two different trips – one to the capital of Switzerland Bern, and another trip to the mountains (3000 metres above sea level!) to get an even more extreme experience.
As we had accommodation in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, it was interesting to visit Bern as it is located in the German-speaking part. The Old Town of Bern has been listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site since 1983. Sightseeing was really interesting.
We settled in the small sky resort Leysin. It was a bit surprise that there was no snow around on the top of the mountains. As it appeared later, that year was widely known for lacking snow. However, our goal was to travel around and this obstacle did not bother us much.
Visiting mountains
Another impressive experience was visiting Glacier Les Diablerets, located 3 kilometres above sea level. Cold wind, clouds above and below with impressive alpine landscapes around – beautiful and stunning!
It was very convenient and also interesting to have lunch in Botta Restaurant.
Coming down from the top, there was an incident – a mountain lift stopped over a deep gorge. Probably, it was caused by lack of electricity, who knows. The feeling was not the best one for five or even more minutes because a strong wind was swinging the cable car. Even a company of climbers started to be nervous after some time but fortunately, the problem was fixed soon after and we continued our way to the parking place.
The Italian part of Switzerland
Every trip should finish sooner or later. Because Switzerland has also an Italian-speaking part, we decided to visit it before coming home. After crossing mountains through the tunnels, it was another world again – road signs in Italian, cliffs around, and very high waterfalls coming from the cliffs.
After driving for a while, we reached Lugano. In the beginning, it was even difficult to adapt to the surrounding activity – people speaking, sports cars passing, loud ducks in the lake, and palm trees on the streets. But in general, it was a very nice place to enjoy life!
Late in the afternoon, after sightseeing in Lugano, our trip to Switzerland was almost over and we started our way back home. One last night we spent in Switzerland but on the next day, before arriving in Germany, we made a short stop in Lichtenstein.
It is a common thing that after visiting a beautiful place there is a wish to return again; we actually did that several times afterwards. For myself, the most fascinating thing was to see how the majesty of nature is combined with human creations. For example, highway viaducts over gorges, buildings on cliffs, very long mountain tunnels and simple asphalted mountain roads sometimes hang over an abyss.