Switzerland: The Cities

We were lucky enough to spend 9 wonderful days in Switzerland the past week. I really didn't know much about Switzerland  before we left except that it had mountains, chocolate, and was super expensive.

All of these things are true, but there's so much more to Switzerland also. This post is about our city adventures (Luzern, Bern, and Lausanne/Lake Geneva). Be sure to check out the mountain Switzerland edition here.

Make sure to look at all our pictures from the cities here.

Luzern (Lucerne in English)

We flew in late on Friday night to Zurich and after a not-so-positive first impression of the Swiss (rude train station workers, added/hidden 3% charge on our credit cards, and "penalty" for not having the Swiss pass), we were on our way to Luzern.

Saturday we woke up to nice weather, so after purchasing our 8-day Swiss Pass (no more "penalities" for us!), we decided to go up Mt. Rigi. Mt Pilatus is the tallest mountain in the area, but after reading about the two we decided Rigi was a better choice for us because it was free with Swiss Pass, (Pilatus is still 66 Swiss Francs a person, even with the pass!) and it is less touristy and offers more hiking. 

In order to get to the top of Rigi, you take a beautiful boat ride on Lake Luzern and then Europe's oldest cog-rail train to the summit. The train ride offered some awesome views of the lake. 

At the top we enjoyed the magnificent views (the lake water was really that color!), grabbed a bratwurst for lunch (feels just like Wisconsin again.  Game day, anyone?), and hiked about halfway down to catch the ski gondola back to the lake.

We had a few minutes to catch the ferry back to Luzern, so we took advantage of the crystal clear, cool lake water to cool off.  Look how clear the water is!

After a quick little nap during the rain showers, we headed out to explore the town. Our favorite part of the old covered bridge, which is, in fact, actually quite new.

However, we quickly realized the Luzern is a bit too touristy for our tastes.  And the old city was not as charming as we had imagined. Even while we ate dinner, which we thought was away from the tourist area, we saw groups just streaming off buses.  After dinner we visited the "lion", which commemorates all the Swiss soldiers that died in the French Revolution.

Sunday morning we woke up early and grabbed a train to the nearby military bunker/museum-Fortress Furigen. After a slight detour (note Swiss trains do not abbreviate city names as stops...make sure you get on one that stops where you need to be.  Also...shocker...Rick Steves can be wrong about things!) and a little hike along the lake, we arrived at the museum. It was pretty cool...we got to see the ammunition and sniper rooms, man the cannons and rifles, and see the quarters where they stayed.

Just ordering some food in the cafeteria

Sniper view!

Conclusion: Beautiful, but would I go back? Probably not...too touristy, I'd go back to Lake Como, or Lake Geneva, instead.

Bern

This is probably where Switzerland really took a big upswing for us. The weather turned sunny and warm, and as soon as we set foot in old town Bern we were charmed!  After reading Rick Steves, we thought Bern might be a bit large and had planned on taking a side trip to smaller Murten, but Bern quickly won us over and we skipped Murten!

Since the sun was out we decided to head down to the river, which is known for being clean and glacier fed. All of the locals float down it in the summer, so naturally we followed. Please note, this is a FAST moving river, not a little calm stream.  AKA...Amy was nervous!
Here's a few tips that we learned from the locals but didn't do ourselves:

-leave your shoes, clothes etc on the lawn by the pool (which is at the base of Parliament making for awesome views!) where you get out

-don't try and bring a camera

-do bring some type of floaty (beach ball, noodles, etc)

We did none of these things.  Instead, we brought an old camera and a ziploc bag to put 2 sets of flip flops and a shirt in. The camera is now in the trash (but we have the pics!), the bag ended up full of water, and I had a minor panic attack when it filled with water and couldn't float and hold it above water. But all's well that ends well, and it was a pretty cool experience.  (Though Nick may not completely agree when I had my panic attack halfway through and he felt helpless.)
After recovering from our swimming adventure, we headed out to find the free bikes that the city rents out. That's right, free!  See, there's at least a few things that aren't crazy expensive in Switzerland!  Even better than the cheap velibs in Paris, these are provided by the city and free for the first 4 hours!

We biked around the old town, which was incredibly quaint and very quiet...we aren't sure if that's because it was a Sunday or if its always like that!

Our plan was to stop at a grocery store to grab some picnic essentials to eat at the rise garden that overlooks the city. But Sunday=no open grocery stores. We ended up eating at the restaurant in the rose garden, but it was worth it for the views. Probably one of the most breathtaking views of an entire city that I've ever been too!

Monday morning we headed out bright and early for Interlaken and the mountains...After the 2 mountain stops, we ended back a city: Lausanne.

Conclusion: Very charming and beautiful. Would I go back? Yes...would like to enjoy the pool and river more :)

Lausanne

Our first stop on Lake Geneva was Chateau de Chillon, which was built right on the water.  Even though we've been to many castles now in Europe, this one was pretty interesting because it was so old and built right on the water.

View from our room

We checked into our hostel, which had awesome lake views and then decided to grab some picnic foods and head down the the lakefront for the evening.

I was pretty excited for Lausanne because it's the Olympic headquarters.  I knew the museum was closed to renovations, but the park was supposed to still be open, as well as the flame still lit.  But, what a disappointment.  I made Nick walk all the way there, and the flame was NOT lit and there really was nothing to see.

But, the night was quickly saved by the fact that there was a country music festival going on at the lake front. Definitely something I thought I'd never see in Europe or Switzerland, but it was a blast!  People were decked out in western gear and cowboy hats, and just loving the line dancing.  Even though we didn't line dance, we had a blast singing along to the songs and enjoying some beers.  Felt a bit like a music festival in Wisconsin!
Sunday morning we decided to do a walking tour on the old city, which we probably did in the worst possible way.  Our plan was to stash our bags in the lockers at the train station (which we had done several other times on this trip), but when finding they cost the equivalent of $10, we said no way, we'll just carry them.  What we didn't anticipate is how hilly Lausanne is.  Walking straight uphill with a heavy backpack is not the most fun way to see the city.  After checking out the castle, cathedral, and a few bridges, we decided it was enough.

We got a little smarter, and caught the metro, back down to the lakefront (Ouchy) and eat lunch and chill for the rest of the afternoon.  It was the best decision we made...so relaxing to sit by the water in the gorgeous weather.



Conclusion:  Lausanne was okay...the Ouchy area really saved it for us, as the old town was okay and the Olympic Park was a bust.  We've heard Geneva city isn't that special of a place to stay either, but we really liked Lake Geneva.  So maybe we'll come back to one of the smaller cities (who knew it was such a wine region?)