The second weekend of September brought with it our second set of guests: Melissa’s friend from high school, Eric Adams, and his friend Ashley Brown. Like the Diedricks before them, Switzerland was just one stop along the way of their much larger European tour, which for them began eleven days earlier in Rome. Being Americans they packed in as many sights as possible as they meandered through Italy to Cinque Terre, and Venice. Then they boarded a bus to Vienna, Austria, and also squeezed in visits to Salzburg and Munich, Germany, before they finally made it down to see us in Switzerland on Friday September 9th.
As they traveled it was fun for Melissa and I to keep up with where they were through Facebook. On Friday they sent us messages first in the morning from Munich, then in the afternoon from Zurich, and finally around 5:30 p.m. from Lausanne. Being savvy travelers they were able to make it to our apartment without our help. Once through the door, they set down their backpacks, then sat down themselves for dinner of French onion soup. Their first night in Switzerland we all stayed put in the apartment getting filled in on their trip so far over perhaps a few too many glasses of Swiss wine, and a few too many Swiss chocolate treats.
The next day began by planning out what to see over a big breakfast of crepes. Eric and Ashley’s trip so far had been about taking each day as it came, so for Switzerland they were very open to my and Melissa’s suggestions. After some discussion we came up with the plan to tour around Lausanne Saturday, then rent a car for the remainder of their trip to see more far flung places. The rental car, however, caused a small wrinkle in our Saturday plans because the rental company wasn’t open Sunday morning. This forced us to pick up the car on Saturday with a deadline hard of 5 p.m.
After breakfast we packed ourselves a picnic lunch then headed out the door to begin our touring. Our first stop was the picturesque lake front of Lausanne, where we boarded a boat for a scenic ride over Lake Geneva. Even though Melissa and I have gone on many boat rides in Switzerland, being on a boat is still fun and brings back memories of being home in Minnesota riding across Green lake. Although, here the lake is much bigger and has views of French Alps and Swiss vineyards.
After almost two hours, our boat brought us to Chateau Chillon where we disembarked. There we admired the 1000 year old castle from the outside and decided to enjoy the warm sunny day by strolling along the lake toward Montreux. From the castle there is a nice path that runs right next to the water that we followed for two miles until we reached the Montreux train station. Along the path we made frequent stops to admire the view, and at one point went to a beach to dip our toes in the water.
In Montreux we stopped for ice cream near the famous statue of Freddie Mercury, then we boarded a train bound for the small town of Rivaz, located in the heart of the Swiss wine region called Lavaux. It was unfortunately getting close to 5 p.m. so we were forced to take a shortened tour through the vineyards, which were filled with nearly ripe grapes, before quickly returning to the train station to find a ride back into Lausanne.
Once in Lausanne we had just 15 minutes until the rental place closed, but we easily made it there in time to pick up our car. We then drove back to the apartment where we had a small snack before continuing our day’s exploring with one more sight. Since we had a car in the evening we thought it would be a good idea to use it. After a few minutes rest at the apartment everyone loaded back into the car and we drove up to the top of the nearby mountain called Mont Tendre. Throwing another wrinkle in our day though, the car decided to light up a warning light for low pressure just before the top.
When we made it to the parking lot at the top we got out and found one tire with a large gash that we thought was the culprit of the low tire pressure alarm. However, since we were already at the top, we figured there was nothing we could do about it, so we continued our plan of hiking the short distance to the actual summit of the mountain at 1679 m (5508 ft) . The view at the summit was a good first taste of Swiss mountains for our guests. It was a little too cloudy to see all the way to Mont Blanc, but much of Lake Geneva was in view, along with beautiful views, lit by the setting sun. of the Jura mountains rolling off into France.
When we all felt like we’d seen enough we walked back to the car then we made our way back down the hill and eventually back to the apartment arriving around 8 p.m. I then quickly set up a charcuterie plate for everyone who was still hungry while Melissa called the rental company to see if there was anything to be done about the tire. Melissa found out we could exchange our car if we thought the tire was a big enough problem, but we would have to find an open rental office on Sunday.
On Sunday we had to consider our rental car into the plans again. We wanted to see the Aletsch glacier, the largest glacier in the Alps, but getting there required driving on the freeway with our questionable tire. We could replace our car at an open rental office, but waiting for Lausanne’s office to open would waste too much time to make it to the glacier. Eventually, after some consideration, we decided to just drive the car on the freeway and try to replace it in a rental office along the way.
We were out the door just before 10 a.m. and on our way to the freeway which brought us along Lake Geneva then through the deep mountain valley canton called Valais. Our worrying was for nothing, because the car drove smoothly, and everyone was able to sit back, relax, and gaze out their windows at the never-ending views of mile high snow capped Alps on either side of us.
Eventually, when we reached the town of Visp, we decided to check if the open rental office could exchange our car. But when we arrived at the office we found google maps had the wrong location. A little searching found the right location, but unfortunately when we made it there ,an EMT who happens to work in the same building told us the office is too small to keep cars there. They only give out cars that have been ordered and they couldn’t help us. We had already completed lots of freeway driving, and the EMT guy was kind enough to fill up all four of our tires, so we thought if the tire hadn’t gone flat yet we might as well just forget about it.
We then drove a few miles farther into the valley, past where the freeway ends, and to where the road starts to climb up in elevation. In the town of Fiesch we had finished our car journey for the day, and after parking, switched the mode of transport to gondolas for the final leg up to the glacier. Starting in Fiesch at an elevation of 1,049 m (3442 ft), we first rode to a stop called Fiescheralp at an elevation of 2012 m (6601 ft) then transferred to another gondola which brought us to the final destination called the Eggishorn station at 2869 m (9413 ft).
At the top we had beautiful views far off into the distance despite a partly cloudy sky. The massive Aletsch glacier dominated the view, and seemed deceptively closer than it really was. At home I used GoogleEarth and Peakfinder.org to discover that the width of the glacier where we viewed it was around 0.8 miles, and that the nearest mountain peak on the opposite side of the glacier was 2.5 miles away. (I have some pictures in the below photo album where I try to show the distance.) According to Wikipedia the glaciers length is about 14 miles, its area is about 31.5 square miles, and its thickest (or deepest) point is 3084 feet of solid ice.
After admiring the view for a while we found what we thought would be a nice hiking tail that would loop back around the mountain to the gondola. However, after a few hundred yards of hiking down a steep trail we found a section of the trail with a warning to only continue with proper mountain climbing gear. No one wanted to risk falling off a cliff, so we turned around to march back up the same way we had come. Soon after making it back to the gondola we rode it back down to Fiesch.
On our way down from the mountain we spent a little time at the intermediary station and were lucky enough to see a wild marmot. When we made it back to Fiesch everyone was happy to have seen the impressive Swiss mountain views, and wanted to continue the Swiss experience with a traditional Swiss meal. At a traditional looking restaurant we found the Swiss dishes of raclette and fondue on the menu. However, we had a waitress that didn’t know a single word of English, a first for me and Melissa. I was the only one who knew any German, but I wasn’t a good enough interpreter, and eventually the waitress brought out someone else who knew just a little English. We ordered a pot of aromatic and creamy fondue to share between the four of us, but had a bit of a shock when we found out we had actually ordered four servings total, resulting in a much larger than expected bill. Every good European trip needs at least one ‘lost in translation’ moment, and all we could do was walk away with bellies full of delicious Swiss cheese. C’est la vie!
We then loaded up the car and enjoyed a 3 hour sunset drive through the alpine valley and along lake Geneva before we finally made it home. While we were all worn from a day of altitude, hiking, and lots of cheese, Ashley and Eric started to enthusiastically plan some thrilling adventures for the next day in Interlaken.
