For the last 7 days, we were in Switzerland. 🇨🇭

Back in 2017, I fell in love with this country. Back then, as a gateway to the heavenly country of Italy, we stayed in a hotel in Bedretto, in the heart of the Gotthard Pass. 🏨

Since 2017, I visited Switzerland in 2019, 2022 (5x)

I even made a quick trip to Zúrich in June within 36 hours.

Click here if you want me to write an article about that story.

My sister and I went together last year. We try to do this every year and this was the second edition.

Let me tell you all about it now.

Day 1: Traveling to Switzerland

The first day started early in the morning and had to leave the city of Deventer at 6:30 A.M.

That looked like this 👇

Around 3 P.M. we arrived at the Swiss border and were very happy to see the Swiss landscapes with the beautiful blue waters and mountains all around.

We slept in the beautiful Truttikon near Winterthur in northern Switzerland.

Day 2: Waking up on the Countryside and Traveling to the Mountains

The next morning we woke up with a delicious breakfast and coffee to get ourselves ready to travel to Kandersteg, a cute little mountain village in the heart of Switzerland, just below Interlaken.

As you can see, it was so beautiful. 👇

When we arrived we had to walk a short 15 minute to our hotel very close to the cable car that would take us up to the Mountainvillage of Oeschinen the next day.

This was our view waking up 👇

We got lost

We decided to go for a hike and set our sight on a waterfall in the middle of the forest here. That wasn't so easy in the end...

We got a little lost in the forest and had to climb some weird rocks to not even see the waterfalls properly.

That was here 👇

After we returned to the road, we found an alternative track and went up to see this beautiful (yet small) waterfall that we were looking for.

Isn't it peaceful?

Day 3: Oeschinenlake

The next day, we woke up in the mountains and we had planned to go to Oeschinensee (lake) and go swim there and walk around the beautiful lake.

At first, we wanted to walk to the top, that is a 1-hour hike and with 29 degrees Celcius (84F), that was a little too much.

So we got in the cable car which only took 10 minutes.

So when we got down there we started swimming immediately.

The water was pretty cold. But after a while, it was a very nice and peaceful event that we definitely needed after being in the heat for 2.5 days straight.

Check out my Instagram for more photos.

Day 4: Sightseeing in Zermatt and Viewing the Matterhorn

On the fourth day, we switched hotels. Our 2nd hotel was located in Bern. Just an hour from our previous hotel but the problem was we only were allowed to check in at 4 P.M.

So, we had to think of something to do.

Firstly, doing a boat across the lake of Thun and Brienz seemed like a good idea. It's beautiful there and we haven't done that before.

But then, that evening, I came up with the brilliant idea to pay a visit to Zermatt to view the Matterhorn.

Going up to 1,500 meters by train we were able to shoot this picture.

I'm very proud of this picture.

Within an hour we had to sprint back to the train station to catch our train to Bern.

Day 5: Doing the Eiger Trail Hike

This was the most intense day of travel I've ever done.

In the Bernese Oberland region, there are beautiful mountains like the Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe) and the Eiger.

We went up by cable car to the Eiger Gletcher.

With this view 👇

The hike was 6 KM and would take around 2 hours. But with breaks and photo sessions included it took us precisely 3 hours and going down from a height of around 2,200 meters to 1,600 meters was quite intense.

But the views were all worth it. 👇

Day 6 & 7: All Around the Lake of Geneva

Lake of the Geneva, or Lac Léman as they call it in Switzerland was our final destination for this trip. We had booked a hotel in Lausanne, a French-speaking city.

We expected Lausanne to be different but eventually, we liked it.

Quick Travel Tip: If you stay in a hotel in Lausanne you get a FREE public transport ticket for the amount of time you stay there.

And we really needed it.

Going up and down the city of Lausanne is quite intense. The height differences are immense.

On the evening of the 6th day, we decided to go back to a place we visited last year: Château de Chillon in Montreux.

But now, we wanted to swim in the lake.

That wasn't possible last year (in May), it was so cold back then.

With sunset, it was beautiful.

On our final day, we went to Geneva to take a look at the city and had a delicious ice cream.

And now we're heading back home with a train in the middle of Germany (fingers crossed for DB)

This is the end of this trip report series. I hope you enjoyed it.

Have a good one.

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- Bryan Dijkhuizen