Sarah's 2019 Trip in Switzerland
We had such an amazing trip! The weather was spectacular and the scenery was incredible. The train was absolutely key — it was very easy to navigate and we could travel easily with it. And the views were so beautiful!
We arrived early on Tuesday morning, so checked our luggage at the train depot and spent the day exploring Zurich. So clean and lovely! After a wonderful lunch and a little more exploration, we then took the train to Interlaken in the later afternoon. The depot was about 4-5 blocks from the Victoria Jungfrau, and we had no problem walking with our bags. What a lovely hotel! It was just beautiful and our suite was lovely and large. The staff went out of their way to be accommodating and gracious — beginning with the manager personally welcoming us (poor guy — we were a bit disheveled and grimy after our flights and day of travel, but he was very lovely) to every staff member, who tried very hard to please us in every way. We had the MOST amazing dinner at La Terasse, the restaurant there on the premises. Really exceptional food and wine pairings. What an indulgence! Too bad we didn’t take time for the spa, because it looked fabulous. We will need to come back and do that! (One note that was amusing to us — next door to the beautiful Victoria Jungfrau was … a Hooters! Yes, really! We couldn’t believe it. Of all things?? The main road in Interlaken is really touristy, so we were happy to spend most of our time either in the surrounding villages or walking into the Old Town area, behind and across the river from the hotel.)
We spent the next day exploring the small towns and lovely villages around Interlaken, including Murren, Gimmelwald and going to the top of the Schilthorn, where we had lunch at the rotating 007 restaurant. It was a full day of trains, cable cars, hiking and following our Rick Steves Travel Guide. Oh the vistas! And the people! We found a charming beer garden in Gimmelwald and had a drink — really fun. For dinner that night, we walked into the little Old Town and found an authentic, lovely little restaurant (the Goldener Anker) that specialized in fondue. Perfect!
Thursday, we opted to take the train to Bern as it was en route to Geneva, and were thrilled we chose to do that. What a beautiful city! We walked their historic street walk to the Bear Garden and loved seeing the unique architecture. We loved it.
By Thursday evening we were in Geneva and had some time to walk around the city a bit. We had appetizers and drinks at the Four Seasons, which became a late-night ritual for us each day after the tennis tournament. There was not a lot of time for exploring Geneva, but we did manage to make it into the historic section and see a little of the Reformation history there one morning.
The Laver Cup was amazing! So exciting and fun. Every match went into tie-breakers and we were all on the edges of our seats. The people watching was pretty incredible as well (Anna Wintour, from Vogue, was sitting a few rows in front of us for example). Le Richmond was lovely but we figured out that we could walk to the Four Seasons (the owners are the same) and catch shuttles to and from the Tournament — a nice perk we took full advantage of!
Thank you so much for all you did to make the trip easy and fun. We really had a wonderful, memorable time and loved Switzerland. It is a beautiful, clean and friendly country. Very special. There were a few things we didn’t get to do, like seeing Lucerne or getting into the town of Gruyere. We need to go again!
Working with you was a pleasure — we will surely call you in the future.