Traveling during pandemic times isn’t the easiest or the most joyful experience. The countries, that still show up on your to-do-list, for the past 12 months, have remained closed for tourism. There isn’t much of a choice available.
Since my childhood, I have tried to avoid the Belgium coast or Switzerland, as a travel destination. Most of the people that I knew back then, who were vivid fans of Belgium or swiss holidays, were people I never wanted to have dinner with. Boring people with a lack of taste.
Well.. 25 years later, we made it to Switzerland for four days. Was it that bad? Actually not. Surprisingly we enjoyed many beautiful views of the swiss alp: the mountains, lakes, cabins… Due to covid everything else, except supermarkets were closed, but we managed to make the best out of it, as you can witness in our little video.
Wilderswil - Our starting point.
We started our first 2 nights in a small-town-village called Wilderswil. Grindelwald itself, is a skiing destination, therefor the hotel rates are kind of higher than, the ones in the neighboring villages. As we didn’t plan to spend time on sports activities, as my girlfriend was pregnant, we decided to save some money on the hotel. The good point about it, Wilderswils is located pretty centrally around the following cities: Interlaken, Grindelwald, Kandersteg, Gstaad, Lauterbrunnen.
Grindelwald, Interlaken, and Lauterbrunnen are just around the corner. It takes between 10-15 minutes to get there by car. Kandersteg, Gestaad, are reachable in less than an hour.
We should mention, that absolutely every kind of business was closed except hotels and supermarkets. The only food you would get was from a food-store, the hotel you were staying at, or take-away from restaurants. Even though the skiing hills were pretty busy despite the restrictions, the daily life in the city center was very calm, or even not existing at all. After dinner, we occasionally went for a late-night walk, through deserted streets.
Was it still worth it, spending days abroad? Absolutely! We got the chance, to avoid the daily “corona” news and being away from home, also gave us the chance to clear our head and enjoy the natural beauty around us.
Grindelwald and its “Top of Europe”
The good thing about Wilderswil as well, it leaves you the “wow” effect for the upcoming visits. Wilderwills isn’t spectacular at all, however being less crowded, we felt kind of safer during pandemic times, and it gave us the chance to get free parking all day long right outside the hotel. Parking usually comes with a daily rate of 15-25 euro.
As soon as we got closer to Grindelwald, we noticed the mountains coming closer, and rising in front of us. The views were beautiful! Especially during sunrise in the morning. There was much more snow up there than down in the valley. We were recommended to park our car next to the main cable car terminal. Parking was 10 SFR (9 euro) a day. The parking lot got crowded super fast in the morning. Leaving again after 18:00h, we ended up in a traffic jam, and the 10-minute drive back to our hotel became a one-hour-long trip.
It seemed weird, that the restaurants were completely shut down, however, the cable car station was completely packed with skiing-people, snowboarders, and visitors who wanted to get on top of the “Jungfraujoch” the highest reachable point of Europe, reachable by train.
To make it on top of Jungfraujoch, took 25 minutes by cable car, and another 25 minutes by train. The whole experience would cost us 90 euros per person (100 us$). One single return ticket was exactly the previously mentioned price! The hotel informed us about a much higher rate, for the same ride, so I still wasn’t sure if we should cheer up by paying “only” 180 euro in total for two people (and the baby still in the belly) or pitty ourselves for paying that much for a short train ride.
After experiencing the top of Europe, I can honestly tell you, that the experience is worth the sum you’d have to pay. The tour will bring you to 2-3 different scenic viewpoints, where you can witness the neverending white landscapes. The platform is at 3454 meters above sea level, which is also the highest train station in Europe. During the tour, you will walk through an ice tunnel (handrails are available) which leads you to an ice-statue exhibition. At the end of the tour, you could have lunch or dinner with a magnificent view of the mountains, however during these times it was closed. We were happy to have witnessed so much beauty during the tour, also the views from the cable car are not disappointing. We would recommend the tour to anyone who can afford it.
The blue Lake.
A popular destination among tourists and bloggers. A lake that actually shines blue, if the sun is out. The entrance fee is 10 SFR (9 Euro). From the parking lot, it takes a short 3-4 minutes walk to make it to the lake. There isn’t that much to experience, walking around the sea was all we could do during the winter season. The lake is quite beautiful. Worth visiting? Depends on what you expect to see.
We enjoyed the short stroll, as it was the first location we managed to discover on our first day after arrival.
Mirage - Mirror House in Gstaat.
Thanks to Instagram, we discovered a pretty cool art installation in the tiny village called Gstaat. The installation is a small open house built of mirrors on the inside and the outside. Which means… it reflects the surrounding mountains during wintertime or the beautiful greens around the house garnished with thousands of flower during the summer season. Most of the photos I watched online, made the art-house look like a hidden gem, in the middle of nowhere, with nobody around. We were wrong. There were around 20-40 tourists at the house when we reached it, and actually, it almost seemed impossible to get a decent shot with nobody around. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in town.
Interlaken.
I can’t tell you much about Interlaken, as we actually just went close to the lake’s border to take a couple of shots. While we were already driving back home towards Luxembourg, we checked something on Google Maps, and noticed that we didn’t make it to Interlaken, even though it was located nearby. Having a couple of hours left, we decided to head back, and hoped for something worth the drive, so we wouldn’t regret it.
The view over the shimmering lake towards the mountains covered with snow didn’t disappoint.
Did I actually enjoy Switzerland? Would I ever turn back?
I have to admit, that I was positively surprised about that expensive country I always tried to avoid. The locals were most of the time superfriendly and showed manners and respect for the tourists. Even though food and drinks were relatively expensive, the food at the supermarket was equally priced, like we are used to back home.
The snowy landscapes you can witness in Switzerland are quite impressive. For the skiing part and other winter games, I can imagine that they offer magnificent skiing tracks, as everything we discovered was well maintained, clean and organized.
I could imagine, that for my own taste, it looks less attractive in summer time, as we could see a difference in landscapes between the snowy mountains and the greenish plains in the valley. The white landscapes were definitely prettier.
However … ! We missed two popular lakes the “Bachalpsee” on the First Mountain, and the Oeschinensee in Kandersteg. One day we took the cablecar to get on top of the First Mountain. The return ticket was 60 CHF (56 euro!). We decided to start with the skywalk and move on to the Bachalpsee afterward. Online we read that the easy hike would take 35-45 minutes (one way). While walking, we figured out, that the reviewer was talking about a path without snow under your feet. The steep hills really slowed down our hike, and kudos to my pregnant girlfriend for managing the hike, despite the thin air and exhausting hills.
Seconds away from the lake, we noticed that the whole frozen lake was covered with snow. No drop of water, not even the shape of the lake. Just snow! The next days, we informed ourselves, and we were told that the Oeschinensee would also be completely covered in white. Therefore we decided to save the effort and the money.
Those two lakes would be another reason to turn back for a weekend in summer, as Switzerland is “only” a 6-hour-drive away.
If the rest of Europe is shit down because of the pandemic, Switzerland is definitely the place to visit! :)