The Big OE

When looking for people to couchsurf with in Switzerland, I was offered a woman’s apartment in Bern for a few days, in exchange for looking after her cat - so I naturally jumped at the chance. After driving through the picturesque countryside, and stopping at various villages along the way, I arrived in Bern, a few hours early, as I didn’t bother going back into Zurich’s city centre as originally planned.

Sabine, and her home was so warm and welcoming and the sun was glorious so I sat outside in her garden that afternoon, chatting and read some of my book. That afternoon, I finally got to meet Alissa, an Au Pair also working in Germany, and who is from my home town in New Zealand. Although we have lived within 2 kilometres of each other for most of our lives, and know a lot of the same people, we had never met. Introduced through email by my step sister Erin, we had been in contact for a few months, and I decided to invite her along with me.

That evening, before Sabine left oh her own holidays in Vienna, she cooked for us what many Swiss people consider their national dish; Rösti, which is basically a fried potato pancake, which I have since tried to recreate and failed miserably. The next day after biding Sabine farewell, Alissa and I drove south to Interlaken, in the heart of the stunning Bernese Oberland. A small city wedged between two lakes, and the Alps as a backdrop, you couldn’t have picked a better location. We walked around the small town, taking lots of photos, and admiring the vistas.

Not really having a plan, and too poor to take the infamous alpine train to the Jungfraujoch, better known as the highest train station in Europe, we drove up to Lauterbrunnen. We were lucky that we were so early in the session, that it really didn’t have a big touristy feel. We could admire all of the water falls, and sights in peace. LOTR fans out there may be interested to know that Lauterbrunnen provided the pictorial model for J.R.R. Tolkien's sketches and watercolours of the fictitious valley of Rivendell.

We decided to venture on up through the valley for a bit longer, and found a cable car, going right up to the Shilthorn. We decided to go to the cable cars first stop of Gimmelwald, a small car less village right in the heart of the Alps. A truly beautiful little farming village, with small little cheese shops, traditional Swiss homes and several bed and breakfast’s. It had a nice lived in feel, and not just a show for the tourists.

We then drove on to Brienz, at the opposite end of the lake from Interlaken. The water was a perfect turquoise blue, which blew us both away. We then followed the road, hugging along the lake side, back to Bern.

That night was late night shopping in town, so after dinner, Alissa and I took a stroll around some of the markets, and old city streets. Bern, the capital of Switzerland is largely medieval with lots of orange tiles roofs, with its most famous sight being the Zytglogge, an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets, and which apparently aided Einstein in his discovery of General relativity.

Another unusual aspect of the old town is its 6 kilometres of arcades, which boasts one of the longest covered shopping promenades in Europe. In somewhat of a quiet protest I didn’t go to the Bärengraben, a bear pit that has been in the city, since the 16th century. We found a café by the Casino, selling the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life, a little expensive at 5 Swiss francs for a tiny portion, but boy was it good.

The next day, we drove to Luzern (or Lucerne in English) which both Alissa and I have picked as our favourite Swiss city. The city sits right on the shoreline of Lake Lucerne, and as we were blessed with a beautifully warm and sunny spring day, we wasted no time in joining the locals, to sit along the water front and enjoy the view of all the paddle boats on the lake, and Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the distance.

We eventually dragged ourselves away, and walked to the city's most famous landmark; the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), a wooden bridge originally built in 1333, although much of it had to be replaced after a 1993 fire, allegedly caused by a group of smokers – why am I not surprised? The city centre itself felt like it was already in summer mode, and we were happy to stroll along the streets, admiring the historic buildings covered in intricate murals. The only downside to my day was realising I'd put a huge finger smudge on my camera lense and ruined most of the days photos, and I also had to find a post office to pay a 40 SF (ouch) parking fine I’d got in Zurich.

After a bit of a sleep in, and tidy up of Sabine’s place, Alissa and I reluctant to leave Switzerland, drove back into Germany.