Switzerland, what scenery!

Switzerland was just as I imagined - stunning scenery, from beautiful blue lakes to steep cliffs, snow capped mountains and huge fields to small villages dotted in between. All our train rides were very special. I loved the feeling of space in each city and we were always drawn to the rivers. There's something so peaceful about water! I definitely appreciated the sights on this trip.

Hannah and I are machines! We did so much of Switzerland in 4 days!! Nearly the whole country and Lonely Planet says you need a month!! Ha crazy busy time and so exhausting but so rewarding at the same time. We were constantly on the go to make train times and accomodation bookings and of course to see the sights!

We had a day in each city and then trained to our new destination in the evening. After dinner we wandered around each place to get a feel for it and see some lovely night sights.

First destination was Geneva. By the way the best hostel is there (City Hostel - every service and convenience you could want at a cheap price, and so clean and new) Geneva has a lot of statues of their history which is pretty cool and a very funky jet of water spraying about 30 metres into the air, got a wee bit wet! We looked at St Pierre Cathedral although I now have high expectations cos it wasn't as cool as the one in Lyon! We climbed heaps and I mean heaps of stairs and became the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the church towers - we were right in the attic of it!

We also wandered through the archeological site underground which was very impressive. They excavated the old town and then rebuilt the cathedral based on the earlier one (2000yrs ago)

We went into the Maison Tavel which is the oldest private house in Geneva - seeing the guillotine made it worthwhile - EEEEKKKK!!!! Basically it was a museum with old artefacts in it. It had a massive model of Geneva city in the 18th century.

We had takeaway pizza for dinner sitting on the riverside, it was so pretty with the city lights and overlooking the river... until I spotted a mouse VERY close by!!! AGH, needless to say we were out of there so fast!

Second destination was Zermatt which is a small ski resort village, the cliffs around us were almost vertical. There was so much snow still, can't imagine what it must be like in the middle of winter. We caught a train up the mountain (I didn't even know trains could go up mountains! haha) As you can imagine the train ride up there was awesome in itself. Got to the top (Gornergrat 3100m high) and looked over to where the Mattahorn is supposed to be but at times could only see the bottom third of it cos of the clouds (such a shame the weather that day was crap) Still an awesome feeling being there cos it was absolutely silent, you felt like you had to whisper.

Unfortunately we had to miss Interlaken - way too pushed for time, we had to make it to Bern that night and it would mean about 15mins exploring Interlaken so maybe another time!

Bern was my favourite for sure, it is soooo green and such a sweet medieval type city. No skyscrapers which is nice, cobblestone roads, lots of arch bridges, beautiful clean river and trams.... So pretty!

We also found the best patissery shop and scoffed a very healthy breakfast... not! When in Switzerland, do as the Swiss!

We looked down on the Bear pit which seems kinda cruel but they're so proud of bears here, they're everywhere on statues and flags. In fact Bern had a kind of theatrical feel to it, like we were on a set for a show and lots of statues of monkeys, bears and even a giant!

We climbed a hill and overlooked the city again.

We watched an interesting 3D film about Bern's history which was helpful! Also walked along the riverside amongst the trees with the birds singing... it was really nice, and then saw the rapids/waterfall type area of the river.

In the afternoon we went into Albert Einstein's apartment. Learnt more interesting facts about the guy.

Our last destination was Zurich. Again we saw lots of cathedrals, sat in a pretty park, explored the old town and did some good people watching nearby the river. This day was much more relaxing than the rest, we needed it!

So now it's back home in London, awaiting my Dad's arrival (2weeks!) and then we're off to Bath and Wales for 4 days. Yippppeeeee!!!!

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