Switzerland & Black Forest

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Our first stop upon entering Switzerland was to have lunch alongside Lake Constance which is on the borders of Austria, Switzerland and Germany, and a popular spot for swimming and watersports for the three countries. We headed from here down to Zurich and unfortunately one of our worst accommodations so far. Zurich is situated on Lake Zurich and we found it to be one of the most expensive cities that we have visited. It has the best standard of living rating of anywhere in the world but you would need to be earning a lot of money to be able to reside here. We spent a relaxing evening just wandering around the beautiful and picturesque streets and enjoying a few cold beverages beside the lake.

Next we were headed in the direction of the Black Forest in Germany, stopping for a brief look around the Swiss city of Basel, we had a look around the old town, and Marktplatz which is dominated by the brightly coloured town hall. As the weather was against us we only had a brief stop here before continuing on to Freiburg which was our base to explore the Black Forest the following day. After an early rise we ventured into the forest with a drive through Hexenloch, known as the witch´s hole, before continuing on to Treiburg which is home to a famous waterfall and the world´s largest cuckoo clock that we somehow didn´t manage to find! Next stop was a traditional German lunch of sausage and potato in Titisee-Neustadt which is situated on Lake Titisee and I´m sure it is beautiful when the sun is shining and it is nice and warm, however there was a freezing wind blowing through so we did not spend a huge amount of time here

After the day driving through the forest we headed back into Switzerland, and its capital, Bern. Where we were surprised to find their mascot was a bear called Pedro who was housed in an open pit near to the tourist information centre. Bern´s city centre is largely medieval and surrounded by the Aare River and also has the impressive back drop of the alps. We spent a couple of relaxing days walking around the old town taking in the major sights including the impressive water feature in front of the Parliament building and the myriad of statues in the streets around the town

From Bern we headed to Interlaken via Lucerne. Lucerne is again another very pretty town with its major feature being the famous covered bridge which originally was the link between the two parts of the city. It is however not the original as that burnt down in the early 1990s, however it was so popular with the locals the local council completely rebuilt it in less than 5 years and so it again takes pride of place.

We then headed on to Interlaken with one of the most impressive drives of the trip through some amazing mountain passes and pretty villages and as it was a fantastic day it made it all the better. We arrived late in the day so had a quick walk around the small town and then cooked ourselves some dinner before getting an early night for the big day to follow.

The next morning we awoke early and headed up one of the many gondolas that transport you to the top of the surrounding mountains for an impressive view over the town and valleys. We spent a couple of hours walking around the hilltops before our time was cut short when we spotted a huge storm fast approaching and just managed to make it down as the storm hit. That afternoon we were headed for Lake Como in Italy. We set off and found that the motorway that we were hoping to take had been closed and ended up having to take the back roads. This was a real blessing in disguise as we got to go over another two mountain pass drives, both of which were over 2000 metres and gave some amazing views of the Swiss Alps and countryside.

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