Up, Down and Around Switzerland - Schaffhausen, Winterthur, and Interlaken

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Who said travel was easy? The scene starts with an overnight flight from Barbados to Frankfurt where you are served dinner at 11 pm local time and breakfast at 2.30 am. You get off the flight at 4.30am but it is 10.30am local time. Feeling fresh (I wish) you find the correct rental car counter only to have drama – “No, you cannot go to Croatia.” “But on our form, it says we can go!” Debating with three levels of management later, they will let us take a Mondeo station wagon to Croatia, but not the car we booked, or the offered VW Jetta. Much debate later and a calming word from Eileen (who was ‘bag sitting’ for the duration), we take the VW and kiss goodbye to Croatia.

Only an hour late, we get out the Garmin GPS and key-in our hotel in Switzerland. “Hmmm ... it’s stuck on 21 % loading of maps. No worries, the VW has a GPS ... bugg*r ! Only mapping for Germany.”

25 minutes later, we are still sitting at the car park exit, in front of our first intersection with the hazard lights on, fiddling with the Garmin when suddenly it bursts into life. With a huge sense of relief ... we are off.

Soon we are on the autobahn and heading to Switzerland. My usual motorway practice is to sit in the outside lane and keep pace with the car in front. This is not quite so easy in Germany and perhaps not wise on ‘stuff all’ sleep, driving an unfamiliar car and driving on the wrong side of the road (in Barbados they drive on the left).

Cruising at 140 kph, the other cars flash past as though you are standing still! So I try 150 kph then 160 kph (speeds indicated by the GPS, not the speedometer). Okay let’s try 170 ... then 180 ... still not keeping pace!! Okay, enough is enough; ‘grandad’ will plod along at 140 kph in the middle lane. The new VW is still a bit tight with only 200kms on the clock so best take it easy!!

We arrived at our overnight stay only 30 minutes late and booked into our ‘sweat box’ (Eileen’s name for our room with no AC). Federnhut was central and basic. We walked up to the castle and enjoyed the view over Schaffhausen town. Eileen was excited to see deer in the moat where there was grass not water. After a walk around the pretty town, we headed back to our accommodation more than a little weary.

In the morning we drove to Winterthur to see if we could find the Swiss headquarters of Winterthur Silks in Dunfermline, Scotland, where Eileen’s grandmother worked until she immigrated to New Zealand in 1966. In 1947 the Dunfermline branch of the company produced the silk fabric for, the then, Princess Elizabeth’s wedding dress. May Spowart was very proud to be one of the weavers who worked on the bolts of fabric for the historic event.

The search was on! We went to the centre of town to look for clues. We visited a small museum – we were directed to the information centre. On the way to the information centre we passed a jewellers called “Bosshardt’s”. Walter Bosshardt was the Swiss Manager of the factory in Dunfermline. It was a long shot but Eileen popped in for a quick chat. No, not this family. The women at the information centre had not heard of the company but after Eileen explained the significance of the company in Britain, the women were on a mission! An internet search suggested the buildings had been demolished within the last few years to make way for a housing development. With a map in hand indicating the area of the new housing, we had a coffee and a walk in the pretty town before beginning our onward journey via the former site.

As we drove along we saw nothing but housing; Eileen was a little disappointed. Just as Eileen suggested we go, we passed a photo museum in a long, new looking building. I suggested Eileen ask if they had any old photos of the area. Eureka! The museum occupied part of the former factory! We also visited a chimney in the middle of the new housing. The business had occupied a very large area and there were several remains, some of which had been refitted. Eileen was thrilled.

Swiss highways, narrow with speed limits and no shoulders, are no match for German autobahns! We took the scenic and fun route to Interlaken; secondary roads guided by the Garmin! We had lunch on the lake shore just outside Zurich. Our drive-through view of Zurich impressed us and we wished we had time to stay. Interlaken was very pretty. We spent a good part of our evening working on our computer, booking accommodation and sending emails.

Switzerland is truly beautiful and up the Lauterbrunnen valley is as good as it gets. Travelling in the cable cars from Stechelberg to Murren and finally to Schilthorn (featured in a James Bond movie) was a challenge for Eileen at times, but wonderful for me. I enjoyed each new level and marvelled at how high we were. What made this view special was the contrast in the heights and the snow. We marvelled at the view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau from Schilthorn Piz Gloria. Then we remembered the Andes and Lake Titicaca where the lake level was higher than most of the peaks we were looking at! I just wished the sky was as haze- free as South America. We enjoyed lunch in the revolving restaurant at Schilthorn and had our packed lunch for dinner!

Not far from the Schilthorn terminus is the Trummelbach Falls. I visited the falls in 1992 and I wanted to take Eileen there. The water runs down almost vertically inside the mountainside rather than being a waterfall on the outside slope. The Swiss have tunnelled inside the mountain to give you access to view and be close to the waterfall at several points. There is even a lift inside the mountain, making the journey a little easier. I found these falls unusual and compelling and would strongly recommend a visit to anyone that is in the Interlaken area.

All too soon we were on our way to Italy but Switzerland still had a few final treats for us. An amazing climb with switch backs to the scenic pass of Susten at 2224 metres. It was so tight and twisty it had the Garmin ‘bushwhacked’. A number of times it told us to do a u-turn and head back! We thought we had seen long tunnels on the way from Interlaken, but Switzerland had a final surprise. On the road between the pretty town of Wassen and Lugano we travelled along the third longest car tunnel in the world at 16,942 metres – that’s right 16.9 kilometres!!

Eileen’s initial impressions:


• picture postcard beauty
• lush green pastures
• towns gave the impression of a wealthy society
• large 3 to 4 storey wooden houses with window shutters, and flower filled window boxes
• large barns
• covered stacked wood piles
• lots of bridges over rivers
• lots of tunnels
• gondolas to ‘no-car’ towns perched on the sides of mountains
• the sound of cowbells

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