HEY Mum, Dad and Switzerland

As we sat on the  nine hour train from Berlin to Zurich, my excitement was growing every hour we got closer. I hadn't seen my parents for five months and I knew that they would be waiting for us when we got off the train in Zurich. Sure enough, we arrived at the end of the platform and there they were: Mum, always the emotional one, was welling up with tears (and I like to think that Dad was holding back tears of excitement as well). Travel is amazing, but the one thing you can never replace in all the new experiences is your family and so I was pretty excited to see mine. That was how we started our week long travels in Switzerland- on a high and with five months worth of stories to tell. And the week just got better from there.

Not only did we get to see Mum and Dad and have the comfort of home, travelling with my parents also had another little benefit: a break from hostels. No more shared dorms, no sneaking around with the light of your phone when you get back to the room so as to not wake anyone up, no showers with thongs on, and no carrying around a bag of cereal, pasta or rice that we normally rely on for meals. When we first arrived in the hotel in Zurich that was to be our home for 4 nights, it felt like we had died and gone to heaven: we had just come from a 'bit of a pickle' in our Berlin hostel and so to come to a place that had a comfy bed, the biggest buffet breakfast I have ever seen, and even a pool and spa on the top floor with views over the city was beyond exciting.

Plus it also meant that we could actually afford to eat, since Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world. When I looked at the exchange rate and saw that the rate for CHF was pretty close to dollar for dollar with the AUD, I thought that it was probably going to be ok, and that people just thought it was more expensive because it wasn't on the Euro. Then I walked past a McDonalds (the place that I like to think of as a universal price comparison tool): CHF 1.50 for what's normally a 50c ice cream cone, and about CHF 13 for a McChicken meal? Switzerland is one expensive place. So expensive that they actually charge for tap water in restaurants- about $4 for a jug. So it was nice to know that we wouldn't be going hungry while in the company of my parents.

ZURICH & LUCERNE
Despite the high cost, Zurich really was a nice place to visit. Plus it came with the added bonus that everything else looked cheaper after starting out there in the most expensive city of Switzerland. Perched right on Lake Zurich, the Swiss city is known for being the banking hotspot of the West (sounds fun, right?). But it turns out the city has a lot more to offer than that. The old town of Zurich, right on the river, was really picturesque, and since it had been a while since we have been in European countries, the quaint little cobblestone streets were a novelty once again. Mike and I were in charge of giving our own version of the walking tours offered in a city (which basically meant we had a map, read a guide book and made up some bogus facts in between to see if we could fool Robbie- though we did rightly point out the largest clock face in Europe).

After the grand tour of Zurich was complete, there were a couple of other highlights to our first stop in Switzerland. We caught the Dolderbahn, a small uphill railway, up to an ice skating rink where Mike and I had fun skating around the rink with a big Christmas tree in the middle. We also had a few 'fun' moments while we were sampling some of the local cafes and restaurants. We went to a place to sample a cheese fondue one night, and the waiter there had a few issues with communication. When Dad tried to put in his usual 'allergic to dairy' order, he somehow ended up confusing the waiter altogether- the waiter then tried to bring out 3 salads instead of 1, and then when our fondue came without any bread, he just lent over to the table next to us and took their (untouched) bowl of bread instead. Best of all he brought out an actual paper bib for Dad to wear, which we liked to think was a tool he used to humiliate difficult customers. But the fondue Mum and I shared was delicious, with a wine and spice mix added to the warm cheese.

While in Zurich we also took a daytrip to Lucerne, which was just under an hour away by train. Lucerne is a really beautiful town, also on a lake, but it is a lot smaller than Zurich and it has all these little wooden bridges going across the river that are all lit up at night. We spent the day walking around the lake (which was full of ducks all separated into little groups according to their colours, funny to see), walking through the little streets of the old side of town, and then we had some traditional Swiss food before catching the train back at night.

THE SWISS ALPS

While Zurich was a beautiful place to start our trip, by far the best part of our time in Switzerland was our chance to see the stunning Swiss Alps. We went to the town of Grindelwald, which is situated in the Berner Oberland region which is famous for it's fairy tale-like alpine scenery. The weather in Zurich hadn't been really cold at all (our hotel told us it is normally covered in snow at this time of year but all we experienced was grey skies and heavy fog), so we weren't sure what to expect once we got to the alps. But when we arrived in the town of Grindelwald it couldn't have been better: the little village was in a valley, the area was surrounded by snow, and the skies were perfectly blue. Our time in the alps was probably my favorite part of the trip because it meant Mike and I had the chance to hit the snow. Since Switzerland is notoriously expensive we were quite surprised to find out that a 2 day lift pass was CHF 112- quite a bargain considering one day passes at home are normally about $100 alone. We spent the first day at the local Grindelwald First mountain, which we could reach in about 10 minutes from the door in our hotel, and the second day we went over to the ski runs near the Jungfrau (the highest mountain in Europe). While we didn't get any fresh snow while we were there, the weather on the slopes was perfect so it made for a great two days. The runs in the alps were so long and varied, and we definitely also noticed it is a skier's paradise in Switzerland and Mike on his snowboard was more of a rare sight. And the best part of all is we can snow say we have skied in the Swiss Alps, and can cross that one off the list.

After our second day one snow we returned all our hire gear and took our weary bodies down to Interlakken, about half an hour away from Grindelwald. Mum and Dad spent the day there while we skied and we really only stayed there for the night before catching the train in the morning to Austria. But we did get to leave Switzerland with one last local speciality- we went to a place for dinner that catered for the tourist crowd (which meant we got to have a chocolate fondue for dessert). When we were just about to leave a bus full of Japanese tourists arrived, and we got to see the spectacle of the waiter, wearing pants in a cow print fabric, play a Swiss horn; plus we got to see the waitress try and explain the menu to them by using a combination of English and hand actions. When it got to explaining the dessert, she spoke as if it was a room full of kids, as she proudly said 'and after dinner, we will have ice cream.... Yaaaaaay'. She then chucked in the Japanese word for delicious-oishii- a few times, just to make sure the excitement got through. What a way to end our (first) trip to Switzerland.

Though that won't be the end of our time in Switzerland- after Austria, we are heading to the town of Basel which is right near the French border of Switzerland. We are flying out of there to Morocco, and also visiting my Swiss friend who I met when she was an exchange student in high school. And we realised today it's only 5 weeks until we fly home... Time is going too quick!