June 28, 2025 Saturday
We left Annecy and made our way to Switzerland via Chamonix France. Chamonix is in the French alps and was the site of the first winter olympics. It has a spectacular view of Mont Blanc.
Chamonix is a little ski village with a pedestrian only street through the center of town. There were LOTS of people. We had tacos for lunch and then found the most beautiful Patisserie. We had to get a few to try.
They were as delicious as they look.
-Switzerland-
We crossed the border from France to Switzerland with no stop, just a line showing the border. It was country number 37 for me. As we were coming down the mountain pass we got a glimpse of Lausanne at the bottom of the valley.
We drove through hillside vineyards that were very steep and on the south end of Lake Geneva which had beautiful green water and was so BIG. I would love to go back there someday.
Our next apartment was in Beatenburg which is 10 minutes up the mountain from Interlaken, Interlaken is where the Thun and Brienze lakes connect. The water in the lake has an unreal color due to the glacier water.
We had the whole 2nd floor
with a stunning view of Jungfrau from the veranda and the windows.
I loved this apartment. It had a vintage look with lots of old pictures and antiques. I loved it mostly for the veranda where we would sit in the evenings enjoying the view, the quiet and the faint sound of the bells from the cows. Yes, the cows really do where bells around their necks here.
June 29, 2025 Sunday
We got up and out extra early to go to Grindelwald. We were trying to beat the weather since it was the only non-rainy day forceasted. Also, it is a very popular destination and you can wait HOURS in line if you are not there early, so we were trying to beat the crowds too.
We took a 25 minute gondola up the mountain to Grindelwald First which is a ski resort but also has fun summer activities.
We even saw some cows from the gondola.
Our first activity was called the First Flyer. It's a zip line where you sit in a chair and zoom down a couple of hundred feet. It looked fast when we were watching it, but didn't seem as fast when we were on it.
This picture is James and his new Korean friend.
If you zoom in on the picture below, it is Ani and I on the zip lines.
The three of us had a great time. Elin chose to wait for us. She doesn't love heights or speed.
We had lunch and took a few pictures.
Then James and I went on a 4 mile (round trip) hike/walk to a mountain lake called Bachsee. The girls started on the walk with us but turned around 20 minutes into it. They went back to the lodge and had an ice cream while they waited for us.
It was a like walking in a movie through fields of wildflowers and green meadows. Almost unreal. And the lake was perfect.
I even put my feet in for a few minutes. It was VERY cold.
It was a fun day. James said it perfectly ... "it's as if you stepped into a postcard".
We drove to Lautenbrunnen
to go to Trummelbach Falle.
It's hard to capture in pictures how amazing it was. Heres the description from the internet:
Trummelbach is ten glacial water falls inside the mountain, made accessible by a tunnel lift. The Trümmelbach waterfalls are truly unique in Europe. Trümmelbach alone drains the enormous glacial walls of the Eiger (3970m), Mönch (4099m) and Jungfrau (4158m) with up to a spectacular 20,000 litres of water per second."
I read that it is called the "heartbeat of the earth", which was accurate. It was so loud in parts of the cave that you couldn't hear the other person talking. We were also in and out of caves so it was damp and misty. It was unlike anything I've ever done and we all really liked it.
There was also a great view of the valley
James decided to walk back to town
The girls and I took the bus to collect the car. Just as we got on the bus it started POURING.
When we got to town we went to the Coop (grocery store) to get something for lunch. We found fresh Swiss pretzels which was one of Elin's only requests in Switzerland. They were so good and it made a perfect lunch.
We picked up James and headed into Interlaken. Our apartment in Switzerland didn't have a washer so we had to find a laundymat to get us through the last few days. Washers in Europe are not like the US. James called it the "wash and slow". It takes HOURS to wash one load.
While the laundry was washing and drying we went to do some shopping nearby and have dinner.
When we got back to Beatenburg we watched a perfect sunset from the veranda.
July 1, 2025 Tuesday
Last day in Switzerland.
We drove to Oberhofen Castle which is along the banks of lake Thun.
This castle has been turned into a museum and it was interactive and actually fun.
We had lunch in Interlaken then James left to go paragliding. While he was on his tour, the girls and I had delicious fresh strawberries with Swiss chocolate
and went to wait at the park where James would be landing. If you look closely at the picture below you can see the paragliders in the air....James was one of them.
He had an amazing time paragliding and said it wasn't scary at all.
Just as he was done, the rain came in again. We drove back up to our little apartment and enjoyed the storm from our hillside veranda. It was very spectacular with thunder and lightning and sheets of rain. We had planned to go to a place up on the mountain called Harder Klum to have fondue but the rain was so intense we changed plans since there would be no view anyway. We chose another fondue restaurant in town.
It was traditional Swiss cheese fondue that included interesting things like pickled onions and pineapple, but also had other things like olives, cold potatoes and bread. James and I got both cheese and chocolate fondue
July 2, 2025 Wednesday
We decided to stay in Interlaken for the morning, then drive to Dijon France in the afternoon. We went to a lakeside pool in the morning
I swam in the lake because I wanted to say that I had....it was cold (17 degrees celsius - 62 fahrenheit)
and we all took turns on the paddleboard.
It is such a pretty colored lake and river.
We had a last stop in Interlaken at Coop for a few items to make PB sandwiches for the road then we left Switzerland to head back towards Paris.
One of the things I will always remember about driving in rural France are the huge fields of sunflowers. They were beautiful.
We had originally planned to stay in Bern for our last night in Switzerland. But we decided we would rather break up the 7 hour drive to Paris into two parts so we stayed in a little town called Arc Sur Tille, it was right off the highway near Dijon France.
We found a random little place for dinner and swam in the hotel pool before bed. We booked two rooms next to each other and the girls were happy to be in their own space. This is the first time they have ever had their own hotel room.
July 3, 2025 Wednesday
We got back to Paris around noon, checked into our hotel by the airport and returned the car to CDG. By then it was early afternoon and rather than sit in our hotel room until our flight the next day, we decided to eat lunch/dinner nearby
then take the local bus to the metro station and go into Paris one last time. It should have taken 1 hour 3 minutes....but due to traffic it took us 2 hours.
It was just as delicious as the first time.
We sat in Place des Vosges park for a little while
Homeward bound. Our British Airways flight was canceled the evening before, but they rebooked us on Air France which ended up being better. It was a direct flight from Paris to Denver (10 hours).
At the airport we got a drink.... Anikka's new french name is Ericka.
10 ish hours later...we landed in Denver on the 4th of July. Pro Tip: when you fly into the US on a holiday like July 4th, customs and immigration are a breeze. I think we waited maybe 15 minutes.
Traveling is always fun, but there truly is no place like home. Not just my house, but my country. I love Europe and all its charming things, cultural differences and especially their clean food. But we truly are blessed to live in America where things are so much cheaper and more convenient. We had an amazing trip, had lots of adventures, and tried many new things. Sometimes things were a little hard... which is normal for 3.5 weeks of foreign travel.
I wouldn't change any of it.
Maija
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