Switzerland

Museum im Lagerhaus, St Gallen, Switzerland

On leaving Lindau in Germany, we headed toward Switzerland through the eastern ranges of the Swiss Alps. Our focus there was St Gallen, known as the ‘Gateway to the Appenzell Alps’. We had heard that it is a picturesque city.

On the way, we had to travel briefly through Austria, and were hit with the cost of an Austrian motorway vignette. Then we also had to buy one for Switzerland - it is very expensive travelling by road in these parts!

Once in St Gallen, we drove around the town a couple of times without finding a sufficiently large parking place for our big motorhome, Vanni, so moved on.

Leigh at Rheinfall, Switzerland

Then we made our way to the spectacular Rheinfall, one of the largest waterfalls in Europe, and the most powerful. We stopped for a break, then walked to the falls. They are very impressive.

From there, we drove to Zürich. This city is on Lake Zürich and runs along the River Limmat, with great views of the Swiss Alps.

We found Camping Fischers Fritz, right on the lakefront and only 10 minutes from the city centre, and based ourselves there for a few days.

The weather was cold and wet, and Marg had an upset tummy, so we were happy to just relax and have some ‘at home’ days.

Leigh in an old street of Zürich, Switzerland

On our last day there, we caught the local bus into Zürich city, and had a lovely time wandering around the beautiful winding alleyways, and medieval houses and guildhalls of the old town (Altstadt). 

Zürich is at the northern end of Lake Zürich and the Altstadt sits on both sides of the lake’s Limmat River. As we walked around, we managed to visit most of the main sights on both sides of the Limmat. 

We particularly enjoyed the Opera House, the 17th century town hall, and the historic churches.  

Amazingly, Zürich has around 1200 fountains which sprout drinkable water. We loved that the water was free, as everything else here is super expensive!

Marg overlooking the promenade in Zürich, Switzerland

We found many of the fountains as we walked along the picturesque waterfront promenades. 

Zürich was founded by the Romans over 5000 years ago when they built a customs station. Now-days, it's famous as a global center for banking and finance, and is a very sophisticated, clean and friendly city.

Heading back to the campground later, we were caught out by a huge downpour and hail storm which absolutely drenched us.

Later, we treated ourselves with a meal of freshly caught lake fish called Eglifisch, and a bottle of local Kilchberger Riesling-Sylvander, a delicious fresh wine that went beautifully with the fish.

Leigh in Lucerne, Switzerland

A few days later, we drove south and stopped in Lucerne. Lucerne straddles the Reuss River on the western edge of Lake Lucerne, and has some very, very old and beautifully restored medieval buildings.

So, after finding a Vanni-sized parking spot, we spent a happy couple of hours wandering around the pedestrianised and cobbled streets of this compact and beautiful town. 

On the way, we saw several lovely buildings including an ancient Jesuit church that is now used for government, the Ritter Palace, the riverside town hall, many traditional frescoed buildings and monuments, and the city walls. We particularly loved the walks along the riverside promenades.

Leigh on Chapel Bridge with Lucerne township behind

From the Rathausquai promenade, we crossed the ancient Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden bridge with carvings and murals from the 11th century. 

On arriving back at Vanni later, we were greeted by a woman parked in front of us who said “dobre den” (Czech for “good day” or “hello”). She had spotted our Czech number plates. It turns out she was from Poland and thought we were Czech. 

Two English speaking women in a big van with a Czech number plate, is a great ice-breaker when meeting new people. 

Our next stop was Bern, the federal capital of Switzerland, where we found Camping Bern, a lovely clean campsite in a great location close to the city.

Bern’s medieval houses on the River Aare (UNESCO)

The next morning, we caught the bus into Bern city. Bern sits on the River Aare, and has a medieval old town dating back to 1191 that is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We were really looking forward to seeing it. However, the bus ride proved to be quite painful when the bus driver stopped suddenly because of the car in front. 

We had nothing to stop us from flying forward. Leigh hurt her knees and chest, and Marg, her knee and arm. The older couple next to us ended up on the floor. 

After checking everyone, the driver continued on, but we were all quite shaken. 

Marg at the arcades of Bern (UNESCO), Switzerland

Despite the bus ride, we had a lovely time in Bern, especially around the old town. Parts of it are built so that entire rows of houses and shops merge into one integrated whole, connected by long covered promenades. These are built in Gothic style and called 'The Arcades' or 'Umbrellas of Stone'. We thought it all very charming.

Bern is named for its bears, so we visited the bear park where we saw four big brown bears.

Then we heard a choir practicing outside, and their sound was beautiful. They were pleased with our praise and wanted to know where we were from. There were a lot of oohs and aahs when we said we were from New Zealand.

Leigh at the Zytglogge in Bern (UNESCO), Switzerland

A real highlight, was the medieval clock tower called Zytglogge. We waited patiently for 15 minutes to see the clock’s hourly glockenspiel performance. It was fascinating, with mechanical bears, jesters, and other figurines parading around as the clock chimed. 

We also visited the attractive Gothic style cathedral and surrounding houses, Parliament buildings, the Federal Palace, Erlacherhof, the Town Hall, and a number of other places.

Bern is the home of Toblerone chocolate, so on the way back to the camp, we stopped for a chocolate, and also bought some Swiss cheese. Overall, we really enjoyed Bern and its history.

Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Next, we drove around Lake Geneva, chancing upon Chillon Castle, where we explored its restored but very ancient rooms. 

This 10th century castle began life as a Roman outpost, guarding the road through the Alps.

It is beautifully situated on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, and is built on small island of limestone rock. It is quite lovely, and seems to rise majestically out of the lake water.

The lake road then went into France and back into Switzerland. We found that the main language in this more southern region of Switzerland is French, as opposed to German which is spoken further north.  

Beside Lake Geneva with Swiss Alps behind

Still driving around Lake Geneva, we were awed by the stunning views of the Swiss Alps with the lake in front of it, so stopped for a picnic lunch and to better admire the views. We were heading for Geneva.

Getting into Geneva was tricky because of roadworks and when we spotted our camp, we couldn't turn into it. To get there, we had an extra drive right through Geneva central in peak hour traffic, before we could find a suitable place to do a U-turn.

With a tired clutch leg because of stop-start traffic, we eventually arrived at Camping Point a la Bise, a clean and friendly campsite right on the shore of Lake Geneva in Geneva City. 

Leigh in front of the world's highest fountain in Geneva

The next day, we caught a bus into Geneva and one of the first things we spotted was a spectacular fountain in the lake. So, we stopped for crepes at a restaurant on the lake-front that had wonderful lake views. It turns out that the fountain is the world’s highest at 140m.

Geneva is called “the peace capital of the world” because the big peace-related humanitarian societies have their head office there (e.g. UN, WHO etc). It is a very big city, and not as attractive as other Swiss cities we had visited to date.

Walking around, we found an archaeological site under the Cathedral St Pierre, and learned about its long and varied history.  

Marg at Ariana Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland

We also saw the beautiful Ariana Gallery, the UN building, the Place de Bourg-de-Four (Geneva's oldest square and once a Roman forum), and many other monumental buildings.

Later back at the camp, we met Jenny and Jeff, two doctors from Brisbane, and their two children. They are spending a year travelling around Europe in a GB number-plated van, but with an Aussie sticker to establish who they are.

After spotting our NZ stickers they visited us. It was lovely to speak in a common language, and we had a great evening, sharing travel stories over a local wine.

We are getting used to not knowing what the local wines will taste like. Our by-line is “it’ll be fine with food” .... and it usually is.

Switzerland has been a nice country to tour, but we have found it very expensive compared to other countries. We move on tomorrow, with our next stop being in France.

This blog describes part of our 6 month motorhome trip around western Europe, which began in Prague.