A Day in the Alps

Never in a million years did I think I would spend an entire day hiking the Swiss Alps. Our first morning in Switzerland, I took the coldest shower of my life in a slightly scary communal bathroom. But the rest of the day made up for it. We took a train to Lauterbrunnen, and then took a gondola ride from the train station. We hiked to Mürren from the gondola, walking through the most amazing scenery complete with darling Swiss cottages, rolling green hills, hidden waterfalls, and tinkling cow bells. We stopped for lunch in Mürren at the cutest restaurant with the most amazing view of the alps. Probably one of my favorite meals of the entire trip based on the fact that it felt like I could literally reach out and touch the mountains. A group of us took a gondola ride up to the second highest summit called Birg. There was snow at the top, and we were completely encased by clouds. But the ride up and back was stunning – the green valleys, Swiss rooftops, towering mountains… Pictures simply can’t do it justice. I tried my first Swiss chocolate after all that hiking – it lived up to its name.

Bus drivers have all kinds of weird rules in Europe, so we couldn’t leave for Bern until midnight so our bus driver could have a 24-hour break. That meant we had around 6 hours to kill. But it also meant we were able to thoroughly explore the little town of Interlaken and also that we successfully drove the hostel owners mad. We made it to Bern around 1 am. All 20 of us girls were in one giant room at this hostel…

Our second day in Switzerland was full of business visits and bus drives. But the bus drives were absolutely beautiful. I’ll never forget driving past Geneva Lake with all of us pressed against the bus windows snapping pictures. We visited Honeywell and Cailler Chocolate Factory. The chocolate factory was the best – the end of the tour consisted of a room with around 20 different chocolate samples. So delicious, but we all left feeling pretty sick. We spent that night in Lausanne and explored the city. My favorite part was going down to the lake at night. The next day we went to the International Olympic Committee for one of my favorite business visits of the trip - talk about an amazing career. We rushed to make it to our next visit at Nestle before bidding Switzerland farewell to head to Florence.

Switzerland was a welcome break after our hectic time in bustling Paris and London. A beautiful country with beautiful memories.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

– Saint Augustine