We were looking for a new place to go on vacation that wasn’t going to be super hot in the dead of summer, so we chose Switzerland since I randomly have multiple friends who live there. Turns out it’s still super hot in the dead of summer, but also that Switzerland is famous for its natural swimming spots! Zurich has urban parks where bathers lounge in the grass and then wade into the lake. At noontime, we saw the businesspeople of downtown eating their lunches while splashing in the creek. Supposedly, some workers pack their professional clothes in a dry bag and float with the current of the Limmat to work every day. In addition to this, there’s excellent public transportation for which everyone uses the same app. Locals are more likely to own a bike than a car. Cars stop at all the crosswalks for pedestrians even without a stop sign.
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| Rentenwiese pictured here, also went to a similar park, called Chinagarten, where we spent a perfect last day in Zurich playing grass volleyball, throwing a frisbee, doing aero, swimming in the lake |
My suitemate from all four years of college and her boyfriend live right in the heart of the old city, over a bar that stays noisy all night long. Unlike other countries’ old towns, it felt special that Zurich’s was a place where real locals lived and worked, and there was industry besides tourism. My friends were incredible hosts who took us for gorgeous walking tours. There were tons of thrift stores (brockenhausen) which suited Steve. We ate at Hiltl, the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world. Overall, there were excellent vegan options and international food options throughout the urban areas of Switzerland.
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| The public fountains all provide fresh drinking water |
We tragically arrived one day too late (due to me working a 24 hour shift at the hospital) to experience Zurich’s Street Parade (an open air EDM music festival). My friends were embarrassed that the city streets had a minuscule amount of trash as a result. The next Saturday in Zurich was the Limmat float where swimmers all got inflatable axolotls and sent down the river on a section normally reserved for boats. It was reminiscent of the Sun Moon Lake swim I’d done in inner Taiwan.
Lindt chocolate factory
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| Seebad swim club in Lucerne, view from the bar |
After Zurich, we spent a day in nearby Lucerne. It also had a picturesque old town with winding cobblestone streets and a covered bridge crossing the river. Walking down the tree-lined path by the river (wishing we had our rollerblades), we happened upon an amazing swim club. It was full of Swiss people sunbathing on the elevated deck, drinking Aperol spritzes, and cooling off in Lake Lucerne. Afterwards, I was on a hunt to try raclette, the Swiss specialty of cheese melted over veggies and bread (suspiciously similar to fondue, the Swiss specialty of cheese melted over veggies and bread). However, we only emerged for dinner at 8:30pm when every restaurant seemed to be closed, Switzerland being an exception to the European habit of eating late. A bar owner ended up making us raclette pinsa while we sat at the tables of people having wine in a quiet plaza with a fountain.
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| Lucerne Lion Monument |
We took a train then a bus then the steepest funicular in the world to reach a village called Stoos, that cannot be reached by (nonlocal) car. The first afternoon, we did a stunning ridge-line hike between two cable cars. The whole hike was soundtracked by the clanking of cowbells. The heatwave with no cover from the sun made it sweltering. We spent the night at the cozy Stoos Lodge, in a modern, wood-paneled room with floor-to-ceiling views of the mountains. Opening the windows at dusk for the first cool air of the whole trip, we heard the eerie alphorn calling through the valley for the cows to come home. The next day, we rented e-bikes to take around mountains that we otherwise would not have been able summit. Regardless, we were barely able to descend; the trails were so steep with loose rocks.
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| Rösti (traditional Swiss hash browns) |
Our next destination was Bern. It is a fairytale of a city, with the glistening blue river wrapping around the old town. There’s even a park incorporated into the city that has bears.
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| Rosengarten lookout |
As soon as we saw people zooming along the fast-flowing river Aare, we knew we had to join too. After hunting down a dry bag in the city, we walked along the river side path, passing bars and a beach volleyball court shaded by an overpass, until the launching point. Steve held our matching popsicle floaties while I jumped off the bridge. We bobbed along at high speed with everyone else until there was a sign in German at a fork in the river. We reluctantly got out at the Marzili swim club with everyone else. Afterwards, we asked a lifeguard and learned that if we hadn’t, the river would’ve carried us over the dam of death.
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| There are bears hiding in those trees |
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| Eating local fondue despite it being 90 degrees outside |
Bern was also extremely cool because the main streets of the old town all had cellars. In front of every aboveground storefront, there was another entrance leading to an underground storefront. There were extremely few cars, just occasional trams speeding between fountains along otherwise old fashioned streets. The week prior the city had hosted a buskers street music festival. Passing an old bridge over the Aare, we saw people doing parkour in the streets. Then, we stumbled upon the Movement Park, which hosts regular yoga, acro, juggling, and slackline jams, and I decided Bern would be the Swiss city for me.
