Geneva, Zermatt, Zurich: SWITZERLAND

Hello, Geneva!:)

Similar to most of the places I have visited this year, Switzerland has been on the travel ‘To-Do’ list from the start. And it took two simple words for me to come to that decision: Swiss Alps. I take that back. Three words: Swiss Alps + chocolate.:) It felt as if we were living inside of a postcard with the constant beauty surrounding us wherever we went.  The Alps cover over half the land of this tiny country so whether we were on the southwestern tip in Geneva or towards the northeast in Zurich, views of the gorgeous mountain range accompanied us every step of the way.

We flew into Geneva on Saturday night and as I peered out of the window of the plane while eating some delicious Swiss chocolate (compliments of Swiss Air) I could see the Jet d’Eau, one of the largest fountains in the world and probably the city’s most famous landmark, lit up and greeting us from Lake Geneva below. As we made our way into the center of the city, the first thing we noticed was how CLEAN everything truly is there—the streets and sidewalks literally sparkled as if to intentionally show off the city’s perfection. After a couple of wrong turns and a lot of wandering around we finally made it to our place in the center of the city. We crashed shortly after arriving in anticipation for the following day full of touring and walking around.

Just pretend the Jet d'Eau is there;)

Aside from that first night we arrived in Geneva, the weather forecast for the rest of the trip did not look very promising so we were more than pleased to wake up the following morning to birds chirping and the sunshine beaming through the window. Excited to explore Geneva under surprisingly clear skies, we headed out early with our first item on the ‘to-do’ list being the St. Pierre Cathedral. Since it was a Sunday, there was a service in session but we decided to crack the door open and peek inside anyway. The bare-boned, high-arched structure of the Cathedral added to the somewhat eerie atmosphere of the already dim-lit service. The creepy music along with the low-hanging, candle-lit chandeliers didn’t help the Cathedral’s case for what I already felt somewhat resembled the haunted house ride in Disneyland—I was just waiting for the huge wooden doors to slam behind us and for the chandeliers to detach and start floating around. Needless to say, we didn’t stay for long and within seconds we had hopped back out into the sunshine and started making our way towards Lake Geneva to see the Jet d’Eau fountain while snapping photos of the scenery along the way.

Trying to capture it's beauty from the train;)

When we made it to Lake Geneva, we were surprised that the fountain was nowhere to be seen (and this fountain is HUGE and there is NO WAY you can miss it…I mean, I saw it from the freakin’ plane!). With our stomachs growling we opted to continue our search for food and come back and try our luck again later.

Approaching the Matterhorn:)

I couldn’t tell you how many times we were warned that ‘Switzerland is SO expensive’…but even one-hundred more warnings would not have prepared us for JUST how expensive it truly is. Our plan was to find a grocery store to buy some goods for dinner and snacks so we could keep our spending to a minimum. In the endless process of searching for an open grocery store on a Sunday, we became more and more hungry and unfortunately could not fight the urge to stop and eat when we saw the infamous yellow arches of McDonald’s taunting us in the distance (I swear I have had McDonald’s more times throughout this year than in my entire life combined). We figured that it would be a cheap option and that we would get wifi while we ate to figure out what time the fountain is supposed to come on during the day, etc. Wrong and wrong. For a cheeseburger, a small order of fries, and a bottle of water, our total was 14 francs EACH (and no, they did not have wifi). For your information, that is approximately $15 US dollars. For McDonald’s. Ouch, Switzerland, ouch. After observing restaurant prices as we walked around, we learned that McDonald’s in particular is ridiculously expensive (relative to the quality of food) and that we probably could have found something for a similar price without simultaneously taking another year off of our life. Welp, lesson learned!

We wandered back to the fountain-less Lake Geneva and walked along the pier and the ‘beach’, looking at all of the swans enjoying the gorgeous greenish-blue water and the mountains in the distance. After trying to capture some photos on an extremely windy day we headed towards the Russian church in Geneva called Eglise Russe. I must say, for how small this church was it sure made a statement—adorned with what I can only describe as gold ‘Russian flare’ at the top (or in my own words, pillars topped with gold Hershey’s kisses). We peeked inside and saw the gorgeous decorations that matched the ornate style of the outside of the church. Lovely!:)

We headed back to rest for a little bit before finishing our day of touring around Geneva. We found out that the Jet d’Eau was not turned on due to the windy weather conditions that day (ya win some ya lose some—no rain but LOTS of wind and unfortunately no fountain!). With hopes that we might be able to see it the next morning before we headed out, we took a trolley to our last tourist site of the day, the United Nations headquarters. We figured it was just going to be a plain, conservative building but it was pretty amazing to see all the flags lined up outside representing each country that partakes in what I assume are pretty important decisions each year.;)

After another restful night we woke up the next morning for a 9:36am train ride to Zermatt. However, we thought that the Jet d’Eau fountain was supposed to turn on at 9:30am so, determined, we headed down to the waterfront and opted to take the 9:56am train instead to have ONE LAST CHANCE and snapping a photo of this giant, infamous fountain. As we rounded the corner to an open area where we could see Lake Geneva, our hearts sank. The fountain was STILL not on, but we had no time to wait around as we had a train to catch. We both turned around one last time as we were walking away, just in case the fountain was playing a joke on us and only turning off whenever we looked. Well, shucks.

I seeeeee you Matterhorn!

As it turns out, the fountain comes on at 10:00am. When we were pulling out of the train station on our way to Zermatt, we could see part of it peeking over the treetops, taunting us in the distance. Darn it! Jet d’Eau: 1, Melissa and Sara: 0. On a lighter note, the next couple of hours provided us with nothing but postcard-worthy views of the Swiss Alps and I had my eyes permanently fixed outside the window, hardly allowing myself to blink for fear of missing even a second of taking in the gorgeous surroundings!

All aboard!:)

Aside from being breathtakingly beautiful, Switzerland is also very multi-cultural for such a tiny country. For example, they speak three different languages! In Geneva on the west side bordering France they speak French. In Zurich on the East side bordering Germany they speak ‘Swiss German’. And in a small area of Switzerland (Lugano) bordering Italy, they speak Italian. SO when we had a train switch outside of Zermatt in a town called Visp, it seemed as if we had switched over to ‘the other side’ when we immediately recognized that the soft, pretty flow of the French language had been replaced by the rougher-sounding German even though we were still in the Southwestern, French part of Switzerland. Innnnnteresting!

We boarded the ‘Matterhorn train’ and took in gorgeous views of the mountains (an ongoing theme of the trip:)) until the very end of the ride when we ran into some clouds and rainy weather. We still had hopes of seeing the infamous mountain that put the tiny town of Zermatt on the map, although as we got closer and closer to the ‘view point’, the stormy weather started to convince us otherwise. To sum up the rest of our short visit, we saw the Matterhorn from afar when we were on our way to the mountain but not while we were in Zermatt. Another minor disappointment to add to the not-at-all-disappointing fact that, well…we were in SWITZERLAND getting a taste of one of the world’s most beautiful countries!

One of many attemps at capturing the beauty of the Alps from the train..

Our next train brought us to the German-influenced and lovely city of Zurich. We stayed in a smaller town about twenty minutes outside of the main city where we enjoyed gorgeous views of the Alps, the lake, and Zurich itself….not to mention some authentic Swiss cheeses and fabulous advice on what to see while we were there. The highlight of our trip to Zurich was hiking to a viewpoint where you could see ALL of the city, the surrounding mountains, and the beautiful Swiss countryside. I have never felt more strongly about the idea that ‘the pictures don’t do it justice’…Switzerland is a WONDER that I highly suggest be seen in person!:)

Part of Zurich and a peek of some gorgeous countryside:)

After descending from the watch tower/view point we decided to relax and order some beers and ‘franks’ outside with a panoramic view of the Swiss countryside as our backdrop. Noooooooot bad;) We spent the rest of the day walking around downtown Zurich and wrapped up our Swiss adventure with some authentic Swiss chocolate and a bus ride to a castle in a small town outside of the city. Switzerland has SO much to offer for taking up such a tiny space in Europe! Although I always say that 'I would love to go back someday' when summing up blog posts about previous travels, Switzerland is a country that I can ASSURE you I will be revisiting! I have only chipped away at a tiny piece of what Switzerland really has to offer and it has only given me even more of a reason to explore further in the future!!:)

Je serai de retour! Bis zum nächsten Mal...I will be back! Until next time!:)

Next stop: Driving the coast of Northern Spain...look out world!;)