10-days Switzerland (& France) Travel Video!

deodorant

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Day 3 - Annecy Finish

So after the boat cruise lunch, our initial plan was to go and get on a paddleboat and paddle to the middle of the lake, or to rent bicycles and cycle. But it was super sunny and super hot, so we decided to go hide from the sun by visiting some churches around the town.

This one is the "Eglise Notre Dame de Liesse"

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There are another two churches which we visited - all of them with gorgeous interiors - but I don't remember anymore which interior belongs to which church LOL.

Cathédrale Saint-Pierre
Église Saint Maurice
Eglise Notre Dame de Liesse

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Finally we visited the Château d'Annecy, which used to be an old castle complex but has now been converted to a museum. To be frank the museum exhibits themselves a bit boring, but it's fun to explore the castle passages and rooms. Oh, and there's a viewing area as well that overlooks a little bit the town.

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At the end of the day we head back to Geneva ... and eat ... KFC!!! CHF37 (s$52) for 2pax. Why KFC? Well, I'm a huge KFC fan and I like to try different countries' chicken.

Swiss one has nicer coleslaw but the mashed potatoes not as nice as Singapore one. The chicken hmmm. Bigger pieces, slightly saltier, and a lot more oily than SG.

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Also a random Geneva shot from the balcony of our hotel breakfast room.

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deodorant

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Day 4 ... Zermatt!!!

Zermatt is a village (or maybe it's a town) halfway up the Swiss alps. In the wintertime it's a huge ski'ing hub - one of the most famous in Europe - and in the summer it's a pretty big hiking / mountainbiking / paragliding hub. Anyway Zermatt's main draw is it's proximity to the Matterhorn i.e. the famous swiss peak used as the Toblerone logo.

Before that, though, there's a 3hr train ride from Geneva (past Lake Leman) to Visp, followed by another train up the mountain to Zermatt (1,608m)

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The train from Visp to Zermatt has this super high ceiling with really high windows, perfect for panoramic views

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My hotel for just 1 night in Zermatt:

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The hotel itself was quite nice, especially considering the balcony has this view ...

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Damage: s$204.01
 

deodorant

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Day 4 continued

Well our purpose in Zermatt is to go up the mountain to see the famous Matterhorn. The weather wasn't quite perfect (a bit cloudy), but since we have only one night here so bopian, just go up and hope for the best.

The 2 famous places to go up to view the peak are to Gornergrat (by train, 3,100m), or to Matterhorn Glacial Paradise (by cable car, 3,800m). Google says that Gornergrat you can view the Matterhorn and a lot of surrounding peaks so we chose to go this one.

On the way up you can see that the peak itself is sadly covered by cloud ...

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The surrounding peaks

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From Gornergrat we decided to walk down one stop to Rotenboden (2,800m), it was a very nice, very picturesque, quite easy downhill stroll, even for us who hardly ever exercise ...

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deodorant

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Day 4 continued

For dinner in Zermatt, we went to this steakhouse by one of the rivers. You can see the Matterhorn on the top left corner - still a little hidden by clouds.

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It was interesting that the wood fire oven to grill the steaks on was right in the middle of the dining area (and right next to our table ...)

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Dinner was pretty good, but like most things in Switzerland, not cheap. Steak for two + rosti + vegetables + soup + sparkling water = chf 130 (s$184)

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Day 5: Travelling from Zermatt to Wengen

The next day, we have breakfast at the hotel, which is pretty good compared to the other hotel breakfasts we've had so far because this one actually has hot food!

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We then take a morning stroll to a nearby church ...

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... and the nearby Mountaineer's Cemetery where a couple of dozen or so people who died trying to scale the surrounding peaks are buried.

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We then stroll over again to the restaurant and find that the clouds have cleared up overnight and the Matterhorn is fully visible!!

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... we briefly entertained the thought of going up to Gornergrat again but then decided it was too expensive and so we headed back to hotel to check out and travel to Wengen ...
 

H0cusP0cus

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Been silently reading your posts ever since you started! Thanks for taking the time and effort to post your trip details. Really appreciate it as I’m getting ideas for my trip in November.

Can share what camera you are using cause your photos look stunning!
 

deodorant

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Can share what camera you are using cause your photos look stunning!
This trip I left my DSLR at home and just took all the videos and photos with my handphone lol. Huawei p20pro. Today's flagship phones frankly speaking are good enough for holiday photo and video IF you're not particularly fussy about having super shallow DOF and mega creamy bokeh. And if all you're doing with the photos is to upload HWZ and FB and Instagram 🤣
 

deodorant

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Day 4 reverse time

Oooh, jump back to Day 4 first. At Kleine Scheidegg, we sat on the terrace of one of the restaurants overlooking the Matterhorn and had sausage and fries and spaghetti. The food was ... so-so only (but the view of course was amazing). 43chf / s$68

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The terrace area had these absolutely fearless crows (?) that would literally jump right on your table and try and get your fries while you were there eating.

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Back to Day 5 ... paiseh for the jumping here and there

After breakfast and some more sightseeing and souvenir shopping around Zermatt, we took a 3 hour+ train to Wengen ... which was quite crazy cos of the number of transfers (chf68.80/s$98 per person)

Zermatt - Visp: 1hr10min
Visp - Spiez: 30min
Spiez - Interlaken: 30min
Interlaken - Lautrebrunnen: 30min
Lautrebrunnen - Wengen: 25min

In hindsight I don't know if this was the best way to go ... but anyway!

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In Wengen our hotel was Jungfraublick Wengen (s$200/night with breakfast), which was also a so-so hotel for the price. It was also ~15min uphill walk away from the train station which is pleasant without luggage, not-so-pleasant with.

The main advantage of this hotel is the view over the Wengen village and the views of the Jungfraujoch mountain ... which ... we couldn't see because of the clouds ...

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We had dinner at Da Sina Pizzeria which had surprisingly good pizza. chf65 / s$93 for 2 people.

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deodorant

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Day 6 - Jungfraujoch

So the very next day as we wake up we look out the window and WHOA the clouds have cleared nicely! That peak in the distance is the Jungfrau - 4,158m. Unfortunately from Wengen you can't see the other 2 peaks i.e. the Eiger and the Mönch cos they're blocked by the hill on the left.

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So with this kind of weather, it's up to Jungfraujoch! The train ride itself is just so-so (half of it goes through a tunnel anyway), but leads up to Jungfraujoch, "top of Europe" - which, at 3,460m-ish - isn't really the highest point in Europe; it's the highest point reachable by railway.

Oh but we did come across this couple doing pre-wedding photoshoot ...

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Anyway the Jungfraujoch area itself is really nice, though, and you could easily spend a full day exploring the area. Once you get out of the train you reach a viewing platform where you can glance close up at the peaks and down at the glaciers and valleys below.

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In summer (our trip was in August), the snow play area is open for some sledding and light hiking / ski'ing (we were lazy and didn't do any of those though), and there's a very well maintained ice tunnel carved into the glacier for you to walk through.

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On the way down, we got off one stop early and decided to walk the rest of the way down to Kleine Scheidegg, mostly because you get some amazing views ...

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From Left to Right - the three peaks of the Eiger, Mönch, and the Jungfrau.

Train ride costs:
Wengen to Jungfraujoch via Kleine Scheidegg chf50 (s$70)
Jungfraujoch to Eigergletscher chf37 (s$52)
 

deodorant

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Day 6 - Jungfraujoch continued

Hiking (or in our case ... walking downhill lol) with these views and in the cool mountain air is a lot of fun!!

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We ended the trek at Kleine Scheidegg and had simple lunch at the restaurant / cafe there. No photos but it was basically sausages and rosti and soft drinks for two at chf44 (s$61)

Anyway the wife and I are not super hardcore hikers so we did take the train back down from Kleine Scheidegg to Wengen (chf12/s$17 per pax) ... cannot walk all the way down ...

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Back in Wengen it was neither here nor there timing so we played some MiniGolf (chf 5.50/s$7.50 each) ...

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... before having essentially the worst meal of the entire trip. chf 47 / s$65 for 1x mediocre pasta and 1x caeser salad at Pasta and More restaurant.

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A few more photos to round up the day ... moon shot above Jungfrau (we only had mobile phones with us so can't take proper photo ...)

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Also ... something I see only in older European hotels: A separate bidet area to wash ass after taking a crap hahaha

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deodorant

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Day 7 - Day Trip to Bern

Paiseh, haven't updated in a while. On Day 7 we took a break from the mountains and day tripped to Bern! Wengen - Bern Chf42.40 return (s$59).

Bern, despite being the capital of Switzerland, is only the 5th largest city in the country (behind Zurich, Geneva, Basel, and Lausanne). Something to do with the politics of the French-speaking West vs the German-speaking East I suppose.

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Anyway for this day trip we visited (on foot):
- Federal Palace - House of Parliament
- Prison Tower
- Zytglogge Tower
- Einstein House
- Bern Cathedral
- Bear Park
- Bern Old Town
- Peter & Paul Church

Statue in front of the Federal Palace

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Zytglogge Tower

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Einstein's House

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Bern Cathedral

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No pics of the bears in the bear park, but it really is just a pretty small forested enclosure with maybe 3 or 4 bears roaming around. Next to the bear park runs the Aare river, where during summer months, Swiss people go to the river, dump their clothes in a waterproof bag, and just jump in and let the current bring them downstream. We would've tried if we were more prepared but .... oh well. There's always a next time.

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deodorant

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Day 7 - Day Trip to Bern continued ...

Meals in Bern were Rabbit Roulade & Ossobuco at a restaurant in the old town named Metzgerstübli for lunch (chf51), and Mussels at Brasserie Chez Moules-Edy for Dinner (chf66)

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After dinner we took the train back to the hotel to catch a moonlit silhoutte of the Jungfrau again.

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Day 8 - Männlichen and Grindelwald

From Wengen, we took the cable car up to Männlichen, and then hiked walked around 45mins up to the viewing point at the end of the Royal Walk trail.

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We then walked back down to Männlichen and decided to do the summer luge (which was super scenic, chf29/pax!!) down to the halfway point down to Grindelwald ...

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... continuing the rest of the way by cable car, and making it to Grindelwald just in time for a quick burger lunch at the Eiger+ cafe

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deodorant

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Day 8 - Männlichen and Grindelwald continued ...

After lunch we explored the town of Grindelwald a bit but we were tired and it was a hot summer day so we went back to hotel to rest. Dinner was at the hotel's restaurant which was kind of a mistake (food was really "meh" ...)

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Day 9 - Travelling to Rigi Kaltbad

It was quite a long journey for us ... a 4.5hr trek from Wengen - Lauterbrunnen - Interlaken - Luzern ... then ferry to Weggis ... then finally cable car to Rigi Kaltbad.

On the way we saw this cute sausage dog ...

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... lots of lake scenery on the train rides ...

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... and finally reaching the Hotel Rigi Kaltbad, which normally has a great view, but for us we only saw clouds ...

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deodorant

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Day 9 - Relaxing at Rigi Kaltbad

So after that 4+hr journey it was pretty much lunchtime ... so more salty swiss food i.e. mac & cheese (with cold applesauce) and sausage and rosti ... again ...

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Swiss hotels tend to not have actual queen / king-sized beds, but instead they put two single beds together. Strange and a little bit annoying to be honest.

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View from the room ... it's probably a lot nicer when it's not all misty and cloudy like this ...

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We decided to walk around a little bit before getting into the spa.

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... speaking of the spa, I wonder what prompted the management to come up with this sign?

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Anyway the water in this swimming pool (pictured in previous post also) supposedly comes from "the 'Three Sisters Springs' located right beside the chapel. This legendary source promotes health and well-being through its revitalizing, mineral-rich water." So basically the Swiss version of a Japanese Onsen.

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It's not as hot though - heated to 'just' 35deg C.
 

deodorant

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Day 10 - A few hours at Zurich before heading home

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Final day in Switzerland, and final update to this thread! It wasn't really a full day, just a few hours in Zurich while waiting for the flight to depart ...

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There was apparently a fire on the building next to the train station ...

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Flight home via Qatar economy.

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... home sweet home!

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--- FINISH ---
 

power_range

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You landed in Geneva, but flew off from Zurich? That’s quite cheap for such flights Hor.
 

deodorant

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You landed in Geneva, but flew off from Zurich? That’s quite cheap for such flights Hor.
Technically speaking I flew Qatar open jaw Singapore to London, and then Zurich to Singapore (and a seperate one way British Airways London to Geneva). Yeah the flights were quite reasonably priced I guess, Qatar also not bad except that I don't like Doha airport lol.
 
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