Switzerland: Land of Fairy Tales and Korean Dramas
I think Switzerland is what everyone pictures when they think of fairy tales. It has castles, green rolling hillsides, lakes, flowers. It's breathtaking. And Switzerland is famous for cheese and chocolates. It doesn't get better than that.
We stayed in Zurich and made day trips to other cities. This was our first international trip after COVID. I remember everything going as smoothly as one can hope. The train system is excellent. Swiss people are friendly and helpful. English is widely spoken. It was a fabulous trip.
Here are the cities we visited.
Old Town (Altstadt) is the historic center of town. There are lots of cobblestone streets with churches and bridges. A LOT of churches and A LOT of bridges.
Old Botanical Garden is a lovely garden in the middle of the city. It was quiet and calm.
Lindenhof is a park in the middle of the city next to the river. There are superb views. It's also one of the sites from 'Crash Landing on You.'
Uetliberg is a mountain right outside Zurich that has amazing views of the city. There are easy hikes too.
Haus Hiltl is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the world. It opened in 1898! The food was amazing and creative.
Tenz serves momos which are Tibetan dumplings. I've had momos before (in Bhutan, not Tibet). The dumplings were huge and flavorful.
Gruyere is famous for the cheese it produces and it really looks like a village from a storybook. It has cobblestone streets with its own castle. There's beautiful old buildings and the remnants of a fortress wall. It's surrounded by mountains and there's just green as far as the eye can see.
La Madison de Gruyere is a real working cheese factory that you can tour. It has an audio guide in multiple languages. The tour was informative and interesting. You can sample cheese at the end of the tour!
Maison Cailler is a famous chocolate factory. The tour was great! Lots of interesting info and you can see chocolates being made. At the end, you can sample as much chocolate as you want. I'm not even going to tell you how many pieces I ate. And it has a cute cafe.
Gruyere Castle was built in 1270! People back then were much shorter and thinner. I can barely fit in some of the walkways. I legit felt like a giant.
Restaurant des Remparts is a restaurant in the center of town. The views were incredible and the food was amazing. We had to have fondue. It came with a bag of potatoes and a loaf of bread.
Lucerne is another charming Swiss city. It's on Lake Lucerne so you can see the water from almost everywhere in the city. It's also surrounded by mountains. The architecture is considered medieval which was new to me. These are the most magnificent bridges I've ever seen.
Seriously, look how stunning this city is.
Mount Pilatus is a mountain overlooking Lucerne. You ride a cable car up. All I can say is that the views from the top were among the most spectacular I have seen in the world. We were so high up that I actually saw a bird flying below me.
Lake Lungern is an insanely beautiful lake next to mountains. It's one of the sites from 'Crash Landing on You.' I was half expecting violin music to be playing through the air. It was that magical.
Bolero is a Spanish tapas restaurant. Outside of Spain, I think this was my favorite tapas I've had.
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