Report from Maggie on 2012 trip

Hello everyone, we have recently returned from our 3-week stay in Switzerland (13th visit!). We stayed in a holiday apartment in Thun – an ideal location for easy travel to many places in Switzerland. As usual we mixed favourite places with new ones, were blessed with good weather for most of the time and made good use of our Swiss Saver Pass. Our grown-up daughter joined us for 6 days in the middle of our holiday and we were able to introduce her to the delights of our favourite country (despite her refusal to use gondolas and cable-cars!) On the day of her arrival, we enjoyed an evening cruise on Lake Thun. She and her Dad did the Jungfrau excursion one day, on another we took a boat from Brienz to Giessbach, walked to Iseltwald and rejoined the boat to Interlaken. One day we all went to Montreux, then to Rochers-de-Naye where we enjoyed the antics of the marmots and visited the Alpine Garden. On August 1st we watched the parade in Interlaken and later went on the “Parade of Boats” on Lake Thun, enjoying the fireworks on the way back, then nature joined in with a spectacular display of her own – lightning and thunder! On our own we did the Golden Round Trip to Pilatus Kulm, travelled down to Locarno using the Centovalli Railway from Domodossola and returning via Lucerne. With careful planning using a weather forecast website we managed to see the Matterhorn without clouds on one day trip! We also explored some less famous, therefore less crowded places like Simmenfälle near Lenk, Habkern near Interlaken and Axalp by bus from Brienz (there was a special trail to enjoy there of wood-carvings). Allmendhubel near Mürren is a favourite place we visit nearly every year so we went there again. At our age we don’t have the stamina to do energetic excursions every day so we didn’t manage to do all the trips I had researched (some of which were intended for cloudy, dull days anyway and we had very few of those this year!) but then that gives us the perfect excuse to go back next year, doesn’t it? Thank you to all those whose helpful suggestions we followed. We had the first class pass this year and enjoyed the advantage of less crowded train compartments and the luxury of top deck on all the boats we went on, so that advice proved useful for us as we were there in high season. I did the maths on our return and reckon the cost of our passes plus discounted tickets came to less than half the cost of point-to-point tickets at full price.
To all those still planning their holiday we wish you a fabulous time.
Maggie

Thanks once again for your comprehensive report, Maggie! I really enjoyed reading about your trips and about your ongoing enthusiasm. You definitely made the most out of this stay; I'm glad weather circumstances were supportive. How did your daughter like the country? Was she as delighted as you are?

Your experiences are very useful to other forum visitors planning their holidays. We'll point at your topic whenever that's relevant. Thank you!

Thanks Annika - our daughter did indeed enjoy her stay and fully understands our ongoing enthusiasm - I think she will be dropping hints about joining us again. She particularly enjoyed the variety of scenery and experiences we introduced her to and was impressed by the friendliness of the Swiss people. Having spent three and a half years working in Berlin, she can speak some German and enjoyed practising her conversational skills with a lovely couple we met on the parade of boats trip. There are still quite a number of mountain tops we could take her to using funiculars or cog trains and who knows we may persuade her to give cable-cars a try one day! We get so much help from this forum so are glad if we can help other people too in return.
Maggie

Well, it looks like Switzerland has found a new fan in your daughter. Good job! It would be great if she'd visit you again on your next trip. Have fun enjoying your memories, and planning your next stay :-).