I am a few blogs behind, but this is a shorter one, so I figured I would get it out! Stay tuned for more! I’m a little bit under the weather this weekend in Madrid, so I’m hydrating, drinking my tea, and getting in some good reading and TV time.
Three weekends ago, I went to Switzerland. It was my first completely solo trip since I’ve been here! There was no way I could see nearly enough of Switzerland in one weekend, so I picked the town of Weggis as a good base to get as much adventuring done as I possibly could. I left school on Friday afternoon and headed straight to the airport. Hopping on the plane, it was a relatively short flight to Zurich. I arrived in overcast and slightly drizzly Zurich and enjoyed peak Swiss efficiency as I was in my rental car within about 45 minutes of touching down. It was a short drive south to Weggis. Interestingly, much of the drive was in long tunnels. I arrived around midnight at the lakeside town and headed to sleep in my very lovely hotel room.
The next morning, I woke up to overcast skies and headed down for a great breakfast spread at the hotel. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t see the mountains as clearly as I wanted to, but it was still a gorgeous morning. I walked up through the town of Weggis to the aerial tram station and boarded the next gondola up to the first stop on Mount Rigi. After just a minute or two in the gondola, we entered deep cloud cover and maybe a minute later, pushed through above the clouds and had the most amazing view of the mountains surrounding the lake. It was so worth the cloudy morning, wow! At the top, I hopped off the gondola and went to the spa, which conveniently had its entrance in the tram station.
I did my very best to relax for the morning in the various pools (including an outdoor one!), saunas, and steam rooms. I am classically not a great relaxer (shocker, I know). But I gave it my best effort and made it about two hours before I was ready for a new adventure 🙂 I changed back into my outside clothes and left the tram station. I had a very tasty crepe before setting off on my trek to the Mt. Rigi Summit.
The paths were very well marked, and my maps seemed to be working well, so I felt good about my decision to hike up, despite the fact that I wasn’t quite as gear prepared as I would have liked to have been. I had water, but was wearing Blundstones and my more city-appropriate winter coat. I did have a hat 🙂 Either way, I set off on the path that criss-crossed the mountain train just in case the hike wasn’t going well and I wanted to train the rest of the way or back down. But even as I encountered much more prepared-looking hikers, I keep going up to the top. The trail got quite slick, but the Blundstones did the job…mostly. About an hour or so later, I reached the summit. I stopped so many times on the way up to take photos of the scenery; it was absolutely stunning. The trail was snow-covered, but relatively packed down. I passed a few closed ski lifts on the way up, and there were a lot of tobogganers heading down on dedicated trails nearby. They took one of the trains halfway up the mountain before speeding off back down.
By the time I got to the top, I was quite sweaty, and took as long as I could looking around the summit before I decided to shed a layer and duck inside the lodge for a hot chocolate. After a little rest, I began my slide-hike down the mountain. The Blundstones did much better on the way up than on the way down, but I managed to make it down without falling! (Don’t worry, there were a lot of people out, the weather was great, and I did in fact have more than enough layers).
By the time I made it back into Weggis, it was rest time! I dug into my book for a while, and did some more relaxing (shocking, I know). Around dinner time, I headed down the road to have a lovely (and very Swiss-priced) dinner at a restaurant in town. I figured if I was going to spend a crazy amount on dinner, why not have oysters! So I had three oysters, a delicious chicken dish, and was convinced that the chocolate mousse dessert was unmissable. I left the restaurant happy and stuffed as I walked back to head to sleep.
The next morning, I had a slower start with breakfast and a quick gym (and mini-sauna) session. Then, I took a ride to nearby Lucerne and stopped at the Swiss Museum of Transport. I have had some great travel buddies over the past few adventures, but this was one of those stops where I was glad that I was on my own. I got to spend as long as I wanted looking at models of commercial planes, the air ambulance exhibit, and the history of Swiss airlines. It was super cool, I thought. I took a quick look through the boat, car, train, and energy parts of the museum before picking up some chocolate to take home from the Lindt store.
I continued into Lucern and quickly found parking before continuing on foot to the famed Chapel Bridge. It was very unique, and I enjoyed walking through the town nearby. After a snack at a bakery, I kept exploring on foot before ending up back at the car. I took the short drive back into Zurich and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Zurich. I made it down to the lake and past a few of the famous churches and other sites.
I soon made it back to the airport and boarded my flight back to Madrid! It was, all in all, an excellent weekend full of resting and exploring. I really do miss driving, so it was fun to have a car for the weekend, and Switzerland was unsurprisingly very easy to navigate.
Stay tuned for more updates, I’ve got a lot pending! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the photos 🙂
Abe Tolkoff 