Lucerne & The Lauterbrunnen Valley, Switzerland
A lake, a river, snowcapped mountains, beautiful bridges, an attractive old town, and city walls on a hill from which to appreciate it all. There aren’t many cities in Europe that offer all of the above in one place, but Lucerne (or Luzern in German) is maybe the best example. Conveniently located in the center of Switzerland and on the edge of the Alps, Lucerne is a well-known tourist spot and for good reason. Most people spend a day (or maybe two) here, but we decided to spend three and with hindsight are very happy we did. We stayed at the Altstadt Hotel Krone’s apartments on Weinmarkt; one benefit of staying in a hotel here is they can provide visitor cards for the length of your stay which provides free public transport within the city and discounted rates on tons of attractions and excursions.
Lucerne
Spring weather can be unpredictable around here, but we were fortunate enough to have temperatures in the 80s (high 20s for our non-American readers) with almost uninterrupted sunshine. This is the kind of place where the good weather makes a big difference. Lake Lucerne beckoned so we rented a little paddle boat from SNG Bootsverleih and rode around the lake’s northwestern nook, even getting a chance to dip our feet into the refreshingly chilly water. We spent a morning and early afternoon on our last day at the local Lido, a pleasant 40-minute lakefront walk from the old town (or an easy bus ride from Schwanenplatz). We rented chairs and tanned our bodies with a view to the snow-capped Alps in the distance; certainly not your typical beach experience! We also got a couple of nice swims in (summers in the frigid North Atlantic off the coast of New England built up our tolerance to cold water I guess!). Britt has started to sketch more when we travel which is a nice way to bottle up and save our memories; the setting of the lake and mountains was too pretty not to commit it to paper.
Back in town, we spent lots of time appreciating the River Reuss, which drains the lake and is dotted with charming pedestrian bridges, most famous of which Chapel Bridge. This impossibly picturesque bridge gets incredibly crowded during the day, so we recommend walking along it early in the morning. Make sure to look up to appreciate the paintings! Spreuerbrücke is another covered bridge a bit further down the river; it’s not quite as beautiful but it’s not as crowded either! You’ll probably notice the Nadelwehr, a series of wooden paddles that set the width of the river, while you walk along the river. It’s a clever system used to regulate the level of the lake and feed water to a hydroelectric plant. Swiss engineering! The small lakeside square off of Im Zöpfli is a perfect place from which to appreciate all of this (and in Britt’s case, to draw inspiration for another sketch).
A helpful way to orient yourself when you first arrive is to walk the city walls (Museggmauer) and up to the top of the towers that are open to the public. We stumbled upon Hofbeiz Hinter Musegg, a restaurant and produce shop set on a farm with goats, pigs, and chickens, on the other side of the walls. While we didn’t grab anything, we enjoyed hanging out with our new friends. Back down in town, we visited Hofkirche St. Leodegar, a Roman Catholic church whose site has been occupied since at least as far back as the 8th century. Lucerne’s Lion Monument, a moving 19th-century relief sculpture memorializing the Swiss guards killed during the French Revolution, is a short walk from here and worth a quick stop.
Mount Pilatus, a 6,982-foot peak only a few miles from the city, is an easy day trip from the city. We grabbed the #1 bus from Schwanenplatz to Kriens and walked a few minutes to the cable car station from there. There’s also a cogwheel railway from Alpnach if you prefer that mode of transportation. The cable car from Kriens travels in two legs, first to Fräkmüntegg then to the summit. We stopped halfway up to ride down Switzerland's longest alpine coaster at Fräkigaudi. It was our first time and we had a blast! Once up at the summit we walked around some of the paths, including one that took us around to a series of caverns dug into the rock. The views, especially on this clear day, were incredible.
We grabbed easy breakfasts at our hotel each day. Lunch at Lido Gastronomie was surprisingly good on our beach day and there was no shortage of options on Pilatus (we had Swiss macaroni and cheese from Hotel Pilatus). River- and lakeside dinners from Mill'Feuille (peanut chicken with mango sauce and ravioli), Vincafé La Barca (schnitzel and chicken wings), and Seebistro LUZ (burger and Caesar salad) were all delicious and in amazing settings. Finally, you can’t visit Switzerland without having some chocolate. We enjoyed amazing treats from Läderach Chocolatier each evening.
From Lucerne, we took the scenic GoldenPass train to Interlaken before venturing deeper into the Alps to our next home base of Mürren, an unbelievably beautiful corner of the world!
The train from Lucerne to Interlaken runs on a scenic path known as the GoldenPass route. We booked special tickets to reserve seats in one of the train’s panoramic cars which were nice but certainly not necessary to appreciate the views along the way. From Interlaken, we took a train to Lauterbrunnen, cable car to Grütschalp, and finally another [very scenic] train to Mürren. All of these seemingly disparate public transit systems are actually all linked by SBB which makes it very easy to plan and book journeys, even when you need to change lines many times!
Murren & The Lauterbrunnen Valley
We stayed five nights in Hotel Bellevue in a room with a balcony with views to the towering Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains across the valley. Our first order of business to get acquainted with the town was to grab some mountain bikes and ride around. We underestimated the difficulty of some of the paths and overestimated our mountain biking ability, but we had fun creating our own loop to enjoy the natural landscape!
On our first full day, we set off on a hike to the valley floor. The walk from Mürren down to Gimmelwald, a sleepy small town dotted with alpine homes and farms, is easy and on mostly paved paths. The path down to Stechelberg is steeper and more of a mountain trail. You walk down through the forest, past a waterfall, and then to a little wooden bridge over a river (at 46.541119, 7.891385). A little bit further down into the valley floor we grabbed a well-deserved refreshing ice cream sundae at Hotel Restaurant Stechelberg.
We set our sights north at this point and started the three-and-a-half mile walk toward Lauterbrunnen. Though the walk is flat (in fact slightly downhill on average), our legs were aching from the hike down from Gimmelwald! We broke up our walk with a stop at Trümmelbach Falls, a series of powerful waterfalls slicing their way through the mountain on the east side of the valley. The 11 CHF admission price is a bit steep, but it’s worth a look! We grabbed lunch at Restaurant Oberland before grabbing the cable car and train back to Mürren.
The Mountain View Trail, running between Mürren and Grutschalp, is one of a series of well-known and well-marked “tourist” hikes in the area. We grabbed the train to Grütschalp and hiked the path southward. We liked this way as you get the steepest part of the hike out of the way first. The views of the mountains from this path are incredible (hence the name…). At one point we were smack dab in the middle of a beautiful meadow full of wildflowers surrounded by incredible vistas in every direction (around 46.588046, 7.883744). This is why we visited in spring—the mountains are still snow-capped and the meadows are flush with flowers. It’s a bit risky since it can also be rainy or foggy, but we absolutely lucked out with the weather.
We followed the path to Allmendhubel above Mürren and had planned to grab lunch at the restaurant there. Unfortunately, it was closed so we snacked on some fruit chew candies we had grabbed from the hotel front desk (danke!). Fueled by sugar we hiked back down to town. There was a surprising lack of people on the paths that we hiked during our stay. I think we ran into three other people during the whole three-hour hike. Absolute tranquility.
We took the next day easy to rest our legs. There is a cable car (Schilthornbahn) that runs from Stechelberg up to Schilthorn, stopping in Gimmelwald, Mürren, and Birg. Like many things in Switzerland, it’s pricey, but it’s a fun ride and leg-friendly way to the summit. The cable car and summit is heavily James Bond-branded to commemorate the mountain’s appearance in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It’s a bit over the top, but you just have to roll with it! The summit offers great panoramic views, which were partially obstructed by clouds, and in early June was still covered in snow, which we don’t get to see much in London!
The North Face Trail is another popular tourist hike. We hiked up to Suppenalp from Mürren and made our way across to Spielbodenalp. The wildflowers in some of the meadows we came across were so vivid and quintessentially alpine. We also came across some cows in the path on our way back to Mürren. Hello, friends!
During our stay, we took advantage of meals at our hotel, whose restaurant is well regarded and partially why we chose to stay there. We had dinner there every night, trying everything from the schnitzel and fried chicken to the baked potato, spaghetti and salad, and even cakes and pies. Everything was tasty. We made it a habit to have late post-hike lunches at Edelweiss (Schnitzel, pizza) which offers yummy food on a panorama terrace perched right along the edge of the cliffs with dramatic views down to the valley.
Spiez
We stopped in Spiez on Lake Thun to break up the ride back to Zurich the day we left. There’s not much to do at this lazy lakeside town other than spending some time at the beautiful Spiez Castle and visiting the surrounding stunning gardens with a variety of plants and flowers. After pasta and ice cream at Riviera by Elio, we hopped back on the train to get to the airport for our flight home.
Our hope for this trip was to leave feeling refreshed and recharged. Mission accomplished. Lucerne is now one of our favorite cities and unplugging deep in the Alps allowed us to reconnect with nature, breathe what must be some of Europe’s freshest air, and forget about the chaos of the big city. Somehow I don’t think it will be long until we’re back in the Alps again… Until then, we’ll be dreaming of our time in serene Switzerland.
