Time Traveling Tales

What We’ve Learned About… Switzerland

We’re one week into Italy! While we didn’t spend much time in Switzerland, we did get a nice taste of the country. Here’s what we learned and/or noticed:

  • Switzerland is SUPER expensive, especially compared to France and Italy. I think every meal we ate was over $100 for just the two of us.
  • As opposed to France (and now Italy), shops stay open. Grocery stores don’t close at midday. Restaurants, however, still do close for the afternoon.
  • Esther knows this is maybe not an important detail, but she notices these things and then tells Adam and then Adam can’t unsee them. Switzerland generally had small toggle switches, whereas most French light switches are 2” square toggle switches.
  • We didn’t see any window screens, except in ONE AirBnb. This means you have to deal with flies at every meal, even at nice restaurants. Adam has said at least three times that he just wants one meal without flies.
  • Swiss wine is amazing. Esther tried as many varieties as she could get her hands on, and she liked all of them. Unfortunately, because Swiss vineyards are so hard to care for (they’re all on hills/mountains), the wine is expensive to export and also the Swiss drink a lot of their own wine.
  • Have we mentioned that it’s SUPER expensive? A coffee – not a large one, and black, with sugar and cream on the side – was ~$5.50, with the exchange rate. It was good coffee, but still.
  • The mountains! They really define the country. Larger cities and towns are in valleys, and there are small villages on the mountainsides. On our first day in Switzerland, we were picked up by Adam’s friend Arthur and we saw the Alps. It was breathtaking and also intimidating.
  • People are more reserved compared to France, especially southern France.
  • It’s an incredibly international country. It has 3 national languages, plus most people speak English. Almost everyone speaks at least two languages. French is often spoken with an accent. We met lots of recent immigrants and we enjoyed being able to communicate easily, between Adam’s French skills and Esther’s increased understanding of French.
  • The public transport is really great, and the flag is a big plus. (Esther is sorry; Adam insisted this pun be included.)

One of our favorite moments was taking the steamboat ferry from Lausanne to Vevey, and we both agree that one of the highlights of our entire trip was making it to the Great Saint Bernard Pass. We got to meet St. Bernard puppies, we ate amazing chocolate, discovered Rösti, saw an old friend and met his beautiful family after 8-9 years, made new friends, drank amazing wine, ate delicious food, and fell in love with the mountains. We never want to hike them again (with this much weight and in these clothes), but we’d definitely come back to Switzerland.

Until next time!

At the border between France and Switzerland
Walking through the Gorge de l’Orbe. The bridge we used to cross the Orbe was closed 2 days after we crossed.
We stayed with friends in Romainmôrtier for two nights!
With Arthur, Adam’s French host brother, his wife Ariane, and in Ariane’s coat, their wee babe, Yael.
The view over Lausanne from the Cathedral
On the ferry to Vevey
Vevey at night!
Walking towards Chateau d’Aigle
Looking at St. Maurice abbey, built around 500AD
Meeting a St. Bernard in Martigny
The view of Grand Saint Bernard from Orsières
Lunch break on our way to Bourg-St-Pierre
We met Socrates near Liddes, and his humans gave us wine!
The view of the mountains from our hostel in Bourg-St-Pierre
Walking past the reservoir, almost halfway to the top of Grand Saint Bernard
Our first view of the Hospice – such a wonderful sight!
We both almost cried when we reached the top
The view from our hotel room at the pass – Italy is on the other side of the lake.
The Hospice, at right, and the Auberge
Adam with a family of stuffed marmots
We climbed about 6,000ft over two days to reach the top! We went from 650m to 2473m.

Esther Hodges-LeClaire

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