Hiking in the Swiss Alps! A dream come true

In the summer of 2021 I finally made one of my long time travel dreams come true, and visited Switzerland!

I stayed near Interlaken, and went on daytrips to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald.

These places are quite touristy, but for good reasons, as you'll see in the post and photos below. It was very easy to plan an itinerary here, as there's so much information online. Also there's trains and cable cars everywhere, and it's easy to get around.

This post is going to be heavy on the photos and light on words, as I can't possibly describe how beautiful it was - so I'm just going to leave that to the images.

Lauterbrunnen

I spent the first day in Lauterbrunnen.

This is a picturesque green valley, surrounded by nearly vertical cliff walls, hundreds of meters tall!

The Lauterbrunnen valley is called "the valley of 70 waterfalls". I didn't count them, but I can definitely believe that! While walking here, I saw a new waterfall every 10 minutes.

It took me a couple of hours to walk through the valley (I made a lot of stops). It was a nice, pleasant, flat road.

After the valley, I hiked up into the mountains, and visited some villages.

I stopped for lunch at Gimmewald, a tiny village of about 10 houses.

Here I ate a veggie burger at a cute restaurant with incredible views! And a cozy chill area with interesting books :)

After lunch, I continued to Mürren, another village (a very touristy one, so I didn't take many pictures there). The hike and the views were still mindblowing!

Grindelwald

I spent the second day in Grindelwald, another stunning area near Interlaken.

But first, I had an awesome breakfast in my cute hotel :) Waking up to this food and these views was so, so good.

After breakfast, I took the train to Grindelwald - which is a small village surrounded by incredible, towering mountains.

Here I got on a cable car to First - an area high up in the mountains.

The cable car ride was 30 minutes and the views were, as usual, breathtaking.

I got off the cable car and headed for the First Cliffwalk. This is a bridge hanging on the side of some very tall cliffs. It can be quite scary and vertigo inducing! I loved it.

Then I hiked to Bachalpsee - a lake nearby. The hike was nice and easy. There were many people on the trail with me.

I had my lunch at the lake.

Then I hiked to Grindelwald. It took me a couple of hours.

The weather was amazing - I was so lucky! Sunny and warm.

I cannot describe the incredible experience of this hike, so I'm just going to leave the pictures here.

It's safe to say that the Swiss Alps exceeded my expectation by A LOT and I can't wait to be back here next summer! ❤️

I also explored a few more cities in Switzerland on the way to the Alps.

Interlaken

I was staying near Interlaken, so I spent some time in this city as well.

It's a resort city, and I imagine it gets very very busy in the winter for ski season. There's lots of fancy hotels and restaurants here, and expensive watch shops.

Interlaken means "between lakes" - the city gets its name because it sits right between lake Thun and lake Brienz. The lakes are very big, and there are many cruises and boat trips that can be taken here.

One of my favourite moments of this trip was sitting on a dock at lake Brienz, watching the beautiful turquoise water, surrounded by mountains on each side. Everything was calm and quiet, except for piano music playing from one of the houses on the other shore. Such a magical moment.

Bern

I had a couple of hours to explore Bern in between switching trains.

Such a cute little city :) I loved the view point in the Rose Garden park.

I also loved the river Aar, and its striking blue color.

There's also a Bear Park here. It's an open space where several bears live. There's a platform above it where people can stand and watch the bears. They seem happy and cared for.

In the center of the city, there is a famous clock - which is beautiful, but very torusity. It was quite crowded when I walked around and I didn't enjoy it as much.