I think in some way, I think I was always drawn to Switzerland.
Maybe it was the countless nights eating fondue in my parent's kitchen as a child or perhaps it was the mountains that the Von Trapp family escapes to in the 'Sound of Music' that drew me in.
Something always called me there.
Man, was I surprised, shocked, and thrilled all in one, once the plane touched down.
Zurich, Switzerland was more of a city than anything else. We arrived amongst hundreds of people from countries around the globe. All huddled into a small train that took us from one end of the terminal to the other. We got our rental car and zoomed south, into the mountains that seemed to engulf us in any direction we drove.
That first night we spent in Lucerne, Switzerland. It was a gorgeous town positioned on the lake that was water that had drained from the tops of the Alps. The water glistened in the extreme heat. It was tantalizing.
Note: When we arrived in Europe, we were completely unaware that the entire continent was in one of the worst heat waves of the century. It reached peaks of 106.
We explored the town for the evening and head a dinner of charcuterie, full of fresh cheese and meats. We even went for a swim in the lake. The water was fridged, but refreshing beyond anything I'd ever felt. My brother and I swam out to a dock in the middle of the lake and sat and watched the sun fall behind the mountaintops.
A true haven.
The next day, we grabbed our things and headed even more south. For the afternoon, we stopped in Alpnach, Switerzland. There we road a trolley to the top Mount Pilatus. Even for an afternoon in July, the wind was cold and crisp. Together, we hiked up and along the trails of the mountainside.
It was silence, just wind.
In the distance, you could hear the bells of the cattle grazing in the grass below us. It seemed to whisper. At the peak, the clouds covered most of the surround and it was as if we were in the midst of a storm, unlike any sight I'd truly ever seen.
For the rest of the day, we enjoyed a meal in Interlaken, Switzerland. The water of Lake Interlaken was so blue, it seemed to reflect the sky. We chowed down on burgers, smothered in swiss cheese for dinner.
The rest of the evening was spent driving to the place we stayed for the majority of the trip.
Zermatt, Switzerland.
I had seen photos of the Matterhorn and the town that seemed to fall perfectly below it, but I had always assumed it was more fictional than reality. I was shown wrong as soon as the train brought us through the mountain terrain to a small village. It looked like something drawn on a postcard.
The houses were Tudor-style homes with red shutters and homes that resembled German, style architecture. There were no cars, only golf cars, and bicycles. And flowers. They overflowed from each bed they were planted.
We ate our weight in cheese, bread, and potatoes. We even tried Swiss desserts and beverages that were amazing to the tastebuds.
Our biggest adventure was climbing the Matterhorn. We took a tram to the highest point, known as the Gongergratt. From there, we hiked down miles and miles until we reached a point where the tram would return us to the town.
The climb was higher than even helicopters flew. The wind wisped down the snow into a small reflection pool at the base. There, we enjoyed warm soup and more bread, the mountains around us in awestruck beauty.
Awestruck beauty. That is the phrase that best describes my time in the Swiss Alps. Me, consistently in awe.