Switzerland - August 2019

The Dodds and Parry Clans at Ruedihus for Dinner

After a successful family vacation to Scotland in 2017 for Jean and Dick's 50th anniversary, we decided to plan another family trip two years later to Switzerland - which also coincided with Keith's 50th birthday and the 20th anniversary of our engagement.  We asked the Parry family to join us to make a merry crew of 15 people: Jean/Dick, Graham/Margaret, Lily/Boone/Owen/Josie, Ewan/Sharon, Madeline/Lewis, and Kirsty plus the two of us.  

Accommodation:

Sheraton Suites Philadelphia Airport - we stayed here the couple of nights before the flight out.  Room was average.

Hotel Schonegg (Wengen) - the hotel is nice and the room was small but clean.  Had a balcony with a couple of chairs and a table where we ate lunch the first day.  The hotel is immediately next to the Palace Hotel, now the Club Med.  This was sentimental for Keith as it is where Charles Finance, the Swiss chef friend of the Dodds family, worked in the 1950s.  Breakfast was included each day and was substantial and delicious.

Hotel Schonegg

AirBnB - Shawna found a great place for three nights on Renggliweg 11, a central part of Interlaken.  While the décor was "uncool granny" style, the rooms were clean and comfortable and the living room and kitchen table were large enough for all of us.

Kandersteg International Scout Center - The kids plus Margaret all stayed in the Dutch room on the second room of the Old Chalet while the adults stayed in the first rooms on the right of the Kanderlodge.  The kids loved having a room with 12 bunks, plus a table in the middle they could all sit at.  Margaret stayed in the kids room every night to make sure no one got in too much trouble!  The Kanderlodge accommodation was basic (2 beds per room with 2 rooms sharing a toilet/shower), but great value for the cost.

International Scout Center

Activities:

Our main flight was round trip from Philly to Zurich.  Both of us bought separate one-way flights to Philly to give ourselves flexibility - which worked out well because Shawna had a work trip to Indianapolis the week before the trip.  Keith also opted to get to Philly early so as not to miss the outbound flight, so we were both on the east coast with a couple of days to spare.  The upside it that we both mitigated flight delays to the East coast so had confidence we'd make our Zurich flights.  We had bough the trip on points so no upgrades came our way - but with a 2-3-2 configuration on the 767 we had the two seats to ourselves.  We both slept OK on the flight out, while also watching a few shows on Shawna's iPad.  

Wengen

We cleared Zurich airport quickly on the Saturday morning - within an hour of landing we were in our Land Rover Discovery rental car and on our way to the first destination.  It was a bit misty on the way, taking about 2 hours to get to Lauterbrunnen where we parked the car and got the train up to Wengen.  Wengen, like Murren across the valley, is mostly a carless resort - the few vehicles they do have are electric golf cart style.  The hotel had a cart waiting for us at the train station for the four minute drive to the hotel. Tim and Jodi had arrived the day before - and saw us as we approached the hotel. We checked in to our hotel and then ran out to the store to get bread and cheese for a quick lunch as we were ravenous. After lunch, we went for a walk with Tim and Jodi to Staubbachbankli, then had a beer on the patio at the hotel before heading out for dinner.  After dinner, we bought a bottle of wine and drank it on the deck of our hotel.

Keith, Jodi and Tim

The Sunday was to be quite rainy so after breakfast at the hotel, we took the train down to our rental car and drove a couple of miles up the road to Trummelbach Falls. These are pretty cool water falls inside a mountain - we took a funicular rail up and then walked the falls. They were quite impressive, and a great rainy day thing to do. We took the train back to Wengen, had lunch near the station, and said goodbye to Tim who had to go back to Prague. In the afternoon, we did a 1.25 hour hike to Leiterhorn, though with the rain there was little to see.  After a beer with Jodi at the hotel, we headed to dinner.

Trummelbach Falls

After breakfast at the hotel on Monday, we hiked about three hours to Wengernalp.  It was mostly roads, though there were some great views from the trail.  We bought carrot cake from a café at Wengernalp and said goodbye to Jodi who had to go home - while we took the train to Kleine Scheidegg to try to get the train to the Jungfraujoch.  However, we could not get guaranteed seats so with some extra caution we took the train back to our hotel to have lunch and relax.  We grabbed lunch next door to the hotel and then hiked for an hour to Monchblick which overlooks Lauterbrunnen.  This hike was mostly on roads.

Hike to Wengernalp with Jodi

Tuesday was the best weather of our time in Wengen.  To take advantage, we took the train back to Kleine Scheidegg and hiked the Eiger trail, immediately below the north face of the Eiger, from Alpiglen to Kleine Scheidegg.  It took three hours and was an amazing hike - Shawna puts this as one of her favorites ever.  To wrap up the hike, we had beers and rosti/brats while looking up at the Eiger/Monch/Jungfrau range - just stunning.  We were able to get reserved tickets to the Jungfraujoch, so spent the afternoon doing that.  Most of the exhibits were a bit cheesy except for the carved ice cave but the views were amazing.  We did sit outside in lounge chairs drinking a beer in our shorts while at 11,371 feet - really cool.  After the train back to the hotel, we had a shower and then had dinner next door.  

Eiger Trail

Best Beer and Brat/Rosti of the Trip

View from Jungfraujoch

Keith's family was to arrive on Wednesday morning, so we took advantage of another great weather day by checking out early, taking the train with our luggage down to Lauterbrunnen, and loading up the car.  We then walked toward the back of the valley, seeing all the waterfalls in full glory with the recent rains.  When we got near the back of the valley we took the gondola up to Murren, now Shawna's new benchmark for "cutesiest village on the planet".  We took the train and gondola back to Lauterbrunnen.

Lauterbrunnen Valley

Interlaken

It was only a 30 minute drive back to Interlaken.  Since we were a bit ahead of time, we drove by the VRBO to ensure we knew where it was, then arrived at our planned lunch spot.  We were still about 30 minutes ahead of the Dodds clan, so asked for a table of ten and then went for a 20 minute walk along the rivers through town.  Once the family arrived, we had a great pizza lunch before checking in to the AirBnB.  The owner was out of town so a caretaker met with us - and while the model of Swiss efficiency was not the warmest person in the world!  We then all walked to the center of Interlaken along the river and all the way down to Weissenau Castle, a ruin on the bank of Thunersee.  We climbed the castle and then walked back to town to grab some shopping.  Since no one was really hungry after a large lunch we just had bread, cheese, and beers for dinner in the house.

Cliff Walk

On the Thursday, we spent the day in and around Grindewald.  We all squeezed into the van - it was a short trip and parked at the bottom of the gondola.  We went all the way to the top, with the first activity being a walk up to Bachalpsee, a two hour walk.  It is a beautiful mountain lake with superb views.  The next stop was the famous Cliff Walk, then over to the restaurant for a surprisingly good lunch.  The next activity was the "glider" - a zipline that looked like a flying bird and held four people at the same time.  We all did this, even Keith's parents!  The glider pulled you back up the mountain slowly and then you jutted forward like a normal biplane.  Needless to say, this was not Shawna's favorite activity with steep drops below! The last event was the "Trotti Bike" - which is riding a souped-up scooter down the mountain.  Both Graham and Owen took spills, but nothing too serious.  Once at the bottom, we met Jean and Dick who were with another family - they also did the Trotti bike and had Jean and Dick take care of their 6-year-old while the parents did the activity.

Hike to Bachalpsee

The Glider

The last activity for this leg of the trip was along the lake.  We started off with a boat ride on Brienzersee to Giessbach falls.  The oldest tram in Switzerland took us up to the Grand Hotel where Keith's parents had stayed the year before.  We then hiked the short distance to the falls, where a path led us behind the falls and then back to the hotel for coffees to warm us up.  We then walked the path along the lake for two hours to Iseltwald where we had lunch, then got the last boat back to Borgen before going out for dinner.

Path along Brienzersee to Iseltwald

Saturday was to be a beautiful day and the Parrys were arriving around 4pm, so we made a last-minute decision to take the train up to Schynige Platte which is at 6,811 feet overlooking Interlaken.  It is a 50 minute journey on a cog railway and the views at the top are breathtaking - we did the 2.5 hour hike that overlooked the lake as well as the Eiger range - complete with beautiful wildflowers and cows with cowbells clanging.  Dick said that it is the most beautiful hike he has ever done.  We ate lunch at the cafe at the top, using the downstairs area which was self-service rather than table service on the top level.  It was then another 50 minute train back down to the car so we could make it to the last destination of the trip!

Schynige Platte

Kandersteg

Kandersteg has a very special place in our heart - for Keith it is the two summers he worked at the International Scout Center and all the friendships he made there, and for Shawna it was the last leg of the summer trip after we graduated and where we got engaged.  We had been back twice since the engagement: once for the 5th anniversary of the engagement and the other for Keith's 25th reunion.  While we were there for the week, we did a variety of in-camp activities and hiking:

• Beers at The Crystal - We started a few of the evenings at the Crystal with Doris.

Beer at the Crystal

• Mountain Coaster - At the top of the Oeschininsee chairlift, this was a huge hit with kids and adults alike.  A ticket allowed five rides - and as long as we were the first in line we could get a lot of rounds in until the crowd came.  We had a couple of accidents, the only major one was when Boone tried to overtake Lily which is impossible so Boone took a bit of a spill.  Lewis hit a family best of 1 minute and 20 seconds.  

Mountain Coaster

• Rowing on Oeschininsee - To partially re-live our proposal, 12 of us rented three boats on the lake.  The kids and Kirsty all went in the freezing cold lake, with Madeline, Lewis, and Josie staying in the longest.  

Rowing on Lake Oeschinensee

• International Friendship Night - Jean and Dick bought a hundred bandanas to give away just as Keith did 30 years ago.  The bandanas went like hotcakes and the kids were able to meet a lot of people that night - and we saw bandanas worn all over the center for the next few days.  

International Friendship Night

• Contests - Keith made a few bets with the kids, including who could meet the most number of people (Owen) and who could meet people from the most number of countries (Madeline).  Ewan hosted a poetry contest of either Haiku or Limericks - with Lily taking home the prize for this contest.

• Monopoly Deal - We played more than our fair share of monopoly deal with the kids winning many more times than adults.  

Monopoly Deal

• Zipline - There was a single zipline that went a couple of hundred feet.  This was the least exciting of the in-camp activities.  

Zipline

• Crate Stacking - This was a new activity for all of us, and super-cool.  The concept is that the "stacker" is harnessed and top-roped, and then has to climb a stack of crates while building the stack.  It required a person at the bottom to use a pully to bring the next crate up.  Owen and Josie tied for a massive 28 crates - over 30 feet high!  Keith was weak sauce with only 12 crates before he collapsed.  

Crate Stacking

• Jacobs Ladder - Another top-roped activity, this one was also about 40 feet high with wooden bars further and further apart.  The activity was done as a team with a goal to climb to the top.  The winner of this one was Owen and Keith doing it in just under nine minutes.  But the camp record was 17 seconds so their score was not super impressive - and Keith was totally wrecked by the end of his!

Jacob's Ladder

• Doldenhorn Hut Hike - This hike starts at the Doldenhorn hotel and climbs to the hut overlooking Oeschinisee.  We had lunch at the hut and then walked down the Oeschininsee side and back to KISC.  It was steeper than we had remembered but still a great hike!

Doldenhorn Hut Hike

• Almenalp and First Hike - Part of the group hiked from KISC to the Uschintal Valley and then up to the Almenalp gondola where others of the group just took the gondola.  We then hiked our way up to First - while we did not make it to the top we came within about an hour or so from the top before needing to turn around.  We had a light lunch of soup and cheese/meats at the cafe near the gondola.  The descent down the old gondola is really dramatic - super steep.  

Almenalp Hike

• Blumilisalp Hut Hike - This was a stunning walk with Sharon, Kirsty, Graham, Margaret, Shawna, and Keith.  We took the gondola to Oeschninsee and hiked the high trail on the left side of the lake.  We made it about 1.5 hours before the hut and then went back via the lower route.  We all stopped for a beer before the main decent.  

Blumilisalp Hike

• Trampoline - The Ermitage hotel at the base of the Oeschinisee chairlift has a trampoline in front.  The kids bounced on it every time.

• Gfalalp Overnight Hut Hike - One of Margaret's fondest memories of her trip to Kandersteg in 1990 was an overnight at a mountain hut with homemade hot chocolate - so we decided to repeat.  It was supposed to be a guided hike, but since only two of us had "ankle boots" we had to cancel the guide and make our own way.  We took the bus from KISC to Selden which starts on a crazy winding road that can only handle cars in one direction.  Graham was convinced the driver was going to kill us all.  In Selden we stopped at a cafe for a beer before making the one hour hike up to the hut which overlooks the valley.  The scout center has partial ownership of the hut so we were locked out until the guide showed up at 5:30pm (~2 hours after we arrived).  But, we did find a way to sneak into the hut to poke around.  While we waited for the guide, some played Monopoly deal with the girls went on a hike further up.  Once the guide showed up, she let us in, we all set up our beds in the single bunkroom, and Graham prepared the dinner.  It was quite delicious - starting with mushy peas on toast (way better than it sounds!) and then a pasta dish.  The guide did say that there were a wide variety of executions of the pasta dinner - not shockingly, Graham excelled.  Desert was a pudding followed by the amazing homemade hot chocolate.  We were joined by four KISC kitchen staff members so we chatted with them around the fire before going to bed.  The next morning we hiked back down, originally with the intention of hiking the whole way back to the center.  However, a van was in Selden so 100 SFR later 9 of the 12 went back - with Kirsty, Sharon, and Keith making the 2 hour hike back in a bit of rain. 

Gfalalp Overnight Hut Hike

In all, it was a fabulous time at the center and pretty good value for the (little) money.  We had to leave at 6:30am the Sunday morning to get to Zurich - so the Parry's did the final check out of the chalet.  Marisa and Jared met us at the airport so they could be on the same flight.  It was seamless boarding the flight and easily made our connection again in Philly to get to Phoenix.  It took a bit longer to get home than usual as we had checked our luggage - but we made it home by 8:30pm to wrap up the trip and get back to work on Monday!

Restaurants:

Wengen

• Baren Hotel - shared salad, cheese, and very tasty lamb.  
• Eiger - had lunch at this hotel by the station - just a simple soup and salad.
• Sunstar - shared a salad, cheese fondue, and rosti.  All good but a bit touristy.  
• Da Sina Pizzaria - Tim and Jodi went here a couple of times without us and loved it.  We had a pizza and salad - quite good.
• Hotel Schonegg - best dinner in Wengen - we shared salad, soup, and rack of lamb, accompanied by a bottle of Sancere.  
• Golden India - Shared samosa and lamb curry - food was OK.

Interlaken

• Arcobaleno - pizza restaurant in central Interlaken, listed as best in area, quite good.  
• <Grindewald top of mountain restaurant> - shared brats and rosti.
• Laterne - walking distance from house. Shared a tomato mozzarella salad and veal with rosti and mushroom sauce. Food was OK. 
• Hotel Chalet du Lac (Iseltwald) - lunch here; shared tomato soup and cold cuts.
• Kashmir - everyone was excited about Indian; however, found out it was a Halal restaurant which meant no beers.  Food was just OK - shared a lamb curry.  

Kandersteg

• KISC - we ate every breakfast here.  We had dinner the first night (Filipi's pasta which was pasta with pepperoni- Graham said that does not go) and the family quickly decided that this was not our cup of tea, so we went out every other night other than the International Bar-b-que where we had steak and sausage.  
• <Oeschininsee restaurant> - shared a brat and rosti. Great place overlooking the lake.
• Doldenhorn Hut - had lunch here of spaetzli, a cheese/meat plate, and apricot tarts for desert. Very good.
• Des Alps - shared a tomato soup and veal with mushroom sauce and rosti. Very tasty.
• Almenalp - shared potato soup and cheese/meat plate.
• Blausee - We bought the kids pizza from Des Alps that they had in their room so only the adults drove to Blausee.  Restaurant located in  a park along a lake.  We shared salmon tartar and grilled trout (their specialty) and then a creme brulee for dessert - food was good but dessert was not great.  
• Ruedihus - The dinner this evening was nominally to celebrate Keith's 50th birthday (for the 5th time),  The kids came along and we got some great pictures in front of this very old, traditional Swiss restaurant.  We started off with fondues and raclette for everyone at the table, and we discovered that we should have ordered more - the kids liked it!  For our main course, we shared scalloped pork and pasta and for desert we had ice cream for the table and a special carrot cake with a candle the kids ordered for Keith. Food was great!
• Bernerhof - The kids had pizza again while the adults went here (and Jean/Dick/Ewan returned another night).  We sat on the front patio with stunning views of the mountain range.  We shared a salad and a mixed grill with rosti and an ice cream meringue for desert.  Fantastic evening.  
• Ermitage - we felt guilty that the kids used the trampoline for free so many times so we opted for dinner here the last night - which also allowed the kids to have one more bounce.  We shared the smoked trout and veal in mushroom sauce.  Food was tasty!