Anniversary Hike around Lake Luzern

As I wrote about a few posts ago, we had our 2nd wedding anniversary earlier this month.  We wanted to do something fun to celebrate and decided on spending a day enjoying the beautiful Swiss landscape.  Last year, we did some hiking on our anniversary, so maybe this will become a tradition.  While I enjoy a nice, romantic dinner as much as the next girl, I would rather relax outside on a sunny day at the beach or walk around beautiful mountains and lakes.  So we searched around for the best hiking option for the Saturday before our anniversary.  We had planned to go to the Eastern Alps, but it was forecasted to rain there, so we decided to go to Lake Luzern instead.

Lake Luzern is a long, skinny lake that snakes around the surrounding mountains.  On one end is the town of Luzern and on the other end is Flüelen.  We took a train to the town of Brunnen, which is closer to the Flüelen-side of the lake.  From there, we got a small boat that took us to the other side of the lake, where we got off at Rütli.

Leaving Brunnen and heading towards the other side of the lake

The fantastic landscape on Lake Luzern

Rütli is a mountain meadow where it is said that Switzerland was first formed some time around 1300.  Three rulers of adjoining cantons met here and swore an oath of allegiance to each other to help fend off invading armies.  The alliance grew into a federation of cantons that makes up Switzerland today.  This scene is re-enacted every year on August 1st, the Swiss National Holiday, to celebrate the birth of Switzerland.

Near the Rütli Meadow, where Switzerland was born

The view from Rütli

A close-up of one of the ferry boats

From the meadow, we hiked straight up the face the mountain to reach the town of Seesliberg.  It was 850 steps and a 1,000-foot elevation change, so it took a lot of effort and we were having to really push ourselves, but we made it.  From Seesliberg, we hiked along some flat land for a while, before descending down to the town of Bauen.

The view from a little more than halfway up the challenging climb

Darren sets the cantonal flag pole in place all by himself

Enjoying the unexpected sunny day at our picnic spot

The view from our descent back down to Bauen

The view from Bauen

I love all the hydrangeas that grow around here

The little hotels and houses in Bauen built up on the hill

Cooling off in the chilly lake water

Our boat that took us back to Brunnen

The gears at work in the boat

Darren on the boat back from our hike

We got so lucky because it ended up being sunny the whole day (it was supposed to rain in the afternoon)!  It was a much needed respite from all this rain we've been having.  The views from the hike were gorgeous and all the little lakeside towns we visited were adorable.  Lake Luzern and the surrounding area is really just fantastic and I love every second we spend there.  It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary!

Hike from Uetliberg to Felsenegg

The weather here for the month of July has been pretty awful.  It has rained just about every day.  This is  not the kind of rain that just rolls in for an hour or two and then it's sunny skies again.  It will rain all day long on most days.  Though, apparently, this weather pattern can be quite normal for here because July, on average, is the wettest month of the year.  Anyways, it usually ends up only being nice about one day a week, so you have to run out and do something on that day even if it's not during the weekend.  So a couple weeks ago, one nice day was coming up on a Tuesday, therefore I decided to go hiking by myself.  I went up to Uetliberg again, but this time I walked farther along the ridge to a place called Felsenegg.

The view from the trail

A farmhouse along the trail

The view from halfway through the hike, walked all the way to that communications tower

Lots of green because of all the rain

I've decided cows are cute from a distance because they are very smelly

The Swiss flag

A lonesome tree

An often-photographed view

It took about 90 minutes to walk from Uetliberg to Felsenegg.  At Felsenegg, there is a cable car that takes you down from to the mountain into a town called Adliswil.  The cabe car is completely automated.  Right at the time it is scheduled to leave, the door beeps, it closes, and you descend down the mountain to the other station.  When you get to the bottom, the door opens and you leave.  Not a single person was operating it!  So fantastic.

The Felsenegg cable car station

Looking down from the station to the lake

The view from the cable car ride

Me and my fellow passengers enjoying the automated ride

Looking north towards my house

Because of efficient Swiss transportation, after you get off the cable car, you walk down a couple of blocks to the train station and take the train home, right where you left!  This was a great little loop to do.  Hopefully the weather improves for August when we have visitors.

Robison Family Swiss Adventure: Gruyéres and Lausanne

For the last part of our Swiss adventure, we traveled down to the French part of Switzerland that is near or around Lake Geneva (called Lac Léman by the French).  Our first stop was the small town of Broc where the Cailler Chocolate Factory is.  Cailler is a brand people in the US are not familiar with, but Francois-Louis Cailler was actually the first person to open a chocolate factory in Switzerland in 1819.  He, along with Charles-Amédée Kohler and Henri Nestlé, were the pioneers in Swiss chocolate.  Cailler introduced the idea of chocolate bars, Kohler invented the hazelnut blend, and Nestlé's condensed milk was mixed with chocolate to create milk chocolate.  Nestlé became the largest company of the three and eventually bought the other two out in the 1920s/30s.  So even though the Cailler brand still exists, we are more familiar with its parent company, Nestlé.

The Cailler Chocolate Factory

Cute Lauren at the factory

We had heard about a great tour at the chocolate factory, but we weren't sure what to expect.  All we knew was that, at the end, you could sample as much chocolate as you wanted!  So we paid for our tickets and waited around the chocolate store until it was the time for the English tour.  The beginning of the tour ended up being so hilariously cheesy.  It was like a Disneyland attraction where we had an automated tour through several rooms that explained the history of chocolate and of the Cailler brand.  We all had a good laugh at how weird it was.  After the automated tour, we were able to see and touch different cocoa beans along with seeing a small part of the chocolate-making process in the factory.

Who knew there were so many different kinds of cocoa beans?

One example of their production lines for making and packaging the chocolate, so cool!

The sample room!  You could eat as much as you wanted! Of course we felt sick after so many...

We had a great time at the factory even if part of the tour was cheesy.  Speaking of cheesy... our next stop was the historic town of Gruyéres. ;)  This is where the Swiss cheese called Gruyere originates from.  Since it was lunch time, we headed up to the town and found a place to eat.  Even though it was hot outside, I convinced everyone to eat some fondue!  Swiss cuisine is not very diverse and sometimes not very interesting, but they have just a few things that are worth eating, including fondue.  Another favorite dish of mine and Darren's is Älpenmagronen, which is basically macaroni and cheese.  I also have a huge obsession with the mixed salads served in Switzerland.  They use delicious butter leaf lettuce instead of boring iceberg, and they top it with lots of delicious vegetables or chopped hard-boiled egg.  The French dressing they have around here is also vastly superior to any I've had in the US.  Who knew a salad could be so good?  Anyways, I made everyone order these things and luckily they liked them, too. :)

The view from Gruyéres, which sits up on a large hill

The cute town of Gruyéres

Part of our lunch: the fondue, and alpine macaroni

 After lunch, we walked around Gruyéres, which is actually pretty small.  At the end of the hill in the town is Gruyéres Castle, which was built in the 13th century. We walked all the way around the perimeter of the castle, but didn't go inside because we had heard from guide books that it wasn't worth it.  The view around the castle was very pretty, though.

The swiss flag flying at the Gruyéres castle

The view from the castle

A great picture Macy took of me and Darren

After touring Gruyéres, we went down the hill to see the cheese factory.  We got free samples of Gruyere cheese and listened to an audio guide about how cows produce milk and how the milk is turned into cheese.  We were able to see where they actually make the cheese and where it is stored to age for a while.  It was really fascinating!

We forgot to take any pictures except of where the cheese is stored to be aged

After our day of enjoying lots of dairy, we drove to the town of Lausanne (on Lake Geneva) to settle into our hotel and to eat some dinner before getting some sleep.  The next day we went to the lakefront promenade of Lausanne and it was beautiful!  Lausanne is the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, so we visited the Olympic Museum, which highlights the history of the games and the achievements in each sport.  We couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was a fantastic museum and it gets you excited for the Olympics next year in London.

The beautiful lakefront promenade in Lausanne

Us at the Olympic Museum

After the museum, we took a quick tour of the old part of Lausanne and were able to see the largest cathedral in Switzerland.

The inside of the cathedral in Lausanne

Part of the outside of the cathedral in Lausanne

A view of Lausanne from the hill the cathedral was on

 The final part of our tour of the French part of Switzerland was to see one of the most popular sites in the country, Chateau de Chillon.  This massive castle is built on a rocky spur on Lake Geneva, so it is naturally covered by water on all sides.  The castle is well-preserved so you can walk through all kinds of rooms, passages, and generally explore wherever you want.  The views from the castle are beautiful.

The natural moat that separates the castle from land

Dad and I in one of the castle rooms

An old fireplace and old decorations displayed

We climbed up lots of flights of stairs to reach the top of the highest tower

The view was fantastic from the tower

Me, all sweaty from walking up lots of stairs to get to the top

The castle from the road across the moat

After visiting the castle, we headed back to Zürich and finished the Swiss trip off right by eating at Zeughauskeller!  The next day Dad, Macy, and Lauren headed back to the US.  It was great to have them here!