Trips Around Switzerland (Part III)

Previous trips around Switzerland: Part I & Part II.

Throughout this summer and fall, we explored more of the sights that Switzerland has to offer.



On this map, I marked our home (black house; Morges), Nate and my workplaces (black) and our trips in the last 6 months or so:
- Brown: Arolla & hike up to see the glacier (Oksana's work retreat)
- Pink: Rochers-de-Naye & hiking around
- (No symbol): hanging out by Lake Geneva
- Purple: Interlaken, Thun, & Bern: trip with Nate's parents
- Orange: Huge hike up to Col de Milon from Zinal
- Red: Ascona & Italian side (Oksana's conference)
- Green: Zermatt & Matterhorn

We hiked up to the Arolla glacier from the town. I had to use an arrow above to actually show the glacier because most of it is melted and gone.

We took a scenic train from Montreux to Rochers-de-Naye and did a bit of walking around. Such beautiful weather and nice sights!

Throughout the summer, we visited the lake quite a lot, even swimming in the nicer beach area. The lake is about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment, so it's quite convenient.

In July, Nate's parents paid us a visit, and we took the opportunity to do some traveling. On one day, we visited Interlaken, Thun, and Bern. It was interesting to see a different side of Switzerland (both in language and architecture). Interlaken was stunning -- the water was really that TEAL!

At the end of August, my friend Elsa and I took an ambitious hike in the Valais region of Switzerland, in the Swiss alps. We hiked up 1.3 km to 3 km above sea level at the highest point. It took us about 8 hours, but we saw beautiful sights and some animals along the way. 

In September, I had a conference in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland, specifically Ascona. To get there, it was faster to go through Italy than to take the train through Switzerland, so I stopped for lunch in Domodossola. It was so interesting to see how similar the Italian region was to Italy. 

Finally, in November, we took a trip to see the Matterhorn in person. We went to the tourist town of Zermatt, where Chase fell in love with the snow (we don't get much snow where we live since we're quite low in altitude and in a temperate climate). From Zermatt, we took the tram up to the Matterhorn, but it was -9 C so we only stayed for a few moments for some pictures before going back down again. It was a great trip. 

Overall, from all of these trips, I highly recommend Zermatt/Matterhorn and Interlaken. I think both were beautiful and worth seeing in person. The hikes were nice too, but not everyone is willing to do an 8-hour hike. Although it was a wonderful experience, some of the same views can be seen when you take a train up (like Rochers-de-Naye... although that place specifically is quite overpriced for the train). Our next step is to explore more of Switzerland to the east -- specifically Zurich.