Magical Switzerland

For years I have dreamed of the Swiss Alps, to see with my eyes this not so popular and accessible country for us. Travelling there is the best reason to visit a dear friend.

Going to Switzerland turned out to be an easy – 60 BGN tickets from WizzAir. If you are not pretentious and you don’t care about luxury hotels, restaurants and steaks, I think that 3-4 days in Switzerland are totally feasible for everyone and it is definitely worth it. The nature that we had the opportunity to explore during our short stay there was magical and conquering.

Lovely restaurants on the streets

Our journey began in Basel. We walked around the city centre. It was Saturday, and there were a local dairy and meat market in the town hall. The food there is real, you see the smiling farmers who brought their merchandise, they are giving a free taste and look like they are doing the thing they love most in the world. A sharp contrast to the Bulgarian producers who are work-worn and oppressed by law and competition…

Swiss market in front of the city hall

The city itself is beautiful, pretty and like every small and tidy Western European town. My favourite spot there was an alley along the river. Behind it, every little house was beautiful and worth being photographed. The people who walked their dogs there were looking really happy. Amazing tranquillity reigns throughout the city and across the country. No one is in any hurry, people are calm and absorbed in themselves.

Basel’s riverside alley

Zurich

Another point from our trip was Zurich. It is significantly larger and business-oriented than Basel, but nevertheless there is order and serenity everywhere. Even too much. Do you know that in Switzerland you can neither park where you want (in the whole city there are specially painted places at the price of 15 francs a day), nor do you wash or bathe at the hours you want. Every detail of everyday life is legally established. It’s all very nice in Switzerland, but the reality is that if you have an average Balkan freedom-loving mentality, you will quickly feel terribly limited there.

One of the many fragrant bakeries

The standard of living, the cottages, the urban transport – everything is a standard for orderliness and organization.

In Zurich, we tried the traditional dish for Switzerland – raclette. It is boiled potatoes or pieces of bread with a mixture of traditional Swiss cheeses. It smells like sneakers after a basketball workout, but it’s very delicious! Zurich welcomed us with rainy weather, but we still enjoyed the beautiful architecture and the few places with beautiful views of the whole city where Plami took us. We loaded up with plenty of cheeses and chocolates to bring to Bulgaria. It’s not a lie that I ate the most delicious chocolate I’ve ever tasted – milky with whole caramelized almonds made by Lederach. While shopping, we had a bit of a culture shock of how a kilo of pork is around 60 leva, you can assume that we were vegetarian for several days.

Going to Google

Zurich is home to one of Google’s largest offices in the world with over 4,000 employees. Fortunately, one of them turned out to be a friend of mine from Sweden whom I met while living in Belgium. He invited us to walk around the office. This company is considered a paradise for people in the IT sector and we were all very curious to see it from the inside.

The only photo they allowed us to take on Google

It is certainly impressive – they have a restaurant where they invited us to have a buffet. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided daily for all employees. From the upper floors to the restaurant one could go down a winding staircase, but I never saw anyone wander on it. Upstairs, there was whatever could come to your mind – a PlayStation room that led to a fire pylon from the upper two floors, a library with massive wooden antique chairs, tables and shelves, all of which came out of Harry Potter. There was also a jungle room, a place where your clothes were washed and ironed, a room with billiard tables and a piano, drums and guitars where people seemed to gather and have fun in the evening. Across the floors, there were small pretty spots with quaint shapes – the Beatles’ yellow submarine, an elevator cabin, a flying saucer. The desks where the people worked were as simple as possible, with 3 monitors each, nothing special.

The best part for me at Google is the ability to work from any of their offices in the world – for example, it is perfectly acceptable to go for 2 weeks in London, then 2 in Stockholm and then 2 in Singapore, as my friend did. Unfortunately, photographing was not allowed, but everything we saw was quite impressive. I guess that’s the goal. However, I didn’t see too many people entertaining themselves. Everywhere, work is work.

Throughout the Alps

My favourite day of our trip was the one where we took the car and set off on a trip through the Alpine valleys and small villages and towns. In the Alps, it is green, very green and rich in colour. I had seen green like this before in Scotland, but unlike there, a tall mountain rises above the valley, with its peaks hiding in the clouds.

Mountain splendour

The views are breathtaking. The pictures don’t recreate this special atmosphere – the green valleys, the towering mountains above them, the huge waterfalls of the melting snow, little houses and cottages everywhere, and the unchanging Swiss cows that live quietly. We didn’t see marmots, only beauty and tranquillity. And of course the tidy Swiss – we went through incredibly beautiful panoramas, but of course, you aren’t allowed to just stop the car where your heart desires to enjoy them. However, we made many scenic stops that day.

On one of the many lakes

Lucerne – a small and tidy medieval town. There we were able to pass a covered ancient bridge that reflected the entire history of the place. There was also a lake from which a picturesque alpine landscape emerged. I wonder if this is the home of alfalfa (Lucerna in Bulgarian)?

The beginning of the closed bridge in Lucerne

There are ponds everywhere along with the way and resting places suitable for a picnic. We had lunch at one of these and managed to get a glimpse of how Swiss families spend their weekends – on the lawn, along with the captivating view, and children and dogs running around. A complete idyll!

A tiny but real steam engine, we watched with interest the coal being thrown in it

Interlaken – a village in the heart of the Alps, from which lifts go up into thin air. There is the link to climb Jungfrau. Many skydivers and paragliders descended from the sky. The place is incredibly beautiful but also quite touristy.

Lauterbrunnen – my favourite place in Switzerland so far! In addition to the amazingly beautiful valley, the Schilthorn Lift begins nearby, with a panoramic chalet overlooking the high alpine peaks of 360 degrees, and from where the fairytale tracks run through the high mountains. One day I’ll be back to walk up there.

What wonderful view would there be in front of these people?

Unfortunately, the weather allowed us to enjoy only the valley from below, but even this was enough. The snow on the top of the mountain are just melting, allowing us to see incredible waterfalls. If you have been to Paradise Spray in Bulgaria, you have an idea of what grandeur and beauty it is. Well, here we saw a waterfall (Murenbach), which was 417 meters high, that is, between 3 and 4 Paradise Sprays on top of each other. This was also the only time we broke Swiss law – we cut through the construction strips and climbed to the foot of the waterfall.

Gary at the foot of the waterfall at sunset

For sure we could have gotten in trouble, but the gravitational pull and magic of the waterfall were stronger. I have never felt so small, like a water droplet, against the background of flying water behind.

One of the dozens of waterfalls

Konstanz

Konstanz – we spent one day here. The city is located on the border between Germany and Switzerland.

It isn’t hard to fall in love with this city and to imagine a life there.

In the centre of Constance

We are on the banks of Bodensee, where we ate the famous trio sprat, beer and fried potatoes. Here again, my favourite place was an alley by the lake where we went to dip our feet.

With Plami on the banks of the Bodensee

In this trip, we can say that we have not toured museums and tourist attractions. It was just a relaxing walk, but every hour was magical. Thanks, Plami and Gary for the wonderful memories and places that showed us!

The rest of the francs have been carefully stowed in the hope that I will go there again soon. Switzerland is small, but 3 days are far from enough. They may be enough to walk around the cities. My dreams are now far more focused on the high Alps along Schilthorn or Zermatt, located at the foot of the Matterhorn.

We are dipping our feet in Bodensee