Just back from an 11-day trip to Switzerland. It was incredibly memorable.

I’m writing these lines in a jet lag dreamy state. I managed a few hours of good sleep last night — just enough to feel energized and ready to take my kids to school before diving back into my office routine.

Outside, it is still pitch black. Sunrise is still a few hours away.

I’m sitting here trying to recap the wonderful time I spent in Switzerland with my wife. We packed so much into the itinerary that the trip feels much longer than it actually was.

It tricks my brain. When I look back at the first day, it feels like a lifetime ago because of the sheer volume of sights and experiences we packed in since then. The early memories already got pushed to the back of my mind and I have to dig to pull them back up.

Bern

We started our journey in Bern. Actually, let me correct myself: our plane landed in Zürich early in the morning and we immediately caught a train straight to Bern to stay for one night.

After a quick tour around the city and a late lunch, we checked into our hotel and completely crashed. We intended to take a quick power nap and head out for dinner, but the toxic combination of jet lag and cumulative work stress caught up with me. By dinner time, I woke up but literally could not move. I stayed in bed and ended up sleeping for over 10 hours straight.

That should tell you how exhausted I was.

The next morning, we had breakfast and took another walk around Bern. This time, we managed to visit Albert Einstein’s old flat. He lived there for a couple of years and it has since been converted into a small museum. We missed it the day before because it was closed, but it was a great way to kill time before boarding the train to our second stop: Interlaken.

Interlaken

Interlaken was spectacular and horrible at the same time. My wife, who visited Switzerland a decade ago, warned me about this beforehand. Because Interlaken serves as the central hub for visiting the nearby alpine villages and mountains, it is absolutely packed with tourists.

My wife was right. The crowds were massive, mostly consisting of large, incredibly noisy tour groups. Chinese, Indians and Americans, in no particular order – all noisy.

When my wife and I travel, we look for peace, quiet and silence — which is exactly why we head into the mountains.

Unfortunately, it feels like no matter where you go these days, finding true quiet is a challenge.

In any case, we did find peace in the mountains. Just need to hike, walk away from the hotspots. Once you hit the hiking trek, you won’t see the crowds. Common tourists hungry for selfies don’t hike long hours like us, only real nature lovers.

We also found escape at our hotel. We stayed in a beautiful chalet located a 15-minute walk outside the town center chaos. It was completely isolated and deeply quiet.

Every evening before heading back, we would stop at a local supermarket — either Coop or Migros — to pick up a bottle of wine, cheese, parma ham and local delicacies. We had these wonderfully quiet dinners on our private balcony. We could sit in total silence and it was perfect.

Iseltwald

From Interlaken, we ventured out to Iseltwald and the breathtaking lake Brienz. The intense green-blue color of the water is unbelievable. It was my very first taste of Switzerland’s jaw-dropping landscapes.

We did a fantastic 6.5 km hike to see the Giessbachfälle waterfall, then caught a ferry back to Iseltwald. Sitting on the deck, enjoying a glass of white wine while watching the scenery roll by, was the perfect way to cap off the day.

Lauterbrunnen

Over the next two days, we explored some classic alpine villages: Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and Grindelwald. We also journeyed up to Jungfraujoch, famously known as the Top of Europe.

Grindelwald – Jungfraujoch: 3454 m

We got our first taste of high-altitude oxygen deprivation once we climbed up to Jungfraujoch from Grindelwald. Both my wife and I felt a bit lightheaded with an elevated resting heart rate from the moment we stepped out of the cable car. We had to take things slow.

The Swiss cogwheel trains negotiate incredibly steep inclines and the cable cars occasionally ascend so vertically they feel like an elevator.

The weather was cold, we were dealing with below zero temperature. Yet it was flawless. Conditions were excellent for photography: directional light, high contrast, no pollution in the air and crystal clear clarity.

Hiking through the Alps surrounded by that scenery was pure joy and I captured some excellent photos of the valleys and snowy white peaks.

Grindelwald First: 2168 m

On the day we checked out of Interlaken, we took a detour before heading to Zermatt. We traveled to Grindelwald again, locked our luggage at the train station and spent the afternoon at Grindelwald First.

It was an action-packed adventure. We raced down the mountain using a zipline, a glider, a three-wheel mountain cart and, finally, a trotbike. It’s a well thought and super fun way to enjoy the magnificent alpine environment.

The trotbike was incredibly fun — you can coast down the mountain trails and stop whenever you want to take photos with cows standing right next to the path!

Zermatt

The sun was setting by the time we finally headed toward Zermatt. The journey from Grindelwald was grueling. It turned into a three-hour trip involving four different trains and a bus due to a sudden train malfunction.

Thankfully, the official Swiss train app SBB Mobile saved the day. It maps out your entire transit, including platform numbers and connection times – which are always tight! Running across platforms with backpacks and luggage with only a few minutes to spare is quite stressful. Not sure for how long I can keep doing this…

When we finally arrived at Zermatt at night, we were exhausted. I told my wife we needed to reward ourselves with a proper dinner, so we headed to a beautiful restaurant called Chez Max Julen.

The interior was covered in Olympic memorabilia and ski photography. A quick search revealed the owner was Max Julen himself — a former Swiss alpine skier and Olympic gold medalist. Quite a cool find.

Zermatt is definitely a tourist hotspot, but it felt far less chaotic than Interlaken.

We woke up to a pristine morning. We had specifically booked a room with a balcony facing the Matterhorn mountain peak. While it was still dark and my wife was asleep, I pulled back the curtain.

The Matterhorn is so massive, its peak was already catching the morning sun while the valley below was in darkness. The view of that near-symmetrical pyramidal peak rising almost 4,500 meters into the sky was unbelievable. I immediately woke my wife up so she could see it.

We spent three nights in Zermatt. Every subsequent morning I woke up hoping for the same view, but the weather turned and the mountain remained entirely swallowed by thick clouds.

It made me realize how lucky we were to catch it that first morning. I felt sorry for the travelers who checked in later, paid a premium for a room with a view and saw absolutely nothing, only clouds.

Matterhorn Glacier – 3883 m

While in Zermatt, we visited the Matterhorn Glacier and then Gornergrat, riding the iconic cogwheel trains and steep cable cars again. After a while, you get used to the routine and start to realize why the Swiss export their cable car expertise worldwide.

We had lunch in Matterhorn, then went back down to Zermatt to catch another train to Gornergrat.

Gornergrat – 3089 m

From the top of Gornergrat station at 3089 meters altitude, we hiked our way down to Zermatt, a 10.5 km hike according to my pre-saved route in Strava app.

We took things slowly and enjoyed the scenery as much as we could.

Three hours into the hike, approaching Riffelalp station we still had 3 km to go. My knee was beaten and it was around 6pm. With sunset approaching, we decided to call it a day and take a train back to Zermatt.

5 Segwee

Our longest hikes in Switzerland took place in the absolutely stunning mountains near Zermatt. On our final day there, we tackled the famous 5 Segwee Hike (5 Lakes Hike) which hits lakes Stellisee, Grindjisee, Grünsee, Moosjisee and Leisee (try memorizing these names…).

The hike came with an added challenge: the Blauherd cable car, which usually drops you at the trailhead, was out of service. I knew this in advance and decided we would just hike up from the lower station instead.

Most tourists bypassed the trail because of the closure, opting for a shorter route that misses lake Stellisee entirely.

But Stellisee is widely considered the most beautiful lake of the five due to its perfect reflection of the Matterhorn. There was no way I was doing a “4 Lakes Hike” on a 5 Lakes trail!

This detour added an extra 1.6 km to the route, which doesn’t sound like much until you factor in a steep 230-meter elevation gain. But we have no excuse, both my wife and myself we are experienced hikers in good physical shape, so we pushed through.

In total, we clocked 12 km and spent six hours on the trail, stopping to take photos and eat by the vibrant blue-green waters of lake Moosjisee.

Ironically, Stellisee turned out to be the least visually impressive lake of the day: the overcast weather refused to cooperate.

It was the toughest hike of the trip. The rain started pouring, but we were fully prepared with technical waterproof shells, pants and hiking boots.

We also carry emergency high-viz orange rainproof ponchos with aluminum linings for heat retention in our packs. It pays to be prepared.

Our backpacks are heavy with extra gear for that “just in case” situation. We also have down jackets, gloves, scarf and hoodie combos, extra food, energy gels, power bank… It weighs in our backs, yes, but it offers comfort to our minds and we can better enjoy the hike this way.

As I always say: plan for the best, prepare for the worst.

Lucern

From Zermatt, we made our final stop in Lucerne. After spending a week isolated in alpine villages, returning to a city on the Swiss plateau felt distinct, though admittedly less magical than the high peaks.

Weather was bad when we arrived. We put on our rain gear and headed out anyway, though not the most pleasant experience. It didn’t help that the hotel lent us a broken umbrella…

Somewhere down the line we decided to stay indoors, so we went to the KKL – the Lucern Culture and Congress Centre, designed by star architect Jean Nouvel.

Yes, I’m an architect and back in the days the KKL would be in my agenda, no doubts. But I’m approaching 50, I have over two decades experience working as an architect. Architectural venues are not a priority to me these days.

It does not mean that I don’t enjoy though. And I did enjoy visiting the KKL.

Luckily, we woke up the following day with good weather.

Our hotel room in Lucerne featured a balcony overlooking the lake with Mount Pilatus and other surrounding mountains standing prominently in the distance.

We started our day in the balcony, quietly enjoying our coffee early in the morning.

With good weather we had options to hike Mount Pilatus, Rigi or Titlis, but after checking our stats — we had already logged 40 km and 15 hours of hiking in this trip — I looked at my wife and confessed: “I think that’s enough”.

We decided to spend a completely unstructured day wandering the streets in Lucerne, doing some light shopping. It was the perfect change of pace.

The following morning, we checked out and caught a train back to Zürich to catch our evening flight home to Hong Kong.

With a half-day to kill in Zürich under rain, we sought shelter in a shopping mall, which wasn’t particularly interesting.

When lunch rolled around, we encountered a massive food plaza serving fast food. There was also this self-service place where you carried a tray and took food like in a canteen.

We weren’t having it. Despite the rain, we headed into the old town center instead, found a spot protected by massive umbrellas and enjoyed a proper traditional cheese fondue in the open air.

We weren’t going to waste our final Swiss meal on fast food!

Final words

Switzerland was a spectacular trip for several reasons.

I was finally able to see with my own eyes what I had known for decades. We all grew up seeing those dreamy, idealized alpine landscapes on everything from chocolate boxes and biscuit tins to stationery.

Lush green valleys, wooden chalets adorned with vibrant flowers on the balconies, a Swiss flag fluttering from a pole, cows munching grass and majestic blueish-white mountains cutting into a bright blue sky.

You have seen it on supermarket shelves your entire life.

I can officially tell you now: it is not a fantasy. It is entirely real. Go to Switzerland and you will find these exact scenes everywhere. Every single direction you look feels like a living postcard.

I have to give a massive acknowledgement to my wife. Without telling me a word, she decided to surprise me by booking First Class Swiss Travel Passes for our entire stay.

The Swiss Travel Pass is a game-changer. It allows you to hop onto any train, tram or bus nationwide without ever needing to buy a ticket. Given how many tight connections we made daily, it saved us an incredible amount of stress and was worth every single penny.

But traveling in First Class made all the difference. Riding in the first-class carriages is night and day compared to second-class, which is always packed with loud tourist groups.

When you are taking a scenic train journey with massive panoramic windows designed for admiring the Alps, doing it in near-total silence with almost no one else around is pure luxury. We truly enjoyed it.

Photography

Unless otherwise stated, all photos above come from our iPhones. But I brought two distinct cameras for this trip.

The Hasselblad 907x 100c paired with the XCD 4/28P wide-angle lens. It proved to be the ultimate combination for the expansive alpine vistas. I shot 355 frames on it and I still need to upload those massive RAW files to my iMac.

Alongside the digital setup, I ran my Voigtländer Bessa-T loaded with a Zeiss Biogon 21mm f/2.8 ZM and a Leica Summilux 50mm. I burned through five rolls of film: two rolls of Portra 400, two rolls of Ektar 100 and one roll of Kodak Tri-X 400.

I’m incredibly anxious to see how the negatives turned out.

I will be sharing frames from both systems in a series of upcoming posts as soon as the files are processed and ready.

Stay tuned!