A Weekend in Switzerland

Updated: Nov 22, 2022

Swiss cheese, chocolate fondue, beautiful views. We tasted and saw it all! Read all about my weekend in the magical town of Interlaken in Switzerland!

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken is located just south of Bern and is nestled within the Swiss alps. Tourists flock to Interlaken for its great outdoor activities in the summer and skiing in the winter. Although I did not participate in any skydiving, there were options to go skydiving, paragliding, hang-gliding, and so much more! The primary language spoken in this Swiss town is German, but the locals speak more of Alemannic Swiss German or "Bernese German". Everyone we came across spoke English as well. The currency in Switzerland is franks.

I can only Imagine how cold it gets here in the winter. We went on a weekend in September and the temperature was around 40/50 f. Interlaken also sits beneath the tallest mountain in all of Europe. The highest point, Jungfrau, is over13,000ft above sea level. At the top there is an observatory with chocolate, ice museums and more! Travelling to the top would have taken hours with multiple trains and sky-lifts.... and $200... Unfortunately the weekend we were in Switzerland it was super cloudy so we wouldn't have seen anything at the top. Soooo we did not make the trip.

Getting There

Some friends from school and I booked our trip through a study abroad student travel company. They provided the bussing there as well as housing and recommendations of what to do in Interlaken. We left Florence on the bus at 22:00 (10pm) on Thursday night and arrived in Interlaken at 6:00 the next day. The bus was a coach bus with only study abroad students. We each had our own row so I had no problems sleeping on the way there. When we got there we were able to sleep for another few hours before hitting the town. Our accommodations were in a hostel and I stayed in a room with 3 girls I know from Cincinnati. The best part was being greeted by this pup:

Day 1

Waking up on Friday we had absolutely no plans, but to just explore and see what we find. We walked around all of the little shops in the morning and ended up at the lake. Even on a cloudy day the waters were bright blue.

Day 1 (cont.)

For lunch we stopped at a restaurant in town where we got to experience the swiss culture and food. They were playing very upbeat folklore music. It felt like we should have been arm in arm with each other skipping around the restaurant...hah it was quite fun. I got a grilled hühnerbrust which was essentially a grilled chicken sandwich. I of course got chocolate fondue too! In the afternoon we took a train to a little town further up the mountain called Grindelwald. From Grindelwald there is also a lift that takes you to the top of Europe. We sat at a caffe at the top of the mountain and drank hot chocolate. It was cold out so this hit the spot.

For dinner we went to Hüsi Bierhaus. It was a very bustling atmosphere with live music and of course more German/Swiss food. We all got a few things and tried it all. My favorite was the swiss mac and cheese with potatoes. We also tried their local beers from Barrel Brewing.

Day 2

This day was even colder than the first. We ended up taking a cart up the mountain to the top of Interlaken called Harder Kulm. The top had such a good view of the city. We had lunch at the top and enjoyed the views. This took up most of our day because soon after we got back to our hostel we ate dinner at a thai place next door and went to bed. We got up early the next day and headed on our way home.