Alpine Magic photo/trip report

[tufbuf]

The evil side of gelato overindulgence!

Hahaha! Too much of it I guess makes me discombobulated! Now I know, will consume in moderation next time.

 

[sayhello]

The evil side of gelato overindulgence!

Hahaha! Too much of it I guess makes me discombobulated! Now I know, will consume in moderation next time.

Sayhello

 

[job09]

Thanks for sharing! My teen son is sitting next to me reading your report, now he wants to know when we are going to Switzerland. I've been looking at this trip now I'm sold!

 

[vacationgrl]

Finally decided that the Alpine Adventure is our trip for 2013! Trying to decide on Pre and post days and where to spend them. Will be traveling with my 16 year old and no husband...

Input appreciated:
Was there enough time to see stressa and Luzerne or should we add a day to one or both?

Should we stay in Milan a day or two to see it (and the last supper)

Should we stay in Zurich one night post trip?
OR
Thinking of taking the train from Lucerne to Geneva to visit friends - that looks easy to do..,

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[tufbuf]

Finally decided that the Alpine Adventure is our trip for 2013! Trying to decide on Pre and post days and where to spend them. Will be traveling with my 16 year old and no husband...

Input appreciated:
Was there enough time to see stressa and Luzerne or should we add a day to one or both?

Should we stay in Milan a day or two to see it (and the last supper)

Should we stay in Zurich one night post trip?
OR
Thinking of taking the train from Lucerne to Geneva to visit friends - that looks easy to do..,

Thanks in advance for the help!

Here is what I would suggest:

If we did this trip by itself (we did the Greek Odyssey before Alpine Magic), we would have stayed 2 or 3 pre-nights in Milan. We were not able to do that since we left Crete the same day we had our welcome dinner in Stresa. You can take the train from Milan and then take a cab to the Regina Palace Hotel. One family in our trip did just that. I would have wanted o see Da Vinci's Last Supper but it would have o wait. Plus the Duomo and maybe o some serious shopping in Milan. A day in Stresa would be nice too since I wanted to take the Mottarone cable car but we had no time during the free time. You can probably do that on the day of the welcome dinner if you arrive a day early.

An extra day in Lucerne won't be bad either. You can probably go boating on the lake or visit Mt. Pilatus. You just have to see if ABD will take you to Zurich for your flight back or figure out how to go about your return flight. Visiting Geneva might be an option too. We had family stay a day in Zurich since his flight is more cost-effective if he flew back the next day.

Hope that helps.

 

[Reto]

tufbuf, thanks for the great trip report. Being a Swiss myself and living just outside of Lucerne, I'm glad you enjoyed your time here!


vacationgrl, Being a local, I'd advise you to spend another day in my great city and go for Mt. Pilatus. You can do a nice roundtrip that features a cruise to Alpnachstad where the station of the cogwheel railway (the steepest worldwide!) is located. Take that train up to Mt. Pilatus and enjoy the great views of Lucerne and the surrounding mountains. For the way down, take the aerial cablecar all the way to the suburb of Kriens. From there, you can ride with the public bus (Line #1) back to Downtown Lucerne. Stop is located right in front of the Schweizerhof Hotel. A lot of tourists do this round-trip and you can also do that in reverse order of course. Check this: http://www.pilatus.ch/en/railway-cableways/golden-round-trip/

Geneva is a 3 hour train ride away. While it is a nice city as well, it is kinda similar to Lucerne, located on a lake - just a bit larger. I, for my part, would stick to the Lucerne area. Different story if you have friends in GVA though. There are direct trains from Lucerne that run every hour. For about 30 minutes of the ride, your train will reach a speed of 125 mph, which can also be an experience.

In case ABD does NOT take you back to ZRH airport: The main station of Lucerne is located just across the lake from the Schweizerhof hotel. You can easily walk over or just hop on a bus and get off at the very next stop, since they all serve the train station. From there, there's a direct train to the airport at 10 minutes past every top of the hour. The journey takes around 70 minutes. The U.S. bound flights leave ZRH at around 10am, 2nd departure wave for the U.S. is around 1pm. Should your flight leave around 10am, take no later train than 7:10am. The trains are generally very clean, safe, modern and run on-time almost right down to the second - like a Swiss watch.

Hope that helps. Otherwise, just ask!

 

[tufbuf]

Hi Reto! We enjoyed our short but sweet stay in Switzerland. We LOVE Zermatt and we are hoping to go back to see the Alps in clear daylight. It was very cloudy when we were there. Yes, we are very impressed with Switzerland's cleanliness! We love everything Swiss - your chocolates, time pieces and me especially, Roger Federer!! I regret not buying his cap in Zermatt!

 

[Reto]

Hi Reto! We enjoyed our short but sweet stay in Switzerland. We LOVE Zermatt and we are hoping to go back to see the Alps in clear daylight. It was very cloudy when we were there.

Ah yes, Zermatt is a lovely place. I've been there myself 3 times now, Seeing the Matterhorn can be a tough task sometimes, because even in Summer, the weather in the alps can change very fast and clouds can form within minutes. It happened more than once to me I didn't get to see the Matterhorn. This is the best shot I got last September, when I lead two friends of me from Torrance, CA around my country:


Zermatt by Reto Kurmann, on Flickr

Yes, we are very impressed with Switzerland's cleanliness! We love everything Swiss - your chocolates, time pieces and me especially, Roger Federer!! I regret not buying his cap in Zermatt!

Yes, our stuff may be expensive (it even is for us living here), but it sure is high-end quality.

Too bad about missing the Federer souvenir. I see Roger has an online store, that also ships to outside Switzerland, so you may try your luck here: https://www.rogerfederershop.com/en/shop.html

Haven't seen any of these caps around here unfortunately, otherwise I would have gone get you one.

 

[tufbuf]

Haven't seen any of these caps around here unfortunately, otherwise I would have gone get you one.

Aaaawww! That's nice of you! The price made me think twice about it but I'm such a big fan, DH said I should have just gotten it. One of our co-adventurers was smart to get up at 7 in the morning and took a peak at the Matterhorn and got a clear shot of the peak with a teeny weeny bit of cloud. I was awake but didn't get up! He was kind enough to send a copy of the photo which I included in my photobook. Oh and my DD said, Switzerland is her favorite country to visit by far.

 

[AbDcollector]

Great trip report !
Great pictures !
Thanks for sharing.