Celebrating Ali's 50th Birthday in Switzerland
June 12, 2026: NC to Switzerland
We are celebrating Alison's birthday 2 months early due to work and school schedules!
Alison wanted to go on a Safari for her birthday but that just didn't pan out. Second choice was to return to Switzerland and specifically Wengen and Jungfrau Region where she still maintained was the most beautiful place in the world. We flew to NC to start our trip with Alison, Rob and JJ. CLT to JFK and dinner at the Delta One Lounge.
Delta One JFK to ZRH!
June 13, 2026 Zurich, Switzerland
The Alps from the air! Just one of the many small villages in Switzerland that we could see from the air. I loved this one, Kyburg village, with the Kyburg Castle (at the top of the hill and the village below.
I found our guide, Gabi, on the internet and began making the arrangements for our adventure while we were cruising around Africa. We had some odd emails back and forth and Ali and Rob thought for sure that it was a scam. It was not a scam but rather him trying to figure out if I was a bot and me trying to figure out if he was for real. He met us at the airport and transported us to the Sheraton Zurich Hotel, to start our adventure.
June 14, 2026 Zurich, Switzerland
JJ was afraid that this was not going to be a "kid friendly" vacation and just sightseeing for the adults. Our first day in Switzerland we did a "kid" day and went to the Wow Museum. It remained in his top 2 favorite things we did this week. I admit that we adults enjoyed the museum also. We all rode the light rail train to the old town and took a walk along the Limmat River in Zurich. Dinner was in the hotel garden and watched the World Cup on TVs that were placed in these tiny houses!
June 15, 2026: Trekking Switzerland Day 1
This morning started out with Alison and Ina going shopping for new shoes. Ina's tennis shoes had begun to literally fall apart. New shoes for 34 Swiss Francs at the Decathlon Store was a present from Alison! Gabi picked us up at 10:30am as our driver, photographer, guide and . Our drive took us about 3 hours in driving time to reach our hotel today. We traveled along narrow, winding roads and saw the city of Schwyz. This village was the founding village of Switzerland in 1291.
The Stoos Funicular is the steepest funicular railway in the world. It has an extreme incline of 110 degree gradient while keeping us upright and level during our 7 minute ride to the top.
At the top of the funicular ride we found a car free Alpine village. We took 2 more ski-lifts to reach the top and had amazing views of Lake Lucerne, Rigi and the surrounding Alps at the Fronalpstock viewpoint. We could see the turquois Urner Lake (Lake Uri) that is fed from the snow melting in the mountains and streams. We could also see Rigi (Queen of the Mountains) from our viewpoint.
One of JJ's "must do" in Switzerland items was to see the cows with their cowbells. I am not sure how the cows manage to not go deaf from the constant loud ringing.
We stopped at a beautiful waterfall in Andermatt.
As we continued our drive at Schilthorn, Jim noticed that as we climbed our narrow winding mountain road, Furkastrasse, resembled the one in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. It didn't take us long to realize that it was the same road.
As we got to the top of the mountain, before starting down the other side, Rob, recognized the abandoned hotel Belvedere, that is famous for posting pictures of your exotic car in front of the hotel. Today their were a few Porsches taking pictures. After we got home, Rob posted his own in front of the hotel!
We arrived in Saas-Almagell at hotel Pirmin Zurbriggen for 2 night stay. JJ loved his castle bed and did not want to leave the hotel. We had dinner at the hotel for 2 nights 5 course fixed menu and breakfast.
June 16, 2026: Zermatt
We took a train to Zermatt Old town which is pedestrian only. It is a charming village with wooden chalets, cobblestone streets and Alpine shops.
We took a cogwheel railway to Gornergrat which is a panoramic ridge above Zermatt. thanks to Gabi, JJ got to ride in the Engine with the Engineer and learned all about the train. the Gornergrat Bahn train is the highest open-air cogwheel railway in Europe operating since 1898 and climbs over 1469 meters to the summit.
We could see the iconic Matterhorn behind us, the Gorner Glacier (Europe's second largest glacier) and we climbed to the very top! The 4478 meters high Matterhorn with it's distinctive pyramidal shape is one of the most photographed mountains in the world. The Matterhorn was first successfully climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper.
JJ and Rob climbed to the top for a pose!
We rode back down to Zermatt and took a different cable car to Klein Matterhorn. This is the highest cable car station in Europe at 3883 meters and was the first in the world to reach this height. We had amazing views of the mountains.
An added bonus was the ice palace carved inside the mountain. We took the last cable car down for the day!
June 17, 2026: Saas Fee, Switzerland
We drove up to the Dam at Lake Mattmark.
Saas-Fee Village is also car free and is surrounded by 13 peaks over 4000 meters high. Saas-Fee is known as the "Pearl of the Alps" due to it's pristine location and well preserved architecture. We took a gondola to the top of three different mountain peaks from this village.
We took a gondola to the top of the mountain to Spielboden. Jim and JJ had fun creating frightening dramatic pictures.
We took a second cable car up to another peak at Hannig at 2350 meters. JJ found a playground that was awesome. Ina thought this was the most beautiful view of all so far!
Our 3rd cable car to another peak at Saas-Grund then to Hohsaas at 4000meters. We returned to Saas-Grund and found another playground where Ali and JJ raced on ziplines.
The lake was stocked with trout at Saas-Grund. You can fish for a price! The boys all took turns pulling the raft across the lake. Ina petted some goats.
We traveled to Riederalp and parked our car in a parking garage at the base of the mountain. Ina was sure that we would never see our luggage or car again as we had to pack an overnight bag since our destination was car-free. We boarded a gondola with our bags to the Golf Hotel Riederalp at 1905 meters. We strolled the village after dinner. We watched the parasailers in the evening and in the morning.
June 18, 2026 Aletsch Arena
We took a gondola further up the mountain to the Aletscharena Glacier on Eggishorn. This is the longest glacier in the Alps at the "Top of Europe" 3454 meters.
We descended back down to the parking garage and found our car untouched! We drove to the "car train" and drove the car right onto the train at the Goppenstein station and exited at Kandersteg.
We stopped at Blausee mountain lake in the Kandertal Region of the Bernese Oberland. The lake was crystal clear and was full of fish including trout.
June 19, 2026 Jungfrau Region: Grindelwald
Grindelwald is called the "Glacier Village" and is at the foot of Eiger. We took a gondola up to Pfingstegg where we encountered an electric fence that both Rob and JJ touched. Gabi took some pictures while standing on the side of the mountain. Alison and Ina were very concerned at him balancing on the edge of the mountain while taking our pictures. Alison said, "if he falls we are in so much trouble...he has the car keys in his pocket!"
We descended back down to the village and took another gondola to the top of Grindelwald First. Alison conquered her fear of heights and did the cliff walk.
We boarded a train in Lauterbrunnen and traveled to Wengen another car-free village. Jim and Ina saw this waterfall on a previous visit in the winter and it had just a trickle if any water coming from it. We thought the guide was punking us! "Crash Landing on You" is a Korean movie that was filmed in this region.
We had a long walk up to our hotel because Gabi forgot they had car service. We stayed at the Beausite Park Hotel.
June 19, 2026 Jungfrau Region, Switzerland
We took the train from Wengen to Kleinescheidegg and JJ got to ride with the engineer again. At Kleinescheidegg, we changed to a cog train to take us up through the mountain to Jungfraujoch.
The cogwheel train went through the Eiger and Monch mountains to reach the "Top of Europe"! We reached Jungfraujoch at 3454 meters the highest railway station in Europe. We took pictures at the "Top of Europe". We enjoyed some Lindt Chocolate Heaven but missed the interactive chocolate experience.
Visited the Sphinx Terrace that gives a panoramic view of the Aletsch Glacier that is 22km long.
Walked through the Ice Palace
Visited the Snow Fun Park where Rob and JJ enjoyed several runs of snow tubing.
We began our journey back to Zurich and stopped by Trümmelbach waterfall that drains the glacier walls of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. It transports up to 20,000 liters/second of water and 20,000 tons of debris/year. This is the only glacier waterfalls in Europe that are located inside the mountain and still accessible. Gabi didn't tell us we needed a jacket! It was freezing and wet!
Last train/cogwheel/ski lift/gondola ride. Some of us were tired...some were just happy!
June 20, 2026 Zurich, Switzerland
We stayed in Zurich by the airport overnight for our uneventful flight home ZRH to ATL to CLT!