Summer in Switzerland
Throwback to August 2024—No doubt, Switzerland is a beautiful country, but I think I visited at the wrong time of year. Coming from a tropical country, summer in Switzerland felt way worse. My friends and I had planned to hike but the weather was unbearable. The sun was scorching hot, and we thought we could cool off in buses and trains, but it turned out that both modes of transportation had poor ventilation. As a tourist from Singapore, summer in Switzerland just wasn’t a pleasant experience.
It was actually my second time visiting Switzerland. I came here before on holiday with my family in 2019. Back then we visited during fall, so the experience was much enjoyable. I thought maybe summer wouldn’t be that bad, pretty much like where I’m from, but how wrong I was to think that.
Thank God I had good company. Swiss chocolates, drinks and snacks also made our vacation better. I also loved how great the photography opportunities were. I had planned to capture more everyday moments for memories’ keepsake, rather than just focusing on street or landscape photography, yet I still found myself not capturing enough. Haha, sometimes photography is hard when I’m too cautious about what I photograph. Having some kind of expectations can really kill an experience.
Anyhoo, we landed in Zurich in the early morning and spent some time in the city centre before visiting the Lindt Museum.
We then made our way to Twann for our Airbnb that evening. We lugged our belongings across stations, spent a lot of time chasing trains and ended up missing the last one to Twann. With no other option, an expensive cab ride was the only way to get there. Thankfully, we arrived safely after a relatively long night drive.
The next morning, we made our way to Interlaken. Not many plans in mind, other than to enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery.
We got on a boat and spent a lot of time on it. I can’t remember where we got off for our hike up to the Giessbach Waterfalls. Oh, we were ambitious about hiking! In the end, out of the four of us, only one made it to see the waterfall. It wasn’t me, so I have no pictures to share. Haha!
The next day, we went to Grindelwald for mountain carting! Speeding through the scenic Alps was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. The adrenaline rush of racing down a rocky path was exhilarating! I wish I could’ve captured some footage of us going down the mountain, but our hands were too busy steering the carts. If only we had an action camera. Haha!
We were greeted by a beautiful sunset on our way back to our Airbnb. It was well worth pausing for a while at the train station, just to take it all in.
On our last two days in Switzerland, we were looking forward to a steam-train journey on the Brienz Rothorn Railway. However, we were left disappointed as the attraction was sold out for the day. Thankfully, there were lots to experience in this country. We quickly made our way to Mürren, did some hiking down the mountain village, and ended the day with a visit to the Schilthorn summit. Finally, we felt some cool air at the mountaintop. The mountain breeze was a refreshing change from the summer heat.
This last picture felt bittersweet because it captured one of the prominent landmarks I remembered from my previous trip to Switzerland in 2019. This cottage was the first thing that caught my eye back then, and it ended up being the last picture I captured in Mürren.
Wow, I miss travelling but I won’t be able to go anywhere far anytime soon. I do hope to visit Switzerland again someday, especially during the cooler seasons. But Switzerland, why do you have to be so expensive? Haha
Till then,
Amirah
