Autumn Traveler: Mountains, Valleys, Lakes and Streams

The flight to Europe is always exhausting for me and as we left the Zurich Airport, the weather was gray and drizzly. We had a hotel reservation in the Emmental, a region where green hills and valleys are a rich paradise for cows. But from the expressway I was just feeling tired and could hardly wait to get to our hotel.

Hack looked at the map and after we had tea and cake at an expressway rest stop he decided we could take a country road and get where we needed to go. That was the beginning of returning to the Switzerland we love.

The Emmental Valley is a region in Northwest Switzerland that contains spring green farmland. Even with the gray day it was lovely. We stopped at a cheese factory we had been to several times before. There is nothing better than European cheese. There were many samples and we bought a chunk to take with us.

We stayed two nights in the mountain ski town of Saas Fee. It is one mountain over from Zermatt and the famous Matterhorn. We discovered this small town in 2002 when we traveled with Hack’s brother Joe and his wife Dort. We have returned to this town three times since. The mountains that surround this town are magnificent and snow covered. The first road to this village wasn’t built until 1951. It has not grown like Zermatt and in September it is very quiet as ski season is the high season and that doesn’t start until late November. However people can ski year round here.

We put our car on a train car and traveled for twenty minutes in complete darkness under a mountain to cut off a day’s driving to get to Saas Fee. Cars must be parked in a lot outside the village and only electric carts are allowed on the streets.

On a Sunday afternoon we took a cable car up a mountain behind the village and enjoyed eating on the outside deck of a restaurant with the big mountains in view. We chatted with a man from Canada and a woman who owned a shop in Saas Fee.

From Saas Fee we traveled to the mountain town of Beatenberg where we stayed in Hotel Gloria. All rooms in this smaller hotel faced the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains with Lake Thun below. This hotel also had a restaurant which served some of the best food we have ever had in Switzerland. We took a cable car up the Niederhorn which was just behind the hotel and enjoyed some Ramseier Cider at the top. It was an overcast day, but the view was still clear of the three major mountains. From the top of the Niederhorn we could also see the town of Interlaken below.

Lake Lucerne is a spectacular lake with deep turquoise blue water and it was our next stop. We stayed in the town of Weggis and spent a lot of time just sitting by the lake and enjoying its beauty. We did take a trip into the city of Lucerne and walked its streets.

The Emmental Valley

Pastures in the Emmental

The processing plant where Emmental cheese is made.

In a small outbuilding they were demonstrating the old way of making cheese. Very labor intensive.

Saas Fee

A fridgid stream rushing down a mountainside near Saas Fee...

Skiing is done year round on the peaks around this mountain town.

Eating outdoors with the sun shining on our faces and the mountains so close was a unique experience.

We didn't eat in this restaurant on the main street of Saas Fee, but it looked inviting.

When the sun is shining in Saas Fee, it is difficult to leave this special place. Coming out of the hotel, we only had a few short alleyways to manuever our luggage to the car. It is always worth the inconvenience.

The Bernese Alps -Central Switzerland

This was taken from our hotel balcony in Beatenberg. The large mountains in the background are the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. Lake Thun is below us

This shot was taken at dusk on a side deck of Hotel Gloria, where we stayed for three nights.
The moon was visible. When it got dark, the moon reflecting on Lake Thun below was a sight
to behold.