Day 1 – Basel, Switzerland – October 8
We arrived at the Basel SBB train terminal and hopped on a bus towards our Airbnb. Louisa has two kittens and lives on the top floor of an apartment building about half an hour by foot from downtown. She came by on her lunch break to let us in and give us a rundown of the cats’ routine and her home. The apartment was sleek and modern with all the amenities we had been missing, but the ceilings were heavily slanted since it was the roof apartment; we bumped our heads on several occasions over the next two days. Ryan maybe a little harder than Elizabeth. The cats’ names are Oscar and Ron and they greatest cats we’d ever met (second only to Ryan’s childhood cat Marbles, she thought she was a dog). Louisa soon left for work where she would head straight from to the airport and we were alone with the kitties.
Step one was doing laundry, it had been a while and all of our clothes were rather stinky. After a bit of lounging we walked the 15 minutes to the Coop grocery store. On the way we passed several restaurants and could see the menu and price lists outside. We knew Switzerland would be expensive, but $25 for a bowl of ramen or $22 for a hamburger was just too extreme for us – luckily, we have a kitchen. We spent hours in the grocery store trying to find the cheapest food for chef Ryan to prepare his recipes. That night he made another attempt at bucatini all’amatriciana (we still couldn’t get any guanciale, so we settled for bacon, but unknowingly bought smoked bacon with cartilage in it – took the dish in a weird direction) and we laid on the couch watching Friends until bed. In the middle of the night our new best cat friend Oscar found his way into bed and gently pawed at our faces until we pet him. He was so soft and sweet it was hard to be mad.
Day 2 – Basel, Switzerland – October 9
We slept in the next day and prepared for a lazy rainy day. The forecast looked good for the rest of the week, so we spent the whole day lounging, trip planning, playing with the laser pointer. For lunch, Ryan cooked jäger schnitzel again. It turned out really well and Elizabeth took a photo of it that would fit right in any cookbook. Progress for the day: we made it through the whole first season of Friends and finished all of our laundry.
Day 3 – Basel, Switzerland – October 10
The bus system in Basel is not as straightforward as we’d encountered in other cities, and with a tight transfer between routes, we missed our train into the alps. Luckily, we hadn’t bought our rail tickets yet. It ended up being for the best as the weather forecast called for even clearer weather tomorrow and rain continued today. We walked around the downtown through the morning drizzle, stopping outside the big protestant church, walking along the Rhein river, watching the boats navigate under the bridges, and investigated some interesting art by the museums. One thing we noticed, the houses along the riverfront are perfectly picturesque.
We went back home to eat and change to go bouldering, a form of rock climbing with no ropes on walls that are generally 20 feet or less. We found a gym online that allegedly had free admission for first time visitors so we thought it was worth the 40-minute trip outside of the city. We got off the train into suburban Switzerland [upon editing this post we realized that this was actually suburban Germany – we had crossed back over the Rhine and out of Switzerland]. Luckily the weather was finally clear and we walked through trails in fields to get down to the LÖ Block – Die Boulderhalle gym. Gangs of kids with razor scooters we popping tricks outside. When we got to the gym and registered they let us know that we could climb for free, so we spent the $4 on Elizabeth’s shoes and it was by far our cheapest climbing ever. The routes here were particularly hard and we only lasted about an hour and a half until our arms and hands were shot. The gym was fairly large with a good variety of problems, but there were way too many unsupervised children running around under us while we climbed, and we were nervous about squishing a child.
We trained back into the city, stopping on our way home to pick up more milk at the grocery store, because Ryan was so happy to be eating milk and cereal again, he finished the other half gallon. While in Liechtenstein we’d heard about their version of what we would compare to macaroni and cheese, which consists of knöpfle (a German noodle like spätzle), fried onions, and three types of stinky cheese. We didn’t get the consistency right, so it came out like a cheese glob packed with noodles, but Elizabeth loved it. Served with a side of sausage, it could be called a complete meal.
Day 4 – Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland – October 11
We woke up early the next morning and caught the 7:59 am train towards Interlaken. Luckily, we arrived at the station 10 minutes early and were able to find seats on the 2-hour train. After arriving in Interlaken, we transferred to a smaller regional train and arrived in the small mountain town of Lautrebrunnen around 10:30. The idyllic village is nestled between two sheer cliff faces of the Alps, which seemed to act as a funnel for the chill mountain air, reminding us we had gone up a bit in elevation. We got our map at the information center and set off exploring.
We started with the hour-long “hike” through the valley that took us past quaint farms, high waterfalls, and happy cows. The first waterfall we stopped at was the largest one in the valley, but still didn’t look like much compared to Iceland. Since it had been raining a lot the past few days, we had great views of several waterfalls (there are 72 total) that cascaded off the cliffs surrounding the valley. This one in particular was really cool because you could hike up and walk behind it. The slick rock going up was a little treacherous, but we made our way to the top and got some fantastic views of the valley behind the waterfall spray. Although these waterfalls don’t hold a candle to Iceland, the surrounding Alps sure were gorgeous.
We continued our walk, passing stereotypical Swiss cattle, complete with bells around their necks, grazing on the lush, verdant grass of little farms with quaint wooden houses and bright flowerboxes in every window. They have honesty shops/stands throughout the valley where people sell jams, cheeses, sausages, and other trinkets with just a bowl for you to deposit your money.
We walked along a beautiful river and touched the ice-cold water. In the distance we could see tons of base jumpers and paragliders sailing in the air. At one point a man landed in the field we were walking past, coming in so quick and close that he scared Elizabeth half to death, Ryan didn’t see the action, he just heard it. His parachute looked to have collapsed in on itself as he was getting close to the ground, but he somehow landed safely. Elizabeth made Ryan swear to keep rock climbing as our most extreme sport. It didn’t take any convincing.
We arrived at the funicular that would take us to the top of the cliffs and into the mountains. We could have hiked, but didn’t have the time or the energy. The ride only took about 5 minutes and we had great views being dropped off in the small town of Gimmelwald. We got off and headed towards Pension Gimmelwald, a small hotel and brewery with great views. We got lucky, a couple sitting right on the balcony edge was leaving as we arrived, so we grabbed great spots. We sat in the sun drinking our beers and looking out over the snow-capped alps. It got so warm in the sun we had to strip down to our T-shirts. Easily one of the best beers of our lives.
Getting hungry we decided to hike up to the next town called Murren. It was straight uphill, but we conquered it, passing more honesty shops, adorable bell collared cattle and picturesque homes with outlandish views. Being Switzerland, and everything was ridiculously expensive, so we split a beef noodle dish at a small Chinese restaurant. The couple who owns it were watching Chinese soap operas when we walked in and the man jumped up to make us our food fresh and within minutes. It wasn’t bad, but it would never be worth the price.
We needed to begin our long journey home so we could meet the cat owner when she returned from her trip. We walked back down to Gimmelwald and squeezed into the funicular. Once at the bottom, we grabbed the bus back to the train station and began a series of short sprints between tight connections. We managed to make every one of them and got back to the cats around 7 pm. It was a long day, chock full of some of the prettiest scenery we’ve ever seen. After arriving at the apartment, we ate the rest of the leftovers and hung out with the owner, filling her in on the cats’ mischief.
Day 5 – Black Forest, Germany Schwarzwald – October 12
We got up, packed, ate breakfast, and headed for the Basel airport to pick up our rental car. We were led astray by several public transportation maps, but after a few buses and trams we made it to the airport. The airport is split right down the middle by country and you can exit on either the Swiss side or the French side. After a short struggle to find the right rental desk in the right country, we finally climbed in our French Renault Kangoo. The car is like a compact minivan but Ryan was up for the challenge.
It never ceases to amaze us how compact Europe is, everything is so close and within in one hour you can be in three different countries. It was a short 1.5-hour drive deep into the southern portion of the Black Forest into a town called Triberg. We stopped at Café Bergseestüble to grab some lunch. We shared a garden salad and a meat and pasta dish in paprika sauce – not our favorite, but the beers helped wash it down.
After lunch we headed over to the Triberger Waterfall, advertised as the tallest waterfall in Germany, but some of our research claims that isn’t true. We paid our five euro each to the old women at the entrance booths/squirrel feeding stations, then hiked to the waterfall. The waterfall was certainly pretty, but not worth 5 euro. Since we only paid for an hour and a half of parking, we walked around the black forest imagining the inspiration for the Grimm brothers as quickly as we dared. Fall in southern Germany is absolutely stunning with so many gorgeous shades of yellow, orange and red.
We piled back in the car and drove the 1.5 hours northwest to our hotel in France, just outside of the city of Strasbourg. Hotel Argos was a proper hotel! It was so nice to have a private bathroom and towels! And the front desk clerk helped us make reservations for dinner that night at a restaurant called La Tocante. Since we arrived around 5 and of course, being in France, they didn’t even open for dinner until 7:30, so we had to wait until 8:00 for our reservations. The TV only had French channels so Elizabeth spent and hour or so watching a show called the Secret of Cats where French people get their cats GPS tracked by a group of cat scientists.
Finally, and reluctantly, we left our mystery cat show and headed to dinner. We forgot it was a Saturday night and loved seeing all French families and friends out for a weekend meal. We arrived a little late because the parking lot was totally full and had to circle around a few times to find a spot down the road. Luckily, we were close to the border of Germany, so Ryan was able to somewhat communicate with the staff who spoke absolutely no English. We ordered a jug of wine and perused the menu. For dinner we shared the veal kidneys with spätzle and a pizza-like dish called flammkuchen, which is a thin crust covered with cream, cheese, bacon, and onions. The kidneys were over cooked, and in general kidneys are gross (according to Elizabeth), but the pizza was pretty good. Exhausted, we fell right to sleep.
Day 6 – Black Forest, Germany Schwarzwald – October 13
The next morning, we got up and drove 45 minutes back into Germany into the town called Baden-Baden, a town so nice they named it twice. We went to the 9:30 mass at the local cathedral. Ryan had never been more attentive in a catholic service; who knew he just also needed to be able to practice his German.
After church we ate brunch at a restaurant downtown called Einhorn Café. We shared American pancakes and avocado toast: could we be more American millennials? It was slightly chilly so Elizabeth got a delicious hot chocolate, but the sun came out in full force and we were stripped down to our T-shirts by the end of the meal. A lot of things were closed since it was Sunday, but we had fun walking around the town for a bit enjoying the beautiful architecture and great weather.
Our next stop was an old castle only 15 minutes away called Hohenbaden Castle. We parked along the street, beating the rush, and hiked up to the ruins of this 12th century structure. Best part – it was free to roam around! It was beautiful and sunny and we got to climb all over the castle, which they are in the process of restoring. We climbed to the top to get a bird’s eye view of the surrounding wooded hills, bursting with fall colors. Apparently, Germany is known for its autumn beauty, second only to New England.
We found a big hiking loop in the forest right behind the castle and decided to investigate. We hiked about 3 hours with lots of families enjoying the beautiful Sunday weather. The plaque at the front said there were two trails, an upper and a lower, however in the woods we must have seen at least 5+ trails but we managed to not get lost. Apparently, this is a big rock climbing area and we saw lots of people climbing the steep spires that are surrounded by old ruins. It was awesome to hike through the forest and felt like going back in time.
Hungry and tired, we looked for a biergarten to close out the day. In typical fashion the first two we went to were closed, but we finally had success at Alt Eberstein. We parked at the bottom of a steep hill and hiked up the road to sit under a canopy in the courtyard of an old castle and relax with a few beers. Eventually we decided we needed to try the food and got Elizabeth her Käsespätzel, a cheesy macaroni with fried onions on top. It was delicious. We rounded it all out with a fantastic piece of traditional apple streusel. We drove the 50 minutes home after Google lied to us and took us down a couple roads closed for construction and spent the rest of the night lounging.
Day 7 – Strasbourg to Wine Country, Germany Weinstraße – October 14
The next morning, we packed up the car and headed into downtown Strasbourg, the French city we’d been staying outside of. Ryan wanted a haircut. The first shop was closed, though the hours on the door said they were open, and the second shop buzzed us up to his apartment where a man had a barber shop. After hearing us speak English he said he was full, but we don’t really believe him. Heading towards the downtown we popped into a pastry shop to split a Nutella croissant. It was heavenly, the French really have mastered the pastry. The old woman behind the counter didn’t speak English and the French don’t seem very willing to work with non-French speakers, but we eventually got what we wanted.
We walked into the downtown area and separated, Ryan to find his much-needed haircut and Elizabeth to explore. Her first stop was the Cathedral called the Notre Dame of Strasbourg. It was absolutely beautiful and looked very similar to the Notre Dame in Paris. There were a ton of tourist and we realized Strasbourg is like a smaller, cheaper Paris. She walked along the river and through the shops until eventually meeting up with a new sexy husband. Ryan wandered by a couple of coiffeurs until finding one that looked reasonably priced. Luckily, they had a French-born, Dominican-raised hairdresser that could speak English. He explained that he practiced his English when his family moved to Thailand during his childhood. Easily one of the friendliest hairdressers Ryan had ever met. He gave an excellent haircut, complete with sweeping French style techniques. Unfortunately, he couldn’t trim Ryan’s beard, not for lack of skill, he was not allowed to; the exact reasoning for that we’ll never quite know.
Together we went back to explore the church, then to find more pastries. The next pastry shop we stopped at, we split a plain croissant, a chocolate Neapolitan, and a cheese and bacon pretzel. This would fuel us up out of France and back into Germany for our next adventure on the Weinstraße. Driving through rural France was beautiful but was exceeded when we entered Germany and passed the long rows of wine vines showing vibrant shades of yellow, red, orange, and green. We found our AirBnB which had an awesome patio where we could look out onto vineyards and a church further up the hill.
We drove about 5 minutes to the next town north to try some wine. The winery was called Kuhn and is located right in the center of town. Google said it was open but all we saw were a couple guys clearly working hard on their fresh harvest. Eventually we found one of them to talk to and they led us to the tasting area. We couldn’t communicate that we wanted a flight of wine to try, so instead he poured us a huge glass, like to the brim, of two white wines then two red wines. We sat outside in an old wooden wine vat turned into a booth and sipped our delicious wine. We kept seeing locals come up with various Tupperware bottle containers and fill up with something called new wine. This wine is still fermenting and sold super cheap. We tried all three types then bought a bottle to take home, everything was 15 euros. What a delight.
Hungry, we wandered down the street to get Döner Kebab and Ryan got a pizza with all the Döner fixings on top. We took everything home and sat out on the patio eating and drinking hot tea as the temperature dropped.
Day 8 – Wine country, Germany Weinstraße – October 15
We woke up to gray skies, but the rain wasn’t due to sweep through until the afternoon. We piled in the car and headed 30 minutes north to the town called Neustadt am Weinstraße. We drove through more beautiful fall colors and around the hills with changing trees and old castles popping out the tops. The restaurant we wanted to eat at didn’t have an opening until 1, so we spent an hour eating street pretzels and shopping for some toiletries. Eventually it was time to eat, and we got a Thai curry pasta and a Bolognese paired with more local wine. We sat outside on a long picnic table just as we finished eating, a huge wind picked up and the temperature plummeted. Luckily, we finished because Ryan had to help the waitress lower the giant umbrella and chase cushions and napkins around in the wind.
We hustled back to the car and headed down to the town of Saint Martin to pop into some more wineries. The first one we chose was called Weingut Egidiushof. We are so lucky Ryan speaks some German; Elizabeth wouldn’t have made it as smoothly without him. We told them we wanted to try some wine and we were led to a small room with a bunch of older German people. On the table were a ton of bottles of wine where you poured whatever you wanted to try and drank it. They pulled out 5 different wines for us to try and they were all delicious. This region is particularly known for white wines. We went up to pay and they told us that tasting is free but we are welcome to buy a bottle. It was delicious and we felt bad for drinking so much we bought a bottle that only cost us 6 euros. We loved this place.
Our next winery was up the road and we got to walk through the adorable town while it drizzled. The woman led us into a side room and we had a similar experience. They had a couple varieties of wine we’d never had before the best being Scheurebe. It was a white and we are big fans. The sweet ones almost tasted like an ice wine. We bought a bottle of the Scheurebe and were on our way.
Our final winery was set up more like a bar where you stand at the counter and request types to try. They had the worst wine by far, but a huge selection. Ryan spoke for a while with a German woman who was impressed that he took German in high school and spoke so well. There was some sort of gnat or fruit fly infestation in this bar and Elizabeth couldn’t get over it. They got pretty swamped so we decided to get out of their way and didn’t buy any wine. On the walk back to the car we picked up our final German pretzel then went home. It began pouring as soon as we got home so we had no choice but to lounge and drink our bottle of new wine from the day before.
Day 9 – Luxembourg – October 16
The next morning was still overcast but a little nicer weather. We were sadly leaving the wine region to head over to Luxembourg, about a 2.5-hour drive. On our way out of town we stopped to take pictures of the beautiful colors and changing vines. The pictures don’t do it justice.
We made our way northwest through a beautiful forested area towards a town called Kaiserlautern. The town has a university, and it was interesting to see that an international German town could still have that college vibe to it. Ryan spotted a curry house and we couldn’t resist going in for lunch. We ate our vegetarian curries and washed them down with radler beer and chai tea. The food was pretty good, but not great. That’s the beauty of Indian food though, they have such a high floor for flavor that it’s hard to get a bad curry. After lunch, we had about another hour and a half drive to Luxembourg and the scenery did not disappoint as we wound our way through more autumn forests.
We arrived in Luxembourg City and checked into our apparently government-subsidized hostel, simply called Youth Hostel, right on the edge of downtown. We are back in a six-bedroom mixed dorm for the night and when we arrived, we didn’t have any roommates – fingers crossed it remains that way. The rain had stopped, so we explored the city. The old city portion of Luxembourg City is split by the Alzette River and surrounded by steep hills. We walked up passed an old fort (the Dent Cruese) that’s we couldn’t find out the age of, which was used as a bomb shelter in WW2. You’re supposed to be able to enter the tunnels below and walk through an archeological crypt museum, but we couldn’t figure out how to get in and didn’t want to pay for it.
From the fort you look down on the Neumünster Abbey an old church converted into a cultural center. There were police everywhere and a few Belgian flags hanging up. As we continued wandering into town more police were in town and certain roads were blocked off. After watching the evening news at the hostel we found out that the royal couple from Belgium was in town on an official 3-day visit. We never caught a glance.
Wandering through the old town we stopped into Église Saint-Michel church and admired the stained-glass windows and beautiful alter. We walked past the Royal Duke Palace, most of which was closed off for the royal visit. Next, we wandered through the downtown which is full of clothing stores, bars, etc. We also stopped in the Notre Dame of Luxembourg. It was fairly plain on the outside, but the inside was absolutely stunning. The church was huge and had wonderful stained glass and architecture. Luckily, we arrived just 15 minutes before they closed, so we had just enough time to wander in and out.
Starting to feel a little thirsty and peckish, we popped into a bar called Banana’s to try some Luxembourgish beer, including a beer with sprite and grenadine, obviously for Elizabeth. They had some finger foods we considered, but a lot of the restaurants in the tourist area were overpriced and there wasn’t a particular national dish we were dying to try, so we decided to search for a different spot. While Googling, Ryan noticed they had a Five Guys across town. We looked no further and shared a burger, fries and chocolate milkshake. It was a great reminder of home. We laughed because all the decorations and signs in the restaurant are in English an identical to the decorations in the States but none of the workers spoke English.
Day 10 – Luxembourg to France – October 17
We walked home along the river in the dark trying to avoid getting hit by cars on the narrow lanes. We made it back to the hostel and checked out their bar. It looked like a lot of locals came just to eat at the restaurant. We enjoyed a few draft beers before bed. We found a Portuguese man in our room and he told us he tends to talk/yell in his sleep and we must wake him up if he bothers us. Should be an interesting night.
Things we learned in Switzerland, Germany, and Luxembourg:
- The French word for cats is chats.
- Southern Germany in the fall is absolutely gorgeous, and the wine’s pretty good too.
- If Switzerland wasn’t so expensive, we never would have left.
- The Swiss Alps might be the most beautiful place on Earth.
Ryan and Elizabeth Goss 