This summer we decided to bite the bullet and pay for four plane tickets to Europe. Going back home to Switzerland was going to be a big focus of this trip. With our kids being dual citizens we want to make sure they get to know their far-away home a little while growing up – seeing places where their mom grew up, experiencing different foods, high mountains and a different language.
After our long flight to Zurich, we decided to jump straight into a rental car and drive to a small alpine village called Flims, about an hour and a half away from Zurich. It’s where my dad grew up and where I spent many winters and summers as a child. It’s small, quaint and a place many would call typically Swiss – with high mountains, cows and lot’s of cheese.
Above images are around our rental apartment. Note the year on the first building!
On day one, my sister and her family came up to visit along with my mom. We decided to head up to a mountain valley called Bargis. It turned out it was quite a steep hike! What a way to kick that jet lag. Once we made it up we had a hearty meal and then cooled off in the freezing stream. The kids had a blast and were exhausted after a day in nature. Look at that sky…looks like it goes on forever.
One of my favourite places is the Caumasee. It’s the most beautiful emerald coloured alpine lake. When I was 16, I had a summer job there selling swimming tickets and ice cream at the kiosk. The water is freezing cold, but it’s a great place to spend a summer day, ride a pedalo boat or enjoy the new kids playground. It’s an easy walk from the parking lot, so anybody can get there. The kids had a great time canon balling into the lake from that raft.
While in the alps I wanted to enjoy more of the view from above. At first we wanted to go up to the glacier, but it turned out the gondola only runs on the weekends in the summer. Instead, we decided to take the chairlift to Foppa and then hike over to Fidaz. It’s a pretty flat hike, while it’s a bit long for our 5 year old, we did get the most beautiful view. Unfortunately the restaurant we were planning to eat lunch at was closed for renovations, so we had to hike a little further for sustenance ;).
Another place worth hiking to is Conn. You actually hike down, which doesn’t seem to make sense, and after you’ve hiked down for an hour or so, you end up at these crazy cliffs that go straight down to the Rhein gorge. It’s called the little grand canyon. There’s a really good restaurant there and there’s an observation deck that hangs over the gorge, in case you didn’t get scared enough of the height.While we were there, someone came for lunch with their helicopter. The kids and Bruno decided to take the horse drawn carriage back to the village, while my mom and I walked back with the dogs.
We had an amazing week in the alps. It was incredibly relaxing, the food was amazing, it was great to see old and familiar things and the weather was pretty good.
Photos by Giulia Doyle and Bruno Doyle
I have a few more pictures to share with you in a separate post. I decided to split this trip into multiple posts since they are so picture heavy! So, stay tuned for more Switzerland photos and photos from Spain.
