Sunday, July 28, 2024

Sunday morning, we took a taxi from the Residence Inn Geneva City Nations to Geneva Airport (GVA).

From there, we took the United 11:00am flight to Dulles International Airport (IAD), which landed at 2:00pm local.

Trip Summary

The map below shows in red where we went on this trip.

Flying into Geneva Airport (GVA) on July 21st, we travelled by train to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, changing trains at Bern and Interlaken Ost.

We spent 2.5 days in and around Lauterbrunnen, taking excursions to the towns of Murren, Gimmelwald, Wengen, Grindelwald, Interlaken, and Unterseen.  We visited the local sites of Mannlichen, Kleine Scheidegg, Eigergletscher, First, Lake Brienz, and Giessbach Falls.  We took trains, gondolas, and a boat between many of these sites, and from Murren to Gimmelwald (1.8 miles), Mannlichen peak to Kleine Scheidegg (3.5 miles), and Interlaken through Unterseen to the Harder Kulm funicular (1.5 miles), we hiked.

On July 24th, we travelled by train from Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland to Chamonix, France, changing trains at Interlaken Ost, Visp, and Martigny, Switzerland, and Vallorcine, France.

We spent 3.5 days in and around Chamonix, not really taking excursions to other towns, but exploring Chamonix itself, and visiting the local sites of Planpraz, Flegere, Staubbach Falls, Index, Aiguille du Midi, Montenvers, and Grotte de Glace.  We also spent 3 nights at the Cosmo Jazz Festival at Parc Couttet.  In addition, we had a breathtaking hike from Planpraz to Flegere (4 miles), and later that day, a very pleasant stroll from the Flegere gondola terminal back into Chamonix (2.5 miles).

And we got to share most all of these experiences with life-long friends and new acquaintances.

Impressions

Switzerland is expensive.  It is absolutely a bucket list destination.  And although I’m sure it has many, many more amazing places to discover, with much of the globe yet I’ve yet to see, based on the relative cost and my projected assets and life span, I think I can check it off.  The travel passes give you great flexibility, but I shouldn’t need to get a PhD to take best advantage of them.

Geneva is a city.  The waterfront is very appealing, but otherwise the city doesn’t seem like anything special.

Chamonix is really not a city, but a skiing/hiking/tourist town.  And from those perspectives, it is an absolute blast.  The people were helpful and friendly.  And although I never really thought I would say this, I want to go back to France!  We felt totally safe, with the exception of when we were hiking on a ledge 2,000 feet above the valley floor.  The mountains are absolutely jaw-dropping.

Suggestions for Visiting

I used the Gaia GPS app.