Switzerland was one of the countries we were most looking forward to visiting on this trip. Neither of us had ever been there before except for a stopover at the Zurich airport over two decades ago. We had an image of Switzerland conjured up in our minds of green pastures, cows with bells around their necks, views of snow-capped peaks of the Alps from every vantage point, pristine lakes, low crime and clean and tidy cities. What we experienced was not quite so idyllic. We also knew that Switzerland prices would be higher than in France, but again it was not quite what we expected. Overall, we found Switzerland to be a country of contrasts.

We made a quick stop in Mulhouse, France to get some errands done including stopping at a Hymer dealer who fixed a noisy vibrating shade on the driver’s side window in under 5 minutes. We also purchased a cool Truma ultrasound pen device to accurately check our propane tank levels. Lastly, Tony found a Specialized dealer in a fancy bike stop for some need brake pads. Next, we purchased our $40 e-vignette online (which is good for a calendar year) and allows us to drive on the toll roads throughout Switzerland. Our plans were to visit the Lake Geneva region of Switzerland leaving the other parts of the country to a future visit.

Basel, Switzerland: On our drive to our first stop in Basel, Switzerland we drove through some agricultural areas which had expansive shanty towns on the edges of some of the fields for the workers. We immediately began to realize one of the richest countries in the world has many of the same problems as other countries in how agricultural workers are paid and treated. As we approached the city of Basel, we began to see a lot (I mean A LOT) of graffiti everywhere. Pretty much every bridge underpass, wall or really any large vertical surface was covered in graffiti. Tony and I love murals and street art, but this was not that. This was graffiti. We saw it on sides of residential buildings, garages and even historic buildings. This occurred throughout Switzerland, not just in the Basel area, and this is singlehandedly the most graffiti either of us has ever seen in any country or city anywhere we have visited in the world. It was totally unexpected and not in tune with our vision of Switzerland. We did a bit of research (interesting older op-ed piece here: https://www.dicconbewes.com/2011/09/08/graffiti-the-swiss-disease/) and prevailing thoughts are that the graffiti is not gang related, it is tolerated by the Swiss as it is a low-level non-violent crime, there is debate on whether it is actually graffiti versus street art (it is DEFINETLY 95% graffiti, IMO) and it is seen as a creative outlet for Swiss youth who otherwise live within very defined rules and laws. We never got used to the amount of graffiti in Switzerland while we were there.

We stayed at an Aire-style campground just over the border in Weil am Rhein, Germany. It was an easy 2-mile bike ride on dedicated bike paths into the city along the Rhine River. There are bike and pedestrian paths with clear signage which can take you almost anywhere you want to go. The Swiss take their biking very seriously as it is thought of as transportation versus a recreational activity as it is in the US. Dedicated biking lanes, bike only boulevards and specific bike traffic signals were all experienced in Basel. It took us a bit to figure out how this all works, and we both almost caused a collision (Tony with a car and me with another bike) before figuring it out, but once we did, we both agreed it was an efficient and magnificent way to travel.

We explored Basel via our Brompton bikes, including doing a self-guided audio tour of the Old Town area. We went to Fondation Beyeler which was a bit of a disappointment as they were transitioning to a new special exhibit and therefore only about 20% of the gallery spaces and art works were available for viewing including only a single Monet and Van Gogh. Tony was not super jazzed about going to the next stop which was a Paper Mill Museum. Historically Basel was the paper making capital of Switzerland. The museum was housed amongst 4 floors of a historic former paper mill and the building in and of itself was worth the visit. The museum had many pieces of historic equipment for both paper making and printing. There were a lot of hands-on opportunities, and I even made my own sheet a rag paper with an embossed angel watermark in it.  Tony (reluctantly) agreed after the visit that it was much more interesting than he expected it to be. While in Basel, we discovered Tidbits which is a regional plant-based upscale buffet. The food was delicious, and we aren’t typically buffet people. We took walks along the Rhine River and Tony also took a ride on his road bike through some quaint German villages.  

Bern, Switzerland: We drove an hour south to Bern, Switzerland which is on the Aare River (a tributary of the Rhine River). We camped in another small municipal campsite owned directly on the river. We didn’t have a reservation and it was a weekend, but the staff were very kind and were somehow able to accommodate us even though within hours of our arrival every other campsite was full. The campground also provided us with free public transportation tickets for the duration of our stay, which we used several times. As is our routine, we did a self-guided audio walking tour of the city on the day of our arrival to orient us to the city. We learned that Bern is known for its watchmaking and it has a clock tower which performs every hour. The old town was quite busy as we were there on a weekday.   The locals remind us of Amsterdam as they were dressed in business suits but riding on bicycles. We walked a lot (i.e. 20,000+ steps each day) while in Bern and visited a beautiful rose garden with an Einstein sculpture (he lived here with his family), walked across several lovely bridges over the Aare River which is an opaque milky turquoise color due to the water arising from glacial run-off, and had our first sighting of the Alps. We found another Tidbits, a plant-based buffet restaurant, and this one was just as good as the one in Basel although with slightly different offerings. We took the Gurten Park funicular whose cars were only 2 days old and then explored the park up top. From this vantage point, we had a bird-eye view of Bern as well as panoramic views of the Alps. The views were even better after we climbed up to the top of an observation tower. Tony did a road ride out towards the Alps while I took my Brompton back along the river and into the city. We both agree that Bern is one of our favorite Switzerland cities so far.

Boudry, Switzerland: Next up on our itinerary was a hike in the Gorges of Aruese which is south of Bern. Sadly, this hike did not happen although we did try to make it work. Upon arrival to the city where the trailhead is located, it quickly became obvious that the street (more like an alley) leading to the trailhead would not be passable for our van. We eventually found some nearby street parking but by that time the weather had changed, and it started to rain. We decided to stay nearby for the night and try again the next morning. We had our first European boondocking spot which we found in a small mountain town adjacent to a farm. There was a herd of cows with quintessential bells of various sizes around their necks ringing in different tones but in perfect harmony. Nobody seemed to care that we parked and slept there, so it was a successful and peaceful evening with views of Lake Neuchatel.  We headed back to the area near the trailhead the next morning, found a spot in a train station parking lot, paid for our parking and were walking to the trailhead when we noticed glass on the ground. The window of the car parked next to us had been broken out and the car had been ransacked. We scanned the parking lot and noticed a second car in the same condition. We weren’t comfortable leaving our van (our home in reality) in an area with such recent car break-ins, so we left without doing the hike. We researched crime in Switzerland, and we learned they have very few violent crimes, but they do have a fair share of property crimes especially car break-ins. There is also a good amount of cocaine and amphetamine drug trafficking, which surprised us.

Lausanne, Switzerland: Next up was Lausanne, Switzerland on the banks of Lake Geneva. This city was our least favorite city we visited in Switzerland. We again did a self-guided audio walking tour of the Old Town area, which was quite small in size as compared to the others Swiss cities we had visited. We again stayed in a municipal campground right in the city and adjacent to the IOC HQ. This campground had mainly permanent residents living there, but everybody was friendly, the place was well-maintained, and the location was great. We were again provided free public transportation tickets during our stay, which we used quite a bit. Having lived in Chicago for over a decade, we are pretty comfortable deciphering public transit route maps and making transfers which we did a lot of while in Lausanne. We took a bus/tram/train up to Savebelin tower which provided 360-degree views of Lausanne, the Alps and Lake Geneva. The tower was built in 2002 and was made with large timbers in a spiral design. Lunch was again eaten at Tidbits and I think we were the only non-local people in this place. All of the Tidbits we visited were busy and well patronized, which made us happy to see other like-minded folks enjoying plant-based food. One of my favorite places was the Olympic Museum. I could have spent all day in the museum, especially with the provided audio tour, but I tempered my interest for Tony’s sake. This was a 3-level museum which explored the history of the Olympics but also exhibits on politics, personal athlete stories, Olympic venues, clothing and equipment developments as well as opening/closing ceremonies. The last section was the opportunity to be an Olympic athlete and I tried my hand at alpine skiing (no gates missed) and the biathlon (no missed shots and one of the fastest times of the day). Just sayin’ I might have missed my calling in life. LOL Tony biked a couple of sections of the 111-mile loop road which goes around Lake Geneva along with many, many other recreational cyclists, probably the most he has seen while in Switzerland.

Geneva, Switzerland: Our last stop was in Geneva, Switzerland which ended up being one of our favorites. We stayed at yet another city municipal campground which was right on Lake Geneva and we had water views from our pitch (site). Tony put his bread order in with the campground as a local bakery delivers orders daily at 8:30 AM. He is starting to act like a local. We again received free train, bus, tram and water ferry public transportation tickets with our campsite. The campgrounds are much more expensive in Switzerland ($50-60 Euro/night) than in France ($5-20 Euro/night); HOWEVER the campgrounds in Switzerland also provide free public transport during your stay, some provided 10% coupons for the local grocery store, some provided card for discounted museum tickets and all the facility and electric fees were included. In France, none of these perks have been included and typically electricity is an additional charge. Even with all the perks, Switzerland campsites are more expensive, but not that much more expensive when everything is taken into account. Food prices were a bit more expensive in Switzerland, but not dramatically so as long as we were not buying packaged or imported food. Our meals for 2 people at Tidbits were about $30-35 CHF for both of us, which in our opinion is good value. Even paying the $40 CHF for the Swiss annual vignette toll pass, this is still less than the constant barrage of tolls we pay on the French toll roads. So, all said YES Switzerland is more expensive, but we did not find it dramatically so as we had expected.

Geneva makes our list of places we could actually live. With a population of 200,000 people and a population of 1,000,000 people in Greater Geneva, this is an actual city. We walked a lot and used the public transportation passes a lot. In Geneva, it is the honor system when boarding the public transport as there is no place to swipe or validate our ticket; however, there are officials who board the buses and trains randomly and verify everyone has valid tickets. This happened to us on one of our buses and I was so nervous I couldn’t get my pass to pull up, but the worker was very kind and patient with me. Interestingly, the only person on our bus without a valid ticket was the sharp dressed man in a business suit. He was fined and they made him also buy a ticket all while still riding the bus.

The weather was fantastic while we were in Geneva. We road our Bromptons all around the city including to the United Nation HQ and the International Committee of the Red Cross HQ. We found a magnificent city park and garden, too. A self-guided audio walking tour was also completed; however this one was a bit too detailed in its descriptions for our liking however it did take us to parts of the city we had not been to before.  We saw the Jet d’Eau (water jet) from pretty much every angle.   We were 9 miles on the other side of lake during rush hour, but luckily I was able to follow a commuter cyclist back into the city which involved short-cuts, sidewalks, bus lanes and weaving in and out of stopped traffic. We made it home in record time.

Our campsite was located in a lovely residential area where we could walk to the small village center. There was a Brompton dealer in the village inside a fancy bike shop which adjusted the derailleur on my Brompton and refused to charge me for it. Swiss people are very kind and nice even though we fail to be able to speak any of their common languages.

Another bus/bus/train ride to the completely opposite side of the city, took us to CERN which is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. CERN has a massive educational exhibit, with a lot of hands-on adult-oriented options (this is not a place for small children) all related to particle and quantum physics. We were also able to score limited tickets to a 90-minute tour, led by one of CERN’s actual physicists, of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Atlas control center and to see the de-commissioned synchrocyclotron, their 1^st particle accelerator. I was in nerd heaven learning about the Higgs boson and aspects of particle physics that were not even a thing when I was in school. I was in science HEAVEN at this place, and I now want to be a physicist in my next life. The last part of our visit to Geneva included eating at the all-vegetarian restaurant called Tonic. This place was not a tourist spot and we were the only locals there and only non-French speaking people. The food was quite tasty and fairly inexpensive by Swiss standards. Our final afternoon was spent in the Patek Phillipe Museum. A high-class and prestigious museum about fine watchmaking and timepieces. The museum included an audio and visual tour using a headset and a provided I-pad. While it was interesting to see the various watches and timepieces, we found it most interesting to see the progression of innovation and precision manufacturing required to make these timepieces. This was another museum that exceeded our expectations. Between our visit to CERN and the Patek Phillipe museum, we came to truly understand how good the Swiss are in precision engineering and manufacturing.

Overall, we really liked Switzerland and we can’t wait to come back and explore the rest of the country. While we visited some typical tourist areas, we really found so much joy just in the everyday activities of being in a different country. Grocery shopping, going to an ATM, eating in a restaurant or even riding the bus are fun and interesting experiences for us as they are so different from our life at home in Arizona. The positives of Switzerland were very walkable cities, bike-friendly infrastructure everywhere we went, beautiful views of lakes and mountains, camping options near cities with free public transportation provided and the sound of cow bells which was oddly hypnotic. The negatives of Switzerland would be the amount of graffiti we saw everywhere, petty property crime and higher (but not dramatically higher) prices. Oddities would be the large number of very lengthy tunnels on the toll roads. It felt like a large portion of the drive from Bern to Lausanne was in a tunnel. We have yet to figure out why this is, maybe easier driving in the winter? Hmmmm….more research for another day.

 Onwards!

Up Next: French Alps