Wandering Loose in Switzerland

We just spent two weeks camping and hiking in Switzerland; I’ll give you some impressions. We had an advantage, in that we spent four days with Swiss friends and got their opinions on places to visit. We also ate well at their home, including a traditional raclette. We were able to find interesting and beautiful places.

We attended two community theater performances, this one in Yverdon-les-Bains; the presentations were in French, which I didn’t completely understand. Too many words and too fast for me to understand more than about half. But, its live performance, and that adds energy to your life regardless.

We did a day trip from Sion to a mountain village called Grimentz. Although touristic, it was small and cute and we ate lunch in a small restaurant.

The Main Street though old Grimentz was well interpreted throughout.

We ran accross an artist painting on a beach on the lake by Lausanne. Josette had a long conversation with her and she gave us a book of her paintings. They are bright and uplifting and perhaps one day we will have something of hers on the wall. This painting is 5 meters long and has taken her most of the summer.

This is the Saturday market in Yverdon-les-Bains. Its the real deal, on a pedestrian-only street downtown, and what a fun place to hang out. Our friend knows this vendor and they had a long conversation. We saw lots of fruit orchards, and these are freshly harvested. There are also lots of interesting shops for random wandering shopping experiences.

We went to visit a friend who is an armorer and saw his final part of a restoration of a suit of armor from the 1500s. I asked about the symbol of village his workshop is in, a lobster missing its right claw. He didn’t know the origin, but ChatGPT did: the town was split into two and one side kept the lobster and the other the right claw.

One morning we drove the switchbacks up to parking (free!) for Torrent-Neuf.

The beginning is a 500 meter walk to a cafe where the trail begins, where you can fortify yourself with coffee. A bottle of local white wine is also available for 20 CHF if you need more fortification.

We walked along the irrigation ditches -bisses-built beginning in 1410 and spanning 4 kilometers. Some of them are wood troughs hanging off cliffs, some are dug into cliffs. There four passareles (suspension bridges) on this route. There is lots of good interpretation of the history, too. You may be surprised that the hundred year old photos show many women working alongside the men.

We camped 5 km short of Zermatt and took a shuttle to the town (you can’t drive in the town). It’s all hotels and restaurants and shopping and is pedestrian and bicycle only, with some exceptions- small electric taxi-vans.

We took a cable car up the mountain $65 each) and did some hiking. The highlight was the perfect view of the Matterhorn.

We met two groups of Americans hiking up there. It’s easy to spot Americans by clothing and their accent. Many people were speaking English up there, but Americans stand out.

There was a point in my life when I could have climbed this peak, but I had neither the money nor the time. That time is past.

There is a large downtown for tourists. We hated it. Too many Americans! on the plus side, there are very modern public toilets (free!) and the Matterhorn. I suggested that we get an ice cream; Josette said she would rather have ice cream with the happy woman at the campground. We found our way back to the pickup point for the 5 PM shuttle, but just barely. I told the happy woman what Josette said and she said the ice cream was “offert” for us and told the cashier not to charge us.

This bus with 19 passengers camped near us by Zermatt, too. It is a traveling hotel. Each of those small windows is a sleeping berth. Seating is up front, meals are cooked and in good weather served outside. They use the campground bathrooms (which were quite nice). They are on a two week tour of Switzerland. it looked like a fun group. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotel_Tours

We spent a lot of time driving up and over mountains on well built but narrow roads. There is usually a hotel, bar, and restaurant at the top.

We spent four nights in Sion. This bisse trail begins at the city limits and follows a bisse for 10 kilometers. We walked two kilometers to a winery where tastings and meals were available. We didn’t partake (Josette doesn’t care for wine, and then there is the money issue.) it works be a great way to spend a lazy day, but we had already been up the mountain to walk Torrente-Neuf.

Sion had a huge event downtown- a mountain bike race. It was an energetic place, and I was surprised that I loved it.

We camped and did most of our own cooking, and it was still expensive. RV parks are $75 per night and restaurants and even grocery stores pricey.