Where To Switzerland - Day One
The first international trip post-Covid! I hadn’t actually been international since 2017 and this was Austin’s first time.
We landed in Zurich at 8 a.m., grabbing our luggage, exchanging USD for Swiss Francs and then picking up our rental car. YES, we were driving around Switzerland instead of taking the amazing train system. Personally, as you will see over this series, it was a great choice for us since it allowed us to go at our own pace, stop whenever we pleased, as well as reach some harder to get to locals. Not to mention, I can not pack as light as I would wish, especially when traveling in cooler weather, so it would have been a pain, as much as we moved around, constantly lugging all that luggage onto a train.
We immediately hit the road, heading toward a little lakeside town called Iseltwald, where we would be staying for our first night.
Halfway to the town, I made it a point for us to stop in the beautiful Lucerne. It was perfect timing too, because the jet lag was starting to hit us slightly while being on the road. We parked in the tightest little garage before walking around the historical city center, easily spotting the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrucke), leisurely walking across and finding a lunch of Bratwurst right beside the water of the river Reuss where it meets Lake Lucerne.
No, we didn’t spend very long in Lucerne. Not even enough time to say half a day. It will definitely be a place we plan on returning to in future travels to Switzerland, and I think two days would be the perfect amount to explore more.
Back on the road we went! My eyes were glued to the scenery outside the car windows. It was an overcast day, the leaves changing all over, the roads so well-made - and the hills. We really started feeling an elevation change the closer we got to Lake Brienz.
The first glance of Lake Brienz took our breath away. It was so unbelievably blue.
We finally arrived in the cute town of Iseltwald, quickly finding our hotel, Chalet du Lac that I had discovered on Instagram from a local Swiss photographer. Immediately after checking in, and doing a room tour of course, we knocked the heck out for an hour or so.
After our nap, we sat on the balcony just soaking up the view before heading down to the hotel restaurant for a delicious dinner that included the best deer back-strap (locally sourced too) I have ever had and a gorgeous sunset view.
My reasons for this choice of hotel and small town instead of staying in a bigger, well-known city like Lucerne or Zurich:
1) The view. I mean, just look at the photos. The water, the view of the abandoned Seeburg Castle.
2) Iseltwald is actually the town where a very famous scene from a K-Drama, Crash Landing on You, is filmed and I wanted to see it. Yes, I love to plan my itinerary around film and book locations!
3) It was also on the way to our next location. I thoroughly planned out this route, prioritizing what we felt like we MUST see, do and eat, before the trip ended. Of course, there is still plenty on our list that we couldn’t get to/we didn’t have infinite time, so that only means we have to visit again.
End of day one Swiss wine count: 2
Hotel: Chalet du Lac
Where to (next), Meg?
