Zurich, the Bernese Oberland and the Rhine Falls

I was based in Embrach, a village about 20 minutes north of Zurich, with my friend. We drove into Zurich and it was grey and cold all morning (typical). The first thing we walked into was a fountain outside the Fraumünster filled to the brim with roses, hundreds of them which they do every Spring. Then the painted cloister next door, St. Peter's clock, and streets hung with so many Swiss flags it looked staged. We went on a walking tour which was nice and got to learn a bit about the history of Zurich. The walking tour was free and lasted about two hours, make sure to always tip your guides!

Lunch was the best part. We walked through the cobblestone lanes to the Zeughauskeller, a beer hall inside an armory built in 1487, all dark wood and long tables where you sit next to strangers, and we ate meats and drank beer until we were warm again.

After lunch we walked down to the lake where the swans are waiting for you at the water's edge, past the opera house, and out along the shore to the Chinese Garden at Zürichhorn, a gift from Zurich's sister city Kunming. It opens for the season in late March and costs a few francs. On a clear afternoon you can see the Alps from the lakefront, which I was not expecting from a city.

We walked to The Blüemlihalle, a hall painted floor to ceiling in red flowers by Augusto Giacometti, is inside a working police station. It is free, but you can only see it on a short guided visit, Wednesday to Saturday 2 to 5pm, and you need ID to get in.

The drive in goes past Lungern and Brienz, two of those lakes that are a colour you would not believe if someone else posted it. Then you leave the car behind, because you have to. Mürren is car-free. There is no road in. You go up or you do not go.

We parked in Lauterbrunnen and took the cable car up the cliff to Grütschalp, then the little train that runs along the edge of the mountain into Mürren. That train ride alone is worth the ticket. The whole valley is underneath you and the big peaks are right there across it.

Everything up there was still snow since it was the in-between season in the Oberland. The ski season had days left on it and the hiking season had not started, so half of what you would come for is shut and the other half is empty. I would take empty. We wandered up through the village until the path ran out, past chalets buried to the windows and a sign for the summer Flower Park poking out of the snow.

Lunch was pizza at a table by a huge window looking straight at the mountains. It was expensive. I do not remember the number and I am not going to make one up, but assume mountain prices and then add some, because everything up there came up the same way you did.

The practical one. Trümmelbach Falls does not open until April. It is the paid waterfall in Lauterbrunnen and the one worth paying for, and in March it is shut. Staubbach runs all year and is free from the valley floor, so we finished the day down there instead, with the river running grey-green under the cliffs. And if you are picking one mountain: Schilthorn from Mürren is CHF ~90 and Jungfraujoch starts at CHF 224.

Blausee is the one I would go back for.

It is a small lake in the Kander valley with water so clear it does not look real, and there is a statue of a woman lying on the bottom of it that you can see straight through the surface. She has been down there since 1998. The story is that a girl's love died and she rowed out alone to cry over him, and the lake went blue from her eyes. You see her properly from the rowing boat, which has a glass floor and is included in your entry.

Now the thing that catches people out. Blausee is not a free lake you wander up to. It is a private park with a gate and you pay to get in. CHF 13 on a weekend, CHF 11 on a weekday. Worth it, but turn up expecting a public lakeside and you will be annoyed at the ticket desk. The boat is meant to be a summer thing, so check before you count on it.

We woke up in Leissigen, on the shore of Lake Thun, and drove over the hill from there. I was at Blausee on Easter Saturday and everything was snowy and pretty. We got there before noon, drove on up the valley to Kandersteg, and came back for a second look in the afternoon, which tells you how much I liked it.

I did not paint at the lake. I painted it later, from a photo, and the picture is not even of the water. It is us sitting on the benches doing nothing. That is what I took home from it.

If you are doing this as a full day, the park is small and walkable, and the valley around Kandergrund and Kandersteg is the rest of it.

The next day we drove to Lucerne and we did as all tourists do which is walk, talk, grab a beer and explore the beautiful city.

The old squares are the thing. Every building is painted, not a colour but a picture. Zunfthaus zu Pfistern sits right on the river with its whole front covered, and Restaurant Fritschi on the square behind it has the wildest facade I saw in Switzerland, jesters and masks all the way up. Across the water the Jesuit Church has two green onion domes, and it looks best from the riverbank, with the Reuss running fast and green in front of it.

Then up the hill to the Hofkirche, the big church with the two pointed towers. Go inside, even if churches are not your thing. The organ takes up the whole back wall. It was built between 1640 and 1650, it has more than 7,000 pipes and it weighs about 30 tonnes. I stood and stared at it for a long time.

The mountain to know about is Pilatus, and in late March it is half shut. The cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad only runs May to November, so the Golden Round Trip that every photo of Lucerne is selling you is not available. The Kriens gondola side runs all year at CHF 46. Rigi runs all year too, and it is the better call that season.

One more worth asking for. If you stay a night anywhere in Lucerne, the guest card is free and the hotel has to give you one. It covers zone 10 transit. Nobody offers it. You have to ask at check-in.

I did this on Easter Sunday, and Switzerland on a Sunday is closed. Properly closed. We did not get moving until nearly 2pm and honestly that is the correct way to do a Swiss Sunday, because there is nothing to be early for. The one exception is shops inside train stations, which are legally allowed to open, so there is a full Coop running while the rest of the country is shut.

The Rhine Falls are the biggest waterfall in Europe by volume and there are two sides to them. The north bank at Neuhausen is free. The south side, Schloss Laufen, charges CHF 5 and takes you down a staircase onto platforms that put you right in front of the water, close enough to get wet, and on a sunny afternoon there is a rainbow sitting in the spray. I paid the CHF 5 and it was worth it. I did not do the boat out to the rock.

Then Schaffhausen, which I loved and did not expect to. Genuinely cute town, and almost nobody goes. The Munot is the fort sitting above it, free to walk into, and they still ring its bell by hand at 9pm every night. I also went gambling, which is not a sentence I expected to write about Switzerland.

Unfortunately as of today that casino is gone. Swiss Casinos Schaffhausen closed for good on 12 October 2025 after 23 years. They did move the operation to Winterthur and reopened there that December so if you are planning a night on it, you want Winterthur.