Bern

We were staying in St. Stephan, a few stops down the valley from Lenk, because my aunt has an apartment there. That particular trip happened to line up with the Alpabfahrt taking place in the village the next day, the yearly procession where the cattle get walked down from the alp, decorated and all, which…

Every September, a small village in the Bernese Oberland fills up with people who came for one reason: to watch cows walk home. It sounds almost too simple to be worth the trip, until you actually stand at the roadside in St. Stephan and see the first herd round the corner, horns wrapped in ribbon,…

We arrived at the Kandersteg cable car station at 11:50 on a Saturday and the parking lot was already completely full. That alone tells you something about how popular this lake is. So we changed plans on the spot, drove down to Blausee first, and then caught the postbus back up to Kandersteg from the…

The first time I stood at the edge of Blausee, I genuinely thought someone had dyed the water. It is that specific, saturated, almost unnatural shade of blue, the kind you expect from a postcard filter rather than an actual lake sitting quietly in a Bernese forest. I have been back three times since, in…

We drove down from Brienz on a warm July afternoon, and before we’d even reached the ticket gate, a hand-carved wooden cow the size of a real Simmental was already posing for photos with half a dozen kids. That’s Ballenberg in one image: playful, wooden, and unmistakably Swiss. Over the next four hours we walked…

Anyone searching for a single day out that combines a mountain funicular, real alpine views, a cave system, and a boat ride usually finds these attractions scattered across separate listicles, each treated as its own outing. In practice, they line up into one continuous route around the northern side of Lake Thun, starting high on…