Swiss roadtrip

Hi guys, come with me to the prettiest country in the world, aka Switerland. There's just no other country that I've visited yet, that has the same glacier views as Switzerland... and this girl loves her glaciers!

I went there at the end of may. In spring, Switzerland has still some snow left and also has some flowery fields blossoming already. I went to the region of the Thunersee. The lake in between mountains with a couple of castles to visit.

Some of the places I've visited there:

* the lakes: Thunersee, Oeschinensee, Blausee, Bielersee.

* the nature: Adelboden.

* the Roman city: Augusta Raurica.

* the 4 castles: Schloss Spiez, Schloss Thun, Schloss Oberhofen, Schloss Hünegg

Here's my itinerary! All the places are linked by the way.

Day 1: On our way there, we made a pitstop in France. This cute little town is close to Switzerland and apparantly the prettiest town of the "Alsace" region. It's called Riquewihr and it's close to the more famous Colmar. All the colorfull houses are very lovely. The region is also famous for it's wine so the town is surrounded by beautiful vineyards. You can visit them as well if you want.

After that, we crossed the border of Switzerland in Basel. Close to Basel, just outside

the city, you can find a Roman city called Augusta Raurica. There are still a couple of excavations to visit there, such as the photo here. The city was quite big, there are Roman findings in the entire modern city. The ancient city had about 10 000 of inhabitants around 200 AD. Apparently it's the oldest known city near the Rhine river.

This Roman Theatre is still used today so it's renovated, which is kinda sad... But watching a show there should be pretty cool. In the back of the photo, you can spot the city of Basel. Oh and great news, this place is for free to visit (except the museum).

There is a route that you can follow, to spot other Roman findings such as a temple and an amphitheatre. The temple was in my opinion impressive too, the theatre not so much.

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Day 2: After dinner at our hotel and unpacking, we explored the region a bit the next day. There were a lot of castles on my to do list so the first thing we did in the morning was ofcourse: visiting a castle!

The first castle we visited was the Spiez castle. This castle is ofource, located in the city of Spiez. Spiez is a cosy little city next to the beautiful Thun lake, right in front of the mountains. We went there in spring, when there is still some fresh white snow left. It was gorgeous!

The museum is inside the castle. You can visit the castle, climb up the tower and enjoy the beautiful lake views there. The tickets are 12 CHF (which is almost 12 euros). Next to the castle, there is a lovely rose garden as well.

The museum is open daily. Opening times:

Monday 14:00 - 17:00 Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 - 17:00 July & August until 18:00

After the castle, we went to the famous Oeschinensee. The lake is famous for it's gorgeous green/blue color.

When we went there, the weather in the mountains was a bit moody so the lake was more grey-ish... but still pretty lovely. You can go up there with a cable car or by foot. From the cable car, it's about 40 minutes by foot to get to the lake. At the lake, there is a hotel/restaurant and a smaller restaurant. There are also some fireplace near the lake where you can have a barbeque.

The cable car is 30 CHF up and down. You can also choose to go down by hiking. The road back to the back to the cable car can get pretty steep, but if you're not super mobile, there is an electrical bus to get you back. This costs 8 CHF.

The cable car has two opening seasons, one in the summer and one in the winter. In the summer it's open daily from 8:30 till 5 or 6 pm.

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Day 3: Exploring the Swiss nature!

We drove to Adelboden and took the cablecar up there. A roundway ticket was only 13 CHF, so this was not much!

We did a small hike, to this beautiful view. In spring, there's still a bit of snow left, but the flowers already are blooming so this gives you the most sceneric views. Finished it off with a couple of waterfalls, you get the loveliest view.

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Day 4: The next day, another day of castle hunting, yay!

We started with the Oberhofen Schloss. This castle is one of the best castles I've visted so far. It still has a lot of rooms that are in the original state, decorated with beautiful furniture.

The castle is also fun to visit with kids. Some of the rooms of the servants are animated. This was very amusing.

The castle is about 800 years old. The castle opens pretty late, but you can enjoy a walk in the garden before and after the opening hours. This is free by the way.

The opening times are: from may 8th till october 30th, from tuesday to sunday, from 11 am till 5 pm.

The castle was originally in the 13th century a fortress. After that, it's been rebuilt into a castle. It was only in the 50s when it became a museum. The glass building in front of the castle is the castle's restaurant. Talking 'bout lunch with a view!

After this castle, we went to the Hünegg schloss. This is a more recent castle but still a very pretty one. We visited this one in the afternoon, since it's not open for public in the morning.

Tickets cost 10 CHF and it's open: From mid-May to mid-October daily from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m. Sunday and Bank holiday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday closed.

The castle was built from 1861–1863 for a Baron called Albert Emil Otto von Parpart. The inspiration for this caslte were the beautiful Loire castles (they're still on my list haha).

All the furnitures there are still in the original 1900's state. If you're interested, the top floor of the museum is actually an antique store where you can shop some of the furnitures and decorations.

After 2 castles, we still couldn't get enough of it so we went to the city of Thun. Thun has also a gorgeous fairytale castle. We got tickets for the castle and visited it as well.

The views there are gorgeous but the castle itself is pretty empty. In my opinion it was not worth the 10 CHF though.

It's very cool to know that this castle is from around 1200 so it's super old, but the museum was rather empty and not interesting... You can enjoy the castle views from the street as well and by this way, you don't need to spend money.

Visiting the city is a must. It's a super charming city near the river, with still a lot of beautiful medieval buildings and bridges. The color of the river is super blue, due to the waters from the icy glaciers nearby.

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Day 5: The last day, we visited the famous lake called "Blausee". This has been on my bucket list for ages and didn't disappoint at all! Blausee is a small lake, right in the forest in between the Kanderstegg mountains.

We visited this lake in the spring, but I think that it must be beautiful in the winter as well, covered in snow!

The lake is cristal clear by it's healthy mountain water conditions. There are a lot of trout to spot in the water. You can buy a ticket to visit the lake and even explore it by boat. The boat has a glass bottom so you can spot some fishies swimming by. The boat was a great extra for the trip.

Since the lake is famous, it's extremely busy. We went there in the morning, when it was still very calm. Crouds really can take away all the charm of this place.

Prices and opening times:

from 09.00 am MO - FR SA - SU & HOLIDAYS

Adults CHF 10.00CHF

from 06.00 pm MO - FR SA - SU & HOLIDAYS

AdultsCHF 8.00CHF

Dogs are free of charge and welcome

After this, the weather got a bit more cloudy so we wanted to visit the city of Interlaken. I did not know this, but this city is actually very beautiful. If the weather wasn't that moody, we'd even be able to see the Jungfrau region!

We did a small city stroll and had lunch there. Then we had to drive back home, sadly enough!