Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 154 Transcript

How to Combine Popular Destinations and Off-the-Beaten Path Switzerland for the Ultimate Swiss Itinerary

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, this is the podcast for you. I’m your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, the founder of holidays to switzerland.com. In each episode, my expert guests and I share practical tips to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. You’ll get helpful advice about traveling around Switzerland and hear about the most popular destinations, as well as some hidden gems, and we’ll introduce you to plenty of wonderful experiences that you can enjoy as part of your Swiss vacation. Each episode is packed with expert tips, itinerary ideas, and inspiration to help make your Swiss Vacation Planning easy. So let’s dive in.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Hi there. Gruezi, welcome to this week’s episode. Are you planning a Swiss adventure and wondering what it’s really like to explore the country by train? Well, this episode is a must-listen. I’m joined by Karen Langballe, a solo traveler from Oslo, Norway, who had just spent three incredible weeks traveling through Switzerland, her first ever visit to the country.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Karen shares what motivated her to plan this trip, how she designed her itinerary with a little help from this very podcast, and how she made the most of her 15-day Swiss Travel Pass. Karen also shares the highlights, surprises, and the lessons learned from her Swiss adventure, including what she’d do differently next time and why she just can’t wait to return. If you’re looking for inspiration to design your own off-the-beaten-path Swiss itinerary, or you just want honest insight into the joys and logistics of rail travel in Switzerland, you won’t want to miss this episode. Get your travel notebook ready, because this episode is packed with first-hand tips and fresh ideas to help make your Swiss holiday truly unforgettable. So let’s hear from Karen. Good morning. Karen, thank you very much for agreeing to come onto the podcast and tell all our listeners all about your recent trip to Switzerland. Before we start chatting about the trip, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

Karen Langballe: Good morning, Carolyn. Thank you for having me. I had such a great vacation. This is lovely doing this. So my name is Karen Langballe. I live in Oslo, Norway. I’m 65 years old. I work full-time, and this was three weeks out of four of this year’s summer holidays.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Fantastic. Okay, and was this your first visit to Switzerland?

Karen Langballe: Yes, this was my first ever visit to Switzerland. It was very odd. I’ve been to many places in Europe, but never Switzerland before.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay? And what is it about Switzerland that sort of attracted you? What did you really want to see or experience there?

Karen Langballe: Well, I think it was in February, March. I began thinking about going on Interrail this summer, and I started looking on social media, for podcasts and for groups, and, you know, I found the man in seat 61 and I found a couple of Norwegian groups, and then I found your podcast, and I’m a big podcast fan, and I have to say that your podcast is the reason why so much of my holiday turned into be Switzerland, because I ended up deciding, okay, I’m going to go to Salzburg because of the Sound of Music Connection, and then I’ll just go into Switzerland. And I stayed there.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Amazing. Well, I’m so happy to hear that the podcast was helpful to you and help you shape your trip. So that’s great to know. Did you travel with anyone? Or were you traveling alone?

Karen Langballe: I traveled solo on a human being level. I did travel with my dog because I’m in Europe. That’s quite easily done. She is a five kilo girl called Dina, and she’s a great conversation starter. So even though I’m very independent and I like traveling by myself, she’s a great comfort, because I always end up talking to people when she’s around.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, and I bet she’s a great companion too, because she doesn’t answer you back. If you say we’re doing this today, you get no pushback at all.

Karen Langballe: No, that’s exactly right.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so you mentioned that you were interested in doing an Interrail trip, so obviously you traveled by train throughout Switzerland. Did you buy an Interrail Pass? Is that what you used as your your transport tickets to get around?

Karen Langballe: Yes, I did. I. Contacted on your recommendation, the.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Switzerland Travel Centre. Yeah, exactly.

Karen Langballe: And I had a 15-day consecutive travel pass, and I got your 5% discount, and they booked some of my hotels. There were a couple that I had found beforehand, and they booked the other hotels for me.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, fantastic. So in effect, you did, I guess, one of their rail packages, but some of the accommodation you sourced yourself,

Karen Langballe: Yes, exactly. And I think that when I go back, because it’s not if I go back, it’s when I go back, for sure, I think I’ll choose a pass that isn’t consecutive days, because you come to places and they’re really lovely, and you want to take a day out with no trains on that day, or no gondolas, or, you know, other little trains. That’s the only thing that I would have done different, because the app and the pass, and the freedom to just go ride a train as much as I wanted was terrific. It was the perfect holiday feeling.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, great. And because you came from Salzburg, I guess you were able to use that Interrail. Did you use that Interrail Pass in Austria as well, or did you have a separate pass?

Karen Langballe: No, well, I had a three-day Interrail Pass in Austria, but I had the Swiss travel pass in Switzerland, right? Okay, fantastic. I went to Buchs and I changed and in Buchs, I had to buy a ticket for my dog. She had to have a ticket on the Swiss trains.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And was that something that was easy to do as you went along?

Karen Langballe: Yes, yes. I just walked into the ticket office in Buchs. The ladies were lovely. And this means that I now have the little red Travel Card, which the Swiss themselves use, not just my paper Swiss Travel Pass, which is what I was traveling on myself. So she was there and I was analog.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, well, she’s very modern. Good to hear. Okay, so perhaps we can talk a bit more now about your itinerary. So can you firstly, maybe give us an an overview of what you or where you where you went, and then we can dive in a bit deeper for each of the locations.

Karen Langballe: Yes, all right, I’m a little bit afraid of heights, and I live in Norway, so there is lots of snow and ice. So for example, I was sure that, you know, the Glacier Paradise and the central Jungfrau Region were not really for me. So I came from the east, and I went to Appenzell first, and I really researched the train lines. I had the map that focuses on the picturesque train lines, so that I got on the Four Alpen Express, for example. Then I went to Lucerne with Mount Pilatus. I went to Lausanne and Gruyères. I loved Gruyères. I mean, that’s a picture perfect village. Then from Lausanne, I went to Brig and then I went up to Belalp. Belalp is in the Aletsch Glacier arena, which also I got from your podcast. But it’s a very Swiss side up there. I don’t think I heard anybody not speaking German. It’s a small Alp. There are no shops, no anything. So there’s your hotel and there’s the hiking. So I would say the luxury there is the peace and quiet. Probably not a children’s area, I suppose, but if you like to walk and just, you know, be like Heidi in the Alps, that was a great place.

Karen Langballe: Then I went back down off my mountain to Brig, and I took the train over to Chur, which we now know, again from your podcast. That’s how we pronounce it, because the Glacier Express has food served on it all the way from St. Moritz to Chur, and the dog is not allowed under any circumstances. So I rode regional trains and through Andermatt and Disentis, and had a great time. I mean, it’s the exact same, and we met the Glacier Express, and it’s lovely. I went both ways, because I came back a few days later, it’s well worth going more than once. It’s really beautiful. And I think I’ll go again, and I’ll make more of a stop in in Andermatt. I think anyway, from Chur, I didn’t go all the way to Tirano, because that would have meant trekking. My dog into Italy, so I just stopped in Le Prese. So I took the Bernina Express down and the regional trains back, and going back, I stopped in St. Moritz. Very interesting. I enjoyed that.

Karen Langballe: The next day, I picked one village from the list that you recommended. It’s called, yes, exactly. Scuol. I went from Chur to Scuol. It was almost three hours each way, and it was a lovely little village. It was not at all what I expected. But the whole the trip and being in the National Park, a couple of people that I met because when you go to Scuol, then you are especially interested. You’re not a part of a group, you’re not doing the mainstream thing. So I loved that about that day coming back. I made sure that I always took different train lines so that I got to see as many different places as I could. The trains ran all the time. I mean, there was never any problem.

Karen Langballe: Anyway, I stopped in Klosters. Because, to me, Klosters is this, millionaires, billionaires. Place. It was really, really low key, lovely to walk around in. I had a little lunch, and there was nothing there that said money, money, money. Like in St. Moritz, in St. Moritz everything says money, money, money. So it’s two very different places to see. Anyway, that was a long day, and the most unexpected day, I think, the next day, I went to Chateau de Chillon. So in other words, I almost, you know, I went, it’s quite a long trip, really, from Brig to Chur, but I’m on the train. This is my holiday. I’m fine. Chateau de Chillon was lovely, a bit Walt Disney, but it’s real. And that took about half a day. I walked the whole castle and I had lunch. And then in the afternoon, instead of going back to Brig, I stayed on the train, and again, picking from your podcast, I went to Bettmeralp. Oh, I’m.

Carolyn Schönafinger: So happy you went there.

Karen Langballe: And that is the first place that when I came up to Bettmeralp, that was the first time I really said to myself, I am coming back here.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Wow, yeah, it’s amazing. Yeah, it was a.

Karen Langballe: Sunday and a day out for the village. So I walked all the way up to Bettmeralp. And there were activities all around the lake, sunshine, lots of people, and I’m a big hiker. I mean, I’m I’m 65 so I don’t run, I don’t do risky things, but I like to walk and look at views. And what I really love there is that you can walk, let’s say, from the village, or if you’re in a hotel, or you rent an apartment or something the many directions to walk in, and then you can either take one of the gondolas up and walk down, or walk up and take a gondola down. So everything seemed, you know, safe and accessible, but high up and airy and full of views. It was, I loved that that was.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And from there, did you go up to see the to the glacier viewpoint?

Karen Langballe: No, no, I didn’t. Because throughout my stay, except for the one and a half day on Belalp, it was cloudy every day. So, you know, it was cloudy on on on Pilatus. I didn’t see the Matterhorn from Gornergrat but I saw the Matterhorn from Belalp, of course, much less, but I did see the characteristic top. So, so no, I didn’t go to because, again, I’m not sure that I would have gone even in perfect weather because of that height issue. But anyway, so the day after Bettmeralp, I did do Zermatt all day, and I chose Gornergrat that train, and it was a little cool, but I had a lot of fun. Anyway, I would always say, if you’re in Switzerland, don’t not go because it isn’t sunny and the sky is perfectly blue. You just get another quality experience because it is really high up and you see the glacier. I had a lot of fun. Next time I would walk up, at least from the second to last station. Okay, no problem. It was easy walking, even though it was uphill. So anyway, that was my last sort of big day out like that. Then I went to Geneva. I had 24 hours in Geneva, and I liked Geneva much more than I liked Lausanne. I.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Really like within your itinerary, that you’ve stayed in a lot of places that a lot of first time visitors don’t you know you said before that the Jungfrau Region wasn’t really for you because you used to snow and ice and so forth. But, yeah, I really like that you’ve chosen some of these lesser known places, certainly to international tourists. So Appenzell. Did you stay in Appenzell the town itself and and what did you do whilst you were there?

Karen Langballe: Yes, I stayed in the town. I stayed in hotel Löwen, which is walkable from the station, absolutely. And I think I was in one four-star hotel, but otherwise three-stars, so they’re all traditional Swiss hotels with lots of pine wood, but I would say that they were all beaut they are clean, they’re well organized. They have good bathrooms, good hotels everywhere. And the Löwen is right on the pedestrian street. I mean, the center of town is pedestrian. And there’s, if you’re traveling with kids, there’s a brand new, big, modern swimming pool, indoor swimming pool installation, which I’m sure would be great for kids, although I didn’t go in there. There’s a river that runs through and a nice path to walk. My goal, other than seeing Appenzell, was to go to the Aescher guest house, that old building which sort of the entire back wall of the house is glued onto the mountain.

Karen Langballe: So to do that, you go back up to the station and you take the Appenzeller Bahn, which is a small train, just a couple of cars, I think, to the end station, and there I transferred, and there’s a gondola going up again. The day was a little cloudy, but when I came up from the gondola, had seen the track. I know that I could have easily walked up. My shoes were not the really softest running shoes. I did bring a pair of somewhat rigid sole shoes, but just shoes, not boots or anything. So anyway, so I did take the gondola, and I looked at the path, and I said to myself, Karen, you should have done that. When I came up, I talked to the man who ran the gondola, and he indicated to me a round trip that I could walk so that I would go first to that I should get guest house and then continue, and I could make a round trip of it, either a couple of hours, or even more, if I wanted To, which I did.

Karen Langballe: And the guest house is lovely. Don’t eat breakfast. Save your appetite. I have had too much breakfast and was disappointed with myself. They had great traditional Swiss food. And then when you continue past the guest house and go into the sort of more mountainous walks, it’s very beautiful. It’s very interesting. It’s definitely not a walk for someone who is afraid of losing their balance. Is the only thing I would say, because the path traverses the slope, if you see what I mean.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. So was the walk you did? Was that down to the Seealpsee lake, or was it to somewhere different? No, because that path is quite steep in places, and, yeah, can be a bit dangerous.

Karen Langballe: I started on that trail, but then you can choose either to go down to Seealpsee or you can go up. So I chose to go back up, actually. And it was a slow, fine climb, no problem. And then on the top, you’re sort of, you’re just a little higher than the than the gondola, and I could have gone on even higher, but again, it was a little cloudy, and I’m not that brave. I mean, I am aware of the fact that I’m by myself, and if I fall so I’m a mid-risk taker.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, yeah. Good, good. Okay, so Appenzell itself like it’s obviously a very traditional village, the beautiful painted facades on the buildings and oftentimes you see people wearing the traditional costumes. What was your overall impression of Appenzell? Yes, yes.

Karen Langballe: I saw, Oh, I saw the cows up on the mountains. Obviously, I didn’t see the cows in the village, because that was done. The cows were already on the mountain. But in the village, very traditional, excellent, traditional Swiss food, Appenzell cheese, obviously. I mean, if you’re going to eat cheese fondue somewhere, do it in, Appenzell and but a good Co-op and other places. Buy food, grapefruit. I ate lots of apricots all the time in Switzerland, fresh apricots. They were great. And the village itself, I walked around it at least three or four times. Some old houses, some newer houses, all kinds of different places to sit down and have coffee and look at other people. And both afternoons there was music. Let me see if there was singing and instruments, but not the Alphorn, the Alphorn I saw on Pilatus, but there was singing and playing, and it was lovely. It sort of filled the village. You couldn’t you heard it all over. It was, it was great.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oh, wonderful. So then you moved on to Lucerne, and you’ve already mentioned that you visited Mount Pilatus there. Did you just have a short stay in Lucerne? Or did you have time to see anything else?

Karen Langballe: That was a long day. I got up really early, got the train from Appenzell to here change, took the Four Alpen Express, which was a nice piece of railway. I was in Lucerne already. At 930 I literally threw my suitcase into my hotel and said, I’ll be back. Ran down to the key because everything is really close, got on the steamer, went to Alpnachstad, and I had booked my seat so I could just zip through the lines and everything. And took the train up, very interesting. And, I mean, it’s so steep, and the cows are there grazing, and you wonder, why don’t they fall down? So again, it says it’s a semi cloudy day, and I got on top of Mount Pilatus. There are three, sort of three places that you can climb up to, the very, the very, very peak, the viewing point. And we went up there, and the clouds were flying by. So one minute, you could actually see lots of mountains the way you envision. And then they’d all go, disappear again, and the clouds would come streaming up the mountain and over. So you got to see something that you don’t see on a blue sky day. And I looked at the flowers. There are flowers up there. I mean, this is really high up. So anyway, Pilatus was great, and I took the gondola down, and I found the bus and I went back to Lucerne, and I was there already at three o’clock. So in other words, the boat left at, I think, about 930 and I was back in Lucerne at three, and then I made a mad dash to a laundromat, spent an hour to clean some clothes. Five o’clock I was dressed and ready, and we went out and did the town that evening. You know, did that the old town? Just walked around and looked at things, eat ice cream.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, wonderful. Okay, and it’s a beautiful city to have a stroll around in the evening too. Yeah, good. Okay, so was it the next day, then that you moved on to Lausanne? Yes, exactly. I went to Lausanne, but you stopped a couple of times on the way. Is that right?

Karen Langballe: Yes. So from Lucerne to Interlaken, I had planned. I stopped for about an hour in Interlaken, and then I took the Golden Pass Express from Interlaken to Montreux. Lovely. I mean, really lovely there. I had the seat reservation, and we could go on the proper panoramic train. And it is fun. I mean, I would like to say about the trains, the panoramic expresses are fun because you meet all the people who are there to do exactly the same thing as you are. You know, enjoy the beauty of it. But the regional trains are great because you meet unexpected people, you meet the Swiss people, and you can jump on and off more. So anyway, I was on the Golden Pass Express. It was lovely. Came to Montreux. No trouble at all. Just got on the next train to Lausanne. That was the only place where my hotel was quite far from the station. And Lausanne is a very hilly town. Everything is either up or down. There is nothing flat. So I have the evening in Lausanne, looked at the Cathedral. I just generally walk around. I find parks and I play with my dog. I like to walk around and look at where people live. Of just look at streets, look at houses and windows and and everywhere. It doesn’t take that much to please me. And then the next day, the day in between in Lausanne, got up early, back down to the station and went to Gruyères and since I wasn’t on an organized trip, and since I had the dog. I did not go into go in and see the cheese production, which is right next to the station. I just walked from the station. It’s about what, what do you think 12 minutes, maybe, from the station up to the village, and I went all the way up and into the castle and saw the castle and admired the gardens and the views. It’s restored, and you can really get an image of what their lives were like, I think.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, and the whole village. It’s just like a fairy tale, isn’t it, or a postcard. It’s so beautiful.

Karen Langballe: Done. I sat down, obviously, in one of the cafes, and had a cheese lunch. I mean, what can I eat in Gruyères other than gruyère cheese? Of course, of course, nowhere was really full. In all of my two and a half weeks, I didn’t really feel bothered by many people anywhere.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, that’s great. And What month was it that you visited?

Karen Langballe: I was in Switzerland from July 15 to the 30th.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, good. So yeah, right in the in the heart of the summer season. And I think probably, as we mentioned, a lot of the places you went to are not the big, known hot spots, so to speak. So that that definitely helps with with the crowds. Maybe you could just tell us a little bit more about your experiences at Belalp, or actually even Brig, because you stayed in Brig, and that’s somewhere that we haven’t really talked about much on the podcast. So what did you do whilst you were there?

Karen Langballe: Yeah, so I went through Brig to go to Belalp, everyone, of course, says that, oh, Switzerland is so expensive in reality, I suppose I am lucky that I live in Norway, because I would say that the cost level is about the same as at home. The expensive thing is spending the night hotels, food is very much the same as here. That was all fine. Belalp is a natural beauty thing. The exclusivity is the fact that there are no shops. You are in your hotel. You eat and pay on their terms, because they know they have the natural beauty and the solitude of the place. So, you know, I mean, it has to be permitted, to be honest, Belalp was expensive because there were no possibilities of cost cutting. On the other hand, it was beautiful. I mean, beautiful. I met a Swiss couple, and I went for a walk with them up to the Tyndall Memorial and around a bit and talked to them a lot. They were lovely. Just lovely.

Karen Langballe: Anyway, from Brig, you take bus and a gondola and a 30-minute walk to get, you know, from Brig station to the Belalp hotel, that’s what you have to do, a half-hour bus, a 15-minute gondola and a 30-minute walk, and you can pay to be transported in a golf car. But that’s not really common, I think. Anyway, so I liked Brig when I went through it, and after Chur, I had three days where I hadn’t planned anything. So I decided I’m going to come back here, because Brig is really well situated for Zermatt to do the Glacier Express. You can go, like I did, down to Chateau de Chillon. It’s no problem. I mean, if you’re there on a rail pass, take the train. There was a lake that also was just, you know, 40 minutes on the train, oh, Oeschinensee, or something like.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oeschinensee, yes, yeah, Oeschinensee, yes.

Karen Langballe: From Oeschinensee, yes. So lots of places are easy day trips from Brig. There’s a big castle with a nice, big park in front of it, that town just had a good vibe. Quite a few restaurants, quite a few hotels. I stayed in the hotel Le Pont and in Brig the mix between German and French begins more German, but a little French is. Sneaking in again. There is a big swimming pool situation area for children that you can go and have good days. But I liked it because it’s convenient. There are some shops, and the train station is big and really well connected.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, it’s certainly a hub of the rail network in Switzerland, that’s for sure. Yeah, good, wow. Well, it sounds like an amazing trip. I mean, you’ve visited some wonderful places, and I’m sure you appreciated the beautiful scenery, even though you do come from a very lovely country yourself. So how comfortable were you as a solo female traveler using the trains and just, you know, traveling alone in Switzerland,

Karen Langballe: Completely, completely safe. I mean, seriously, late night walks with my dog before we go to sleep at night was not a problem. Not anywhere in Geneva. We were out a little late that one evening and coming back to the hotel, which was right next to the station, which in many towns can be a bit dodgy, no problem at all. Of course, I don’t want to be naive, but I felt safe the whole time, I promise you, certainly on the trains sitting down by myself. Many times I spent the whole train trip talking to the passengers that I was sitting next to, because, I don’t know, because of the dog, because of my chattiness, because people are curious, but the Swiss are not chatty. The Swiss are maybe a bit reserved, but not completely either. I’ve talked to quite a few. I do speak both German and French, because I have a thing with the languages, because it might be more difficult to just fall into a casual conversation in English, but at absolutely no point in time was I worried about my personal safety. I mean, I think about it when I go for long walks, which are quite far away from people, but that’s because I like to go on long walks away from people.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, yep. And I guess that’s more about in case, as you said before, if you were to fall over or something and you needed assistance, not because you’re worried that someone is going to mug you or whatever. Yeah, good. So what were the highlights of the trip for you?

Karen Langballe: The thing that I loved the most was that every single day I’d wake up and I think, oh, new things going on. I mean, this was really something special, because you don’t go to a hotel and stay there for two weeks and you wake up on the third day and you think, Alright, well, I’m here. This is what we’re doing again today. No, no, every day is a new adventure. That was the best thing. There are lots of pieces of Switzerland then that I haven’t seen. I do now want to go back to Wengen and Mürren, even though I’m still not going to the top of of the Jungfrau because of the cost and the snow, I have not done the southern part of Switzerland at all. So I want to go back, and I want to do that, but remembering that the journey is the objective of the holiday was a revelation to me. Enjoy every train ride, every gondola, every bus, every every don’t think of it as a hassle, that it’s just transportation. No, no. This is what I went there for, and I loved it. And I want to do it again. And I want to go back to and Geneva. I’d like to go back to, I’m sorry I missed Montreux.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, as you say, that’s for the next trip. So was there anything about Switzerland that surprised you?

Karen Langballe: Everything was really easy. I mean, think about this. I was on a 15-day trip, actually 20 when you count Austria by myself. I didn’t even get a chafe in my shoe. I didn’t lose anything, didn’t forget anything. All my hotels were fine. They sell themselves as a tourist product, and it’s a very good product for us tourists. It’s a really good product.

Carolyn Schönafinger: It certainly is so anything on the trip that you wish you had done differently.

Karen Langballe: Yes, where I stay, I would try to think about one night stays are a hassle, and as much as possible, my full day train days, I would try to do without luggage. That’s why Brig is such a good idea, because you can put your luggage in a hotel, have a base, and then take lots of trips. Many people say this, and it’s a very silly thing to say, but I would rent an apartment for a few days in the middle where there was a washing machine, because you can pack lighter and just wash your clothes, but I got really good at just washing my Smalls. Is that? What we call it? In the hotel every night I would pack light. Less, and I would try to spend three to four nights in different places and not change more often than that.

Carolyn Schönafinger: As you say, sometimes those one night stays can be a hassle, and especially if you’re desperate for clean clothes, because sometimes drying things overnight doesn’t work. So I guess that’s one great tip for anyone listening. But do you have any other tips for people who are planning their first visit to Switzerland?

Karen Langballe: I love my rail pass, the Swiss Travel Pass, because of that freedom to just, oh, that’s a train to an interesting destination. Well, I’m just going to go and get on it and don’t travel too fast. Have room in your agenda, so that when you see that something that you didn’t expect, that you have time to do it. I think that’s the thing that sometimes even stresses me out. In some of these Interrail and the Swiss travel planning group, people try to plan every single moment. I’m not the type to do that. I want to have time to breathe and to do the unexpected.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, if you’re just going through and you’re just ticking things off off your list every day, you don’t have time for that spontaneity and and to be flexible. And often, those things are the things that you know leave the most memorable experiences.

Karen Langballe: Yes, yes, yes. I mean, that one day when I was hiking from the Belalp, I was there on the green, Alp, and then all of a sudden, quite a bit above me, there was a great big cow, big horns, and she’s lying there, and she’s looking at us, and there is nothing to prevent her from coming down. I mean, I’ll remember that day’s hike always because of that cow should not come to get us. I mean, this is our vacation. This is what we work for all year.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it sounds like you had a wonderful trip, and that you’ll definitely be making a return visit to Switzerland, which I’m very happy to hear. Thank you so much, Karen for sharing all that with us today. It’s been great to hear about your trip, as I mentioned before, to you know, especially to highlight some of the places that you went to that a lot of the listeners will will probably not have heard of and may not have considered. So hopefully now hearing from you, they will do that.

Karen Langballe: Thank you. Thank you for listening to me. It gives me back the holiday one more time.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Great. And yeah, thank you also for being a listener of the podcast. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Karen Langballe: What an.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Amazing journey Karen has taken us on today. I hope you enjoyed hearing all about her Swiss adventures, especially her visits to those lesser-known little places like Appenzell, Belalp, Scuol, and of course, that fairy tale village of Gruyères. Karen’s experience is a great reminder that there’s just so much more to Switzerland than the famous hotspots, and that traveling by train with a Swiss Travel Pass really opens up a world of options and gives you that spontaneity to see the country at your own pace.

Carolyn Schönafinger: If you’d like to learn more about any of the destinations that Karen spoke about today, you’ll find the links to all the relevant resources and information on the Swiss travel pass in the show notes for this episode. Karen mentioned that she booked her trip through Switzerland Travel Centre, a partner of the Holidays to Switzerland podcast, and she received a 5% discount just by using our promo code. That promo code is HTSWISS, and I’ll include it and a link to Switzerland Travel Center’s rail packages in the show notes as well, in case you’d like to book your trip through them, just like Karen did. You’ll find the show notes at holidays to switzerland.com forward slash episode 154. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d be really grateful if you could share the podcast with anyone you know who’s planning a trip to Switzerland, and if you’re loving the show, please consider leaving a rating or review. Your support really helps others to discover the podcast until next week’s episode. Tschüss!.

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.