Do you like beautiful places? Do you like chocolate? Do you like cheese? Then you will fall in love Switzerland.

This Christmas season was the first time that I would be alone. It has always been a dream of mine to go to Switzerland. I decided to go on a student trip with pm2am, the agency planned the whole Itinerary, Travel and Hotel Stay. On the 22 of December, we Departed from Amsterdam.

Itinerary

Day 1; 23/12/18:

Early Arrival in Bern, we arrived before dawn. The City was still sleeping, it was so quiet and beautiful. The buildings and cobblestone streets takes you back in time. The Old Town of Bern is so beautiful that it is a UNESCO site. The town has lots of baroque facades on medieval buildings, that dates back to the 18th Century. Bern is also the place where Einstein lived and developed the theory of relativity in 1905.

The Next Stop was Interlaken. Interlanken is located in the Swiss canton of Bern. The small village got its names Interlanken (between lakes). Picturesque towering snowcapped mountains and turquoise coloured lakes. Regardless of the size of the town, it offers abundant tourist attractions, thrilling train rides to the spectacular surrounding mountain and endless hiking trails. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to explore the village itself, but I had the opportunity to go up to Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe).

The journey to Jungfraujoch starts with a thrilling 2-hour train ride. I can’t put into words how picturesque the train ride was. In order to reach the top, we had to take three trains. Each train stops at an old train station (Lauterbrunnen, Kleine Scheidegg and Jungfraujoch). Once we arrived at the top I only saw white, literally. A big snow blizzard made it hard to see the view, which was a bummer. We made most of the few hours we had at the Top. At the top, if snowed in, there are Restaurants, Gift shops, Alpine sensation, Ice palace, Sphinx Terrace and of course the Lindt Chocolate Heaven. It was a day with lots of snow and amazing views from the train rides.

After all the shenanigains we depatured to our Hotel located in Leysin.

Day 2; 24/12/18: 

They day started off with a delicious breakfast buffet. At 09:00 we were off to Montreux to explore the Christmas Market. It was so cold and rainy, but we had an amazing view of the lake. Unfortunately, it was still early when we arrived so most of the Stalls were closed. We explored and wrote a message to Santa to put up in the Christmas tree. Despite the rain and cold, we made the most of it.

Next up was Chamonix Mont Blanc, where France, Switzerland, and Italy converge. It was freezing cold when we arrived. This is a beautiful cobblestone city, I fell in love. The Christmas Spirit was on a High, there are so many corners of this city. I think we explored almost all of it. What I loved about Chamonix is the warm diverse welcome the city provides. At dawn, you could see the spectacular mountain tops peeking through the clouds. I think I could most definitely spend Christmas in Chamonix.
To do in Chamonix: Aiguille du Midi, Montenvers Railway, Ice Cave, Crystal Museum and Lake Gaillands.

*Departing from the Montenvers Railway brings you to the Montenvers site at 1913 m. An imposing panorama of the Mer de Glace glacier,
Grotte de glace (Ice Cave), the Drus, and the Grands Jorasses. Note that the Montervers Railway is only open during favorable weather conditions. Unfortunately, this was not the case on the 24th.

Back at our Hotel we celebrated Christmas Eve with a few friends

Day 3; 25/12/18:

This is a day I will never forget. Waking up to the sun, snow and mountains were spectacular and all the adventures the day gave was amazing.

After breakfast we were off to our last City, Geneva. Geneva is located on the banks of Lake Geneva at the mouth of the Rhone-River, in the very south-west peak of Switzerland. The south bank, known as Rive Gauche is the oldest part of the city. Geneva has so many corners to be explored. We decided to purchase a ticket (8,87 euro) where we had access to public transport for the whole day and the ticket included a boat cruise. The boat cruise took us past the Jet d’Eau. The fountain that is visible throughout the city and the air. After the boat cruise, we started to explore the Old Town, the architecture amazed me.

We walked towards the City Square. It is a commercial center with fountains, restaurants and high-end shopping. The Place is also near the St Pierre Cathedral. Once Upon a Time the Place served as cattle market and later a medieval town square. After some time we went to the Reformation Wall. The wall is a monument that honors many of the individuals and events of the Protestant Reformation. The wall is built into the old city walls of Geneva.

We decided to take a bus journey to the Broken Chair and The Palace of Nations. The broken chair is a monument which symbolizes opposition to landmines and acts as a reminder to politicians and others visiting Geneva. Opposite the Broken Chair stands the Palace of Nations. Since 1946 it served as the home of the United Nations. The building overlooks Lake Geneva and has a view of the French Alps.

After all the Shenanigans it took us two buses to find an Mc Donalds. We had a little rest there before we went searching for nightlife. Of course, we took another or might I say few buses in the wrong direction and we probably walked in a lot of circles. Until we finally we arrived at a “free” event. We had to talk ourselves into getting in for free as we missed the deadline by 3 minutes, which worked. Once we got in there were only a few people, well it was only 8 at night. So we decided not to stay and to find a place to have Christmas Dinner. After another round of taking a wrong bus, we walked for a while until we found an Italian restaurant to enjoy our well deserved Christmas Dinner.

With all the wrong busses we took that day, we would not have made all the good and fun memories.

This is one of my most memorable trips, thanks to all the new friends I made and to pm2am students for planning this amazing experience.

xoxo

Chante’