Piersons Trip Around the World
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Piersons Trip Around the World
It was hard for us to leave the stunning mountain town of Wengen, but the adventure must go on… From Wengen, we first rode the trains north so we could explore Basel. Then, from Basel, we once again loaded onto the train and traveled back to the middle of the country where we spent our last 10 Swiss nights in Sachseln, a small town on Lake Sarnen, 20 minutes outside of Luzern. The highlight of our last week in Switzerland for the girls was a visit from Mom-mom & Pop-pop.
So many Rhine River cruises begin or end in Basel, we decided we needed to spend a couple of nights to become more familiar with the city. For two days, we walked the city streets, exploring the historic old town and playing in the parks by the river bank. Bordering both Germany and France, Basel had several tasty restaurants, cafes, and chocolate shops to enjoy. The girls especially enjoyed exploring the narrow alleyways. Sometimes, they’d open up in to small squares with trees, shops & cafe’s, other times, we’d find a dead end and retrace our steps. Without any sort of agenda or time schedule, we were free to wander and explore as we liked, and all enjoyed the visit.
We spent our last week in Switzerland on Lake Sarnen in the town of Sachseln. There, we rented a house to share with our first visitors, mom-mom and pop-pop. Our week was filled with swims in the mountain lake, visits to the picturesque city of Luzern, explored the Museum of Transportation, rode the steepest cogwheel train in the world up to the top of “Dragon Mountain” -Mt. Pilatus, and made one more visit to Lauterbrunnen so we could show mom-mom and pop-pop the impressive waterfalls. When not off on adventures, we took full advantage of mom-mom the teacher, caught up on some school work and simply enjoyed the views from our backyard overlooking the lake.
My family and I went to a lake. We walked down the hill and I jumped in and made a big splash. I swam to a floating dock and jumped in again. Then swam back to the beach, got out of the water, dried off, and ate cheese balls. On our way back to the house, I found a playground and played on it before walking back up the hill.
We went to a museum called the Transferatachin museum. We went on a ride and the people told us how to make chocolate. And in some parts, we reached our hands out and it came out with chocolate. There were parts where they told about making chocolate in the past. It was cool. The Swiss Chocolate Adventure was asome! Then we went to a different part of the museum. First we went to a fake helakopter. There was also a fake baggage claim that did not move. I went out one end and came out the other. There were fake brief cases and everything. Then we took a big slid down. It was so big that it was scary. Then we went outside and did bumper boats. I got to steer, mom got to pedal. Angela got to stamp. We had to find all the countries, and we found them all before the other people even started, case we stamped pedaled and steered fast. And when I say fast, I mean as fast as we could make that little boat go!
The next day we went to this massiv mountin. It was called Mont Polates. It was so cool we got ice cream, got to stand in front of the sign for a picture. We also got to go to the tippy top of the mountin. the view was great. There was even a telescop and when you looked at a mountin, it would label it with the name. Whoever made that telescop was cool and very talented. FWI the ice cream, umm it was asome! That day was Epic!
Yesterday, we explored Basel. It was so fun! We started by walking across a bridge. While we were crossing it, a cruise ship went under. When we got off the huge bridge, we walked down near the river and finally came across a playground with lots of ropes to climb on. Emily and I played a spy game there. Then we went back across the bridge and found some scratch off books in the post office while mailing some post cards. After lunch, we went to a chocolate shop where Emily threw a temper tamptrem over what type of chocolate she got. Finally, after exploring all day, we went home. What a great day!
When we arrived in Sachseln, we had to lug our heavy bags up a huge hill. It felt like we were never going to get to the top. When we got to the house, all Emily wanted to do was run be cause she didn’t carry up any bags. I ran for like two seconds and then sat down. Finally , we went inside and relaxed.
The next day, we swam in a lake that was freezing! Brrr, it was literally melted ice from the mountain on the other side. Like I said, Brrr. We liked swimming in the lake so much, we went again the next day. On our second day, we even swam out to the dock. It was cold!
The next day, Mom-mom and pop-pop came. We took a chill day, all we did was get dinner and watch Karate Kid
The next day we went to the Transportation Museum. We first went into the chocolate part of the museum. We rode an elevator to the right floor, and got into a cart where we rode around and saw how Lindt chocolate was made. In the end, we event got to taste some of the chocolate. Then we went to the train part where we saw how trains have turned bigger and better. After the trains, we looked at the cars. There were blueprints of cars, cars you could sit in, cars lined on the walls. After the cars, we moved onto the airplane and helicopter section were we stood and could feel ta helicopter landing near you.
The next day, we rode a cogwheel train up to the top of Mount Pilatus. The train went up at a forty eight degree angle! Wowsers! When we finally got to the top, we were allowed to buy ice cream. We all got Swiss chocolate. Next we hiked up a little further and saw all the mountains names through a telescope thing. Then we rode a gondola down to a rope course and luging. We all went luging, it was so fun. They even pulled us up the mountain backwards in the end. then we checked out the ropes course and we we were old enough, but daddy said we couldn’t because there wasn’t enough time. We rode down some more and found a playground. It was a great end to a great day.
Many River cruises start or end in Basel, Switzerland. With Switzerland’s vast train network and multiple luxury properties, it is easy to spend a few days in the mountains before or after any cruise. Such an amazing compact country, and so easy to get from place to place, it’s a shame more people don’t spend at least a few extra days here when in the region.
Taking a tour with a small group provides the opportunity to experience the sites of Switzerlnad with other like-minded travelers on popular pre-designed itineraries. Let the tour companies organize the logistics, so you can “sit back, and enjoy the ride” Visit the top attractions during the best times and let someone else take care of planning all of the detials.
