Switzerland was a hard call for us. We really wanted to include it in our itinerary but all of the research we did indicated that it would be a very very expensive leg of the journey. This was not a two week holiday for us – this was a dream of being able to travel and snow bird in Europe for two months. Budgeting was very important. We wanted to keep travel and living costs low enough (but comfortable enough) to be able to allow us to have experiences in each of the countries we visited. Could we afford Switzerland? Yes, if we adapted! We decided, instead of staying in the bigger centres we would chose farms or small villages that were on train or bus lines, so we could tour easily but keep our accommodation costs low. We chose the villages of Wolhusen and Sigriswil. Wolhusen is close to Lucern so we would be able to see the sites there as well as enjoy the countryside and village life. Sigriswil is close to Interlakken so it would work too. During our 7 weeks of travel we have often found that we really enjoy days out of the cities…..where we get to enjoy the nature and the people of the country and not just the monuments and architecture. (Although we wouldn’t have missed that either)
So this morning we boarded an early train in Vienna for Zurich- where we would catch a smaller regional train to Lucerne and another on to Wolhusen. Our landlord has already sent us a text to say he was planning to meet us at the train station so we didn’t have to lug our baggage “up the hill”. What a nice message to receive and a great start to our Swiss holiday.
It was a full day on the train but so interesting. We were high up in the Alps and in some Alpine valleys and meadows. Lots of forest. We wove from Austria into Germany and back to Austria and then bonus!!- into Liechtenstein and then into Switzerland. We left the EU and the police bordered the train, walked through, said hello and that was that. But today we put away the Euros and take out the francs.
Our cozy LiTTLE Airbnb in Wolhusen.
It was a long day of travel so exploring will wait for tomorrow but we are excited to see all of Wolhusen and Lucerne.