Welcome to the finale of my Europe adventures! After a wonderful day of hiking near Lucerne, Switzerland, the second to last day of my trip began on a ferry.
My friend Melli and I took the ferry from Vitznau to Lucerne, which was about an hour, so we could explore the city. It was more fun than driving! 
Hey, Lucerne! I wore my Swiss colors just for you. 
(Skirt is an old fave from Stitch Fix!)
This is the most famous bridge in Lucerne – a beautiful 14th century covered bridge called Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge). I loved the flowers on the side of it!
We grabbed a quick lunch and wandered around the city, enjoying the views.
Remains of the old city wall and tower:
After a couple hours of walking around, it was back on the ferry!
For dinner that night, we drove over to Gersau, the town a couple miles away on the other side of our hostel. We had dinner at a cute place on the water!
More rosé, obviously. When in Europe in summer, drink rosé!
And more tomato, basil, mozzarella, too!
I had a really good herbed lake fish cooked in foil for my entrée. Buttery and delicious!
Plus some potatoes. Melli and I were discussing how it’s interesting that potatoes in this area of Switzerland, apparently, and in Germany are bright yellow like this, while in the US they are usually more white. Anyone know why?
Our final adventure together the next day was another hike! We checked out of our hostel and drove an hour or so to Melchsee-Frutt, which is a high valley in Switzerland that is at an altitude of 2000 (!) meters. We drove allllllll the way up the mountain on the super tiny winding roads, just for fun, although there’s also a gondola you can take up if you want.
It was a really foggy/gray day, but it was still beautiful up there.
We did a hike that involved two of the four lakes up on the mountain (more info on the hike here). It was so quiet and empty up there, and with the clouds, it felt like we were on the moon or something! Mysterious and beautiful.
In the winter, this is a thriving ski area! I would love to see this on a clear day – I bet the views around us were crazy.
It was cool how different this hike was from the one we did up Rigi Mountain – it reminded me of the Scottish highlands or something!
Oh hey, sorry cows, don’t let us get in your way or anything…
We had a late lunch at a random little place at the top of the mountain before racing back to our car. It ended up being farther than we thought to get back via the flat path vs. the winding uphill hike we did, and we had found out that apparently you can only drive up and down the mountain at certain hours (single tracking), so we couldn’t miss the cut off! It was POURING and we ran like crazy people in the rain before hitching a ride with a kind Swiss couple about our age. Whew!
Putting that hike on my must-return list – dying to see those views without clouds!
After the hike, Melli drove me to Zurich, where we sadly said our goodbyes as she had to get home for work the next morning.
I wandered around the city some, grabbed falafel for dinner, and called it a night. (If you’re looking for a reasonably priced hotel in Zurich, check out Hotel Hottingen – I opted for one of the shared hallway bathroom options and it was really reasonable, and centrally located enough too. I also felt super safe staying there alone!)
I really liked Zurich – it was lively and cute!
After a short run along the water the next morning, it was off to the airport to fly on home.
What an amazing couple weeks I had – thank you for re-living my Europe adventures with me! I had fun sharing them and I hope you had fun reading them, too.
Switzerland Finale originally appeared on fANNEtastic food | Washington D.C. area Registered Dietitian | Recipes + Healthy Living + Fitness on August 27, 2014.
The post Switzerland Finale appeared first on fANNEtastic food | Washington D.C. area Registered Dietitian | Recipes + Healthy Living + Fitness.