Cora the Explorer : Bettmeralp, Switzerland

Continuing on our Swiss summer vacation and exploration, we chose Bettermalp as our final trip before baby #3 arrives.  Bettmeralp is also in canton Valais and about a 2 hour drive from where we live in Lausanne.  However, it is one of many Swiss towns that is not accessible by car.  We made it to the parking lot without incident (driving during Cora’s nap time is saving us from her car sickness this summer) and boarded the gondola to take us up to town.

It didn’t take us long to realize that Bettmeralp is probably our favorite little mountain town we have visited in Switzerland.  It felt more casual, more family friendly, and more relaxed than more popular places like Zermatt.  And the views were amazing, just like everywhere in the Swiss Alps.

The first day we rented a little paddle boat on the small mountain lake in town.  We had to bribe Cora to wear her life jacket with potato chips.  The sun was hot up there but the water felt so good on our feet.

The next day we took another gondola up to Bettmerhorn to get an even better view of the mountains, including the Matterhorn in the distance, and the Aletsch Glacier.  We also stopped at the mountain restaurant for lunch.  Cora had her favorite vacation food of all time, french fries.

Mom got a morning off the next day and Cora and Dad went hiking with some friends that were also in town.  Cora still does really well in the carrier, but she definitely also appreciates her time on the ground once at the destination.  In this case, at Moosfluh, there were alpine cows grazing and a playground, so Cora really enjoyed herself.

We also got in Cora’s first round of mini golf!  It went about as well as you could expect.

All in all, we’d love to get back to Bettmeralp.  I’ve started looking into backup plans if we aren’t able to get back to the U.S. this Christmas as planned, and Bettmeralp is definitely in contention if we have to stay in the country.  We hope it doesn’t come to that, but who knows with the way this year is going.

Cora the Explorer : Zermatt, Switzerland

We have lived in Switzerland for 3 years now, and have only seen its most famous mountain, the Matterhorn, from afar.  Since we decided to stay in Switzerland this summer because of the Coronavirus, it was high time we made the trip to Zermatt to get a better look at this rock.

Zermatt is a car-free town so we had to park down the mountain and take the train up.  There are actually plenty of ‘cars’ in town, but they are basically glorified electric golf carts.  Our hotel had one such cart and came to pick us up at the train station.

Again, our hotel was not full.  We received a beautiful room upgrade and settled in for a few days overlooking none other than the Matterhorn.

Zermatt is a charming ski town, it would seem, year round.  We saw plenty of folks with their skis in tow on the way to the lifts in the morning.  We did not consider skiing while there, but I’m sure the terrain available in July was at a level beyond my ability, even if I wasn’t pregnant.

We did, however, do some easy hiking.  I’ve found that I start contracting quite a bit if I exert myself too much.  This was a great excuse to take the Gornergrat Bahn up the mountain and hike down, enjoying the views along the way.  Cora has actually become a really good walker from our daily walks at home, and I can tell already that she will need her own hiking boots next summer.

One silver lining of this awful pandemic is that we got to experience a town like Zermatt in July with relatively few tourists.  The Swiss border had opened to EU countries by this point, but we found that the visitors to Zermatt were mostly like us – Swiss residents enjoying the country we call home.

Cora the Explorer : Leukerbad, Switzerland

For those of you who know German or who have traveled in a German speaking country, you probably know that “bad” means bath.  Towns containing “bad” do so because there is a natural hot spring, from which a thermal bath complex is built around for people to frolic in.

Mark had a week of vacation so we hopped in the Czech Ferrari to explore more of Switzerland.  Our first stop was Leukerbad, in our neighboring canton of Valais.  We left right when Cora was getting very tired and very ready for her nap.  Luckily, she fell asleep before she had the chance to get sick.  Unluckily, she woke up just in time to get sick as we were pulling into town.  Cora and I promptly got out of the car and walked the remaining 15 minutes to our hotel in the fresh mountain air.

Leukerbad looks like it’s set in a bowl.  It’s surrounded by mountains on all sides.  There are literally views everywhere you look.  Similar to our last trip to Gstaad, town was quiet.  We arrived on a Monday so that also contributed.  This really played to our advantage, though, in that our hotel was not full and the main therme was mostly empty when we visited.

And what a therme it was.  Literally, Cora’s paradise.  We wanted to go to this particular bath because kids are welcome.  This is not always the case – often a child has to be potty trained before being allowed in.  But this therme had incredible kids areas, which is where we mostly hung out.  The water was a very comfortable temperature, thanks to the hot springs.  And Cora’s favorite pool was a comfortable depth for her, right around her waist.  But it was really her favorite pool because of the two toddler sized waterslides.  We could hardly get her off of them.

We stayed at a hotel that also had a small therme, which ended up being great as well.  Cora got super comfortable in the water, which we were thrilled to see.  And actually, when we returned home from this trip, we signed Cora up for swimming lessons!  Not only does she love the activity, but it will be a really nice 1:1 parent time for her after the new baby makes her appearance.

Back on land, Mark decided to fulfill his taste for adventure.  Leukerbad has two gondolas that ascend adjacent mountains, one of which had a series of hiking/biking trails going down it back into the village.  One afternoon during toddler/mommy nap time, he walked to the Torrentbahn and took it up to the Rinderhuette.  At the mountain station, there exists the typical ski lodge with shop, restaurant, and rental equipment.  The summer alpine activity he wanted to try was monster scootering!

These bad boys can handle even very steep mountain paths.  The descent took around 45 minutes and included hiking trails, a portion on the ski piste, running through a farmer’s pasture, and various other terrain elements.  More challenging and technically demanding than expected for the novice, but tons of fun.  Mark said he’d highly recommend it and would like to go again in another alpine scape.

Next up on the Swiss road trip – Zermatt!