Babymoon Part 4: Switzerland

The final chapter of our Babymoon 2011 adventure. When we booked our tickets - purposely choosing the option that would give us an 8 hour layover in Zurich - having a day of adventuring in Switzerland seemed thrilling. But on Saturday morning, exhaustion from a week of walking in Greece plus getting up at 3AM to catch our flight out of Athens made this suddenly seem like a VERY BAD idea. I stubbornly announced that I just wanted to spend the entire layover sleeping on the airport chairs. 

Luckily, I’m married to a man who often has VERY GOOD ideas. He procured a rental car for our brief window of time, and we set out from the airport at 10AM, needing to be back by 2:30 to catch our flight to Stockholm at 4:30. 

After some debate of which direction to head, Tim decided a sightseeing drive would be best and turned our rental car toward the Alps. We drove to an alpine village called Interlaken, a place Tim had been to before and had fallen in love with. The drive to Interlaken was breathtaking. We took a country road through sweeping hillsides in glowing emerald green. Little Swiss cows grazed contentedly, dotting the landscape and existing under perfectly blue skies. Swiss cottages and villages spread out in clusters. 

The Alps loomed ahead for almost an hour before we actually began to enter into the foothills. Twisting roads wound us higher and higher, with the views becoming more and more glorious. 

We stopped our car at a lookout point, and I emerged from my seat to snap photos of THE MOST beautiful view I have ever seen in my life. I’m not even kidding. The photo doesn’t do it justice. We finally arrived in Interlaken, after driving through many tunnels that brought us back down the mountain and we emerged into the bright sunlight and a cool lake the most extraordinary shade of teal. 

Because it had taken us two hours to get to Interlaken, and we had to be back in two and a half hours, we only had about half an hour to wander around the lake and get going. As soon as we got back in the car I hit “Airport” under the saved favorites section on our GPS (just like the rental car attendant told us to do), and fell asleep. Tim woke me up an hour or so later, asking me if I was sure I had put in the right airport. I kind of laughed and said, “How many airports could there be?! Of course I put in the right one.” But half an hour later, I wasn’t so sure. After a quick search, I learned that there were SEVEN airports in the nearby area, and we suddenly had no idea which one was the right one and we were definitely headed toward the WRONG one. Ahh!!

After a quick debate, we chose one of the airports in Zurich and prayed it was the right one. Our GPS had us getting there at 3:40, giving us less than an hour to return our rental car, get into the airport, through security, and on the plane by 4:30. Talk about stressful. As we got closer to Zurich we got stuck in horrible traffic, and we began to panic. (Ok, I was the only one panicking. Tim rarely panics, and when he DOES, you can bet I’m fainted on the floor.) I felt sick as I watched the GPS predict a later and later arrival. 

In the end, we got to the RIGHT airport at 3:45 (whew!) and managed to make it to our gate with ten minutes to spare. This only furthered Tim’s belief that there is NEVER any reason to panic.

Our whirlwind adventure in Switzerland was amazing, and definitely one of the best parts of our trip. It was a life changing experience and the perfect ending to a fabulous vacation.