Day 53: Friends from Home, The Alps, Train, Waterfalls, & Italy

Friday, October 18th

We enjoy another lovely breakfast buffet that’s included with our stay. It is the cutest room with a fireplace & small kitchen. The lady who works the front desk is also there in the morning making everyone eggs. She made us egg whites (which she did perfectly) and it was so cute because when she brought them to us she asked if they were okay, because it was her first time. They had homemade bread, which was the best bread I’ve ever tasted in my life.

We finished doing laundry and packed up all of our clothes.

We walk to a cafe to go meet my friend Izy. A girl I met in our apartment building back home just so happens to be in Switzerland on her way to Iceland. It was the nicest surprise. She was such a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. Seeing her back home always brightened my days, and I was so excited to see her! We had so much fun visiting and catching up. It was so nice meeting her friends who travel full time. It was adorable, because when we left, Christopher said he loved seeing me literally up when visiting with the girls.

We hit the road shortly after. It was the most beautiful drive in our entire life. The fall time in Switzerland was outstanding. The colors were incredible. On part of our drive, we had to take the car on a train through a tunnel in Kandersteg. It was cool at first, and then after a while it got very scary. When other trains would pass you in the pitch black, it would shake, and there was random shakes along the way. We agreed we would never do this again. We went through many towns, some of them within my photos are, Goppenstein. Steg, Raron, Reid-Brig. We came across another train, and took the long way instead, which turned out to be the best decision ever. We ended up at the cutest cafe on top of the mountain with the most gorgeous view. Camera location is showing Rothwald. If we hadn’t taken the first train, we never would have ended up on the route we did. I can’t even tell you how many water falls we saw. I’ve never seen so many water falls in my life. Waterfalls, plus trees full of all the fall colors, along with snow capped mountains in the back. Like I said, the most gorgeous drive ever. More towns shown are Simplon Hospiz, Simplon Dorf, Gabi (Simplon), and then Gondo. Switzerland is definitely a top destination thus far. We then crossed the boarder into Italy, which was effortless, and there were more waterfalls. You could see castle in the mountains. It was cool to see the architecture change so fast. It’s crazy how there are so many countries in Europe and all have their own culture and unique styles.

We book a hotel pretty last minute. The only place that was open and looked okay to eat was called La Piadineria. It was a little fast food type place that made chicken wraps. We ended up staying in a place called Savona, Italy. The hotel was decent, which we just needed somewhere to sleep. We wanted to be able to enjoy our drive along the coast to Nice tomorrow. We try to avoid driving in the dark solely because we don’t want to miss all the views.

Both of our highlights today were the drive. The waterfalls, the leaves, and the mountains. Words and pictures just don’t do it justice. Add Switzerland to your bucket list now, and be sure to rent a car to drive through the mountains if you’re able! You won’t regret it.