Switzerland

Getting to Zurich 17th July, we booked accommodation fairly close to the station so we didn't have to travel too far. Our original plan was to go to Bern then Zurich but the interrail train map showed it would be too complicated to do that so instead we chose to go to Zurich first.

We booked a sort of Hostel house. It had a house style out front with large kitchen, living room and then the bedrooms were down one flight of stairs out back. We were sharing a 3 bunk bed room which we booked for 2 nights.

The first day we did a bit of walking around the area we were staying in. Zurich is known as the upmarket banking city, therefore being expensive. Which we found out the hard way. Although beautiful, Zurich is a tiring city to walk around in. It is hard to find a point on the ground that is flat. A lot of walking up hill and down hill so if you plan on visiting, bring your walking shoes. And money.

We located the shops and bought our food for the 2 days here. When I say it's expensive, I mean that from a tourist point of view. If you were to live and work here in Switzerland, you would earn enough money to view the prices as normal but as a tourist the currency conversion rate is high from AUD to Swiss Franc.

The next day we went down to Old Town, which is located at the tip of Zurich Lake.

Very beautiful area, lots of little cafes and restaurants tucked away in a maze of buildings and squares, or at the edge of the water with great views.

We also took a train over to Uetliberg, and started our journey up to the observation deck. The walk up didn't take too long and the view was great. It gave an uninterrupted view over the top of Zurich and over to the other side of the lake.

We headed down and caught the train back into the center, grabbed some lunch at an Irish pub and made our way back to our accommodation to call it a night.

We decided to book accommodation in Fribourg instead of Bern for the next 2 days. After being in Zurich, we wanted to experience something other than a city, and Fribourg gave off a town vibe, with more of a local attraction instead of tourist attraction. So the next day we were on a train to Fribourg, booking an Airbnb with a young family.

The house we were staying at was 20 minutes away from Fribourg, in a town called Tentlingen. Greg and Nathalie and their daughter, Joy, were very welcoming and their house was super cosy. They had 2 cats and a swimming pool which we made use of. The house was in a rural area, with crop fields on one side of the house, and the other with the town houses. The first day we stayed in and swam in the pool and watched movies. The next day we took a trip into Fribourg to explore and it was so cool! We did not have any expectations of the place and did not look much into it online either. Nathalie gave us some recommendations and also mentioned there was a town festival on so when we got to the city it was pretty busy, with streets closed off from cars as they had set up market stalls and stages.

When we got into Fribourg by bus, we hopped off directly out the front Cathedral Saint Nicholas, the start of Old Town. We walked through the streets there and were instantly transferred back in time. Nathalie recommended Le Port De Fribourg, a property setup as a cafe/restaurant/art attraction. So we made our way through Old Town over the bridge to Le Port. The scenery and buildings on the way was so amazing to see. Such a picturesque place. We got to Le Port and had a couple beers, before heading into Fribourg centre and getting some lunch at a place Nathalie recommended, Holy Cow. Absolutely delicious burgers served there. Now in the town centre, this is where the festival was set up, so lots of people out and about. Was really cool to see a town I've never been to before and the type of things they celebrate in their cultural way. Music, food, drink, shop stalls, it was all happening. We stayed around here for a few hours and then caught the bus back to Tentlingen.

The sun was still up and we ate dinner outside with Nathalie and Greg and had some beers.

We found on google maps a local petting farm in Tentlingen and decided to walk there the next day. It was another hot one and the walk ended up being very long. taking about 40 minutes to get there, and almost not finding it because of no signage, but we made it. At first we thought we just walked onto someones property, but we were reassured by one of the workers we were at the right place. We walked around and found some animals which we were allowed to pat. They had a dog, a cat, a bunch of rabbits, some horses, a donkey, chickens, and ducks. Making sure to pat them all. It was quite sweet really, being in another country on a farm just patting some animals. Not needing to worrying about anything for a moment.

We hiked the rest of the way back to pack our bags and leave for Italy where we would be for the next 17 days. Starting in Genoa.

Thanks to Nathalie and Greg for the hospitality.

Thanks for reading guys, catch you next week.