Grachen, Switzerland

Posted on March 7, 2024  •  14 minutes  • 2817 words

I put A LOT of thought into where to go for our Swiss mountain weekend. I didn’t want to go too far, didn’t want to rend a car, wanted a mountain town feel and wanted snow. It was especially hard this year to find it as Switzerland hadn’t gotten much snow, so many areas that should have worked, didn’t. After messaging with a lot of Airbnb hosts, I settled on Grachen (2 dots over the ‘a’) and I couldn’t have chosen better.

The kids and I walked an easy 10 minutes to the train station with our two bags. Dan had dropped off the big suitcase and the bike box at Yuhao’s place so we could travel more easily, and we didn’t need much for the weekend. We did however bring lots of dirty clothes as our last place didn’t have laundry. Basically all the clothes were dirty to be honest.

We had plenty of time before out train, so we got some croissants. The chocolate ones looked a bit sad, so I made the executive decision to get plain ones. Kids were asking over and over, but I said no. The lady at the bakery snuck me three chocolate squares. Kids were ecstatic when I pulled them out at the table and they all made their own ‘chocolate croissants’. :)

Walked past this lovely map showing the main train lines in Switzerland. Love me some maps.

We waited a bit on the platform with kids squealing with joy every time a train came by. One didn’t stop and kids were convinced it was a high speed train. I guess was it was going about 40mph. Hard to imagine a real high speed train flying by. We wouldn’t have been as close, but still, it must be a flash and it’s gone. Our train pulled up and we hoped on. We were out of the city quickly and the views were amazing! Glittering lake to the south and vineyards covering hills to our left.

We had one transfer. Only 12 minutes, but going from one track to the next took all of a minute. Kids saw a vending machine and wanted to check it out. I told them we didn’t need anything and it would all be over priced. This turned into the kids entering numbers to find out who could guess what was the most expensive. What I really appreciate about this machine is variety it had. I mean, next time you are standing on a train platform and need to know if you are pregnant or not, fear not…the vending machine in the Brig train station has got your back!

The next train we got on was a two car more tourist train. It had angled windows up top so you could see almost straight up. We followed a river up a sort of canyon and everywhere you looked you saw mountains and cliffs.

Grachen was quite a bit up the mountain from St. Nikaus and we had to take a bus for this part. The whole ride I was trying to do math about how much further up we were going and where I was currently seeing snow on mountains. I really wanted there to be snow there.

We arrived and success! Not a ton of snow, but enough to make kids happy. We had a nine minute walk to our place and we had no choice but to walk in this car free town. It was easy, but kids were ready to be there. I ran into a market to get lunch and left them outside playing in a patch of snow. Nice stroll through what seemed to be the ‘main’ road of town and we got to our place.

Our place was stereotypical Swiss chalet. It couldn’t have been more amazing and more perfect for us. Striking backdrop.

We all ate lunch on the back balcony and then they bundled up (maybe a bit too much by Max) to go play in the snow. Max recently has been very excited to wear a scarf…whether needed or not.

After lunch I continued to sit on the balcony, in between loads of laundry, as they played in the snow below.

After a couple hours of playing, I convinced them to head inside so we could do a walk through town. We walked over to the base of the gondola with lots of skiers coming down. Kids found a shop at the base with sleds for sale outside. We do sort of have a perfect sledding hill behind our chalet, so I let them pick out two. Headed home with kids fighting the whole time about who got to carry the sleds. When we did get home, they went straight to the hill and I went in to make dinner.

Easy dinner and for some reason I felt cold ice cream was a good idea after our fun day.

Max opted to sleep in the room by himself, because that included Mom laying with him for a bit. The other two went to bed planning more sledding adventures for tomorrow. Dan missed the train he was hoping to catch after his meeting…you can’t win them all…so was now going to arrive at 10pm. It worked out well as I had lots of work to do and I could work in peace. Dan arrived and we went to bed.

Kids were so excited for sledging today. Breakfast was pretty easy and fast and kids were getting all dressed. I was trying to keep them out of the snow in the backyard to try to maintain dryness. Their boots have served us so well since we got them in December, but I think after wearing them hard everyday, the waterproof-ness is failing a bit, or there are some holes that the water is getting in through. All ready to go with a backpack of food and water; we walked to the shop at the base of the gondola. We picked out a sledge, in addition to the sleds we had, got tickets and took the gondola up.

Saying it was beautiful does not do it justice. Everywhere you looked you had stark snow capped peaks, but in a way different from other areas. The mountains rose so fast and were so steep that they looked jagged and dark grey. And NO trees that high.

The sledging area was in the family area, so we could ride the magic carpet up each time. As someone who has never had this type of service as a kid (or adult), I was a bit annoyed. Part of the sledding experience is having to lug your sled up the mountain after you go down and begging your parents to carry you up, right? You get a better run down the mountain when you physically carry your sled up. Maybe I sound a bit like a parent who walked uphill to school both ways in the snow? Anyways, we lazily took the ride up. Just to make a point, I walked a few times.

The slope was perfect, except for Max on the toboggan who didn’t realize that he had to slow himself a bit. This was actually more our error as parents, but Dan sent him down and thank god I heard Dan yell to me as Max comes barreling down the hill like a bat out of hell. I threw myself on him and got him to stop. A bit painful for both of us, but it needed to happen as at the bottom were picnic tables and a small hut. Good design for viewing, bad design for kids flying down the hill.

Dan and I even did it a bit with the kids. Or course Ben and Sam started challenging us to races.

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Pretty easy to control and we even were able to go through the kids course where you weave through arches and around flags.

The weather felt like a perfect spring mountain day. We stopped for lunch. I had brought a partial snack lunch, not knowing what they would have there, so we did a combo. Sat outside in sweaters, surrounded by our happy place…the mountains.

I always joke with the kids about my happy places; REI and the Sierra Mountains. Whenever ‘happy places’ come up, they know…especially Ben. And it’s true, I have so many amazing memories in the Sierra and I can’t think of another place that means so much to me. But being here, looking out at mountains in every direction and seeing the actual rock of the mountains, not the trees, I was feeling some happy Sierra vibes. Very different still, but beautiful mountains all the same…and a very happy Sara.

And just for fun, me 20 years ago in Switzerland.

There was no keeping these kids sitting for long. Right back after lunch. Max did his his limit before the other two though. Yes, I remember this feeling as a kid (or adult really) flopping in soft snow after a long day.

Gondola ride down as the long 2.5km sledging run was out of service due to lack of snow in places towards the bottom. Kids were asking a lot about skiing. We had never planned to let them do it, but it really felt like the right time to do it. When in Rome, right? We chatted at the ski school, looked into rentals and decided to go for it. I went back out to reserve the lessons and swung by the market on the way back for supplies because would it even be a Swiss mountain weekend without fondue?

A massive hit, even though I’m pretty sure I didn’t cook down the wine enough and it was pretty strong. Max took one bite and gave it the Max thumbs up of approval. The kids had done most of the cutting of things to dip in. Ben the apple, Sam and Dan the bread and Max picked the grapes off the stem. We had so much fun and devoured it, that I had to make more.

We wanted to be at the rental place at 9am to get fitted and have time for the gondola and finding the meeting place. The kids were measured and they all thought the boots were too small. Haha. Trying to explain that they were supposed to be really snug was useless and they assured me, they were just too small. All measured up and way too excited, we headed out of the store. They all insisted on carrying their own stuff because of their excitement to have their skis. This lasted about 4 seconds for Max and 10 for Sam. We made it to the gondola and waved bye to Dan who was going to snow shoe up.

We got to the top 10 minutes early and kids wanted to start skiing right away. I managed a picture before kids were sliding away.

They had a 2 hour private lesson and I had no idea how this was going to go. We were at the meeting point at 9:55am and their instructor, Fabianne, came up. She had a huge smile on her face, introduced herself to all the kids and me. Asked a few questions about their ability and then basically said, “okay, say bye to Mom. See you in 2 hours! Bye!” In the nicest way possible I felt she was telling me to leave and not come back. It was awesome! I’m sure kids do better without parents at the bottom that they can go and cry to. Also, when I signed the kids up, I gave my name, my phone number, kids’ names and birth dates and that was it! No signing away of responsibility or that I won’t sue. Nope, just names and payment! So crazy compared to US standards.

I found a lounge chair on the roof deck in the best spot. I could see them, but they couldn’t see me.

And the view behind me.

After a little over an hour, I did walk down to say hi and take some videos. They were all loving it. Max had a cold face, but didn’t seem to really care. Ben was sort of on his own and Fabianne was helping the younger two more. Sam was so cautious and really focused on his turns while Ben was more focused on going down. I was expecting the opposite! I stayed for just a few minutes, not wanting to mess up their vibe with Fabianne. I headed back to my seat and got more updated and photos from Dan.

Dan got up about 20 minutes before the lesson ended so he got to see a bit. Max was done when we walked over at the end of the lesson, but she told Ben and Sam they could do one more with her. Watching her with all three kids was amazing. She was so patient and amazing with them. A kid slides off, falls down, still smiles all around.

Another picnic lunch and then we went to the area where we sledged the day before. The two older kids really wanted to do the course and a ‘bigger hill’. I was so impressed with them! Ben was turning and was able to stop. Over and over he did the course where you weaved through.

After about 1.5hrs after lunch, Max was done. It was also starting to get a bit cold. He and I headed inside while the others stayed out.

Eventually they came in, but only to tell us they wanted to keep going. Sam had taking a decent fall but through half tears said he wanted to do the other hill a couple more times. Ben was just bouncing at the idea that he could go to the little ramp/jump again. A few more runs and then we took the gondola home. Sam and I stopped at the market for food. There were some broken chocolate bunnies by the register and when Sam saw them, he thought I had bought them and started saying thank you and being excited. I said that I hadn’t. The shop guy looked at me and motioned to give Sam one. I nodded and he handed one to Sam and said ‘a gift for you.’ Sam was over the moon. We ended up chatting for a bit. He was German and was saying how even knowing German, he still struggles with Swiss-German. I didn’t know they were totally different languages, but I guess they are. I was assuming more Argentine Spanish vs. Spain Spanish, but nope!

Back home everyone was exhausted, so I made hot chocolate for the kids, got Dan and I some radlers and we put on Indiana Jones. Bonus: we were all treated to Dan’s Sean Connery’s accent for the rest of the night. Seriously amazing. Try to get it out of him the next time you are chatting with him.

We took a break to make a fondue dinner again. I had bought carrots, which turned into another thing to dip in the cheese.

After cleaning up dinner, we finished the movie and put exhausted kids to bed.

The weather forecast had predicted 0.92in of snow on Sunday, the day we were leaving. We woke up to very little flurries. Throughout breakfast they were getting bigger and were now sticking to the ground. By the time we finished breakfast and kids were bundled up, it was really snowing! They were out there in heaven! It was snowing so hard and by 11am there was probably 5in of new snow.

We had to take a bus to the train and even though we were pretty sure towns like this fully operated with ‘minor’ storms like this, we didn’t want to take a chance. Dan walked to town to double check the bus was still running and would be. I hated to bring the kids in, but finally after they had had a couple hours, I brought them in for a quick lunch and then we raced to town to catch the bus. It was dumping and hoods were covered in snow after out quick 7 minute walk to the bus.

Whiteness everywhere our the bus windows. Bus had chains on, but we felt a little slipping on some stops.

Still plenty of snow down at St Niklaus and still coming down hard. Short wait for the train.

The kids had told Dan about how cool the train ride up was and showed him photos since he took the train in the dark. Not that big of a deal as we assumed he’d get the views on the ride home. Not so much. It was pretty magical in a different way though.

Made our way back to Lausanne on the next leg of the train, walked to our new place and checked in.