Grindelwald, Switzerland

This mountain village lies around three hours by rail to the southwest of Zürich. It’s reportedly quite popular with hikers and sightseers in the summertime, as well as with skiers in the winter, but in autumn, virtually everything shuts down.

A 25-minute gondola ride to the Grindelwald First station puts visitors in the best location for sweeping views of the landscape. The trip was actually scheduled around arriving by the last day that the gondola was operating. Even the hotel closed for the season at noon, so leaving bags behind wasn’t possible. Instead, backpacks came with up the mountain.

With things to carry and fairly cold, heavy winds at the summit, only the viewpoints requiring minimal effort got a visit. That was plenty to be awestruck by the scenery, though a lack of moving around much means the photos may get a little repetitive. Each subtly different view still feels worth sharing, even if none of them captures the unimaginable scale or the awe of visiting in person.

Switzerland would be worth experiencing just by riding trains through the mountains and looking out the window at views like this.

Views From the Hotel Balcony

Being so close to Italy, you’d hope for a better pasta dish, but these ravioli were ruined by strong Swiss cheeses.

Grindelwald First

The rocks up close from the platform in the last photo

The route is not made for tall people. The large backpack made it even more difficult to get by.

The view in the next photo is from one of the most popular platforms for a selfie. This skirt was ridiculous given the climate up top, but some people seem to think looking cute for Instagram is more important than not freezing.

A 10x-speed time-lapse of the trip back down