A day of train-hopping in Switzerland

We started in Basel, because that is where the cheapest flight option took us. I hadn’t really considered Basel until that moment, when I bought the tickets. It is in an interesting location right on the border of Switzerland, Germany, and France. The airport is actually in France, and there are different exits from the airport depending on which country you are going to. It is very easy to get from the airport to Basel city center on Bus 50, assuming you exit the door to Switzerland. We hopped on the bus, and rode all the way to the end of the line, which happened to be at the main Basel train station. It was late and dark, but we quickly found our hotel on the other side of the train station.

The Basel Card is a fun perk of staying in a hotel in Basel, it comes with any hotel stay in the city and covers public transport and reduced admissions to museums. Unfortunately, we weren’t staying long, so we didn’t have time to take full advantage of the opportunity.

Basel has a pretty old town, but for some reason, it was difficult to navigate and we kept going in the wrong direction. After turning around and backtracking a couple times, we finally located the old town. It was pretty quiet on a Monday morning at the end of April. I was sorry that I didn’t plan for more time in Basel, there were some interesting looking museums, but something for next time.

By mid-morning we were on the train to Bern and experiencing the joy of traveling by Swiss train. It’s true that Swiss train tickets are pretty pricy, but there are passes that can reduce the cost. It’s also totally true that they are exactly on time. After a fair amount of research, I settled on the Saver Day Pass, which we used for all 3 of our travel days in Switzerland. It’s available for purchase 60 days in advance and gets more expensive the closer it is to the travel date. It covers most routes, but make sure to double check the coverage map, if you decide to use it. Also, the majority of trains do not require a seat reservation, so it is easy to hop on and hop off trains without advance planning.

Arriving in Bern, we stashed our bags in lockers at the train station and then wandered into the old town, which starts right next to the train station. Bern is a pleasant, pretty town, there were definitely more tourists there than Basel. The building are all built in a distinctive green stone. The main street is lined by arcades, with many shops and restaurants.

One of the main attractions in the old town is the clock tower, it rings on the hour, and somehow we managed to be walking by at the right moment, so we got to see the moving mechanical figures do their thing. It honestly wasn’t that exciting.

At the east end of the old town, there’s a high bridge across the river, with the Barenpark below, which has 3 live bears in it., who looked very happy dozing in the sunshine. Right next to the Barenpark, is Altes Tramdepot Brauerie, a great place for lunch. We had a tasty lunch of soup and salad. Asparagus featured prominently on the seasonal menu.

After lunch it was time for our next stop - Thun. We walked back to the train station, retrieved our bags and hopped on the train to Thun. There was one slight problem, when the train stopped halfway and everyone got off. We didn’t realized that they were announcing that the train line was under construction and everyone had to get on a bus to actually get to Thun. Fortunately some helpful train staff pointed us in the right direction.

I’m a sucker for castles and I just couldn’t resist the description of Schloss Thun in the Lonely Planet Switzerland - Schloss Thun is the castle of your wildest fairy-tale dreams, crowned by a riot of turrets and affording tremendous views of the lake and Alps. After I read that, I just had to fit it in to the itinerary!

Thun Castle towers high on the hill above the town, so it was a bit of a climb to the get there.