Germany & Switzerland

My first long flight, my first taste of Europe — castles, real Alps with snow on top in the middle of summer, and cheese fondue.

26 Jun – 7 Jul 2023

Age 3

13 days · whole family

Cities I visited

🇩🇪 Germany

Frankfurt

Banking towers next to old timber houses. The river Main runs right through it. We landed here off the long flight.

🇩🇪 Germany

Munich

Beer halls, big squares, and Bavarian sausages. Home of BMW cars and the world's biggest fairground (Oktoberfest).

🇨🇭 Switzerland

Bern

The capital of Switzerland — but smaller than Saigon's District 1! Famous for a clock tower and a bear pit.

🇨🇭 Switzerland

Interlaken

A village squished between two giant lakes, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. We rode trains and cable cars up into the Alps.

Things I did

🚞

Train up to Jungfraujoch

"Top of Europe" — a railway station 3,454 m up in the snow. Higher than any mountain in Vietnam.

🏰

Neuschwanstein Castle

The fairy-tale castle that inspired the Disney logo — built by a king who loved Wagner operas.

🐻

Bear Park, Bern

Bears really do live in Bern — it's even on the city flag. We watched them play in their riverside park.

🚗

BMW World, Munich

A spaceship-shaped building full of cars and motorbikes you can climb into.

⛵

Lake Thun cruise

A boat ride on water so blue it looked fake — fed by melting glaciers from the mountains.

🌳

English Garden, Munich

Bigger than Central Park in New York. People surf on a river wave inside the city!

Food I tried

🥨

Pretzels

Salty, twisty bread

🌭

Bratwurst

German sausage

🧀

Fondue

Dipping bread in melted cheese

🍫

Swiss Chocolate

The best in the world

🥧

Apfelstrudel

Warm apple pastry

Fun facts about these countries

Even in summer, the tops of the Swiss Alps still have snow on them — because they're so high up the air stays cold.
Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Tiny country, big language collection!
Swiss cows wear bells around their necks so farmers can find them on the mountainsides.
German trains are famously punctual — if a train says 10:14, it really does leave at 10:14.
Germany invented the printing press 600 years ago — that's why we have books today.
A Swiss person eats about 8 kg of chocolate a year — the most in the world!