central alps

We rented a car in Zurich and drove straight into the heart of the Central Alps — the kind of landscape that feels almost unreal in its order and calm.

In Lucerne, we saw the Lion Monument (Löwendenkmal) — carved directly into rock, mourning the Swiss Guards who died during the French Revolution — one of Europe’s most emotionally quiet yet powerful memorials. Nearby, we crossed the Kapellbrücke, the world-famous wooden covered bridge with its medieval roof paintings, reflecting perfectly on the Reuss River.

From there the route turned into pure alpine cinema:
Inseli Lungern, with its turquoise lake surrounded by silent forests;
Grindelwald, a dramatic glacier village under vertical cliffs;
Lauterbrunnen, a valley of waterfalls falling straight from the sky;
Interlaken, resting between two deep blue lakes;
Spiez and Thun, postcard towns on Lake Thun;
and finally Bern, Switzerland’s calm, arcaded capital with medieval stone streets and green river curves.

This part of Switzerland didn’t feel like a country — it felt like a perfectly edited landscape.