Were it up to me, I’d be hibernating in my dark house until the weather breaks.
But I have family coming to visit, so have to show them a good time doing ‘Swiss stuff’ without anyone dying of heatstroke.
Where to go? I am fresh out of ideas.
Normally I’d take visitors up in the mountains - but looks like we’d have to get over 2000m to get any relief from the heat. And I imagine that places like Säntis, Pilatus, Titlis will be packed to the gills. Hoping for somewhere less likely to be overrun.
That was my first thought. There are loads of bbq places (I don’t think there are any fire bans in place yet?). The shade in the forests really keep it nice and cool.
Other options is a shopping centre, or similar, which will be air conditioned.
Nah, there’s no mozzies. At least around our neck of the woods. You’re all good so long as you don’t go wading through all the undergrowth and grass, and pick up a load of ticks. Stick to the paths.
Nearby is the Reichenbachfalls for any Sherlock Holmes fans in the group and the old Funicular railway is fun to ride, but more importantly, it’s a short trip up and there is shade when you are up there.
(no one wants to spend a half hour in a glass-faced gondola in this weather going to the top of a mountain with no shade).
Probably not as busy as the Trümmelbach Falls near Lauterbrunnen but that’s also in shade/underground.
Near Interlaken are the St. Beatus-Höhlen - caves underground and quite interesting.
I’ve done all those things on very hot days and it was fine.
Our visitors had a good time, despite the awful heat. And so, since it looks like another heatwave is on it’s way, here are our top beat-the-heat activities for day trips from SZ:
Rapperswil Badi.
A delightful place to cool off, laze around, and recover from jet lag. Bonus was finding a lively pub to watch the Switzerland-Canada match in the evening.
Rosenlaui Gorge:
We originally headed to the Aareschlucht, but even though it was early in the day it was already overcrowded. So we opted for Rosenlaui. It’s a shorter walk, but well worth it to avoid the crowds.
Chäserrugg:
I’ve hiked over much of Toggenburg, but somehow in all these years I’d missed this one. We went mid week, and before school Ferien, so maybe we just got lucky - but there were no crowds! Lovely views over the Walensee, various hiking trails to satisfy both the young mountain goats and the elderly aunt, uncle, and mutt. And who knew that Herzog and de Meuron designed a mountain restaurant? Which, by the way, has a lovely terrace so when the wobbly old aunt and wobblier mutt reached their limit we could while away the time reading while the young mountain goats were off adventuring. Best of all, when it was 33 at lower elevations, it was about 20 up on the mountain. Glad I finally found this hike.
