You are on a long train journey from Zurich, Switzerland to Berlin, Germany. It takes 8.5 hours, if everything works as planned, which, given that this is a Deutsche Bahn train, never does, but this time around it was not their fault since a wee hurricane in North East Germany foiled the train’s progress. Anyway, you’re not here to write about the Deutsche Bahn but in 8.5 (plus) hours you have time to reflect on the last two adventurous weeks in a country many people may not consider the epitome of adventure: Switzerland.

As always, you waited until everyone in Germany went back to school and then, at the very tail end of the summer, took off to Switzerland. Why you ask? Well…first because if you love massive mountains, Switzerland is the gold standard. The entire country is built into the most magnificent mountains in Europe – the Alps, and while some countries around Switzerland get the scraps, the good Swiss people have the main course. Second, the Swiss took one of your favorite food groups, Cheese, and elevated it to the next level. There are dishes wholly devoted to cheese worship such as Fondue and Raclette (both of which may or may not be French in origin which is entirely beside the point since you can get them anywhere in Switzerland and you encourage the reader to search for a Fondue in certain areas in France like the Provence….but we digress…cheese). Third, but certainly as important as cheese or mountains is the extensive train network which really can get you anywhere in this topographically challenged country. Even though you visited Switzerland many times during your adult life, those visits were always work related and not really an exploration.

And with this you find yourself on an EasyJet to Geneva. It’s an hour and some change flight and it takes you to the West-most point of Switzerland. From there you hop into a local train and in about an hour you are in Lausanne. Why not stay in Geneva? Well…you’ve spent enough time there in the past and the idea was to explore new places. So Lausanne it is and wow is this a fantastic location. The city is walkable, the food is elevated, gluten free bakeries, artisanal ice cream, local train system that is included in the “Lausanne Card” you get from the hotel, and a proximity to apparently the town of Montreux which is famous for its jazz festival and for being the home of Freddie Mercury.

The bottom part of Lausanne is actually a town called Ouchy (not a typo), sitting right on Lake Leman, with an even more chill of a vibe, several beaches and a fascinating hotel that appears to be the next location for Wes Anderson’s film. You spend three nights in Lausanne, enjoying the French side of Switzerland, its cheeses and on a warm afternoon you even take a swim in the massive lake. There are only two directions of walking in Lausanne – up or down and given that the hotel is on the lake, you start the day walking up and the evening walking down. You determine that the town of Lausanne is very livable and very French – both great qualities.

From Lausanne you board the train to Arosa. Arosa is all the way in the east side of Switzerland. It’s up in the mountains at about 1700 meters above sea level and is reachable via a one way train from Chur (the oldest town in Switzerland, spoken as Kur not Chur). The train ride itself is an experience and the 25km up the mountain takes 19 tunnels, endless turns and a massive viaduct. This is also the first time you can remember seeing massive evergreen forest outside of the Pacific Coast of North America. The mountains are covered in these majestic trees and you explain this phenomenon to yourself by remembering that Switzerland did not have to fuel its arms during a war by cutting down all possible forests.

Arosa itself is a ski town that understands global warming and is reusing a lot of the ski infrastructure for summer sports such as cycling. The mountain biking infrastructure is nothing short of amazing, but the locals kept reminding you that they are still building that infrastructure. There are ski lifts in every direction and all colors of trails going down. One of the more adventurous trails starts at 2653 meters above sea level ending around 1000 meters below in Arosa. The whole area is a collection of trails, switchbacks, single tracks, gravel roads, exposed roots and loads of little streams.

It is pretty clear that Arosa lives from sports as the bike shops are plenty and each of them seems to also serve as a ski and snowboard shop in winter. There are plenty of restaurants catering for vegetarians and pescatarians and all sorts of Gluten Free options including pizza. More “exotic” options such as Indian or Mexican kitchens do not seem to exist, but at the end of the day, Zurich is two hours away, by train, and one does not travel to Arosa to have a burrito.

You hire a Mountainbike guide who takes you on two separate days to various trails and actually teaches you how to ignore everything you learned about drop-bars cycling and get into Enduro mode. The rental bike is equipped with 203mm rotors, 29 inch wheels and 2.8″ tires. It has strange head tube and seat tube angles and flat pedals. You learn the three important rules of mountain biking: make yourself wide (the opposite of road riding); look ahead and trust that your bike will handle the way (as opposed to look at where your front wheel is going) and climbing is easy with a ski lift (to quote Tinu the guide, “you already know how to ride up the mountain, riding down is what you need to learn”).

After about half a day of practicing you successfully manage the first trail: Hörnli Trail. Everything in Switzerland has a cute name, but as you quickly learn, adding a diminutive “li” at the end of a name, does not make it cute. You have a lot of fun during the 113 switchbacks going down and, more importantly, you do not fall even once. Looking ahead out of the switchback and towards the “where are you going next” helps a lot and with your knees and elbows pointing out, you have a wee bit more confidence. You repeat the same experience a few days later but this time by riding down from the Weisshorn trail starting at 2653 meters above sea level.

You learn that after every mountain bike day, it’s nice and healthy to have a hiking day and the number of trails to satisfy that need is also endless. An alternative would have been a gravel ride in the area, but you didn’t bring a bike and it’s nice to just hike to a destination such as a farm that makes cheese, have some locally made ice cream, buy cheese and have a picnic in the hotel room as the sun goes down. You also manage to participate in a Yoga class in the hotel every evening and on one occasion get some sauna time.

And just like this, a week in Arosa comes to an end. If you are honest with yourself, you could have stayed there much longer, but life is calling and for some obscure reason Arosa is hosting an old timer car race which starts a day after you leave so you bid the magical town in the sky farewell and take the train to Zurich and from there, after a few nights, back to Berlin.

So, Switzerland for vacation? Hell yeah.