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Switzerland's railway system is ranked first among national European rail systems for its intensity of use, quality of service and strong safety rating. It's the sole transportation we used during our three-week travel in this mountainous country, through the valleys, around the lakes, to urban cities, and rural villages. A quick check with its mobile app can tell you all the available routes to the destination you want, the exact times of arrival, the stops along the way, the platforms to board, even how crowded each train is.

The train itself is nice and clean, comfy and roomy, with designated spaces for bicycles, luggages, child seats, etc.

On the second day of our trip, I left my phone on the train. As we stood at the platform of the station we just deboarded, wondering who/what to contact for help, another train arrived, and down came a woman conductor for routine check. We told her what happened and she invited us to the train as it must leave on schedule, where she asked for the details of my mishap, and my friend's phone number for call back and assured us they would let us know if they found the phone. We got off the train at the next stop, and decided to go to the customer service counter there to report the loss just to be doubly sure that someone would look for it. As we approached the counter my friend's phone rang, and we handed it to the customer service agent so they could talk in German. Moments later, "they found the phone, and will bring it to this station by one of the next trains coming in. You can come back here to pick it up in about an hour," the customer service agent smiled and told us. And I did get my phone back an hour later, in the middle of nowhere, in rural southeastern Switzerland!

I couldn't be more impressed by and appreciative of the diligence and efficiency of the people and the system there!

The other pleasant surprise thing I encountered in Switzerland was their food. It was in general a good mix of German, Italian, and French cooking—no surprise, as it is the country's population composition—with quality agriculture ingredients (great bread and potato, freshwater fish from the lakes, happy cows on green pasture 😏), homey taste, at reasonable prices. (Average dish at formal dining was about 20% higher than in the US, but then you didn't have to tip, so it's a wash.)

Last but not least, the most pleasant thing of this trip, however, was to be accompanied by Joseph Chou, my best friend from high school, and his wonderful wife Peipei!

They were the ones that planned every detail of the trip: studying the places to visit, setting the itinerary, booking the hotels, reserving the train seats, etc., and led every step of the way as we moved up and down the country. When I said we took on this trip as a self-guided tour, what I really meant was a "Chou-guided" tour!

And I got to enjoy many precious moments with Joseph: in the train, at the summit, on the trail, sharing thoughts and memories of the old and the new. Joseph was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years ago and went through a major surgery and chemo treatment last year from which he was still recovering. I am so grateful that we had such a wonderful trip together to reunion and reconnect!

Thank you, Joseph and Peipei, God be with you, and let's do it again sometime!

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Lausanne is a hilly city on the north shores of Lake Geneva, in the French speaking southwest of the country. It’s home to the International Olympic Committee headquarters, as well as the Olympic Museum and lakeshore Olympic Park. A grand cathedral in a busy old town district, and a street musical festival we bumped into whose charismatic singer and rappy but melodial singing still play back in my mind.  

Bern, the capital of Swiss Confederation, is a modest, everything-within-walking-distance town. It has an "Einstein Museum" (Einstein lived in Bern for seven years, 1902-1909, while working for the Swiss patent office) that not only details the life and stories of Einstein and his times, but teaches you easy-to-understand Special Relativity Theory in ten minutes.

Geneva is another shore city, sitting at the southwestern end of its namesake lake, bordering France, from where John Calvin, a giant of the Reformation Movement, escaped to preach in the city for 28 years before he died. A "Reformation Wall" built on the old fortification walls of the city, depicting key Calvinist and other Protestant figures, represents the significant roles these people and the city played for the success of the Reformation Movement nearly half a millennium years ago.

We took a side tour out of Switzerland to Strasbourg, France for two days before the end of our three-week trip. Strasbourg is a border city in northeastern France across the Rhine River from Germany. It's been historically a contested territory between the two countries for hundreds of years but is now the peaceful seat of the European Union Parliament.

It's also a charming tourist town with a 600-year-old cathedral and a river/canal surrounded old town.

And six Michelin one-star restaurants, one of them we visited.

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Located at the heart of Switzerland, the Berner Oberland (Bernese Highlands) region is famed for its natural beauty and alpine charm. We rented a three-bed-and-two-bath-room apartment house at a resort tourist town Wengen for four nights to explore the area.

A young woman (Jungfrau), a monk (Mönch), and an ogre (Eiger), all standing 4000+ meters tall—yes, these are names of the famous triumvirate of peaks in Swiss Alps we went to see, at a summit that's 3000 meters tall itself.

Another bigger name peak, Matterhorn, the one Disneyland emulates at its theme park in Southern California for bobsled roller coaster rides, took us a day trip to its access city Zermatt, where besides seeing the 4478-meter tall big rock from anywhere in town, we also watched a short movie at the city museum that documented how the first ascent to the peak was accomplished in 1865, with tragic ending (some climbers died) and unresolved suspicion (was the rope cut intentionally?).

Back at Wengen, I spent one morning taking a cable-car lift to a 2200 meter summit, then a one-and-a-half-hour hike in the snow with my traveling companion Joseph. Worth every bit of my sore feet later that evening!

There are two major lakes in the region, we managed to visit two cities by one of them. At Thun, we saw people surfing on the river, at Spiez, skiing on the lake with some self-propelling gadgets. Eye-openers for a dude from a Southern California beach town!

It was snowing when we left town. The first of the season, said the driver who picked us up for the train station.

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We took an unusual self-guided three week tour to Switzerland in September.

Right off the plane, we got a taste of this mountainous country's super efficient railway system by taking a train off the airport terminal and reaching our first destination in less than an hour.
 
Lucerne is a city tucked between a big lake and a few surrounding hills, at the outflow of a river from the lake in central Switzerland. Its indelible landmark is a footbridge that is the oldest wood covered bridge in Europe, with triangle paintings that depict Swiss Confederation history dating back to the 17th century. 

A visit to its old fortification wall and tower and a rock-cut monument commemorating the heroism of Swiss Guardsmen reminded me of the grit and the will of self-determination of the people that make the country what it is today.

Lugano is yet another beautiful lakeside city, at the very southern end of the country, bordering Italy. 

From there we took a bus east, traversing northern Italy to return to the southeastern tip of Switzerland, then boarded a train that took us up and down 2000+ meter high mountains and valleys, before reaching two highland hideaways—Pontresina, a tranquil one-street village, and St. Moritz, a one-time Winter Olympics host, somewhat chic-ish town—in southeastern Swiss Alps. 

Then we went to the northeastern corner of the country, and became accidental attendees to a once-every-25-year regional festival at a quaint little village, Appenzell, that featured an air show, an Oktoberfest-like celebration, and a wrestling contest.

St. Gallen, the major city in northeastern Switzerland, has an expansive cathedral-abbey built on the hermitage of an Irish monk who came to evangelize in the 7th century, with a library that keeps 160,000 volumes, including thousands of manuscripts dating back to the 8th through 15th centuries, and notes of cooking tips and dietary suggestions by the monks such as 

"May chopped herbs through the cross turn tart in the vinegar," 

"May mushrooms often stewed with blessings be imbued," and 

"In beer's careful brew, blessings anew."