A quick trip to Switzerland!

The last weekend of June brought a spontaneous trip out of Germany and across the border into beautiful Switzerland! I was lucky enough to meet a group of people a few months ago in Heidelberg, one of whom lives in Switzerland, and having said I wanted to travel whilst I was here, he was kind enough to invite me to stay with his family for the weekend in a small Swiss town called Heiden. 

The train journey took about 4 hours and was stunning; the railway ran right through the Black Forest so I was surrounded by trees and hills for most of my journey. Unfortunately the moving train didn't allow for any photo opportunities, but it was certainly one of the more interesting train rides of my life! I arrived on Friday evening in the city of Konstanz, which is half in Germany and half in Switzerland. It is situated on a giant lake, which marks the boundary between Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The train station was in the German half,  but once I met with my friend we crossed into Switzerland. Heiden is about an hour away from  Konstanz, and the road to his house follows the lake, so I just sat in awe for most of the journey as I looked out my window. 

On Saturday I continued my tour of Europe as we crossed the border into Austria to go to a lake beach. Now sometimes I can be a little hesitant to swim in lakes, but it was absolutely beautiful. Due to the hot weather there were lots of people, but we still managed to find a spot where we could simply sit back and look at the view.

After spending nearly the whole day sunbathing and swimming, we made our way to the nearby restaurant and indulged in some ice cream. I got a walnut and caramel sundae and it was delicious! Hey, we ate fruit during the day....Once we were finished and went to leave the sun was just beginning to set and the sky looked amazing. It felt surreal that the day before I'd been working and just 24 hours later I was standing looking at a beautiful sunset in Austria. 

It was, or course, only a flying visit, because I had to head back to Heidelberg on Sunday in order to be ready for work Monday morning. Luckily I still had some time on Sunday though. My friend's dog had recently had seven puppies, and we ended up spending most of the morning in the garden playing with them. They were absolutely adorable and I had my heart set on having one until I found out that they cost about 1000 euros each! I did suggest that I could simply steal one, but that idea didn't seem too popular. 

Finally it was time to leave, so we drove back to Konstanz and had lunch in the city before I had to catch my train. I didn't get to look around much, but I'd love to go back because from what I did see, it is a really lovely city. It was a really tiring weekend but I'm so glad I went!