Preweddingmoon Part 1 in Switzerland

My preweddingmoon finally arrived! Been waiting for this day since the start of this year ever since we got engaged. Ok, so how we planned it was that we knew we will be going overseas for our pre wedding photoshoot. And my dream has always been to take wedding pictures in Santorini, Greece after seeing so many couples going there for photoshoot and the beautiful scenery is just so picturesque. I just love the blue skies and the white buildings I see in pictures. Now, what I’ve been seeing in pictures all these while is now a reality.

So, Santorini was the main destination. But, to think that we will be going all the way to Europe just to go to Santorini would be a waste. We then started researching and saw neighbouring countries which we can also explore at the same time. After all, taking an 18 hours flight just for one country doesn’t justify the whole journey LOL

So, after much research, we decided to go to Switzerland and then to Santorini and after that to Turkey. Haha from 1 country in the initial plan and then to 3 countries. We thought why not even take pre-wedding pictures in all 3 countries? We had a photographer for Santorini and Turkey. So, for Switzerland, we decided to do it DIY by bringing our own tripod. FYI, Switzerland was our first time using the tripod ever! We didn't even train or studied on how to use it for the angle, height etc but luckily our amateur skills still took some beautiful pictures because Switzerland itself is a beauty! 

And so our pre wedding journey started in Switzerland. I saw the term preweddingmoon in the internet and it stands for pre wedding honeymoon where couples typically take pre wedding photoshoot overseas and have their honeymoon at the same time hehe

First of all, Switzerland is one of the most expensive country in the world if not THE most expensive. The primary mode of transport is train and even that it’s not cheap. Before flying, we did a lot of research for Switzerland mainly on how to save cost because everything is just so expensive. We were there for 3 nights and the main attraction was to see Jungfraujoch, the highest mountain in Europe.

Inclusive of the train ride to Jungfraujoch, our train ride itself costed us RM2,000.00 for 3 nights for 2 people >.< Yes, can you imagine? Taking train rides can cost you that much LOL. That is also after 50% discount okay, otherwise we would have paid RM4k. We bought the Swiss Half Fare card before flying to Switzerland which entitles us to 50% discount on all train rides in our route. But, it is very important to plan the entire itinerary because if you fail to plan, you plan to fail HAHA

We researched through hotels and Airbnb and found out that Airbnb has the cheaper rate instead of hotel. And I have a preference of having my own private bathroom so hostel is not an option. I will not be sharing bathroom with anyone during my preweddingmoon thank you very much lol. And I am also super picky and only wanted a ‘superhost’ because as much as I love staying in a hotel, we know we couldn’t afford it so the next best thing to a hotel is a superhost Airbnb with good ratings.

We finally found one and there were no regrets. Some might be uncomfortable staying in people’s house but Airbnb these days are like hotels where the rooms are literally just for travellers like me. We travelled with Oman Air which was not bad but the delay made us anxious because we had a train to catch after that in Zurich and if we missed the last train, we had to stay overnight in Zurich airport LOL

Yes, they have a menu card. First time seeing one on flight.

Chicken and cashew for me.

Spinach omelette for him.

We transitted in Oman airport for a while before taking the next flight to Zurich. Flight entertainment was not bad. I managed to watch Black Panther like finally which was really good.

After a 14 hour flight with a 4 hour transit, we finally reached Zurich airport. 

This is their bus and train route *faints*

We were so worried to miss the last train and get lost because it looks so complicated. It also didn't help that our luggage was slightly delayed. Once we took all our 6 luggages, we were literally running around Zurich airport finding for the train station which was on the opposite side. We were so kan cheong because we needed to queue up again to buy train tickets but luckily everything fell into place and we managed to catch the train.

 We then took the train to our Airbnb place in Wimmis. It was a 2 hour plus train ride. We already checked the train schedule beforehand in their SBB train website and boy, are their trains super on time. Since we already bought the Swiss Half Fare Card via Klook, it was just buying the train ticket to Wimmis. 

At that time we were so afraid of having to sleep in Zurich airport if we didn't catch the train but now looking back, it was super hilarious running around like a headless chicken trying to find the correct place and the train =')

The trains were quite old and Switzerland trains are one of the oldest around. But the insides are nice. Plus, they are super on time so make sure be punctual. Further, our host was going to pick us up from the train station so we couldn't be late and keep her waiting. But since we were new, we actually took one route wrong but managed to get down in time to change train. We were so lucky that night that we finally managed to reach our final destination on time.

At Wimmis, our host picked us up from the train station. Luckily, otherwise, we will need to tag along 6 bags walking on the road to the house which was quite hilly. Thank goodness she picked us up and showed us our room which was better than expected. We stayed at a private guesthouse and it was very spacious and we were very happy with our place. She prepared for us complimentary chocs and already prepared breakfast in the fridge for the next day. We were soo happy after a long day to have found such a cozy place to sleep. 

 It's like a studio unit for us. Dining table, living hall, bedroom and bathroom in one place.

Fully furnished as well.

2 Toblerones for us also <3

There's a microwave oven, kettle and a toaster.

Complimentary chocs and bananas for us and she fills it up everyday.

We were soo lucky to have a fantastic host.

We then knocked off and woke up early the next day due to jet lag. The next morning, we prepped a heavy breakfast before going out because most shops don’t open that early and it’s very expensive to eat out. Luckily, our host has already filled up the fridge for us.

Orange juice, beer, cheese, ham and desserts

Jams and drinks. Even a Proseco to welcome us =)

In the morning, the outside of the house looked soo beautiful. When we first came at night, we couldn't really see the scenery. But in the morning, it looked like this:

Pool in the garden

View of the mountains. There's just so much greens in Switzerland.

 It was 31st August- Malaysia's Independence Day and we tried our tripod here before taking it out hehe

A horse barn next to our home. We were in a small countryside village which was peaceful and quiet.

We planned to go to Lake Thun so we took the train to Thun station. The train station is just a 10 minute walk from our Airbnb. I researched on nice sceneries to take pictures because we wanted to take some pre wedding shots by ourselves. The lake was nice and it was a nice walk in Schadau park nearby Thun. I'll save most pictures for my wedding hehe

Look at the swan's feather! So white and fluffy.

 The SBB station which is the train station. We literally took train and walked everywhere.

Cheese is abundant in Switzerland and a must try is a cheese fondue. When we found a place which sold cheese fondue, we wanted to try it. It was okay-lah. They put some alcohol in it though so the taste was a bit bitter to me. I don't know if the recipe is the same for all cheese fondues.

Coffee by the riverside.

It is also a bit of our goal to try McDonalds in each country haha.

Their big bang menu burger.

Beef, bacon and cheese.

Meh, still haven't found McD nicer than Malaysia's one =p

It was getting rainy on that day and we were also informed the weather that week was rainy (just our luck! haha) so we decided to just walk around indoors and then take the train back. It was a rather chill day. We then went back and had an early night to be prepared for a very early next day to Jungfrau.

The next day was an exciting day. We took the train all the way to Jungfraujoch. The journey was around 2 hour plus from our place. Because it has been rainy the past few days, we expected the mountains to be even colder so we were all prepared with thick jackets and layers of clothings. But even after that, we still couldn’t stand the snow rain and the drastic drop in temperature. The snow rain was what caught us freezing like crazy. If it wasn’t raining so much in Switzerland that few days, it could have been better but it’s okay, we took what we got. 

The train ride up Jungfrau was a beautiful sight! The scenery was so much of greens and easy on the eyes =) 

I got to see snow for the very first time in my life!! YAY!! It was so white and we were ambitious wanting to fix a tripod in the mountains to take some pre wedding shots but ended up cancelled all plans to do that since we couldn’t stand more than 5 minutes in the snow HAHA

I don't know how a blizzard feels like but it certainly felt like a blizzard to me with the snow rain and super strong wind!

*faster take the picture* *faster take the picture* *I cannot smile anymore* *after picture, quickly runs inside for shelter*

They even gave us complimentary chocs!

My cert <3

 But Jungfrau was interesting. We get to tour the whole place from the ice palace, to the panorama, to the deck and Lindt’s chocolate shop. Food there is very expensive so be sure to have a heavy breakfast before going up or pack some food. It was definitely a lifetime experience. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience up there although it was super freezing cold at -5 degrees. I felt grateful to be born in Malaysia with no snow HAHA because I don’t think I can stand it. And to be able to experience all these with my other half was a total dream come true. We laughed so much because we couldn't even stand long in the snow and we came all the way up for it =p

We then came down to civilisation for some food.

We stopped by Interlaken for an early dinner. After a super cold weather, we wanted something hot. We ate at quite a popular restaurant- Des Alpes Interlaken

 Rosti- a Swiss dish. It's mostly potato baked underneath..

..and a warm tomato broth with bread. Yummy.

Our day to day breakfast is something like this:

We actually brought Samyang instant noodles there HAHAHA

But our host provided some instant noodles as well...so sweet

So we'll cook Samyang, microwave cheese with ham and bread, have cereal with milk, chocolate and caramel dessert, yoghurt and finally Toblerone chocs to finish it off. All for freeee!!! We had quite a ball of time preparing our own food =)

The next day, it was time to go to our next destination. The first day we were rushing to catch the train so we couldn’t really explore much of Zurich’s airport but now that we had the time, we couldn’t believe that it was super HUGE. It was very busy and it’s one of the busiest airport I have ever been to and there were just so many nationalities in one place. We had our brunch there ready to head over to Santorini for our next adventure =)

Overall, Switzerland was cold, scenic, friendly and had a lot of walking to do. We thoroughly enjoyed our short time span there and in fact, out of the 3 countries, this was the best country honestly. If only it wasn't so cold and expensive, it would be great to retire there hehe