Amy
100+ Posts
Here's the background. Bear with me.
My MIL is turning 85 next July. Her first language is German, she speaks English well, and walks extremely slowly with a cane. She loves lake and mountain views, and has no interest in art, local culture, history, food beyond desserts. She gets up quite late, has a large breakfast, does not eat lunch, and so wants a simply prepared dinner by 6. She loves to take boat and scenic train rides, ride cablecars up mountains, sit on benches with a view, and eat afternoon pastry. Her treasured travel memories are of trips to Switzerland with her own elderly mother 30 years ago.
For her 80th birthday, she wanted to revisit, and so my husband and his sister tag-teamed (husband for the first week, husband's sister for the second, with me riding shotgun for a few days) to take her back to the places she liked most--Lugano, and Weggis, on Lake Lucerne. The Lugano portion of this trip was a near disaster, because she "hates Italian food." On her decades-ago trips with her Mom, they had stayed at a hotel catering to an elderly German clientele, where they were served elderly German food promptly at 6 pm, and were taken on tours by German-speaking guides. The hotel is no more, and she was rather shocked to find herself in a very different environment than she remembered, with Italian language around, Italian food, and a more Italian culture. They ate dinner for five nights out of eight in a Chinese restaurant, if you can imagine Swiss-Chinese. (I recall imaginatively priced dishes, each tasting of the same soy-cornstarch slurry). She enjoyed herself more in Weggis, much more comfortable for her. (this is someone who I think likes the idea of travel much more than the reality)
She wants to do it again in June or July, but this time, stay only in Weggis, but for 2-3 weeks. My husband's sister wants nothing to do with this. There's going to have to be some compromise--my husband cannot take that amount of time without seriously blowing through his vacation for the year, and hey, we want to do our own trip this year. And let's just say that spending a lot of time with MIL can be challenging. He wants me along as distraction.
Weggis is a very, very small town with about a dozen hotels and restaurants. It seems popular as a spot for the elderly. There are two trips you can take to go up different mountains, you can take boat trips on the lake, you can go into Lucerne. (She does not want to stay in Lucerne) Two weeks of this, we'd be drinking the town dry.
Can anyone suggest a second destination, one that can offer MIL the scenic, sedate elements she enjoys, preferably within the German-speaking part of the country? Larry and I speak traveler French and Italian, but she wants the more German environment. Would Bern be a good choice for a few days? Interlaken? Other areas? And yes, I do need a guidebook, fast!
thank you !
My MIL is turning 85 next July. Her first language is German, she speaks English well, and walks extremely slowly with a cane. She loves lake and mountain views, and has no interest in art, local culture, history, food beyond desserts. She gets up quite late, has a large breakfast, does not eat lunch, and so wants a simply prepared dinner by 6. She loves to take boat and scenic train rides, ride cablecars up mountains, sit on benches with a view, and eat afternoon pastry. Her treasured travel memories are of trips to Switzerland with her own elderly mother 30 years ago.
For her 80th birthday, she wanted to revisit, and so my husband and his sister tag-teamed (husband for the first week, husband's sister for the second, with me riding shotgun for a few days) to take her back to the places she liked most--Lugano, and Weggis, on Lake Lucerne. The Lugano portion of this trip was a near disaster, because she "hates Italian food." On her decades-ago trips with her Mom, they had stayed at a hotel catering to an elderly German clientele, where they were served elderly German food promptly at 6 pm, and were taken on tours by German-speaking guides. The hotel is no more, and she was rather shocked to find herself in a very different environment than she remembered, with Italian language around, Italian food, and a more Italian culture. They ate dinner for five nights out of eight in a Chinese restaurant, if you can imagine Swiss-Chinese. (I recall imaginatively priced dishes, each tasting of the same soy-cornstarch slurry). She enjoyed herself more in Weggis, much more comfortable for her. (this is someone who I think likes the idea of travel much more than the reality)
She wants to do it again in June or July, but this time, stay only in Weggis, but for 2-3 weeks. My husband's sister wants nothing to do with this. There's going to have to be some compromise--my husband cannot take that amount of time without seriously blowing through his vacation for the year, and hey, we want to do our own trip this year. And let's just say that spending a lot of time with MIL can be challenging. He wants me along as distraction.
Weggis is a very, very small town with about a dozen hotels and restaurants. It seems popular as a spot for the elderly. There are two trips you can take to go up different mountains, you can take boat trips on the lake, you can go into Lucerne. (She does not want to stay in Lucerne) Two weeks of this, we'd be drinking the town dry.
Can anyone suggest a second destination, one that can offer MIL the scenic, sedate elements she enjoys, preferably within the German-speaking part of the country? Larry and I speak traveler French and Italian, but she wants the more German environment. Would Bern be a good choice for a few days? Interlaken? Other areas? And yes, I do need a guidebook, fast!
thank you !
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