A trip to Éclair's favourite Oberland

In classic European Easter long weekend fashion, Éclair wanted to go to her favourite Oberland: the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. Caity decided she wanted to join the trip, too. We visited Urs and Iris, our favourite Swiss friends and stayed in their chalet in Oberdiessbach. Oberdiessbach is a quaint little town which can be accessed from any of the main Swiss airports, but this time we chose to fly into Zurich.

The weekend was, as usual, very Swiss. We walked around Oberdiessbach, hiked in the snow, enjoyed many drinks overlooking the Alps, and, of course, consumed much Swiss chocolate and delicious food.

Easter traditions

Switzerland is known for its chocolate, and it is for good reason. Last Easter, I had the privilege of visiting a Swiss chocolatier, which is now my favourite: Camille Bloch. They're famous for Torino and Ragusa, which you can only find (easily) in Switzerland. If you haven't tried them, trust me: try them next time. While we didn't visit this year, we did enjoy some Swiss and Oberdiessbach Easter traditions.

The first was a visit to the decorated fountains of Oberdiessbach. This tradition is unique to Oberdiessbach and is special because the town decorates 18 of its 19 fountains. It's an enjoyable way to walk around town and see all of the very beautifully decorated fountains.

Nailing hearts to the fountain — Enjoying the fountains of Oberdiessbach

Favourite flower fountain — Enjoying the fountains of Oberdiessbach

Another tradition is to paint hard-boiled eggs and crack them as a competition. The goal is to crack your opponent's egg, without cracking your own.

We visited a local shop where Iris' friend hand-paints eggs. After picking up six eggs and taking a picture with a giant chicken, we competed each morning at breakfast to see whose egg cracked. Unsurprisingly, Caity and I didn't win. Urs won one day, and Iris the other. They would not share the secret to picking the winning egg.

Egg cracking — Cracking our painted eggs

On Easter Sunday morning, we did an Easter egg hunt. Now, while this is a tradition around the world, and Caity had done this many times at home in Sydney, I had not. This was a surprising revelation to Caity, Urs and Iris, so when the hunt began on Sunday morning, I was not the best at locating hidden eggs. Urs noted that I was, in fact, “blind” to the easter eggs, which was true. Caity had to come by and do quality control on the areas which I had searched to ensure I had not missed anything. We acquired about a kilo of chocolate, which Caity then went full accountant on and ensured that we divided it equally.

Caity accounting for all our easter eggs — Easter egg hunt with a view

Our easter egg hunt — Easter egg hunt with a view

Winter hiking

Switzerland is famous for its mountains, so it wouldn't be a complete trip if we didn't go on at least one hike. Even in early April, as the northern hemisphere transitions to spring. We did two hikes, both on snow-covered paths, which is about as difficult as you would expect. The first thing we did was an 8km hike from Sunnbüel mountain station to Berghotel Schwarenbach.

Originally, we thought we'd need our puffer jackets and thermals given the snow-covered paths, but how wrong we were. We ended up taking off our jackets and thermals on the way up.

It was a tough hike, and I was convinced we had missed the hotel because the walk was so steep. We kept persisting, and it turned out to be just a steep climb. We enjoyed a coffee and a Toblerone at the top, then walked back down for some chippies and a beer.

Turns out, if you go for a hike in the snow and sunshine, you'll get a major sunburn. So watch out for that.

The second hike was supposed to be from Schwarzenbühl to Ottenleue. I say supposed to be because Caity and I immediately took a wrong turn and started up a much steeper, much snowier mountain than we were meant to. Once we reached the top, I was certain we had walked more than the 29m of elevation the app had told us. That was correct, according to Cait's Strava, we did 162m.

While we were lost, we decided to keep going and just turn back when we wanted to. This turned out to be a great decision as we stumbled upon some of the most epic views of the Alps we had seen, and we had it all to ourselves. This was likely due to the fact that the signs indicated these were actually snowshoe walks or ski runs. Alas, we found a bench, plonked down and enjoyed a few easter eggs each.

Coming back down was even worse than going up, and I slipped over a record of four times in the snow. It was worth it, though.

Easter eggs with a view — Easter eggs at the top and a slippery way back down

Ellie falling down a hill — Easter eggs at the top and a slippery way back down

Le fromage

Whenever we visit Urs and Iris, we get spoiled. This trip was no exception. Breakfast is always spread of different Swiss and French cheeses, meats and fresh bread. Urs also makes me a cup of espresso that has four shots of coffee, so I only have one (sometimes two). Caity had plum tea, which she really enjoyed.

Pink trout was the star of the show on our first night. The trout was so fresh that it had been just prepared at the fishery down the road when Iris picked it up. The quality was superb, and paired with Iris's pasta dish, we were off to a cracker of a start.

Dinners only continued to get better as Urs made lamb with potatoes, then chicken with potatoes (my favourite). Both meals were delicious, and made even better when paired with a fresh salad made by Iris. As usual, each meal was also accompanied by wine. Urs and Iris have the most incredible white and red wine collection, which we were lucky enough to sample as usual. Iris knows I love Italian red wine, so we cracked open a bottle with the lamb.

Baking bułka

In an exciting turn of events, and in true bułka fashion, we made bread rolls. In particular, we made Swiss Sunday bread and breadrolls. These are essentially just normal breadrolls but better.

Caity and I worked hard, kneading the dough and making sure our rolls rose as much possible. I was genuinely surprised by how well these turned out. We had them for breakfast with some honey from Urs' bees. They are also in my backpack, along with some ham and cheese, to eat on the plane back to London. With some chocolate, of course.

On our last afternoon, we sat after our surprisingly hard hike and had an Aperol Spritz and watched the sunset over the Alps. Switzerland is, in my opinion, one of the most incredible countries in the world. I'm definitely biased since our good friends Urs and Iris live there, but if you enjoy mountain views, hikes, lakes, the country side and delicious food, Switzerland is a place you must visit.

Thank you to Urs and Iris for such an incredible Easter long weekend.

See you soon.