Youth Challenge 2023 – the Kompanen: City, country, bisses

Successful start in the Swiss capital

Our Switzerland trip began in the Swiss capital of Bern.
First, Cristina Capodifoglia from Bern Tourism guided us through the old town. The most exciting thing was the Zytgloggeturm. We were lucky enough to be able to take a closer look at the mechanism behind it. Cristina told us about the former city wall, the Zytgloggeturm, the bears and the rose garden and shared various facts about Bern.

After saying goodbye to Cristina, we made our way to Bern Youth Hostel. We were able to try out the new Bernese chips at the youth hostel, but first we had to take a few pictures of them. It’s not easy having these delicious chips in front of your lens while your stomach is growling. They really are as good as they look.

Visit to the Federal Palace

Of course, our trip also included a visit to the Federal Palace. Did you know that our so-called Federal Palace is actually not a Federal Palace, but rather the parliament building? The five Federal Houses of Parliament can be found scattered throughout Bern. One of them is west and another east of the parliament; the other three are not in the immediate vicinity.

To cool off, we took a refreshing dip in the Aare. The water had a high speed and was super powerful. Not only did Cyrill lose his Crocs, but Sebastian also suffered a few scrapes while trying to get out of the Aare. We still had fun and can recommend cooling down in the river. However, there was a less amusing moment afterwards. With all the fun we were having, we completely lost track of time and had to rush through the entire train station. Totally out of breath we reached the train to Burgdorf. After the train arrived, we headed to Burgdorf Youth Hostel. Here we could now enjoy our dinner and sleep like princes and a princess.

Discovery tour of Lausanne

On the second day, we headed southwest, to Lausanne to be precise. Thanks to our SBB Friends day ticket, we can travel as much as we like by train, bus, metro or boat. Our knowledge of French was put to the test for the first time at Lausanne Youth Hostel. Of course, we didn’t let that intimidate us and overcame this hurdle, too. On the Foxtrail through Lausanne, we got to see not only the famous attractions, but also the more remote parts of the city. The Foxtrail had us taking the metro, strolling through the Natural History Museum, and walking to the Olympic Museum and the lakeside promenade on Lake Geneva. In addition, we got a small riddle from a post office clerk. After cooling down in Lake Geneva for a bit, it was time for dinner and an end to the day.

Along the bisse and over countless suspension bridges

The third day of our trip also began with a train ride. East this time. We spent our train ride taking a power nap in preparation for our upcoming hike. After arriving in Sion, we used a locker for our luggage and took only the essentials with us in two Mammut day bags. We started our four-hour bisse hike. However, we were very slow and needed more than five hours. During our hike, we watched chamois and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Despite Sebastian’s fear of heights, we crossed several suspension bridges. Signs were hung along the bisses with information about how it used to look. The bisses supply entire stretches of land with water and shape the impressive landscape. The last half hour we had to hurry because we wanted to catch the PostBus. This PostBus only runs approximately every two hours. After multiple transfers, we arrived at Crans-Montana Youth Hostel in time for dinner.

How does the journey of the four Komapnen continue?

The journey of the four friends leads them from the beautiful Valais via detours to the Sonnenstube and then to the Grisons. One or two unexpected surprises await them. Small spoiler, Petrus did not exactly mean well with the four.