Europe 2026 Part I (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland)

Another adventure through Europe!

Summer vacation is finally here. After my senior year, during which I worked hard to maintain a high GPA while competing in several bike races on the East Coast, I was so ready to visit more incredible places in Europe.

We arrived first, as usual, in Romania. The first couple of weeks, I've had the pleasure of hosting a good friend and colleague from Bridgewater. I showed him a few lakes I love, the cities of Baia Mare and Cluj, and we even went quad-biking through the Carpathian mountains.

Then on a sunny, warm morning, my family and I started another long drive through Europe. Our first stop was in Linz, Austria (have you ever had a Linzer torte? It's delicious!). We only stayed there one evening, walking through the old city center, admiring the Danube River, and eating at one of the many outdoor terraces.

The following morning we took the highway to Germany, famous for having literally no speed limit! That was so exciting, but obviously you need to be very careful. On those unrestricted highways in Germany, no matter how fast you go, there is always someone faster! We spent an afternoon in Erding, a beautiful town on the outskirts of Munich. We spent a night here a few years ago when our flight connection from Munich to Nice was canceled due to Covid. I fell in love with this place back then, and I wanted to see it again. They have a little zoo in the Central Park where kids can go and pet animals. Everything is impeccably clean and orderly.

In the evening we drove to Switzerland. We chose a hotel in Effretikon, close to Zurich, where we spent two nights, to

allow enough time to visit Zurich. Next morning we drove to Zurich and park the car there. We walked all over the city center, admiring the clear Limmat and Sihl rivers, going up to Lindenhof Hill and back down to Bellevueplatz. We also checked out a famous university here called ETHZ, which we reached from the center via the UBS Polybahn, a historic funicular that rises abruptly to the platform where the school buildings are. The
weather was scorching hot, which was unusual for this part of the world. My mom and aunt decided to take a break near the lake, but my father and I continued walking along the lake. The view here is quite amazing; definitely, Zurich is one of my favorite cities in Europe. In the evening, we all drove to a hill outside the city that my father knew called Uetliberg. We hiked up to the top on a nice path called Planetenweg that simulates our solar system at scale—each meter of the path represents 1 million kilometers—so one can literally walk from the sun past the eight planets all the way to Pluto! From the top, we climbed a tower, which offered views of Zurich city against the impressive backdrop of the Alps. Simply mesmerizing!