Could you give us your advice? My husband and I have recently retired and are planning a 16 day trip next September. We drove through part of Switzerland in 1986, but happened to hit a long stretch of rainy weather so we moved on to sunny Italy, always hoping to get back to Switzerland, so now is our chance. We haven't been able to travel in Europe in the last 25 years. We are unfamiliar with using trains, but are thinking of buying a Swiss Pass. We are most interested in natural beauty, easy to moderate hiking, castles, quaint towns and countryside. We saw Zermatt on our last trip on a clear day, so won't revisit it this time. We fly in and out of Zurich. From reading various guidebooks we have narrowed things down to these areas that we would like to include, if possible:
1. Luzern (Mt. Rigi, Mt. Pilatus, lake cruise, Engelberg?)
2. Take Glacier Express route using regional trains starting near Disentis and going to Montreux.
3. Montreux area (Chillon, Lavaux, St. Saphoris)
4. Gruyeres
5. Golden Pass route from Lausanne(?) to Berner Oberland
6. Berner Oberland (Murren, Shilthorn, Jungfrau, Round tour of the Three passes (Grimselpass, Furkapass, Sustenpass)
7. Thun and Oberhofen castles
8. Bern (Murton, Emmental region via Schupfhelm--my husband loves cows)
Thank you so much for your thoughts.