Places 2013

Swiss  Experience

Places :

Lucerne and Weggis

Engelberg - Mt Titlus

Interlaken

        Canyoning

        Kayaking and Grindewald


Zermatt

Paris

Belgium 

Engelberg Mt Titlus

After having seen lakes, green mountains, and being on hill tops and slopes,  it was time to finally see snow. There are many beautiful places to visit in the Swiss alps. We chose Engelberg to go atop Mt Titlus. This is at a peak altitude of 8000 meters (10,000 feet). We took a train to Engelberg from Lucerne. Once we reached, just as we were getting out of the train station, we could see beautiful snow-capped peaks . A total of three cable cars (gondolas) would take us up and the ascent was broken into 3 parts. Engelberg to Trubsee, then Trubsee to Jochpass and finally Jochpass to Mt Titlus.

Ascending Mt Titlus in a cable car

The first two cable cars were small and enough to seat four people. It was Jay’s turn to face his fears this time as he is afraid of heights. He was a little weary when we sat in. He tried not to look down and instead kept looking up at how much farther the destination was. The third of our cable cars up was a unique experience in that it is the world’s only rotating gondola. It is a cylindrical cable car and what they’ve done is made the base of the cylinder(the foot of our cable car) to rotate. This provides everyone in the gondola a full panoramic view. Barring having to constantly keep moving our hand for support on the railing J because our foot board was moving,  it was fun ride up.

From the top, everything in the valley below seemed to be atomic. The sun reflecting off the snow glares in your eyes and that’s when I understood  why people wear sunglasses on snowy mountains. It wasn’t very cold but walking on the snow provided an interesting challenge in itself. The views from the top are sensational. We were at such a height that we could touch the clouds, in fact the clouds were passing through us. That added to the experience, because the views from the peak were changing every 5 minutes. At one moment you can’t see a thing , being completely covered in  a cloudy fog, after a few minutes the entire cloud passes through giving stunning views of the valley below. It is a little scary but mostly fun.

Treading the snowy trail

Titlus also has the highest suspension bridge. We even had our portrait picture taken in a traditional setting. With the attire, background, musical instrument, flowers purse and hat and ell. I love the picture. The shop owner had also displayed family portraits of famous Indians who had visited there including Shaan , Nana Patekar and Virendra Shewag. I think if at all there is a person Jay is afraid of in this world, it has to be that lady who took our picture. She was really strict and a stickler for getting things to look perfect in that picture.

On our way down, we stopped at a small lake in Jochpass. The environs were really relaxing and it puts your mind at ease. You feel so calm and rejuvenated that the world begins to look like a better place. That small lake was one of the most beautiful I have seen in Switzerland. Flanked on all sides by green mountains, the water was itself a lovely green , some water melting from the snow caps in little streams, There was a unique peddle boat on that lake and Jay was strong enough to peddle it. It was a unique boat in that it was square in shape like a floating raft and the peddle was like a bicycle. So to peddle it was literally like bicycling on the water. Of course the raft was lined at the bottom by a rope so that it wouldn't go astray. So technically all we did was move along a straight line. The view from the middle of the lake was completely worth the childish joy of jumping on it and peddling on.

Pedal to the metal

On our way out, we were greeted by a Gourm India stall and snacked on hot hot lip smacking samosas and vada pav. Really authentic stuff down to the chutney pudi they serve with vada pav. Brilliant spicy end to our snowy experience of the day.

Zermatt

Zermatt is a car free village at high altitude of 1,608 m (5,276 ft). It is a very popular tourist destination to board the scenic train glacier express. We did not opt for the glacier express for lack of time and more importantly we felt the 8 hours would be better spent walking around the place rather than sitting on a train. It is a resort town with electric golf car type of vehicles used for transport. It is majorly a holiday village with beautiful aesthetically designed resort hotels spread from inch to inch. We reached Zermatt late in the night and it was around 10 p.m. by the time we got into our hotel. I must mention that this was the cosiest and loveliest hotel room of our trip. It was modern chic with a touch of cosiness and felt really comfortable. When we left from Interlaken it was pretty warm and so both Jay and I were in shorts. By the time we reached Zermatt at night, it was really cold and we were standing out in the crowd sporting shorts at 8 degree Celsius temperatures!

We met a lovely elderly couple on the train to Zermatt. They were scheduled to take the glacier express the following day.  Both of them worked on developing English tests and the lady was a language expert being adept in Latin, German, Spanish and many more languages. We joked that the adage “ greek and latin” would be lost on her  because she actually understood Latin. Ok it was funnier than it sounds here.  Of course the gentleman was kind enough to point out that our shorts were pretty unsuitable for the location. We chatted casually on a lot of other things and the stimulating conversation with them really livened up the boring night train journey because the scenic sights outside were lost in the darkness.

After changing into something warm, we headed out at half past ten, only to realize all the restaurants in our vicinity were shut. If there is one thing you need to know about Jake, it is that he cannot sleep on an empty or even slightly empty stomach. With grim hopes of finding food, I had begun to prepare myself for the wrath of his stomach growls. If there is another thing you need to know about Jay it is that he is also resourceful when he needs to get to something. He managed to get into a restaurant that was just closing and ask him if he was still serving. The owner unfortunately declined, but an American guy who was present there gave us directions to another place that would be serving food. Having thanked him profusely, we went in search of this other place. It was an American style restaurant. We had the best aubergine pizza that night and thanked the heavens for giving us food!

When we woke up in the morning, the place looked completely different. We could see Zermatt right from our hotel.  It was a nice clear day and lovely to walk about and explore the city. We walked towards the Matterhorn which is a famous pyramidal mountain. It was another very different and scenic experience. Clear blue skies, green slopes and a white snow capped pyramidal mountain.

We spent as much time as we could and then prepared to head to Geneva airport where we’d have to bid goodbye to Switzerland and begin our Parisian holiday.

Kayaking and Grindewald

We liked Interlaken so much that we decided to stay back for an extra day. We got out of our hotel with nothing particular in mind. Jay had his eyes peeled for anything exciting that might pop up and I had given up expecting and planning anything by this point. It was a nice bright day and we were lazing around Interlaken. Even though Jake does not do a lot of homework type of preparation, he does his due diligence on anything he decides as and when it happens. Being utterly taken by the beauty of the lakes, Jay had an inclination to do some sort of activity in and around the lakes. We had already taken long cruises and also dabbled a bit with canyoning. It was time for some kayaking. After a quick chat with a few people, he had all the info he needed and we headed out to the nearest pier of lake Thun. Initially Jay had peddle boats in mind, but upon reaching the place he thought kayaking would be more challenging and interesting.

With great hesitation arising from not being dressed for the ‘occasion’, I agreed to renting kayaks for an hour or so on Lake Thun. Bear in mind I do not know swimming and there aren't any lifeguards on constant watch and there are huge cruises that come on that lake. Anyway, even before I could wrap my mind around it all, we were pushing our red kayak into the shallow waters and getting ourselves strapped in.

Kayaking on lake Thun

It was a bit scary at the start because there wasn't anyone to help us and we had to figure it all out by ourselves. It was fun because it made me feel like we were doing some sort of task from The Amazing Race. As usual, I got into it with trepidation, blaming Jay for making me push the envelope and do things I wouldn’t normally go for. As we got onto the deeper regions, the views got more beautiful, the experience of rowing (or is it kayaking) was fun. We had our bit of squabbles about me not steering the boat properly. I eventually left it all up to jay and just sat behind enjoying the experience of floating on a giant plastic kayak in the middle of a beautiful lake. The testament to my emotion then is the fact that we started singing hindi songs to pass the time on the water (while jay did all the hard work). We set out looking for peddle boats but then ended up doing something better and in fact were judgemental of others on peddle boats (typical)!

After about an hour and a half of floating fun, we returned our kayaks and spent the next hour lounging on the lovely green shore trying to dry off. Then we headed off on a cruise on lake Thun.


Grindewald is a small city on the mountains and we had to go there after Jay’s  funny little incident with the crew member of a cruise ship. Jay was chatting with one of the members of the lake Thun cruise boat. He was generally asking him how to get to Grindewald and if it was worth the trip.  He recommended it but mistook that Jay was asking if the cruise ship would take us there. Poor guy must have thought we are insane tourists and  his exact words were, “Ship no go on mountain my friend!” That was enough for Jake (and me later) to burst into peals of laughter.  Truly LOL. So then we took a train to Grindewald. After all ship no go on mountain you see!

Mountains for a backyard

Rooms with a view

The city was beautiful. We could see the snow-capped mountains right rom middle of the city. The city seemed like a haven for trekking enthusiasts.The train winds up the mountainous region slowly and as we reach Grindewlad, we can start seeing snow-capped mountains closer. It gets colder and unfortunately it was a little cloudy that day. We walked around the city, watched an ice hockey game at the local sports center and even spotted a rainbow.

A sliver of colours in the sky

We wished to have had more time to spend there, but we had a night train to Zermatt and had to head back to take it. On our way back from Grindewald, we bumped into a group of marching band performers who were returning from their performance. They seemed like a fun bunch and it was absolute riot to have them in our coach. Besides being funny and drunk, they were so nice and warm, they were willing to join us for dinner and a drink. George the bassist, recommended a restaurant  to us and  even  gave us a handwritten note saying “These are my friends, take good care of them”. Really sweet.