Beautiful Switzerland

we r back from one of the most mountaineous regions in the world, switzerland to the flattest regions, norwich :-). exploring switzerland is such a philosophical experience - you suddenly realise that nature has so much to offer in abundance. whatever wonderful thing one hears about the swiss alps has not a pinch of exaggeration in it. it is indeed impossible rather than difficult to capture the whole experience in words or photos or videos - you have to be there to immerse in the beauty that is alps.

Leaving Norwich in a Fokker 70


we landed in zurich in the noon. zurich is just like any other european city. lots of places to shop. from the airport, we went to zurich hb, which is a main station from where trains to all the parts of the country and beyond depart (i think there are 28 platforms). there is another station zürich oerlikon which is between the airport and zürich hb, so visitors sometimes get confused.

Zurich airport transfer


buy the swiss pass - it is a necessity, not just convenience - you are entitled to travel throughout switzerland on trains, buses, trams, and boats(!). there are only a few special routes where you need to buy tickets (and with the swiss pass, you get a 50% reduction) e.g. if you are going to jungfraujoch, highest rail station in europe, interlaken to grindelwald is free on the swiss pass, grindelwald to kleine scheidegg and kleine scheidegg to jungfraujoch and return is not, but you get 50% discount on the tickets and yes these tickets are expensive, so a 50% discount is lot. the swiss pass can be bough online from http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisen.htm

In the train from Zurich - Luzern


the swiss trains are legendary for their service (timings, connections, frequency, views) and i had planned to cover at least a couple of special routes and one of them was the zurich-luzern-interlaken-montreaux-geneva which is called the golden pass route. luckily, i had selected a hotel in interlaken for all the three nights and i think it was a very good decision (interlaken is perfect if you plan to travel a lot on the trains to various other parts of the country). after luzern, we were treated with the breathtaking views of the swiss alps from the panaromic trains. the train windows are huge, clear and look out through them from any seats in any direction and you will see the numerous lakes (clear, clean and huge) and mountains all around (snow capped, waterfalls) and the vast expanse of greenery. small towns with different types of houses (those made out entirely of wood are beautiful) scattered far flung.

Golden Pass Line from Luzern to Interlaken


tip #1: if you are going to land in zurich and stay in interlaken or nearby, avoid the train via bern (it might be faster, but you will miss the golden pass), instead take the train via luzern.

And the postcard views start


Another one...


tip #2: don't forget to collect the train timetables from the main stations or the stations that you will be using often to take the trips. each of these timetables have the train times for all the main cities in the country and if you also get the train map, it is very easy to plan journeys.

interlaken has two rail stations - interlaken ost and interlaken west - yea, you guessed it ost means east. our hotel was just a few minutes walk from interlaken west, so planning the trips for the next 3 days was easy.

One of the many small stations along the way


In a green valley...


And then suddenly on top between snow


Die Post bus


Nice and Sunny in Interlaken


Main road in Interlaken


we expected cold weather but it was rather pleasant and sunny. late evening, got some beer and had a large dose of kebabs. there were around 20-25 channels going on in the hotel tv, but only 3 of them were english. and to my surprise, one of the german channels was showing kareena kapoor's asoka (oh yes, shahrukh also features - but i was just watching the songs which were in hindi, whereas the rest of the movie was in german).

though german is the most spoken language here, most of the people do speak english (and some also greet indians in hindi - the bollywood effect) and it is very rare not to be able to communicate. after checking in the hotel, we went out to explore this very famous (and rightly so) tourist town of interlaken. there are lot of souvenier shops and restaurants around. the shops were open late and lots of choice of places to eat - from kebabs to authentic swiss cuisine. coop and migros are two superstores (and some small outlets) if you need one (they dont give out plastic bags for free though and i thought that is a very good way to avoid too much use of plastic bags - esp. when you compare the supermarkets in uk - anyway, it is a good idea to have a couple of carry-bags with you).

the next day, i had planned the round trip .... jungfrau, top of europe, in the first half of the day and a boat ride on the burnisse lake in the later half. heck, that is not very easy - you could do that if you start very early. anyway, had a good breakfast (plenty of coffee, bread, salami, cheese, eggs[the shells are coloured :-)] ) at the hotel and then started for jungfrau. on the train journey from interlaken to grindelwald, a japanese girl perched her legs on the front seat and the ticket checker who came just shouted sternly 'SHOES OFF THE SEATS PLEASE' startling her and then you understand why interlaken is so spic and span. on the way to grindelwald, there are numerous touristy towns with hotels aplenty and you can spot a lot of them. when we got down at the small station at grindelwald, we were amazed to find the crowd - a variety of them, many with the skiing gear and soon we realised that we are going to a very cold place completely covered with snow. well...

Towards Jungfrau


Enjoying the views


Train crossings


Another one


Welcome to Grindelwald


Bahn


Chor Police


Snow everywhere


From Kleine Scheidegg


Bollywood style :-)


it was not covered with snow, it seemed the mountains were made with just ice and snow. skiers were having a fantastic time. we did not take the jungfrauch train immediately, instead explored kleine scheidegg for an hour. mili was excited with all the snow around and we did the normal tourist's rites - taking lot of photographs. i am not a skiier, so cannot speak for the facilities there, but it did seem to be good ones with lots of cable trolleys taking the skiiers up the mountains from where they can ski down.

Skiers arrive


Another song


Skiers arrive


Ice Palace


the trains which take steep rides up are cogwheel trains, they have a special track in addition to the two for the outer wheels. the weather of the top of europe was a let down, it was snowing heavily and cloudy so could not see any of the breathtaking views as expected from the top. but it was amazing how easily the trains take you 4000m on snow topped mountains in ardeous conditions. how else can we mortals (non-snow-mountain-climbers) have an experience of what goes on at that height. it was great. the facilities provided at that height are great, and it is money well worth spent. the last train from the top leaves at 16.55, so you understand why it is very important to start early for jungfrauch.

Double trouble


Jungfraubahn


On top of the world, er, of Europe


Puffed crisp packet - due to the low pressure at the high altitudes


Amidst the snow


Postcard


Interlaken Ost Station


Interlaken West


I like Colours


General-Guisanstrasse - our hotel is the one with the coloured top


Hotel Lotschberg where we stayed


The original Swiss beer - seriously don't know much about this


View from the hotel room


Another one


the next day we started a bit early for the boat trip (you can either take one on the lake thurn or lake brienz, guess why the region is called interlaken), but again it was not as early as required as we missed the boat to thurn (from interlaken west) and i was sure we will not make the brienz (from interlaken ost) one. so we decided to take the train to thurn and catch the boat back to interlaken west. it was a good decision. the 2 hr boat ride is an altogether different experience.

Waiting for the boat in Thun


Boat ride


we also got down in the small, quiet and serene village of merlingen and got a taste of what an alpine village looks like. after an hour of exploring, we took the next boat to interlaken west.

Approaching Merlingen


In Merlingen


Bells


Romance blooms


Award-winning photo :-)


In the woods


View from Merlingen


Dining area on the boat


Enjoying the Sun


now we had a complete afternoon to do something worthwhile, so decided to go to bern (1 hr ride from interlaken) and check out what the capital city looks like. bern is a typical european city - we took a tram and went around. snapped a few nice photographs and bravely decided to take the golden pass from montreaux. now bern to lausanne and lausanne to montreaux was a 1.30 hr journey but we had seen how the swiss train system works and how they are never a minute late. we made it on time to catch the golden pass train back to interlaken. fantastic. reached late night in the hotel and picked up a pizza from a local shop.

Interlaken West


Bern Station


Bern Station


Me in Bern


Singer machine - don't know what it was doing there


And all fall down


Vineyards, town, lake and the mountains


Panaromic views from the train


on the last day, after some quick souvenir shopping in interlaken, we caught the golden pass train to luzern, enjoyed the last opportunity for enjoying the beauty of swiss alps and then headed towards zurich.

Shopping in Interlaken


Enjoying the Swiss beer


After just one drink


Me and my house


at zurich hb station, we spent half an hour for finding lockers or airport check-in (unfortunately the airport check-in didn't have facilities for klm). so we found the lockers and dumped our luggage there and took the couple of hours to explore zurich in the trams

Mili on the bridge


Zurich


the klm norwich to zurich and return flights are via amsterdam. and i found this very amusing - people trying to get in a plane like a mumbai local train (well, not that bad :-))

Catch the plane, literally