Monday 11 May 2009

My Trip to Heaven - ofcourse on Earth - Switzerland


Switzerland-Heaven On Earth...

After visiting Switzerland,I totally agree with this sentence..It's really "Heaven on Earth" (ofcourse after our very own Kashmir)...with amazing scenic beauty and cleanliness all around..
I visited Swiss during April 2009 with my hubby.
Switzerland is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south and Austria to the east.So in Swiss all these coutries influences can be seen.
Mostly French and German is spoken there and they are referred as Swiss-French and Swiss-German respectively .This was the reason we had to face little difficulty as people found it a bit difficult to understand English if you speak it too fast...

We had a 5-day trip. I would like to share with my viewers my plan and expereinces during those amazing five days. Our base city was Interlaken as it was easily accessible from all the places we wanted to visit.
First Day:-

Day -1 Activities

Reached Geneva around 10:30am from London Gatwick by Easyjet. From Geneva Airport we went to Geneva Central train station by train (~3CHF). We kept our luggage in the locker in station itself which cost us around 5-8 CHF. Its all automated so you need not search for anyone to help you. We found it a bit difficult to operate it initially as after all we Indians are not used to self service.

We went around Geneva and saw water fountain, flower clock, UNO office.
Did the city tour in tour bus.

Geneva water fountain is the largest fountains in the world with 140mt high. Water jet is so strong that if you are foolish enough to stick your head into it it would be ripped off from your body.


In station we bought Swiss half price pass for 99CHF so all travelling tickets were charged at half price to us.(By doing this we saved good amount of CHF around 66 CHF per head so I did lots of shopping with it.)

We got our tickets from Geneva to Interlaken with Golden classic scenic train.
First took normal train from Geneva around 2:30pm to Montroux.
Changed in Montroux and boarded Golden Pass train to Zussimen.
Then again took normal train from Zussimen to Interlaken west. Golden Pass is a "Must Go" with great interiors and excellent view all around. What a way to start our trip! The Golden Pass classic train was a icing on the cake.

We then reached hotel which is 5 mins walk from Interlaken West Station.

Aroun 10pm after having our dinner Yash and me decided to stroll the silent city. Its quiet safe to stay out till late night.
We stayed in interlaken
* at Rugen Park, RugenPark Strasse 19, CH3800, Interlaken
+41 (0) 33 822 3661 - Contact Ursla (charges 80-100 CHF per night per double bed room)
* Rugen Park hotel has a small shared kitchen with Rice cooker, Microwave, salt, pepper, coffee, tea, plates, spoons, fork, etc)
* Ursla is very co-operative and will guide you too. Also you can buy train tickets for Joungfrau, Schiltron top from here itself.

Day-2
After having breakfast in the hotel we moved to station to board train for Jungfrau.
In station I met one of my freind from Assam along with her husband (no points for guessing why they came to Switzerland). That was quiet shocking and the best part was even she was going to Jungfrau so had a gala time together..

Train to Jungfrau. ( Interlaken West - Interlaken Ost - Grindelwall - Klein Schnidegg - Jungfrau - Louterbrunen - Interlaken Ost - Interlaken West). It's a round trip covering the entire hill.
We took train from Interlaken to Grindelwall.
- From Grindelwall to Klien Schnidegg and then from Klien Schnidegg to Jungfrau on special train - purchased tickets from Rugen park hotel itself.

As we had half price pass so we paid half the price for all the tickets.
We were spell-bounded by the scenic beauty while heading towards Joungfrau- passing through the snowed mountains. Trains and tracks running through Klien Schnidegg to Jungfrau are customised as they were attached with each other with a special grip.
Jungfrau is Top of Europe(3571 mts) and highest peak in the world which is accessible for the general public and also highest place where a train can go.

In Jungfrau the temperature was around -10c and was snowing little bit.
We were three couples. Hey how can I forget the tub activity. We all took our individual tub and sat on it. From top to a specified path one by one we started sliding down on snow. And everybody lost there balance and finally all landed on each other inside snow.
The ice cave was very beautiful with various sculptures made of ice. The entire palace was made of ice - the walls, floor, ceiling everything.
Walked in the snow platue and Husky Dog ride. Many of these snow activities will open from June-September.
Visited the bollywood restaurant for Indian food (Limited vegitarian options).
Took the train to Klein Schnidegg. Change the train for Wengen/Louterbrunen from Klein Schnidegg.
We got down at Lounterbruen. From there we took a bus to Tumbellbach falls. Here we could see 10 falls all together.
Then from Lounterdruen to took a train back to Interlaken Ost-west.

Day-3

After early breakfast from Interlaken West to Tuhn we took a boat cruise.It took around 1 and half hour but the ride was worth it and to top that the weather was excellent and we could sit on the deck.
I run short of words to describe the beauty. Both sides Mountains either covered with snow or greenery and we are sailing in middle of the river..very romantic...was mesmerized!!!!


In Tuhn we saw castle and meuseum. then around 2 o'clock we boarded train to Interlaken West.
In Interlaen we did shopping. Got cuckoo clock, cow bell other souvenirs and how can I forget to mention yumm swiss chocs...

Cycling in Switzerland was real fun. We hired cycles and literally whole interlaken was covered by us..Woow cycling beside the lake and was trying to overtake Yash. Best part was the Merc or BMW used to wait for us(cyclist)and give us the way. One thing which I really liked is that Swiss towns donot have traffic lights.Isnt it amazing..No chaos or mess can be seen..

Then we had dinner in a swiss restaurant "Des Alpanoes",trying some authentic swiss food. We tried Risotti, Swiss Fondue. These dishes were very tempting with lots of melting cheese ....No choice but had to satisfy my belly with these fatty stuffs..

We also had gud time in Casino "Kursaal Casino". I was gambling for the first time, so didnt rely much on my fate and didnt gamble much..

Day-4
Early morning we had our breakfast and left for Schiltron top at 8am.
We took train from Interlaken to Murren (about 1.5 hours).
Enjoyed the cable car from Stechelberg to Schilthorn top (9748 ft)
Enjoyed the view at the top and had snacks at the revolving restaurant (Veg options available).It is the worlds first revolving restaurant on top.

Hats off to the engineers and the workers who dared to think about this cable car runway and at the peak to built a restaurant and that to revolving. I am glad they were successful in their mission.



From Schiltron top to Murren. In murren we had a lovely scenic village walk for an hour.
Then from Murren to Interlaken West.

We reached Interlaken around 2 pm. We had burger and chips from our permanent shop.
Rushed to Sail park to do some adventure. Trees were interconnected in various ways. Either only by string , woodeen planks, logs, rope, net etc. They taught us how to move using clipers and connectors. With mental and physical effort we had to cross all the hurdles. We were moving higher and higher with more physically challenging tasks. But it was fun. We did that for around 2.5 hrs and were dead tired. We came back to our hotel and spent the rest of the evening playing UNO.

Day-5

So final day of our tour.
From Interlaken West we took a train to Zurich airport(FLN). We then kept our luggage in the locker and went to Rhine falls. The fall was very massive.



Did city tour and shopping. Saw Peter's church.
And had loads of mouth watering ice-cream....
Went to the airpot boarded flight to London Gatwick. Back to London after a wonderful trip. I was wondering the same life will start from the next day and already started missing my last 5 days in Swiss.

Switzerland trip was amazing...At every point I was appreciating God's creation and creativity and ofcourse Swiss people who maintained it to the best of their ability despite changes all around.

See you all again with my Paris Experience shortly.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! Good to see that you have managed to remember and write even the minutest detail of the trip. It is probably because you loved it so much. Any idea why swiss francs are written as CHF's? 5 days in heaven sounds fun. You are one lucky girl! Did you spot any Apsaras btw? Why don't you add few pictures! Probably one picture per day. The post would become more colorful. Waiting to read about your evening in Paris :)

    PS: I'll surely be using this post of yours as a guide when I visit Swiss. Thank you :)

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  2. @Varun: Thanks for ur comments.
    In Latin Switzerland is called "Confoederatio Helvetica" hence Swiss Francs is CHF. Infact CH is the country code for Switzerland. All websites are .ch in Swiss. Hope this answers ur que.
    Waise as far as APSARAS are concerned please get in touch with yash at +44-7942846547 as I am straight:)!
    Finally i dont know how to put snaps in the blog. I would love to. Do help!
    Cheers!

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  3. You are welcome dear!
    Confoederito Helvetica haan! I didn't know about it. Wonder if the Helvetica font came from swiss too.

    Who told you that staright people cannot check out people of their own sex. Anyway, I'll get in touch with Yash for the details.

    This link will help you post pictures on your blog

    http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41641

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  4. Thanx buddy..I ve uploaded some..

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  5. Ye hui na baat! Post looks wow now!

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  6. Swiss is beautiful, but somehow womens love swiss.

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  7. beautiful place and Very well explained. Thanks for sharing this post
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