My travel to Switzerland was some time end of July and Episode I of my post detailing the Trip was on the 30th of September. Memory, for some unfortunate reason, doesn’t present itself well in the same way as aged wine or whisky. So, it is quite obvious that much of the charm of our Swiss trip is already lost. Having just Part I of a post, with a promise to conclude it in the following post doesn’t seem quite appealing. So will try to fill this space.
The train services to Zurich from Zurich International Airport are quite frequent with two trains running on the hour and half the hour. Most of the trains are Geneva bound via Zurich and Bern, and we were quite tempted to head straight to Geneva before checking into the hotel. Since we had reached Zurich at around half ten and we were done with the formalities of buying currency and rail passes, we managed to take the 11.00 AM train to Zurich, which is only 10 minutes from the Airport by Train. And with the luggage we had, especially Anul and Mansa’s, who had large backpacks and a massive hold all big enough to tour the whole continent for a month, we decided against it.
Once we got off the Zurich Train Station, Hotel Walhalla wasn’t difficult to find, although we were kind of skeptical about it due to language issues we had. With a combination of broken German and French, we enquired with the information desk, and a very pleasant lady gave us directions in English…hehe. We were quite stupid to assume that the Swiss don’t speak English, until the end of our trip. This continued to be a hallmark of all our attempts to find information/directions during our trip. However, the hotel is just a couple of minutes away from the station, and once we reached the hotel, a friendly receptionist advised us that the check in times at the hotel was at 2.00 PM, however, she was willing to let us take the keys if we waited for about half an hour as they were still cleaning the rooms from the previous night. We decided against it and left the luggage in the luggage room as we had to make the most of our three day trip.
The previous night, Mansa had come up with a brilliant plan to buy some ready food from Sainsbury for our trip, which explains the extremely large hold all. We stuffed some food into the backpacks and rushed back to the train station as we were planning to take the 12.00 PM train to Geneva. We were late by a couple of seconds and by the time we got to the station, we saw the last car of the Geneva-bound train leave the platform as we ran towards it. However, it did give us some time to buy some beer for the journey. We loafed and lazed on the platform for 15 minutes before the next train to Geneva slowly ground to a halt on the platform.
Never in my life had I seen double decker trains and was quite kicked about traveling in one. With childlike excitement I briskly trudged along the stairs on to the empty upper deck and every one followed. We settled down to begin our two and a half hour scenic journey to Geneva and the journey itself was quite enjoyable. We downed a few beers and played some nonsense games to kill time.
We reached Geneva at half two and according to plan we had exactly five and half hours in Geneva as we had planned to get back to Zurich by half ten. Geneva is one of the important cities in the world due to the presence of many international organisations. And these international organisations form a part of a majority of the tourist attractions, apart from the picturesque Lake Geneva, the breathtaking surrounding of Alps and Jura mountain range, a few museums, art galleries, and churches. As soon as we got off the station, hurriedly found our way to the UN to discover that it is a massive complex which would take no less than a day to comprehend its beauty and importance. We breezed through the lush green parks within the campus, and decided to cut short our visit to the UN and headed towards Red Cross, which is right across the road to the UN.
As I had mentioned in the previous post, entry is free to most of the museums and art galleries in Switzerland with a rail pass which encouraged us to visit the museum for a short time. However, the museum is incredibly enticing and has some captivating pictures of people wounded from the war across different geographic regions. We were totally moved by the pictorial depiction and we ended up spending most of our planned time in the museum. By the time we got out, it was already five and there was no way we could have made it to the Regional Head Office of the International Labour Organsation.
We changed plans and decided to spend more time at the Geneva Lake front and the City Centre. We took a cruise around the lake and had a sumptuous Italian dinner at the city centre and took a train to Bern at 8.00 PM as there were no direct trains to Zurich. The journey back was same as before, we loaded ourselves with some beer for the way and indulged in some mindless but entertaining games. We changed trains at Bern and arrived in Zurich at 11.00 PM. We had a few more rounds of drinks in our rooms, before hitting our beds at 2.00 PM, exhausted with a busy schedule for the next day.
We woke up early next day, got ready and impulsively ran to the station to take the 8.00 AM train to Interlaken – the Gateway to Mount Jungfrau – Top of Europe at 3800 odd metres above sea level. To get to Interlaken from Zurich, you have to change trains at Bern, and the information is clearly announced and marked every where in English, French and German. Bern is about 50 minutes from Zurich and Interlaken is about a hour from Bern. We reached Interlaken by 10 and we bought our mountain rail tickets valid for a day at 50 % discount – remember from the previous post about the discounts for Swiss Rail Pass Holders.
Mountain rail and cable cars are the highlight of Swiss Transport system and it is an extremely enjoyable mode of transport for tourists. I envy the swiss for they use a cable car as a necessity rather than for leisure. Nevertheless, we began our joyous journey to the Top of Europe – Mount Jungfrau on one of the most panoramic journeys of my life. Again, to get to Jungfrau, you have to change train midway at Grindelwald and it’s a slow journey to the top, with three stops along the way to enjoy the beauty of the Jungfrau mountain from various altitudes.
Jungfrau has various activities on offer. From skiing to snowboarding, to husky driven sledge rides to hiking it has a range of adventure activities to enthrall every visitor. But the main attraction is the spectular Ice Palace with exquisitely sculpted ice models. But at -5 during peak summer, I can only imagine how cold it could get during winter. Warm clothing is a must. My ears were ringing and almost everyone felt sick as soon as we got out for a bit of fun in the alluring snow capped mountains. We hurried back to the warm confines of the restaurants on top of Europe. They have quite a few restaurants to suit every palate, including an uniquely themed Bollywood restaurant.
After a quick lunch, we seemed to recover from the nausea and we went back to fathom the elegance of the white mountain ranges. We also did a bit of snow (well, disc) boarding. We left the mountain top at around 4.30 PM and took a train to Grindelwald. Instead of boarding a connecting train from Grindelwald to Interlaken, we decided to make the most of our unlimited rail pass and aimlessly, we took a 10 minute cable car and a connecting train from Grindelwald to up the hills to a place called Mürren. Mürren is a hidden gem in the Interlaken area. With only 200 homes and few local residents, you would expect it to be unheard of among the tourists. Ostensibly, the place has about 2000 beds to cater to tourists. It has only one pub and a couple of obscure restaurants. But, the unspoiled beauty of nature is truly captured in Mürren.
After a tiring, but delightful day, we returned to Interlaken and we retraced our route back to Zurich via Bern. We dined our way back at the famed Swiss Rail restaurants. Although, the food is nothing great, it is soothing to dine while you look out of the window to some majestic sights of Lake Geneva and Lake Zurich.
Once we reached Zurich, we got together again for a few drinks we had picked up on our way back. We retired late in the night, with no plans to wake up early for the following day, as we had decided to spend it locally in Zurich, although we were slightly convinced to travel to Rhine Falls, which apparently is only a hour away from Zurich on the German border, by a Bangladeshi couple, who we had met on our way to Jungfrau.
The following day, we woke up late, checked out of our hotel, left our luggage in the luggage room and made our way to the train station to find most of Zurich shut for holiday. Even the popular Lindt Chocolate Factory was shut on Sundays, so we had nothing much to do in Zurich. We took a tram to the waterfront and we lazed the whole day on a short cruise, and then a long cruise. We were quite excited to find that we could hire a motor boat to sail on our own without a license. But we were told that there would be no boats available for the next couple of hours. We feasted on a scrumptious selection of ice creams for lunch in Switzerland’s iconic Movenpick restaurant and got back in time to rent the boat.
By the end of our one hour boat ride we were completely exhausted and by then, it was time for us to make our way back to the Airport to fly back to our depressing Monday mornings. But overall, we had an exciting time in one most fascinating places on earth. We lived every moment of our trip and would definitely not hesitate going back to visit the place again. There is something about the place which not only appeals to Bollywood movie makers, but for every tourist visiting Switzerland. It is sheer magic…
That’s the end of a long and excruciating post about our trip to a real dreamy place. If you have got to the end of the post, then you got some real spunk and deserve a pat. Try a taste of Swiss advertising to check if it makes you smile!!!
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