Switzerland
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Switzerland, it is everything Bollywood makes it out to be. That country is blessed with natural beauty and the Swiss people know it. Completely decked out for tourism, competely free of pollution; the air and the noise kind, and completely breathtaking.
As before, I hardly believe in describing the trip in words since I really invest my time in capturing the best photographs, limited by my ability and camera (to some extent). However I will give a brief run through of the trip since it will help put names to the places seen in the photographs.
First stop, Zermatt:
A tiny village located south of Switzerland and the best stop according most of my group members (not mine though, I preferred Interlaken). A village so much in love with its natural beauty that they have disallowed petrol powered vehicles from entering. Only seen running around are small electrical cars and horse carriages. However, the village being very small, everything is a stone's throw away and walking is the best mode of transport. Zermatt is also home to Mt. Matterhorn, a mountain with a recognisable peak (seen on Toblerone chocolates). It was one of the places that we went up through cable cars (a height of approx. 3400m). The other activity that we indulged in was taking a hike through a gorge that meanders along the foothills surrounding Zermatt. A few people and I also wanted to go paragliding but bad weather played spoilsport.
Zermatt Gallery
Second stop, Interlaken:
Situated between two huge lakes, the city's name doesnt come much as a surprise. One of the lakes, called Breinzersee, has a pristine turquoise color that one only gets to see in travel photographs of some exotic beach in Thailand. Apart from taking a boat ride over this lake we also took a rail upto the highest rail station in Europe, named Jungfraujoch (German spelling bees must be hell). Situated a few hundred metres below the peak of Mt. Jungfrau, this was the only place where we encountered bad weather. Almost zero visibility due to 50 km/h winds and comparitively pretty cold weather (about zero degress celcius which is actually not that cold according to my standards).
Interlaken had the right mix of natural beauty and developed areas. I felt more comfortable here for that reason. Also we had an Indian restaurant behind our hotel. It cost an arm and a leg to eat there but what's 300 CHF (abt 900 AED) after 4 days of fast food :).
Interlaken Gallery
Third and last stop, Luzern:
The largest city on our iternary, Luzern was the least "Swiss", in the sense that one imagine bustling towns when thinking about Switzerland. Also situated along a very large lake, the name of which I forget voluntarily for the fear of having to spell the montsterous name. On our first day there, a festival was taking place and the lake shore was packed with young people, avery welcome change from the majorly old population of Switzerland. And I was particularly thankful for the "hot" day if you know what I mean ;). Also adding to the atmosphere was Portugal's win over England in the QF. There were cars honking, people dancing, babes taking their shirts off (no, I just imagined that). The sad part to this story is that I forgot my camera in the hotel room and was too lazy to go get it, so no pictures :(.
Other places of intrest were Mt Pilatus and Mt Titlis (yes, what a wierd name). Mt Pilatus was just beautiful beyond words (which is why I have pictures) and Mt. Titlis had a "snow park" which had toboggan slides cut out of snow. That was just a blast. Going downhill on a chain built out of 5 toboggans and having your family screaming their heads off behind you is a totally different experience :).
Luzern Gallery
What a trip and now I'm geared for my trip to India which should be in a few days...
at 11:39
The lake on which Luzern is called the Lake of Lucerne or Vierwaldstättersee. See, German spelling bees really aren't as bad as you think!