Trip to Switzerland 3 - Returning via Bern, Zurich and Alps

This was the 4th day of our Swiss visit and our stay at Interlaken was over. We had planned to fly back home via Zurich itself but while returning to Zurich from Interlaken we decided to take a slightly different route and made a quick stopover at Berne, the capital of Switzerland. As you can see from this trip map on the right we had made a similar stopover at the lake city of Lucerne while going to Interlaken but could not cover much other than roaming around lake Lucerne for a while. We were lucky to get around 4-5 hours to spend at Berne and we decided to make the best use of it.

A Colorful Street in Berne

Berne is a medieval city which sits on a peninsula formed by the winding course of the river Aare. The remarkable design coherence of the Berne's old town has earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It features 4 miles of arcaded walkways along streets decked out with fountains and clock-towers. There is something very special about Berne's numerous clock towers littered along the walkways. All of them are fitted with very old astronomical clocks with sophisticated features. It is probably from those times that Swiss watches have made their mark all over world. Fountains that once provided the municipal water supply are still found every block or so in the main streets. 

Lake Zurich

After finishing our flash trip of Berne we headed towards Zurich by a connecting train. Zurich which is the largest city of Switzerland is situated besides Lake Zurich, where the lake flows into the River Limmat , in the north of Switzerland. You can see me standing besides lake Zurich in the picture on the left. 

Zürich offers a unique mixture of attractions – over 50 museums and more than 100 art galleries, international fashion labels and the most flamboyant and lively nightlife in Switzerland. Recreational activities range from a visit to the riverside and lakeside bathing areas in the very heart of the city, to a spectacular hike on the Uetliberg mountain.

A Working clock in a real garden

We had only 3-4 hours at our disposal before catching our flight back to London so we decided to first have a cruise at Lake Zurich. By the time we had done so many cruises that the excitement of lake cruises was starting to fade out. There are some nice walkways around the lake and you can see me standing around one such area where they have created this artistic real clock ticking in the middle of a beautiful garden.

Trams in Zurich

After the lake cruise we just decided to walk around the train station and we were amazed the find the kind of fashion boutiques available on the street. Zürich’s shopping mile has contributed largely to the city's reputation as an El Dorado for shoppers and is a top address for international fashion labels, jewelry and watches. We later found out that we were actually roaming an area called Bahnhofstrasse which has the mile-long street of banks featuring exclusive fashion boutiques, department stores and street cafes invites passers-by to linger. We were a bit surprised to see many posters of our very own Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai's posters endorsing some Swiss watch at a few places in the street. I highly recommend anybody visiting Zurich to roam around this area at least once.

Alps from the Plane Window

 Finally it was time to catch our easy-jet flight back to London Luton. We were lucky to catch some amazing views of Alps while flying over it. This is the final blog on my Swiss blog series and I leave you now with some amazing pictures of Alps taken from the window of my plane. Please keep on checking this space for my next blog series on Paris, Disneyland and Austria.

Good Bye Alps

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Trip to Switzerland 2 - Excursion from Interlaken to Jungfrau Summit - Top of Europe

This was day 2 of our Swiss trip and it was time to start our excursion to the Jungfrau summit from Interlaken. The Jungfrau is the third-highest mountain of the Bernese Alps after the nearby Finsteraarhorn and Aletschhorn, respectively 12 and 8 km away but from Lake Thun, and the greater part of the canton of Bern, it is the most conspicuous and the nearest of the Oberland peaks. Once difficult to access, the Jungfraubahn cog railway now goes to the Jungfrau railway station at 3,454 m (11,332 ft), the highest in Europe. The construction of the Jungfraujoch railway east of the summit in the early 20th century made the area one of the most-visited places in the Alps.

Train to Jungfrau

 Once again we took our regular train from Interlaken OST to Lauterbrunnen which remains the most popular staging area for further excursions into the mountains. From Lauterbrunnen we took the cog wheel train to Kleine Scheidegg via Wengen. For those not familiar with cogwheel train, a cogwheel train is a train fitted with one or more cogwheels, which mesh with the toothed rail-rack, running usually between the normal rails. The system, operating on rack and pinion arrangement, is used in regions where trains operate on steep heights within a short span of time. There were amazing view of snow clad mountains welcoming on this most incredible train journey we were having. Although we were travelling at quite a height and it was snow all around we could open the train window and enjoy the fresh mountain air as you can see in this picture on the right. This train stopped at Kleine Scheidegg which was a pretty little train station within the mountains. We took another train from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch and the train entered the tunnel running eastward through the Eiger shortly above Kleine Scheidegg. Before arriving at the Jungfraujoch, it stopped for a few minutes at two other stations, Eigerwand (on the north face of the Eiger) and Eismeer (on the south side), where we were allowed to get down the train to see through the holes excavated from the mountain. The tunnel station Eigerwand (2864 meters above sea level) offers a breathtaking deep view from the famous Eiger North Face, across the rocks, to the Männlichen and the entire Bernese Oberland. The second stop at the Tunnel Station, Eismeer (”Sea of Ice”), located at 3,158 meters above sea level, reveals a view of the gigantic Sea of Ice at the southeastern flank of the Eiger. The journey from Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch took approximately 50 minutes including the stops.

In the interior of the summit at Europe's highest train station, a high speed lift rose 107 m to take us to the peak with its observatory and the famous observation platform. We could see magnificent views of the mountains and the Aletsch Glacier from the observation platform. Once you reach Jungfrau, it takes a little while to get used to the thin air and may feel lightheaded initially. Also, during summer, do not forget to wear sunglasses as the glare can be quite strong. A large complex of tunnels and buildings has been constructed at the Jungfraujoch, mostly into the south side of the Mönch. There is a hotel, two restaurants, an observatory, a research station, a small cinema, a ski school, and the "Ice Palace", a collection of elaborate ice sculptures. Another tunnel leads outside to a flat, snow-covered area, where one can walk around and look down to the Konkordiaplatz and the Aletsch Glacier, as well as the surrounding mountains. It was amazing to observe such kind of infrastructure available at the top of the mountain.

Jungfrau Observatory

You can see me sitting inside the observatory in this picture on the left. If you look carefully there is a restaurant visible in the backdrop which is actually the Bollywood restaurant complete with posters of Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Sunny Deol. Don't believe this? Switzerland and Bollywood have a strong connection, with the latter having been featured in innumerable Hindi films like Darr and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.  Yash Chopra has been one of the Bollywood producers who was specially fond of this place and on 8 April 2011, he was the first person to be appointed «Ambassador of Interlaken».

The first attraction we covered after reaching the observatory was the famous ice palace. Story has it that in 1934, two local guides stared carving a glacier with their chisels and saws. Working tirelessly in the freezing cold, they slowly carved the innards of the glacier into a large hall, almost 1000 sq meters! Further then, using just their ice picks and chisels, they went on to shape beautiful sculptures out of the ice around. Slowly expanding to more chambers within the hall and adding lot many sculptures, today after 76 years, it has become a global attraction. These glacier ice masses move northwards and melt into the North Sea. To stop the Ice Palace from flowing down, it continuously needs to be sculpted, modified, and re-carved. Another obvious and major problem the Ice Palace faces is the heat. The body heat of the visitors is enough to melt the intricacies of the figures that the artists have toiled over for hours. Hence, cooling systems were installed which don’t allow the temperature to go above -3 to -2 degrees Celsius.

Ice Sculpture inside Ice Palace

You have to walk through a long and slippery tunnel cut into ice which leads you to a hall which has the ice champers and connecting passages. The chambers have stunning ice figurines of birds and animals such as eagles, penguins, and bears. Everything here is made up of ice whether it's the flooring or the walls or the arches. You can see me besides an ice sculpture in this picture on the left.

After coming back from the ice palace we decided the explore the terrace at one side of the observatory. The Aletsch glacier is directly at the foot of this observation platform. At 22km in length, the longest glacier in the Alps also belongs to the Alpine UNESCO World Heritage Site. The terrace also provides a 360-degree panoramic view overlooking the neighbouring countries of France, Germany and Italy. We tried to locate the boundaries of various countries and people pointed us towards the area where french and German borders were supposedly starting.

Jungfrau Summit

Finally it was time to experience the open mountains. At the time we went there it was pretty windy and cold and no activities were allowed in the open. There is a small area besides the observatory where you are allowed to go for a short while in bunches with other tourists. We ventured out in the open finally. It was snowing slowly but the wind speed was so high that the snow was thrashing our faces. Although we were barely able to open our eyes but it was an out of the world experience. We spent hardly 15-20 minutes outside but it was already getting unbearable and we returned to the observatory.

It was time to return to our base camp, Interlaken now. Excursion to Jungfraujoch was a once in a lifetime of experience. It's an amazing experience to come to the top of Europe with incredible ease and enjoy the Swiss natural beauty midst the impressive infrastructure created by man to make your journey comfortable.

Jungfrau Summit

Jungfrau is also a place where the harshness and beauty of nature co-exist peacefully with man-made luxury. All in all an out of the world experience. You must visit this place at least once in your lifetime.

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Trip to Switzerland 1 - Excursion from Interlaken - Schilthorn and Piz Gloria

On day 1 of our Swiss stay we decided to cover Schilthorn which is a 2,970 meter high summit of the Bernese Alps, overlooking the valley of Lauterbrunnen in the Swiss canton of Bern. First of all we took a train from Interlaken OST to Lauterbrunnen which is a small village. These stations are connected by a narrow guage train and the train remains in the plains for most of the time during this trip which lasts around 20 minutes. We could see nice views of the Alps and lush green grasslands dotted with bunch of small yellow flowers on the way. The train runs in parallel to river Weisse Lütschine for part of the trip and it was an amazing sight seeing the river down at a depth while the train plies through the mountains.

Streets of Lauterbrunnen

After reaching Lauterbrunnen we decided to spend some time walking around and getting to the know the place. It had just rained there and was a cloudy day. You could see me walking on the streets of Lauterbrunnen on this picture on the left. We could see the mountain slopes covered with lush green grass with sheep grazing all around. There was a waterfall with a narrow stream of water falling from quite a height as you can see in the picture below.

Waterfall

At the time we visited the place we used a funicular to travel from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschap and then took a little train from there to Murren. The funicular has been now replaced by a gondola which delivers you to the same place Grutschap  from where you take the same little train to Murren. For those not familiar with funicular it's a small train with cog wheels which takes you up a very steep ride to the top of the mountain. It was an amazing ride with scenes changing every minutes. When we started at the base we could see the green grass, mid-way the journey snow flakes started to appear all around and finally we we reached the top at Grutschap it was all covered with snow.

Murren

From Grutschap we took a small train to the mountain village of Murren and this journey was even more spectacular. The train passed through the snow covered mountains and we were at quite a height.

Murren

Finally we reached the Murren village and we were told to walk through the village to a cable car which was to take up to the schilthorn mountain. Murren remains a cosy mountain village which  is the highest, continually inhabited village settlement in the canton of Bern and lies on a terrace at 1650 metres, high above the Lauterbrunnen valley. The walk through the village was quite a delight. It had snowed last night and the threes and houses were all covered with thick snow.

Murren

We could see quite a lot of houses around but it was all deserted with nobody in sight except us the tourists.

You can see some nice snaps of me enjoying the walk in Murren village.

Murren

Murren

Schilthorn Summit

Schilthorn Summit

Piz Gloria Revolving Restaurant

Piz Gloria Revolving Restaurant

Finally we reached the cable car station at Murren. From Mürren the cable car took us to Birg, which is the final change before the Schilthorn. From birg we took another cable car to the Schilthorn summit and between Birg and the summit, the cable car passes over Grauseeli, a small lake. Schilthorn has a panoramic view which spans from the Titlis, Jungfrau, Mönch, Eiger, over the Bernese Alps and the Jura mountains up to the Vosges Mountains and the Black Forest. Other than spectacular view of the mountains the main attraction is a panoramic revolving restaurant, named Piz Gloria, at the summit, which is where the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service was set. A famous black ski run featured in the film starts at the summit and leads down to the Engetal below Birg. The restaurant revolves a full 360 degrees in 55 minutes. In the picture on the right I'm standing on the stationery part of the restaurant while the whole restaurant around me along with chairs and tables is revolving.

Jungfrau from Piz Gloria

A Graveyard at Lauterbrunnen

In another amazing picture on the right it looks as if I'm sitting besides a picture frame but it is a real view of the mountains in the backdrop. Funny isn't it! We spent some time at the summit soaking our eyes in amazing view of the snow covered peaks. In any other tourist place we had to do quite a lot of hiking and tracking to reach a place like this but we were able to reach at the mountain top enjoying our lunch at the Piz Gloria restaurant without moving our limbs too much. It can happen only in Switzerland. If there is one place which truly symbolizes the spirit of Lazy Traveller it's switzerland gentlemen. Lazy Traveller loves Switzerland and would like to come back to this again and again.

While returning to Lauterbrunen when we descended using the funicular we spotted a pretty looking garden. We decided to explore after getting down. We walked down to the garden but on arriving there we realized it's actually a graveyard. We could not believe our eyes. Even a graveyard can be so tastefully landscaped and can be beautiful.

Finally we ended our journey by taking the train back to Interlaken. We were literally taken off our feet on our first encounter with Switzerland. The truly mesmerizing natural beauty on one hand and amazing tourist friendly infrastructure on other hand. It makes Switzerland one of the top tourist destinations in worldwide. You must visit Switzerland at least once in your life. That's all for now folks and keep coming back for my remaining blogs of Jungfrau and Zurich.

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Trip to Switzerland: A cherished dream come true

London to Zurich

Right from the day we arrived at UK for our long stay there was one trip which was on the top of our agenda - Trip to Switzerland. For many Indians (includes me) who have grown up watching the scenes of Switzerland in movie after movie from Bollywood it remains their most cherished dreams to visit Switzerland. For those not very familiar with Switzerland's Indian connection I request them to use the web to find the endless list of Bollywood movies that were shot here. According to statistics, more than 100 Indian films have been shot in Switzerland since 1994. In fact, more Indian films than Swiss films have been shot in Switzerland. Whether it is 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge', 'Hero No 1' or 'Chori Chori Chupke Chupke', Hindi movies have a lot of footage originating in that country.

Our Trip Map

We started exploring various travel options and tourist information for Switzerland. We found some good economical ticket options using the Easy Jet flight from London Luton to Zurich. Our plan was to cover one of the most famous tourist segments of Switzerland e.g. Interlaken, Schillthorn and Jungfrau. On exploring the travel options inside Switzerland we found that it has has very well organized system of Swiss pass. The Swiss pass is a card allowing unlimited travel on the Swiss public transport network (trains, buses, ships and tramways) for a certain number of days, as well as free entry to most Swiss museums. It is available only to people not resident in Switzerland, and can be purchased at Swiss train stations or over the Internet. Although the cost of the pass was on the higher side but it remains the best way to travel and enjoy Switzerland without any hassles.

A Swiss Train

After doing lot of research one fine morning we finally took our easy jet flight from London Luton to Zurich. Just before we were about to reach Zurich we could see the glistening snow mountains of Alps shining magnificently in bright sun light. We were told that we were lucky to have the weather condition like this which allowed us to see Alps. On arriving at Zurich we took a train for Interlaken. It took us around three hours to reach Interlaken and we realized that we had taken the golden pass route which is one of the most scenic train journeys in Switzerland. The backdrop has changed drastically as the Swiss building architecture is pretty different from UK. Mid way through our journey our train descended over a enchanting lake with sparkling green water surrounded by a dense green valley. It was our first encounter with the Swiss natural beauty and we were simply exhilarated  The backdrop started changing again as the train started to climb a mountain. Swiss trains are equipped to climb even mountains and they are fitted with cog wheels which allow them to do that. By the time we reached a station on the mountain it was snowing heavily with very little visibility. Finally we reached the lovely small town of Interlaken in the evening and checked in to the Hotel.

I'll cover the details of the attractions at Interlaken in the blog and rest of the incursions from Interlaken will be covered in my next blog. Interlaken derives it's name from Lakes Thun and Lake Brienz between which it is situated. It is also surrounded by three mighty mountains, Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau,  and is the starting point for numerous activities. There are some exciting lake cruises available at Interlaken with Excursion ships, including historic paddle steamers, plying the waters of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.

View of Jungfrau from Interlaken

Interlaken is small enough to get around on foot or bike. Taxis are available from either train station and most hotels. With the guest card from your hotel, you can travel around Interlaken for free (it also gives discounts to local tourist attractions). The Höheweg is Interlaken's main street which runs between Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost Railway Stations. There are many souvenir shops on this street. There is a pretty grassland if you walk further down the street from where you get magnificent views of Jungfrau. There are few boutique cafes spread around the grassland and we decided to sit at one such cafe enjoying our cup of coffee and soaking our eyes in the mesmerizing natural beauty engulfing us.

Boat cruises on lakes are pretty enchanting and you must take a cruise at least on one of the lakes if not both.  The boats on Lake Thun operate from a quay adjacent to the West station, connected to Lake Thun by the Interlaken ship canal. The boats on Lake Brienz operate from a quay on the Aar river by the Ost station. We took a nice, 2 hour walk along the shores of lake of Thun (Thunersee) which goes from West train station to "Neuhaus". It takes you along the Aare river and through the small but popular nature reserve Neuhaus at the lake of Thun. From Neuhaus we took a boat back to Interlaken.

That's all for now and I'll post the memoirs of our trip to Jungfrau and Schillthorn which we took from Interlaken very soon.

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