Zermatt Sept 21st 2009- Sept 22nd 2009:
Zermatt - Matterhorn Photographed on 09/22/2009 early morning
Swiss is known for people who are hardworking keep everything organized, quiet and clean. This you can see from Paris to Geneva train. Even though our compartment is full there is pin drop silence.If they need to talk they talk in a very low voice. They consider other people as loud so watch out. When we got out at Geneva it was around 11:00. No check points or immigration. When you go by train no immigration same thing happened at France. We had our breakfast today at the Paris Gare de Lyon station. We did not have time to have good lunch. We took some sandwiches to go at Geneva station and they are not that great other than Swiss cheese which they are famous for. I had taken my swiss travel pass to validation and this took a while. My train to vISP is almost starting and we almost jumped into the train. One thing to note is first class in train is yellow in color and has big windows. I had to change trains at VISP to Zermatt. Zermatt is a small village at foot of majestic mountain Matterhorn. This village do not allow any taxis. This village wants to protect it from pollution only electric cars / battery operated vehicles are available. Boleros are common and available at the station, they take you to most part of the city for 12 Swiss francs.
The hotel we booked is Alpen Royal hotel thru orbitz. The hotel was clean and service excellent. One thing I found out is all the hotel receptionists are well versed in English so find any information required from them. To see Alps We had selected Zermatt because we can reach the highest point in Europe 12,646 ft (not by foot but sky lifts). We had reached to Zermatt around 3:00 and checked in hotel around 3:30. We had an excellent View of the Matterhorn from hotel room. We took some photos as it was a clear day and weather was excellent. We got ready and were back at station by 4:30. One interesting thing is this hotel which is situated on a hill has a lift and a cave where we can reach station from there by 5 min walk. This station takes us to Gornergrat here we have a panaromic view of alps. From here we see a stretch of mountains and there is Mount Rosa which is bigger than Matterhorn. There is a cafe at the view point and they serve hot coffee of Indian taste. What is better a view of alps and a good coffee. We had a very nice time there. We came back and had dinner at Cafe Pizzeria at station which is not that good. I tried Rivella local drink which has lot of good things when compared to Coke. I yet have to taste some swiss wine. At Gornergrat we had seen one more Indian family but was not able to talk to them.
Gornergrat taken on 09/21/2009 evening
Sept 22nd-
Klien Matterhorn view of Alps taken on 09/22/2009 morning
We had breakfast at our Alpen Royal which comes in as free for staying here. We started around 9:30 to Klien Matterhorn view point. This is the highest view point in Europe and this borders Celvina, Italy. Since there is snow all seasons on these mountains. Skiers will ski from here to Italy. To go to Klien Matterhorn view point is a three step process. First go on a skylift to Furi. This skylifts are always moving and slow down at stations. Our family jumped into one. Swara was very excited about this. At furi change to a bigger skylift
Trockener Steg. From here you will board the last cable car to Klien Matterhorn. See,to reach the highest point in Europe is not that easy even by Sky lifts. Swiss people are doing some constructions here and they transfer the necessary construction parts by Helicopters. It was cold at the peak point. Good thing is I had carried a back pack with all the necessary stuff to cover us. We came back and tired.Swara slept while coming back and we had our lunch at China Garden,finally we got to eat some rice.We ordered spring rolls and Vegetable fried rice.We had to add lot of soya and hot sauce to make it better.Also we got white rice and Omeltte for swara as a takeaway.She enjoyed it after we came back to the hotel room. From past five days Swara is not doing her stuff like going to parks and other stuff so she is mad at all these sight seeings without asking her. We came back to room took some rest. Since I had bought little luggage myself I had to clean my clothes. From the travel sites I know it was near tennis courts at the Railway station and was able to take my clothes there and got cleaned them up. Since half of our trip is over no more laundry for me until I go home. I had taken Swara to local Park where she played her slides, swings ate her icecreams. We just explored the Zermatt village remaining part of the day. From past two days we shopped at local walmart (It is not wal mart it is called COOP) store for small stuff. There are lot of Cafes and bakeries here and we tried that out in evening along with Mc Donald. MC D has veggie burger too. .We ate Veggie burger and fries for dinner.Madhu did lot of window shopping looking at swiss watches.Finally it was a memorable village visit.Small,clean and looks old but with all modern aminities. We met couple of Indian families here talked to them. They came for wedding in Frankfrut. They are from poona and one of them is MR Gokhale. Just chatted where they are heading to and other stuff.
Sept 23: Glacier express (Zermatt- St Moritz)
Inside view of Glacier Express taken on morning of 09/23/2009
Glacier express is beautiful inside. The service not that good. This is a 7.5 hours journey to St.Moritz. But this is neither an express or you will see any Glaciers. This connects west and east of Swiss. If you are travelling only few days in Swiss then avoid this train or just go only 3 hrs ride. The strip from Disentis to Brig is more exciting. The train goes thru lot of bridges and tunnels but you will not see them as you are on them.
Views from Glacier Express taken on 09/23/2009
I was just relaxing with wine Lacot, which is local wine of Swiss. Swara enjoyed the trip very much roaming in the train. They serve vegetable pasta which is costly around 30 franks. The narration given in train about the Swiss places is good. Swiss built lot of trenches above the railway line to protect it from avalanches. But after the entire trip I feel that it would have been better if I had spent more time in Interlaken (Berner oberland). There are other express like golden express which takes 3 hours which you can go rather than the glacier express.
Alpine Glacier water fall view from Glacier Express
Sept 24: Interlaken (Best of best in Berner oberland)
This is city between two lakes Lake Breinz and Lake Thun. This has two stations Interlaken West and Interlaken east. East is pronounced as Ost. Many of the hotels are located in west. But ost (east) is the station where you have to take trains for attractions here. There is a information booth in rail station platform 1 here. If you have 4 days and want to capture Swiss just go to Interlaken. There are two beautiful fresh water lakes. Best alpine view from the Top of Europe Jungfrau. This place has lot of Indian and Chinese eateries. At just 50 ft walk from Interlaken ost station we had our hotel Carlton Europe. This has an attached Indian restaurant Shalimar. Food is okay here.
A view of Lake Thun in Interlaken - 09/24/2009
Horse ride from Interlaken to Bonigen - 09/24/2009
Sept 25th:
Top of Europe rail station Jungfrau.
Jungfrau is the top of Europe you can reach by rail. From Interlaken ost take a train to Lauterbernen. From there to Klien schdegog and then train to Jungfrau.
This is a famous spot for bollywood/ tollywood film makers. There is even a restaurant named Bollywood at Top of the Europe Junfrau.
People do lot of hiking and skiing at this place. There is a excellent restaurant at top where we can have good views and have good lunch.
View from Spynx obersvatory at Jungfrau
Sept 26th:
Boat ride on Lake Brienz Morning hours of 09/26/2009
Alpine Glacier water falling into Lake Brienz.
More views from Lake Brienz
More views from Lake Brienz
Bahnofstrasse - Busiest shopping center in Zurich.
Went on a scenic boat ride at lake Brienz. Shopping in Zurich.
Sept 27th:
World's steepest Railway line. This takes to Mount Pilatus
Ready by 9:00. Went to Zurich airport by 9:20 using the hotel shuttle. Zurich airport has three levels. First level has train stations. Second level shopping. Third level flights. We went to first level for train to Luzern. Trains are there for Luzern every half hour from Zurich airport station. Luzern is roughly one hour travel from Zurich. We reached Luzern and the Tourist information is on 1st platform. Took boat ride in famous Luzern lake to Alpanastad. Alpanstad has the world's steepest cog wheel train which has gradient of 48%. It takes to the top of mountain called Pilatus and there are good of alps from here. But remember the alpine view is great from Interlakens Jungfroch and Zermatt's Klien Matterhorn but not from here. We came down in Skylift to Kliens. From Klen's we had taken bus number 1 it has taken to Lion Monuement too. This Lion Monument is in recognition of bravery of Swiss Mercenaries who gave up lives defending King Louis XV1 during french revolution.
Lake Luzern - Most travelled lake in Swiss
Went back to Zurich and purchased some stuff for people back in Richmond.
Swara doing a Rorrrr at the Lion Monument
Sept 28th:
In the entire trip my daughter Swara was complaining about how she is missing all the people in Richmond, VA. But when we started back from Zurich she told oh I miss Switzerland a lot now. This reflects the mood of all of us. We do not want to go back from Swiss. Got up early around 4:15 a.m in Zurich's Movenpick hotel. There is a shuttle between the hotel and airport which took us to airport by 5:35. Swiss airport management is effecient and I was able to drop my check in bags and complete security within 45 minutes. We flew to London heathrow within an hour but we gained an hour in London. The security check in London is horrible make sure connection flights have atleast 2.5 hours gap there. We reached Washington D.C by 1:34 and back to Richmond around 5:30.
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