Switzerland Trip – Day 6

My wife had a fever throughout the night – in the morning, although her fever had gone down, she was feeling very weak. Anyway, after having breakfast, we decided to take it easy by resting a bit. Around 10 am, we headed out to see Zurich. The first stop was to have some good hot and spicy food. We found our answers in a Malaysian fast food restaurant.

After that, we hung around in Banhofstrasse – which housed some of the biggest fashion names. We walked our way to the Lake, sat there for some time and then visited the shopping center at the underground of the station. After picking up some chocolates, Swiss cheese, butter and hot chocolate, we headed back to the hotel to take an afternoon rest.

In the evening, we went to an Indian restaurant to have dinner. We decided to hit the bed early because our flight was early in the morning. With that, our Switzerland trip came to an end.

Cheers,
Thyaga

Switzerland Trip – Day 5

When we woke up, we were greeted by a spectacular view from our balcony – the ice-capped Jungfrau was visible right across our room. That made the room really worth it. We took our time to get ready and then checked out of the room but left the luggage at the hotel.

Our first stop today was the Trummelbach Falls near Lauterbrunnen. Since we had some time before our train was to depart, we spent some time in buying some souvenirs. Trummelbach Falls was quite amazing – we had to go inside the Eiger mountains to see the force at the which the water was grinding down the mountain. We spent around an hour there before heading to Grindelwald.

On arriving in Grindelwald, we had a decent lunch/snacks of a veg sandwich (good) and a cake (very very good). This café had a fantastic view of the First mountain and so, it was just wonderful sitting there and eating our lunch. After that, we took the Gondola to the First Mountain. This must have been the longest Goldola ride that we have taken – it was ~ 20 minutes in length and had 2 stops on the way. You could always get down and start hiking – the country side was just lush green and beautiful.

            After seeping in the views of the First mountain, we headed back to Interlaken. We took our luggage from our hotel and headed to Zurich. Around this time, my wife complained that she wasn’t feeling all that well. On arriving in Zurich, we went to a pharmacy and bought some cold decongestant and also something for the sore throat. Finally, we got our “# 10” tram for our hotel – the Hotel Leoneck was on the 2^nd stop. The room was good and had ample space to move around and more importantly, it was clean. The TV was small and I had never heard the name of the manufacturer this time!

Switzerland Trip – Day 4

We had to check out our hotel in the morning – but we had reservation in another nearby hotel (Metropole) which was a high-rise one and we had splurged on a mountain facing room. Anyway, we checked in early, left the luggage with the reception and headed off to Lucerne. Our idea was to take the Golden Pass train with the panoramic cars. However, in the Interlaken – Lucerne section, only the first class had them. So, we upgraded our journey to first class (< 20 SF). The advantage of panaromic cars are that they have huge windows which go upto the ceiling – however, you can’t open them to take photos – you can always walk down to the 2^nd class cars to get the snaps.

After a very scenic journey to Lucerne and getting our maps / information about Lucerne from TI office, we had our first taste of American meal – the Big Mac, of course. After a couple of sandwiches, we went to the Chapel bridge, old town, did a bit of shopping, lazed about in a cruise on Lake Lucerne (1 hour would have been better than 2), did some more shopping and finally had dinner at a Tandoori place – this place was a lot cheaper than the expensive restaurants that we had been having – so, that was kind on the wallet.

We got our keys to our room in the new hotel  ~ 10:30 and we were pleasantly surprised by the decent size of the room, modern furniture and of course, great view overlooking the Alps. The only con of the place was that the TV was small and guess who was the manufacturer of the TV – Nokia!

Om Shanti Om – a must-see

[Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_Shanti_Om%5D

Yesterday, we went to see our “Diwali movie”. There were 2 big releases this year – Om Shanti Om (OSO) and Saanwariya. We decided that we would go to see OSO but on checking at Naz (our Hindi theater), we realized that shows were all sold out. Luckily, it is being shown in an American theater as well ! – Century Berryessa.

Om Shanti Om is an amazing movie (review)- it is well directed, has a great script, good songs, dances and above all, all the actors including Shah Rukh Khan, Shreyas Talpade and newcomer Deepika Padukone have all acted well. It is a perfect family entertainer and probably, one of the best Hindi movies we have seen in a long time.

I would give 5 stars for the movie – go check it out.

Cheers,

Thyaga

Switzerland Trip – Day 3

On Day 3, the forecast for Jungfrau was very good and so, without wasting too much time, we ventured to go to Jungfrau. The ticket to the Jungfrau is not covered completely by the Swiss Pass – we had to pay 108 SF for each person for a round trip ticket. Anyway, the train ride was really spectacular – with great views of the Eiger and Jungfrau and the Alpine mountain ranges. Switzerland is indeed a picture-perfect country – the roads, the meadows, the homes, the flowers on the houses, the greenery, the mountains, the lakes, the “happy” people, the cows – everything just make this place a paradise. The train journey from Lauterbrunnen to Kline Schniedegg was probably the most amazing of them all – sit on the right hand side of the train for some great views and panaroma photos (thanks Rick Steve!).

Jungfrau is really an amazing place – the views of the Alps are just spectacular. It was both thrilling and chilling standing outside in the cold. We also took a walk along the glacier (wonderful), saw the Ice Palace (great), went outside to the plateau (great but really cold) and also had some Indian tea at the café – that was a really interesting experience.

After spending some quality time at the Jungfrau, we made our way back to Interlaken. Since we had to checkout on Thursday, we spent sometime in packing our suitcases before going out to dinner. We went to a Chinese restaurant (“Lucky Ming”) – the food was good and it was at a walk able distance from our hotel too.