The Swiss Adventure

I was going to Germany for an academic conference. After the conference, I wanted to spend a weekend there before returning to India. My friend, Vinodh put forward a plan to visit to Switzerland. I said, "Why not? Let's see how the heaven looks like." And so started our Swiss adventure.

We smart people had booked a train that reaches Zurich midnight at 2am. I was praying silently for the train to get delayed. But unfortunately such miracles don't happen in Europe. And we reached Zurich sharp on time. We had to go to a friend's place in the city. But there was no public transport available at such an odd hour. The earliest tram would start at 6am. So we had to stay at the railway station till then. It was very cold and we were trying to stay awake. Believe me, it was not an easy task. There were quite a few groups of spoilt youngsters who were fighting each other under the influence of alcohol. Thankfully, we survived the night unscathed.

We reached Shan's place in the morning and gave a small rest to our heavy eyes. We couldn't afford to relax much as we had only two days in hand and wanted to make full use of them. Our earlier plan was to visit Interlaken, a famous tourist destination (remember DDLJ?). But it was too far to cover in a single day. Also it was too late to make any arrangements for staying there if we decided to. So instead we decided to go to Lucerne, another tourist attraction which is only two hours away from Zurich. Shan, though couldn't take time out of his work and dropped out. But he packed a delicious home-made lunch of Rice and Veg. Korma for us. 

Journey to Lucerne was very pleasant. Entire route was surrounded by lush green meadows. The grass was neatly cut eveywhere. As we approached Lucerne, snow-clad mountains started appearing. It made for an awesome sight. Once in Lucerne, we decided to do a quick walking tour of the city. 

There is a beautiful lake in the city. While walking on the banks of this lake, we saw a flock of geese. They were looking very lovely.

The next picture shows a view of the city across the lake. Wonderful, isn't it?

We had coupons of free Swiss chocolates, thanks to our city tour guides. And as a true Indian, who love to flaunt anything 'free', Vinodh is proudly showing his assets in this image.

We also had coupons of free Swiss spoons. Yeah, you read it right. Not the Swiss knives, we brought home Swiss spoons!

This is our very own Swiss bank in the photograph. Was that a controversial statement?

One of the major attractions of Lucerne is Mount Pilatus, a 7000ft tall mountain in the Alps. After our quick city tour, we took a bus to the base of this mountain. There was a cable car facility to reach the top. But we decided to go for hiking instead. Though it was difficult to cover the distance in whatever little time we had, we just wanted to experience the thrill of hiking in the Alps. Initial part of the trek was a lush green terrain. It was like a walk in the garden, with some ascent.

There were quite a few people hiking there. Importantly, there were a number of families going up together. In India, the family outings rarely involve physical activities. So it was a bit of a cultural shock for me. People coming down the hill were greeting us. They would say something in German to which I used to respond with a smile and a 'Hello'. Vinodh, who was learning German, told me later that they were wishing us the best of luck. And all this while I was responding with a 'Hello' instead of a 'Thanks'. Phew!

We had walked for almost three hours and hadn't covered even half the distance. We found a mass of snow piled up there and decided to make do with it. There was a children's park nearby. (The families must be trekking till this point.) We sat there for a while and started our descent.

I don't know why, but I love next photo, that of a desolate little tree taken while coming down the mountain.

We returned to Zurich in the night after a hectic day in Lucerne. We made sure to catch a full night's sleep this time.

There were again no plans for the next day. After googling for a while, we came to a conclusion that there was no good place outside of Zurich that could be covered in a single day. So we were forced to do a local sight seeing. Zurich is the largest city of Switzerland, but not a major tourist destination. We walked around the Zurich lake and visited campuses of two universities, ETH-Zurich and University of Zurich.

Shan gave us a bit of a shock when he showed us a Krischna (not a spelling mistake, that's how they spell it in German!) temple. 'Hare Krishna' society runs it in an apartment and they serve free Indian food to all on every Sunday. I was again at the right place at the right time. :-P The people inside were all speaking in Tamizh, I was wondering why. Shan told me that they were all Srilankans who have taken an asylum there following the wars between LTTE and Lankan government. 

There was a street performance going on near the Zurich lake where the guys presented a peppy Arabic song. It was a great entertainment.

I want to write about a funny incident happened with me in the evening. We three were standing at a tram station. There was a group of friends chilling out nearby. Suddenly, one of the girls from the group came towards us and asked me, "Hey handsome, would you like to join us?" pointing her finger towards her friends. They were all shouting "Say yes, say yes". I felt very awkward and just excused myself. There were oohs and aahs from that group. But they all moved away. Shan was listening to their conversation for a while and knew what was going on. He told me that the girl that asked me was soon getting engaged and they were celebrating that. And it was a dare given to her. Now it was time for oohs and aahs from my side.

I flied back to India the next morning after this wonderful experience of Switzerland. Although it was too short a time to explore the majestic country, it was a case of 'better less than nothing'. I would certainly like to go back in future, with more time to spend and with a heavier wallet.