Boarded the train along with numerous other tourists, mostly Indians for our Mt.Titlis excursion when an official voice from above said that Mt.Titlis was closed for the day because of heavy winds preventing approach. Itinerary underwent a change and we decided to spend the day around Lucerne. Guided by the local tourist office we got to the Boat station nearby for a 2 hour round trip on the Lake.
Majestic peaks hunch over the coastline of the lake Vierwaldstattersee - which twists and turns as much as the tongue does while saying it..The view across the shimmering expanse of water,to the hillsides,meadows and valleys was breathtaking. Little wonder then that people were crowding the Prow to get closer shots of the scenery. Here are some more pics with Mt.Pilatus towering over the landscape.
Upon completion of the excursion located the starting point for the old city tour by "City Train Luzern"
It was a 40 min ride with an impressive audio commentary (ear phones) in all major languages including HINDI
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| Lucerne Rly station |
It covered the major landmarks of the city including the upmarket shopping area,Veg and fruit market,the churches,pretty old wooden houses,the lion monument, Mirch masala restaurant,the Railway and bus station,the art museum,the city Wall and so on. The best part of it,the bridges and the water tower across the river we decided to do it on our own later.
THE ICON OF LUCERNE
Kappelbruecke(Chapel Bridge)
was built in 1333 but was devastated by a fire in 1993. It's been carefully restored and is once again
on display leading to the old-town center near the train station. A long and winding wooden bridge spanning the Reuss River
in the center of Lucerne,
It includes the landmark Watch
Tower which is now closed.The bridge features a large number of paintings and beautiful flower
displays. The tower and the bridge are Lucerne's
trademark and form the most photographed monument in the country. We walked to it, walked across it, and
photographed it.
Spreuer bridge is another old wooden bridge downstream from Chapel bridge.In medieval Lucerne it was the lowest bridge and the only one where
people were allowed to throw wheat chaff (Spreu) into the river.
Lucerne is probably the most mountainous of Switzerland's main cities, and is certainly one of the most beautiful. With its old-town center and beautiful Renaissance
architecture, museums, parks, and opportunities for boat and cogwheel
train excursions it could keep you busy for days.
Day 4 -We travel to Interlaken and to Jungfrau (Swiss Alps)
We were up early for today's major train excursion.We took the 06:55 from Lucern which was crowded with the factory workers. We passed Lake Lucerne and Mt.Pilatus as the train gathered speed over the plains with Churches and pretty villages dotting the country side along with three small lakes and lost speed to altitude as we crossed a mountain Pass with great views.The very blue skies and the white wisp of clouds gathered around the distant hills made a fairy tale setting and I was clicking away furiously to capture these moments.
We reached Meiringen station and saw the Reichenbach falls at a distance.
The Fall features in the duel between Prof Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes in the "Final Problem". The train then pushed its way all along the fringe of the beautiful and large Lake Brienz and reached Interlaken Ost which is located at the junction of lake Brienz and lake Thun. Interlaken is the starting point for all those towns and villages that are located at the foot of the Alps that are connected by the smaller RACK railways.A rack or cog rail system has a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails.The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail allowing the trains to operate on steep gradients.
The trip to Jungfrau was to be undertaken in 3 stages. We took the train featured above from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen from where we switched to a second train of the same company to Kleine Scheidegg to reach an altitude of 2000 meters.
From KS we switched to Jungfrau Rail (below) to climb to 3454 meters over 7 Kms of tunnels in a total distance of 9Kms!
Swiss have been building tunnels for many years to improve the efficacy of their transportation.This National Geographic link is a good read....
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/alps-railway-tunnel/smith-text/1
The climb was slow and the distance of 9Kms took 40 minutes and we stopped at two view points on the way to view the mountain ranges from special viewing enclosures.We had by now got into very warm clothes including ear muffs and head gear to stave of the cold.We reached Jungfrau-Top of Europe station at 11:30.Our journey had taken 4Hrs and 35 min.
A high speed lift takes us to the Sphinx observatory where the vantage terrace offers spectacular views over the Aletsch glacier.On a clear day..Hmm..you can see France and Germany's Black Forest.
I have borrowed the picture above to give you an idea of the view under ideal conditions...when the Sun is out in its glory,smiling and the winds are behaving. But that was not to be for us when we stepped out on the observation deck following a massive crowd of Indian, Chinese and Japanese guests. The temperature was below freezing,the winds were fierce and kicking up powdered snow that was swirling around us, reducing visibility.Our movement on the black ice that had formed on the floor was Chaplinesque and we were certainly saved by a good Samaritan
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| Faces say it all |
We felt like mountain climbers lost in the Eiger unable to progress because of bad weather
We hurried inside and were happy to be among the crowd, all looking lost, and making a bee line to the Ice Palace and many to the Bollywood Restaurant. But before reaching the Ice Palace,we toured the newly opened,April 2012, Alpine Sensation- a 250 meter long subway experience showcasing the Then and Now of tourism in Jungfrau region,the pioneering spirit of Adolf Guyer-Zeller, extreme efforts made during the construction of Railway and tribute to the workers,all with light and music.
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| Entrance to Alpine Sensation |
The Ice
Palace created in 1930's is another masterpiece.It is an enormous
cavern cut in Ice and contains crystal like sculptures of Eagles,Penguins and such which has transformed the grotto into
shimmering place of art.
The warmth generated by thousands of visitors necessitates the cooling of the labyrinth to minus 3 degrees! Whew..it was cold!
After two thrilling and chilling hours at Jungfrau we returned to Kleine Scheidegg and the Eiger village of Grindelwald,embedded in a welcoming and green hollow,surrounded by a
commanding mountain scape of the Eiger north face
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| View of Eiger from Grindelwald |
We were hungry and looking for a lunch of Fondue or Raclette or some such.A Restaurateur told us that they were all closed in the afternoon between 2-5,not for Siesta,but for want of clients.
In this region,Grindelwald is a haven for hikers and is also the last stop for cars and vehicles.From here you hike or take the RACK!
Went back to Interlaken and took an immediate connection to Lucerne.
It was a day of huge train travel made light by the wonderful weather and great Scenery
Day 5 - A memorable day at Mt.Titlis,Engelberg
Engelberg being just an hour away from Lucerne made it possible for us to take a later start.Fingers crossed we entered the train and this time there was no announcement of Mt.Titlis closure.Soon we were in the beautiful village of Engelberg and were being conveyed to the starting point of Mt.Titlis excursion.
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| view from cable car |
A regular cable car took us to an altitude of 1800 meters going over valleys and cow pastures to Trubsee.There we transferred to a larger gondola and ascended to Stand at 2500 meters.
Then came the ROTAIR where the inner platform rotates to afford a 360 deg panorama of mountains and glaciers.We marveled at the views of Alpine glaciers, ice boulders and their deep crevasses and felt we were being trawled heavenwards; amidst the din of the Wow's all around I was lost in the magnificence of that experience. Sadly it came to an end in 10 minutes when we were deposited at the Titlis station at 3020 meters.
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| ROTAIR |
Unlike Jungfrau we could get out into the vast expanse of fresh snow which was regularly being mowed by very large machines that were at work.We could see vast expanse of glaciers all around as well as mountain tops.
The Titlis is the highest glacier excursion destination and biggest ski
and snowboard paradise in Central Switzerland. We took the chairlift and descended to the park to see what was on offer on this beautiful sunny day.
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| ice flyer chair lift |
The 'Ice Flyer' chairlift unfolds the view of the glacier crevasses located at 3000 meters height.
The big transparent protection shield in the chair keeps away wind, snow
and rain.
The glacier park on the other side is a delight for those keen to glide
down the slopes on skis or tubes or other snow-gliding equipment which is available free of charge.
We had great fun gliding down the glacier on tubes at a fairly good speed and being bumped and pushed down the gradient by the bank of snow until we came to a gradual stop some 10 meters below.Did we have to trudge up the snow with the tube? No.There was a conveyor to take us up to the starting point. After some good fun and excitement we exited the park and took the chairlift back to the Station and entered the glacier grotto.
At the heart of the Titlis glacier,surrounded by glistening ice walls there is an impressive cave that took us through a150-meter-long tunnel, down to 20 meters below the glacier's surface.
After admiring the cave we came out to catch the Rotair and went down.We looked for a lunch of Cheese fondue and Raclette but were greeted by an Indian stall selling Vada pav, idli and masala tea! He could not direct us to a Fondue place.So we had to make do with sandwiches and orange juice.
With some strength back in our system we started walking admiring the wonderful landscape.We were headed to Engelberg village on foot. We walked along the river.Switzerland is so small that they sometimes refer to their large lakes as Sea and small streams not even 6Ft across as rivers.
At the foothills.The river flows to the left of the picture leading to the village.It is not even as wide as the road.
We walked towards the Monastery complex
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| Church at Engelberg |
The Benedictine Monastery, built in 1120, forms the
center of Engelberg. To date there are 30 monks
living and working in the monastery
Adjacent is a church with an
onion-domed spire, gardens and a building where cheese is produced and
sold and the process is shown to visitors; spent a few minutes trying to learn about cheese making.Bought some cheese and walked the cobble stoned streets as we headed back to the Rly station.
While having coffee at the cafe the owner informed us that other than the Indians,the Chinese too have started visiting in the last 4-5 years and they are expecting traffic to hit 1 million /year soon.Population of Switzerland is about 10 million.
Day 6 - Gruyeres and a wee bit of Montreux
Today we travel to the French side of the country to a small village called Gruyeres,pop 1500.
It is a long journey via Berne taking us to Palezieux very close to Lausanne on the bank of Lac Geneve. As we get out of the train here the driver of the narrow gauge invites us into his toy train for the journey to Gruyeres which takes about an hour through some quaint villages with cows and horses grazing and a highway running parallel to the tracks.Everything has changed to French from German,as in station names,highway signs,street names ...
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| Source of Gruyeres Cheese |
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| Gruyeres village |
We took a walk up to the Chateau de Gruyeres set upon the hill yonder. View of the village from the elevation was great and the Chateau is placed at one end of the market place with its museums,shops and eateries.Entering via the chalet, a picturesque cafe,we went up to the Chateau,constructed in 1270 and which served the Counts of Gruyere until the Canton of Freibourg purchased the Baroque styled castle and founded the present museum.A must watch.
Next was the HR Giger
museum. It was Giger who designed the horrific fantasy figures for the
Hollywood film "Alien"and got an Oscar for it.The Oscar is proudly displayed in the museum.
Ah! Ha! Ha! There are restaurants here serving FONDUE and RACLETTE....
Indeed the main French-Swiss contribution to the dinner table is pots of gooey melted cheese.So what is a Fondue? A pot of cheese that is heated to melt and kept on slow burn.Morsels of bread or potatoes on slender forks is dipped in it for munching.You enjoy it with white wine.Never drink water with it! You'll get an upset stomach.If you are stuffed try some high octane liquor to burn a hole in your tum.
Raclette is a slab of cheese that is kept on a contraption which has a heating element to melt the top side.As it melts it is scrapped off on to the diner's plate for consumption with boiled potatoes,pickled onions and gherkins.
We had a fondue mix (Gruyere,white wine and flour) with potatoes and cubes of bread,onions and gherkins to accompany.We were so full of cheese and wine that we had no appetite for the delicious meringues topped with double cream.
I had some difficulty walking down the hill to the cheese factory /shop near the station where we bought some cheese and chocolates before we hopped on the train to Montbovan and to Montreux, also called the Swiss Riviera!When I think of Montreux I think of JAZZ!
Our train glided down the hilly slopes showing us great views of the lake and the city. From the station we hopped skipped and jumped to the side of Lake Geneva admiring the scenery and enjoying ice-creams in the fairly cool environment.The lake side was dotted with grand Hotels like the Metropole to cater to Glitterati and after a nice stroll we got back to the rail station to catch our return train to Lausanne / Lucerne
Day7 - Zermatt,Gornergrat and mighty Matterhorn ...a wee bit of Bern
An hour's journey,on a cold wet morning,brought us to Bern where we rushed to catch the train to Visp.The station crowd was milling and in the process got into a wrong train.Amends were made quickly and the right train took us through beautiful countryside.We reached Visp and switched to a train to Zermatt and the weather also switched!
The village of Zermatt lies at the southern extremity of the country and is surrounded by the high peaks of the Alps including the towering Matterhorn at 4478 meters.The imposing mountain greeted us as we looked up getting out of the station.River Visp flows through the city.
We boarded the Rack rail to Gornergrat and the double cog wheel train went up slowly. Starting at 1000meters elevation we climbed to 3000meters.All through we could see Matterhorn's pyramidal faces peeping at us.
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| Mighty Matterhorn |
At Gornergrat where the train stopped we were surrounded by many other peaks but MH was a peak apart! Spectacular!!No wonder there is so much history surrounding this peak and attempts made to scale it.
We stepped up the snowy path to the observation point for more pictures.
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| Lighting a candle at the Chapel |
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| view of Gornergrat station and MH |
After our amazing tryst with MH we returned to Zermatt, a car free zone, for another feast of fondue with herbs this time.This was even better than yesterday's.The Portuguese immigrant running the show was happy to meet us from India and took good care.We told her about Goa and invited her over. She also made a good green salad and for dessert we had Apricot Sorbet.
Walked towards old city following the main street crammed with shops and eateries at the ground level of tumble down wooden houses. Went into a chocolate shop for local ones as well as Lindt bars.Around the back was an English church;we lit a candle and read epitaphs connected with mountaineering tragedies which was sobering.
On our return we got down at Bern station and walked out braving the crowds.It was almost like getting out of CST or Churchgate in Mumbai.. weWe walked along the long,curving and cobbled street lined with tall,15th century terraced buildings and arcades.The flag bedecked street is an attraction in its own right, and we saw famous clock tower or Zytglogge, which inspired Einstein when he was a clerk at the Patent office.This road is 6Km long and again,car free.Only pedestrians and tram cars are allowed.
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| Flags bedecked main street |
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| Zytglogge |
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| One of the many decorative fountains |
Day 8 - We go to Lugano bordering Italy
It was a long trip of 3 Hrs, S-E of Lucerne to this border town..Upon reaching the Stazione we climbed down the steps to reach the city square instead of taking the funicular.
One of the unique means of travel in Switzerland is
via a funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway.
