InsideEurope: January 2012

At the Lucerne railway station

The trip to Switzerland was the one we were all waiting for eagerly, welcoming a little chill after experiencing the harsh sun of Chennai for two long years. Booking your hotel room and train tickets early, a month in advance, ensures that you get the best rooms and direct trains to your destination while the prices too are cheap. We had booked them a bit late and we had to settle for a price which was up by at least 30% and make do with connecting trains. In the course of our 'research', we found an amazing website in the likes of www.myswissalps.com.

The 'Lower Alps'

The website has a forum which is well frequented by visitors and mediators alike. The mediators had excellent advice for us about our trip and apart from suggestions on the places we were to visit, they told us to look up the Swiss flexi pass. With this pass, you can use public transport free of cost in Switzerland. Only in rides up to tourist spots, are you required to pay, even there, adults go at half the price while children travel for free. It not only saves your purse but something far more valuable, your time! You can skip queues at stations and get to that train which would be leaving right in front of you. This pass makes your trip efficient and relatively cheaper. I would recommend this pass to all tourists visiting Switzerland. You can purchase them in any train station in Switzerland or at your local station anywhere in Europe if available.

Day and night meet over the Brienzersee

The whole day of May 26 was spent packing, unpacking and checking our bags and I spent the time getting our gadgets ready. That evening we took the NS-HighsSpeed train to Utrecht Centraal station, the largest station in the Netherlands in terms of size and passenger volume, impeccably managed with 900 trains leaving the station each day. Our City Nightline train to Basel in Switzerland was a medium sized train with about a dozen carriages. Ours was a one closer to the middle and our compartment, one in the middle of the carriage. With 6 spacious bunks and plenty of space for our luggage, your own moving bedroom, traversing the width of Europe in a night! At about 1am that night, we heard knocking at the door, and a loud voice announced, 'German police!'. Two policemen were at the door, 6'2 in height and fully armed, they asked for our passports, a routine followed when crossing international borders during the night. Even though you use the same visa for all countries in Europe, it is best advised to carry your passport with you when crossing borders. They left after warning us of thieves on the loose. I had to think, only a stupid thief would want to mess with these guys!

A valley in the Alps

I woke up early that morning and went out to the aisle, no one was up yet and I was on my own. The train was passing through Germany's black forest region, a wide green expanse under the brightening sky, popular for its unblemished greenery and cuckoo clocks. It was a remote area, with towns and villages few and far from each other. Our train was exactly 15 minutes late at the Basel SBB station, it had us running all the way to the connecting train to Lucerne. But even as we stood before the train, the doors hissed to a close and the train drew away. We had anticipated such delays and had printouts which detailed alternate train timings too, so we knew the next train arrived half an hour from now, but that we'd lose one hour on the whole. Such detailed programs helped us to distribute time over the day. We spent our time exchanging our Euros for Swiss Francs. Even though it is a part of the EU, the Swiss have their own currency. The next train was right on time, it took us through the area I liked to call the 'Lower Alps', the hills were small with miles and miles of green meadows stretching like a woven carpet, very much like in Luxembourg (they say it's vice versa!). There was a nice drizzle that morning and everything looked misty and fresh as if it had emerged a second ago, a scene right out of a fairy tale, and best of all was that it was just beginning!

Engelberg

Lucerne was a beautiful city, very much popular to tourists, but we'd planned to avoid the cities in Switzerland and try to get as much fresh air and as much of the Alps as possible. So, we stay put for the train to Hergiswil. The train took us on a track right next to the expansive blue waters of the lake of Lucerne, the other side of the lake lined by the now taller mountains of the Alps, their grassy slopes meeting the water at an gentle angle. The lake seemed to stretch on and on, and it does too! At Hergiswil, a small lakeside town, a huge alpine mountain densely populated with trees stood in our path and had me wondering how the train track was laid. Our train to Engelberg had the answer to my question, it went through it! A 4 kilometre long tunnel under the mountain which sloped gently, nearly all the way. When we emerged out of the tunnel, the mountains were visibly different, they were really high now and far out in front, snow covered peaks stood visible against the grey cloud laden sky and below them stood their green or black counterparts.

Titis Rotair!

Engelberg was a small town on the foothills of a green alpine mountain, the base camp for the ride up to Klein Titlis, the summit of the Titlis (a mountain). We left our luggage at the lockers available in the station. We trotted through the scenic town as it had begun to drizzle again, on our way to the gondola (cable car) station. We shared the 6 person gondola up to Trubsee with a Turkish student from Bern. He said that as tourists, we were lucky, because there was practically no snow in the middle of summer, except on the higher peaks while most of the smaller peaks would remain barren and rocky. But now, luckily for us, it was snowing at the peaks!

On the way up, we heard hollow bells ringing below us, to our surprise, we found that the source of all the ringing were cows! Herders tie huge bells to cows so as to find them if they get lost in the snow or in the fog, which can happen all too easy over here. At Trubsee, 1800 metres elevation, we had to change to a 80 person gondola to Stand. Now instead of rain, it was snow all around, with mists rolling over the area and obscuring the view. Stand, at 2428 metres altitude was where we had to switch to the famous Titlis Rotair, the world's first rotating cable car. It gives the occupant a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape.

Me on the slopes of the Titlis

Finally after hours of travelling , we were finally at our destination! The summit station at 3028 metres altitude was quite a big building, it was connected to a glacier cave set deep in the recesses of the Titlis glacier, which carried the defiles of Klein Titlis. The cave was so cold and unnatural, perhaps due to the lack of a wind, carved out of the ice by some forgotten river long ago. It was slippery and treacherous, but for the mats underneath, I'd have been slipping and sliding through the glacier to who knows where! It was an amazing experience and certainly one not to be missed out! We exited the building and went out to the mountain side which was piling up with snow and with a nice wind pushing us through. Klein Titlis, the summit, somewhere out in front was sadly invisible, obscured by the foggy wall, nothing further than 30 meters was visible!

I had a great time playing in the snow laden mountain side, snowballing, rolling down the slope and eating the fresh snow, enjoying the immense chill! After all, this was my first time out in snow! There was a snow park too, with tobogganing, skiing and other activities, accessible by an open chairlift, but we decided against it due to the choppy weather. I thoroughly enjoyed the four hours at Titlis and was sad to leave, but leave I did, wet, red faced and with numbed hands, back to Lucerne. Rushed as we were, we enjoyed every moment of our return trip. From Lucerne we got on an ICE international train to Interlaken, through the mountains, getting closer and closer to some of the highest peaks in Switzerland!

The gondola to Stand

En route we found out that we were missing our children's pass, one for each of the two adult Swiss passes we had, we'd left them at the counter in the gondola station in Engelberg!. The ticket collector on the train put our fears to rest saying that as long as had our Swiss passes in hand, we could get new children's passes. So in a matter of 10 minutes at the Interlaken station, we had our new children's passes! It was all so smooth and easy! Interlaken is named so because it separates two lakes, the Thunersee and the Brienzersee, a sort of an Inter-Lake city. We checked into our hotel, freshened up, drank some coffee and had a chat with the receptionist. We had to leave to be in time for our Indian dinner cruise on the waters of the Brienzersee, we had already booked the tickets online.

The small town of Brienz

After a long walk through Interlaken, we found our boat, a big sturdy one with a high mast, the Indian flag waving on it. The first thing that had me completely stunned was the water, perfectly blue, blue as I have never seen before except in the skies, so pure was the water here that I wanted to drink it! I even thought they would have coloured the water! Maybe you will understand if you take a look at the photos. We sat down to our dinner, a buffet which had naan, a curry, dal makhani, rice and vegetables cooked in an Indian style among other Indian dishes, working our way through really slow and admiring the landscape. The hills were closer now, the snow capped peaks visible under the evening sun and the alpine town of Brienz emerged out in front, set on a hillside next to the water, misty and glistening.

One of the waterfalls feeding the Brienzersee

Due to the rain that day, there were quite a number of water falls from the mountains feeding the lake, water gushing in to the lake through the forests making a steady noise, somehow adding value to the quiet all around us. The scene was so empowering that I was lost in my own world for some time, the huge alpine mountains, tree covered, snow covered or bare steep, rocky inclines , the crystal clear waters sloshing against the hull of the boat, the sun slowly setting in the distance(At 8.30 p.m). I would have gladly been there for hours and hours together, I almost wished that I could live there, raising cattle or running a dairy. No place has left such lasting impressions on me, it was one of my most memorable moments.

We disembarked from the docked boat and headed into the small town. Though the shops were closed, their displays were open and we walked down the streets looking at Swarovski crystals, swiss watches and swiss knives. The shops were endless, Tissot, Longines, Swatch, Tag Heuer and other famous Swiss brands. I made a mental note of the Swiss knife I wanted to buy the next day, there were so many! Going to our room, tired with the walking, deserving of a much needed rest, I crawled into the bed. I slept like a log that night, so much fresh air and so much of nature in one day, and with two more days to go!