Switzerland Trip:

After a lot of odds I started for the Switzerland (dream destination for many). The odds were my involvement in the Vets Project whose code was acting nasty and behaving in the way I was unable to comprehend. Finally had call with the user at around 10:30 a.m with user and got the UAT passed explaining her the arena of the change request and the behaviour of the code.

Got the Pounds converted to Francs. Called Raghu to ask him to convert less pounds to francs. To get the francs I had to walk for about a mile towards Holborn. Enjoyed the walk, as there was no backlog in the mind to finish things.

I packed all the necessary documents to head towards chancery lane. Met Raghu at Bank tube station and we headed towards DLR station to reach London City Airport. Roopesh, Nikhil and Para met us the London City Airport DLR station. Got the tickets and headed for security check. Saw people cribbing about the procedures and long queues for the security check.

At around 10:30 p.m we were at Zurich Airport. Everyone was excited and looking forward to the places that we had planned to visit. I was bit disappointed when the guy at the Zurich airport did not stamp my passport. When we reached hotel Welcome Inn it was already 11:00 p.m and we went straight to sleep asking for the wake up call.

Got up at 6:00 a.m and after daily chores I went for a photo shoot in the hotel room and the photographer was Nikhil. For breakfast we never had great options except for the croissants and coffee.

Day 1( 26^th Aug’2006) Trip to Jungfraugh

Itenary : Kloten >> Zurich >> Bern >> Thun >> Inter- laken >> Jungfrau >> Interlaken >> Bern-&a-p;g- t >> Zurich >> Kloten

Kloten is small station some 15 min from Zurich by train. Our first experience of Switzerland was great. We were amazed by the helping nature of the lady who was at the ticket counter at Kloten. She really deserves a note of thanks for all the patience she showed for all our queries and answered them. She gave us the detailed itenary to all the places we wanted to visit with timings and trains. We also got the ticket for the ferry ride, which we had planned from Thun to Interlaken. Worth mentioning was also the guy who was behind us in the queue at the ticket counter waiting for his turn with a pleasant smile on his face.

Well here comes our train and never had I expected it to be Double Decker. It has got 2 floors and we being the tourist always preferred the top floor so that we can get the scenic view of the mountains and the lakes and the greeneries around. We finished breakfast and I got engrossed in looking outside the beautiful sceneries, which I miss so much in Bangalore and London as well. Raghu is kind of person who miss talking always and hence he started with the topic of India upliftment and people in politics. Nothing changed the Indian scenario in any respect but then approximately and hour went through without people realising it. In between I would ask Nikhil to have a look outside. My memories of Gangtok became alive where I use to see the clouds getting into the room. I always felt I could touch them. Passing through the tunnels under the hills with lakes accompanying and the trees around we reached Thun from where we had to take the ferry ride.

The ship we were supposed to take was not their at the anchor so we thought of roaming around we got the snaps done with the snow covered mountain and the lake in the backdrop. I had one-mission 300 photographs for myself. We took photo on the wooden bridge that was probably controlling the flow of the fast flowing river. Time flew past collecting the sceneries around. We got into the boat and then took our seats in the front of the ship. It was bright sunny day and the temperature pleasant. I sat in the front through out the journey out here. At the exact time ship started moving coming out of the small narrow parking lot and moves into the big area. Everyone started taking pictures again. And again I got lost in my own world of beautiful hills and scenes around. I wanted to collect all the memories and then I realised it was time too less to do so. I felt there could be no better example of modern equipments and nature’s co-existence than this place. We moved around visiting various ports. There were houses on the banks of the lake and they had small canal type houses made for the boats to kept. They looked so cute. I was in my dreamland and never did I wish to be woken up from my dream but then it indeed came to an end when we reached Interlaken OST. We missed the bus to Lussane and hence took the taxi to our next destination. Swiss being left hand driven country when we got into the cab many a times I was on the verge of telling the driver to keep left where as she took right and she was driving on the right hand side of the road. Easier was it for her but then for me it was really difficult to accept.

We took 2 trains to reach our final station ---- from where we had 9.3 miles to be covered up the hill. The journey took close to an hour. It was really steep and I felt even walking would be difficult. The railway track had the groove track at the centre to hold the train and then the wheels. We stopped at viewpoints to take photographs of the snow-covered mountains. As we moved up it was getting colder and I had already worn my jacket. Our ears had started buzzing due to high altitude. On reaching to the top first thing we did was to move to Sphinx (it is tower from where we get the view of the mountain). It was amazing and I was spellbound by the whiteness all around me. We were still on the sphinx when it started snowing a bit and then we took snaps. Then we went to the open area where one could go for Skiing and sledging. Well Para and Roopesh went for skiing and the rest went to Ice Palace where we took snaps. It was cave built of ice and then they had carved sculpture of ice. Superstition has its own form and we saw people had thrown coins on the ice idols being created out there. After being there for so long at zero degree Celsius temperature we felt the need for coffee, which we had along with sweet croissants. Moving on we had one plateau left and we went there to see but then it was zero visibility and there was nothing much to see. All me, Niks and Raghu did was to take the snaps in the snow. Finally before declaring the Jungfrau complete worth mentioning is the museum where they had created few pieces and history how the caves were created for the highest rail station to be made in Europe. It was 5:45 p.m and we had to start our way back down the hill. Roopesh and Para came just in time and they went to see ice palace and with in 15 min they concluded that it wasn’t worth it. They had to come back as the last train from Jungfrau starts at 6:05 p.m down the hill. To stay there one has to walk some distance.

Finally we were in the train and we listened to all the video being played giving information about the way these tracks were created. Everyone was tired and we wanted to reach hotel as soon as possible. On the way we decided to have dinner and the best possible thing that we could manage at Zurich Railway station was pizza. Next day planning was also needed which we started in the train back to Kloten. After little heated discussions we reached conclusion and finalised our next day plan.

Day 2( 27^th Aug’2006) Trip to Mt. Titlis

Itenary: Kloten >> Zurich >> Lucern >> Engelberg >> Mount Titlis >> Engelberg >> Lucern >> Zurich >> Kloten

The next day the plan was to get up as early as 6:30 a.m which didn’t happen. Still myself and Nikhil managed to come out of the hotel by 7:10 a.m. We went to Zurich our standard stop from where we took train to Luzern. From there the another train to Engelberg . The journey to Engelberg was scenic. I wanted to enjoy the things around and in between Raghu and others started with the Dum-Charades in which I was least interested. Finally considering my interest in the game I was spared by Raghu and others. There were hills around covered with trees and also the cloud could be seen kissing the trees. We completed our train journey by say 10:30 and it was raining. Everyone around felt it was not a day to visit Mt Titlis. We never had choice so we stuck to our plan.

We purchased our tickets and the bus dropped us to the base of the Mountain. From there our journey started via rope way. It was first time for me and I was thrilled. We got into the carriage which could carry 6 people in one. Para was trying to move here and there busy taking pictures around probably he was the most enthusiastic person out there. We took off from the ground and in minutes we could see vast expanse of land below where the cattle’s were grazing. For a minute I was even terrified seeing the heights below and the thin rope above with which we were hanging above the ground. The thoughts what if the rope breaks never left me till we reach the destination. Later I got engrossed in the sceneries around – my passion gazing the nature in silence deep.

Still to complete.................