Europe Bus Tour-2010 - Switzerland

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October 15th 2010

Published: October 15th 2010

To Switzerland

We could not sleep after 6:30 am. I guess we got used to that. But, still we did not get up from bed till 7 am. Water in the bathroom was a trickle. We did not expect that the water will completely stop! We struggled to complete our morning duties with this issue. SOTC rep talked to the Hotel folks. It looked like SOTC will not use this facility from now on.
We entered Swiss from Italy border. The first city on the border was Chiasso. There was a line to cross the border. They did not check our passports. We crossed lake lugano in 30 minutes and took a break in Lugano. Here is a pretty neat attraction called ‘Miniature Swiss’. It is similar to Madurodam in Netherlands. It had nice models of all important attractions in Switzerland. We had Indian lunch in the same place. SOTC cordoned off an area in the local restaurant and uses that area for food. After lunch, we headed towards Interlaken and the hotel area. Hotel area can be considered middle of Switzerland. Bus took us through the “Lepontine Alps”.
It is difficult to describe the landscape here. One has to see it to believe it. In short, huge mountains, rivers, lakes, rolling meadows, distant chalets, cows and waterfalls all along the way. The temperature was very warm, unusual for Swiss. We went thru Gethard pass into the Mount Titlis area. Hotel Terrace is in Engelberg, the town that is very close to the mountain. Engelberg itself is a cute town on the foothills of the mountain chain Obwalden. We went on winding roads to get to the Hotel. There are narrow streets that lead up to the Hotel. Bus can not go there, So 2 lifts take luggage and passengers to the Hotel lobby.
We reached the lobby, that leads to this big portico overlooking Mount Titlis and other neighboring mountains. This sis breathtaking view!! Snow on top of some mountains, huge green valley in front and houses on slopes.
Even before we checked in, we were treated with chai in the lobby. We sat on the portico, looked and around and sipped tea. Around 6 PM we went to our rooms, freshened up and went for a walk around Engelberg town with Asif family. It was quaint and beautiful. We came back after an hour and had a heavy dinner. Food was excellent here, since there is a dedicated SOTC cook in this location.
That night was disco night as well. Everyone in the group was very relaxed on that day. People started dancing. We also got free coupon for one drink as well. We all danced in our group on that day. Around 11 o’clock, everybody started heading back to their rooms. Long and great day!

Day 2 - Switzerland

Jungfraujoch - We woke up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:30 am and bus at 8:30 am. We had to get all our winter clothing out since we were going to the “top of Europe”. We needed only backpack. We had jackets on hand and gloves etc in the backpack. Four families with very young children decided to skip the tour. So we had only 26 member s in the bus. This day we had Idli and Sambhar as breakfast. That was great for a change. Our first stop was Interlaken. This is a valley between 2 big lakes Thun and Breinzer. We reached close to 10 am. We had an hour of free time for mainly shopping or walking around in downtown area. We bought few items there and headed back to the bus close to 11 am. Some of the co-passengers were waiting outside. We realized that the bus is locked. Alex forgot the key inside. We have our train reserved from Lauterbrennen at 11:39 am. This drive should not take more than 15 minutes, if the bus can start. Luckily, there were few other tour buses parked there and Alex was having an animated conversation with them about opening the door/window etc. One of the drivers had a ladder. Alex climbed on top of the bus and could get in through a ventilator door. It seems, Alex completely locks that door only during night times. With few minutes of delay, the bus left for the train station. We arrived there around 11:30 am and rushed to get to our reserved coach. We have to take 2 different trains to reach the mountain top Jungfrau. This train took us to a place called “Kleine Schedegg”. From here, we took a cog rail and climbed steeply on the Alps slopes. Half-way, we went into a lengthy tunnel. Outside temperatures were not that bad. Most of us were not wearing our jackets yet. It has been hottest summer across lot of European countries. There was quite a bit of snowmelt on the top and this was causing spectacular waterfalls. We arrived at the top of Europe around 1:15 PM. We were asked to get to our lunch appointment and it is “Bollywood restaurant”. It is surreal to see all these posters from various Indian movies on the walls of a restaurant in Alps at 13K feet. Lunch was not bad. But we have been eating similar food now.
After food, we visited the ice palace and the snow play area. Some of us could feel the altitude. I was a bit disoriented initially for 30 minutes. There is a speed lift to the top of the mountain with views all around. We took that lift to the top and enjoyed a spectacular view of ice and the mountains. There is also an ice palace here. It is built like an ice cave. Visitors can walk through these dimly lit caves. There are ice sculptures such as bears, penguins and seals. It is a very well made exhibit. We went out of the building next to play in the snow for a while. It was a very bright day and the reflection of the snow was hurting our eyes. By 4:30, the group assembled back for the return trip. The famous ‘always on time’ Swiss trains were late that day. Our cog rail was took us back to Lauterbrennen around 6:30 PM. By the time we reached the hotel, it was 8:15 PM. We had a good dinner.

Day 3 - Mount Titlis

In a way, this day is very similar to the previous day’s experience. Mount Titlis is very near the hotel. It is about two miles away. We could even see the chair lifts from the hotel. Today, the Indian breakfast served was Upma. We reached the parking lot of Mount Titlis around 9:30 am. We have to take three lifts to go to the very top of the mountain. During the summer times, the lifts operate and mostly attract tourists especially from Asian countries. The last lift that takes us to the peak was a Rotair. This lift rotates and climbs up at the same time. If hold onto the edges of this round rotating car, you will have to slowly move with it. This is not a small car. It can occupy up to 80 people. This rotair takes the visitors from stage 2 to stage 3. In the second stage, there are facilities such as restrooms, viewing area and big conference rooms. Once we reached the top, we quickly checked out the facilities there. On the 3rd floor, there is a portrait studio that specializes in taking Swiss oriented pictures. We took a family portrait there. All us wore Swiss clothes, with cow horns and guns. Around 11:30 am, we headed to the snow tubing area. To reach that place, we needed to take a smaller ski lift. There were already people waiting to tube. P1, P2 and I could do one round of snow tubing. Sandhya joined us in the snow sledding area. P1 used very thin sled equipment that looked like a pony and used that. This is what they call a “wipie-out”. He was fine after that. We all enjoyed the snow play. We were supposed to be back on the 3rd stage by 12:45. But the group could only assemble by 1:30 PM. We headed to the stage 2 area for lunch. Since SOTC caravan could bring all the food up to this stage, the conference room there was used to serve food. One section was allocated for our tour group. We had Desi lunch again at 7000 feet level.
We used the ski lifts to come down to the parking lot. The bus was waiting for us. I could not stop thinking about running toward the hotel and take a sound nap. Next stop was Lucerne. This is a old city on the banks of river Lake Lucerne. We were dropped off in the city center. We were given two hours to explore the city. We stayed there from 4:30 to 6:30 PM. It started raining toward the end of our stay. This is beautiful town with lot of small shops. We walked around the shopping area for some time, buying chocolates etc. I wanted to sit and have a drink in one of those patio restaurants. It was a good feeling. After that, we went to the old bridge, called ‘Chapel Bridge’. This is a wooden bridge erected in the 14th century crossing the river Ruess. There are paintings that describe the history of the city in this place. It started raining as we walked to the bridge. Since it is a covered bridge, we could walk in there without getting wet. We returned to the bus around 6:15 and left the area around 6:30 PM. When we reached the hotel, it was close to 8 PM. We again had a good dinner. There were new tour groups that checked in this day in the hotel. There was Disco night as well/ We went down to the cave section. It was not as active as the previous time. So we returned to our rooms around 10:30 PM.

Day 4 - Enchanted Journey Switzerland

This is the extra day as compared to the tours they have provided in the previous years. On this day, there will be a special tour guide, who will take us around these scenic places that are often used in Bollywood movies especially produced by this popular producer Yash Chopra. The day began very well with Upma as the Indian breakfast. Most of the tour group members were aware of the fact that there will be portrait pictures taken in these scenic locations. We didn’t’ know that. These people were all dressed up! A young man (Sanketh finishing college), is the tour conductor. Our tour guide was with us also. The plan was to go east toward France through these enchanted valleys of Staad and Saanen and finally reach Bern city. The village of Staad is very beautiful. It has a picture perfect city center. There are these flower arrangements in every street corner. On the surrounding mountain slopes, one can see all these typical chalets. We took some pictures here. As part of this enchanted journey tour, we also got two family photos in this area. The tour group had arranged lunch in a rented chalet. The caravan (with cooks) travelled separately and reached this place before us. Hot desi food was ready and waiting. Yash Chopra films had a small gift store also next to the lunch room, where they sold some gift items at a reasonable price. After lunch, we visited a church and a lake that were popular locations in popular Hindi movies.
Next major stop was at the Bern old city. We were there around 4 PM. Clock tower, and other downtown shopping areas are the main attractions. We had to look for a McDonald’s to use the restroom. We did some shopping. We left Bern and 6:10 am. At 6:25 Alex our bus driver, pulled the bus over, because it was stalling. This will be the beginning of our long wait on the side of a Swiss highway. From Bern to Engelberg is approximately 2 hours. We had another 1:45 to travel. The bus wouldn’t start. Alex requested a service man using the cell phone. Help arrived about an hour later. It was a single guy with some equipment to check the problem. He tried for 30 minutes and gave up. To our surprise, there was no cops or nay other vehicle stopping by to check on the bus. Finally, the tour bus company, decided to send another bus to the location. This bus has to come from Zurich, which would take another 90 minutes or so. From 6:30 to 9:30 we waited for an alternate transport. Most of us wanted to use the restroom after the bus arrived. So the driver took a break 5 miles from the area. We left around 10:20 PM. We reached the hotel around 11:40 pm. Hot food was waiting. We had a quick dinner, and headed to bed around 12:30 PM.

Europe Bus Tour-2010 - Switzerland

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