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Published: March 16th 2006
Swiss train
A serene scene of Interlaken.Switzerland is a beautiful place. Everybody knows that, but seeing it first hand is a completely different experience. We started our Switzerland adventure in Interlaken, which suggested by its name, is located in the Alps region between two lakes.
Arriving in
Interlaken Ost station from Milano Centrale, Italy, we experienced a shocking atmosphere change from chaotic streets of Rome to calming Interlaken, with serene lakes of the Alps as a background. We had to reset our mindset from a go-go-go-I’m-so-behind into the oh-I-am-so-enjoying-life attitude. Tonight is chilly, according to our standard, which is micro-defined after living in hot and humid Roman summer for the past three months. The distance view of the snow-capped tallest peak in the continental Europe of
Jungfraujoch, blended nicely with the lakes and log chalets of Interlaken.
All Swiss I’ve encountered so far seem to be multilingual, due to its geographical epicenter in the continent. A Swiss guy works at the Swiss Embassy in Rome, for instance, was talking in perfect English with me, Italian, German and French to all other people that showed up that day at the Embassy. The trick is to start the conversation
Ding! Dong!
Swiss cows: the happiest cows on earth, on Interlaken street. with stating “Hello”, which a universal gesture. Clients then would start the conversation in any languages he/she prefers, and the odd is the Swiss would be fluent with the language.
We walked, in the dark, for about half mile on a gravel trail by a river to our hostel where we will be staying for two nights. As it has been a long day for us, none of us are complaining to call the night off and ready for a new day in Switzerland.
Friday, August 1, 2003 - Interlaken, Switzerland Breakfast in Interlaken is the most complete breakfast we’ve experienced so far. It is complete with very good yoghurt, some sausage and warm milk, and they nourished us very well through the day.
Interlaken in the day is completely different than what we experienced last night. As we were wondering our way through ‘downtown’ Interlaken, it seems that Swiss is more patriotic than Americans. Everywhere we go, we see every inch of the city is covered with ornate Swiss flags. Flags after flags, banners after banners, from chalet windows, rooftops and lighting fixtures, I can’t help by being ‘Swiss patriotic’ myself, after being brainwashed
by those red flags with a perfect white cross in the middle.
To start our hiking day in the Alps, we hitched a ‘breathtaking’ train ride from Interlaken to the trailheads up in the mountain. Literally, as the air goes thinning, we breathed shorter, ears popped, and heartbeat started to pound more. In a distance, cows were dotted the green mountain slopes, signified by their deep cowbell sounds around their neck.
Hiking in the Alps is definitely a serene moment, although it was a little bit different than what we are used to back in the States. Sign directions are written and signified by how long in minutes it takes you to get there, instead of a more definite standard of distance in kms or miles.
On one of the observation decks overlooking Interlaken, we talked to a Swiss family. The father informed us that today is the Swiss Independence Day, celebrating its 712 year of independence from Austria; when in 1291, Switzerland chose to be a neutral country. This means that Switzerland is abstain of joining NATO, European Union, and even United Nations. The mountainous region helps Switzerland to stay isolated for many years and thus
Jungfraujoch
The tallest peak of the continental Europe. developing its culture and character, apart from neighboring Austria or Germany. The family also informed us that we need to check out the firework at the main park in Interlaken overlooking the Alps, to complete our experience of Interlaken.
The Hardy boys got their brother in law an engraved blue Swiss Army Knife, and I don’t think they exist outside Switzerland.
Heading down back around the Interlaken main street, we found a Hooters restaurant, complete with Swiss boobs. The whole street is filled with excited Swiss, most of them are holding some kind of Swiss flags and children are playing with their own mini fireworks, which turn out to be a dangerous event, due to their shooting
horizontal direction towards people instead of vertically towards the sky. We managed to secure a spot on the main park grassy area, and nothing is better than resting and flat in our back looking up at the Swiss firework, with the Alps as a main background.
Happy birthday, Switzerland!
Saturday, August 2, 2003 - Zürich, Switzerland After switching train in Swiss capital Bern (another neat Swiss town), we arrived in Zürich, the biggest city in Switzerland. Just
Chalet Diana
A typical wooden Swiss cabin. like any major European city, Zürich offers a distinctive characteristic of which the city is famous for: banking system, chocolate, army knives, and wristwatches. Just add the word ‘Swiss’ in front of any of those items, and you’ll understand the importance of this city.
Due to ‘the happiest cows on earth’ nature, we suspect that Swiss produces one the best dairy products in the world, especially cheese and milk. Back in Rome a couple weeks back, we asked our Professor Pia who is Zürich native about what is the best Swiss chocolate, and she suggested
Sprüngli, a branch of world famous chocolate brand Lindt that is truly Swiss. Following the direction she mapped us,
Sprüngli store is located within a short distance from the train station where we arrived
Sprüngli store is one of the biggest candy store I’ve ever visited, covering roughly about half city block. Just like a fat kid in a candy store, I was wondering around stacks of chocolate and truffles in any kind imaginable. Truffle samples are the best here, my favorite was the Bailey’s Irish Cream truffles which obviously not suggested by its name, contains some ‘secret’ ingredients. We had a difficult
time deciding on what to get from this store, as all of them are as tempting as the next one.
Zürich feels just like any German town, with harsh German language spoken by more than 80%!o(MISSING)f the population. It does not have the intimacy of a typical Swiss town, a contrary from Interlaken we just departed from. Most of the Zürich architecture was built in recent years (i.e. the last two or three hundred years), so they use more modern stone as the main materials. Before heading back to the train station for a trip across the German/Swiss border to Munich, we managed to take a quick glimpse of
St. Pieterskirche church, which crowns the honor to have the largest clock face in continental Europe at its stout bell tower.
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