On the way to Geneva to visit our daughter who was doing a project there, we planned to include a three day sojourn at London.
After visiting the usual tourist places - Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, “London Eye”, Harrods and Selfridges, on September 30th, the penultimate day of our visit, we started early morning for Canterbury, one of England’s most beautiful cathedral cities. Surprisingly, this small town with a population of around 45,000 is country’s second most visited town (over 2 M tourists visit every year). The cathedral is the focal point of a compact town centre, which is enclosed on three sides by medieval walls.
My wife seems to have been smitten by some religious bug. Though I am myself a reasonably religious person (except for after 7 on some days, when the “spirits” of United Breweries, Seagram and Johnnie Walkers of the world, keep on hovering around me and I along with some of my friends or office colleagues drag ourselves to the nearby bars), probably to cover my shortcomings my wife has been making some extra effort as some kind of an “insurance”.
On one of these bouts last weekend, she asked me to plan a visit to Vrindavan. I have lived with her under the same roof for over three decades and have every intention to be there till I live and hence told my driver to be on the wheels by 6 in the morning. That’s how our jaunt to Mathura – Vrindavan started. (more…)
Lucerne (Luzern in German), is situated on the western tip of Lake Lucerne, which lies at the geographical and spiritual heart of Switzerland, where the tops of the mountains are covered with snow and their sides flanked with glaciers. Standing at the foothills of the St. Gotthard Pass, the lake winds deep into the Alpine Ranges of Central Switzerland, Lucerne, thus is a fabulous starting point for many rewarding excursions to the scenic places of this most beautiful part of the world.
The river Reuss splits the town and flows rapidly to the northwest, where the lake ends. The Lake Lucerne also known as Lake of four cantons – Uri, Schwyz, Nidwalden and Obwalden, is also popularly known as the William Tell Country, the legendary figure from Uri countryside who supposedly paved way for formation of the Swiss Confederation.
Our daughter, Shaguna, who was doing a project along with three of her colleagues at Geneva, called my wife and asked if it would be convenient for her and me to visit Switzerland for a couple of weeks.
Eager to see our daughter more than a visit to Europe, she called me immediately and asked to make the requisite travel arrangements. Our Travel Agent advised that all we needed was a valid passport, an invitation from our daughter and a copy of her work permit and of course, money to buy the tickets. The formalities were completed in a week’s time and since my wife had not been to London, we decided to spend 4 days at London and then head for Geneva.
British Airways flight from London to Geneva took around an hour and half and after clearing our baggage and custom formalities (which took less than 15 minutes), our daughter drove us to her apartment at Rue de La Athenee. It was around 8.00 p.m. After settling down, we along with Shagun, Ankur, Sachil and Aditya (now our son-in-law) were on our way to Gare Cornovini (Railway station) to buy “Swiss Rail Pass”, which entitled us to 6 days unlimited travel by train, tram, bus, boat, etc in any specified part of Swiss. It cost us around Sw. Fcs. 308- each. We had our dinner at one of the small time Thai restaurants and had some mouth watering dishes.
With a view to make the best use of our investment in the Swiss Rail Pass, we planned to visit the Bernese Oberland (2 days), Lucerne (1 day), Zurich (1 day) and Zermatt (2 days).
The Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland is one of the greatest tourist attractions in the world, the most accessible and also the most spectacular, best known for a grand triple-peaked ridge of Alpine giants – The Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau, cresting 4000m. Additionally, two of the largest lakes, the Thun and the Brienz are located in this area. Between the twin lakes of the Thunersee and Brienzersee, the bustling town of Interlaken is the main transport hub of the region. Interlaken is most popular as a summer resort, while Gstaad, Gridelwald, Kandersteg and Murren are both summer and winter playgrounds.
We started next morning at 5.02 by bus to reach the station (the bus was dot on time) and after a quick tea and croissants at the station bakery shop, we headed for the platform and within 2 hours and were in the tourist capital of the Bernese Oberland. Cableways and cog railways designed for steeply inclined mountains connect it with the most of the region’s dazzling sites, including the snowy heights of the Jungfrau. Switzerland’s most popular (and perhaps most expensive) mountain railway excursion, emanates from Interlaken.
