My Travel Diaries ...: Swiss Break (Part 1)

This April I have travelled a lot..had a great time exploring new places and revisiting some of my old favourites:)..but what stood out as a great experience was a three-day sojourn in Switzerland. I was in Interlaken for two days, and spent another day in Lucerne,with my husband and parents. My parents were visiting us in Germany and Europe for them was synonymous for Paris and Switzerland, as these two destinations feature a lot in our Bollywood movies (Indian cinema)..So, while my parents were planning their European holiday, they wanted to visit Paris and Swiss and fulfill the dream of going to the exotic locations that they had until then seen only in the movies..As i was growing up in India, even I was convinced that Switzerland was the ultimate European holiday destination, but it was funny when my husband's colleagues asked him-why do you want to take your parents to Swiss and why not London or Rome? Swiss is just mountains..And I was like...are we really wasting a lot of money, considering Swiss is extremely expensive? Should we go to Rome or Venice instead? But then I reminded myself of all the Yash Chopra movies that I had seen as a child, and how beautiful the scenes and his heroines had looked because the movie was shot in Switzerland. Swiss has always been a popular destination for Indians (obviously who can afford to shell out a few thousand dollars)..And after being there, I have no regrets...the place is every penny worth it:) I agree that the snow peaked mountains can be seen in many other European cities and at much lower budget, but there is something about the untouched beauty of the alps and the Swiss chalets, that makes it so special and different..
Now here is what my trip was like..Since, its going to be a long write up, I will divide this piece in parts

Day 1: Interlaken
We reached Geneva from Paris on TGV, and from there we had to change two trains. The connection was from Geneva to Bern, then from Bern to Spiez, and from Spiez to Interlaken West Station. My husband and I were a bit skeptical initially, since my parents are not used to so much travelling and definitely not used to changing multiple trains with suitcases..whew! But that's what living in Europe teaches you..And thanks to the amazing travel system, and the thoughtfully designed Swiss railways stations, that changing trains seemed so easy..There are escalators and sloped terrain that made it so easy to drag the luggage..In Geneva, we had to cross the customs too (just like at airports) before boarding the next train..The trains were extremely comfortable and the cities are so well connected, that there are connections almost every 30 minutes..And all the tiredness dissipated as soon as we got a glimpse of the natural beauty of Swiss from the window..The train journeys in Swiss were so pleasant and a treat to senses..so beautiful and calming!! I just couldn't take my eyes off and my camera couldn't stop clicking...
After a journey of around 2 hours we reached Interlaken West train station and it was raining hard..My spirits were dampened a bit by the rain, but luckily the weather soon started getting better. We looked around the place for travel maps and enquired about the bus route..The people were friendly and a bus driver guided us...In Interlaken and Lucern the language most commonly used is German..we also got to know that people here speak 'swiss' too..its like a dialect that is only spoken and not written..and it is not similar to German or French..but as different as these languages are from English..Being a touristic place, people do speak little English as well..We had missed one bus and had to wait for 30 minutes for another one..so in the meantime, we walked around the area..we located a small Indian restaurant, The Little India, right outside the station, there is a beautiful lake behind the station, where I wanted to click some pictures which unfortunately due to the bad weather I could not..then right opposite the station is the market area that stretches till the other end of the road, where Interlaken Ost station is located. We had our four day Swiss Pass so all the internal train, bus and boat journey were included ( will be writing more about the swiss pass towards the end). Finally the bus came, and it was quick ride to our hotel, which was right next to the bus stop..The bus driver did not ask for our ticket (they trust the passengers to be riding with valid tickets). If one is caught travelling without a ticket, the fine charged is a

Sitting Area, Dining and Kitchen at Tell Apartment

one of the double bedroom

View from one of the bedrooms

Shopping Street in Interlaken

round 100 CHF. We had booked an apartment in Hotel Tell..Located in a beautiful neighborhood Tell Hotel is a cosy place, with an Irish Pub..We waited for sometime in the Pub, before the hotel manager came. She was a warm and very friendly lady, who helped us with all the formalities, taking our luggage up on the third floor and eventually telling us about the places in the vicinity (bakery, coop supermarket, train stations and market)...The apartment was huge, with two double bedrooms, one single bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen, drawing room, two balconies with a view of the snow peaked mountains..extremely thoughtfully designed and tastefully done with all the necessary equipment. It was like living in a Swiss Chalet:)..After having lunch at the apartment, (we had got some ready to eat food, since we knew being veggies we do not have lot of options and what we have would be extremely expensive and probably not worth the money too) we left to explore the market area..we walked around the place and it seemed like a beautiful small village, where one could see the white mountains everywhere and lush green trees..Swiss watches and chocolates was all we could see at every corner and in every shop:) The day was well spent..We went back to our hotel, warmed up our ready to eat pastas, tortillas and some Indian veggies and went back to sleep to relax our bodies for the next destination- Jungfrauhoch!