Swiss Alps, One of the many heavens on earth!!

Yo!! Sorry for blogging my experience so late. I was very busy and could not catch up with my blog; however, wanted to make sure I blog our Swiss trip before I leave on another trip and I'm fresh with a new set of memories. :)

Yeah! It was Saturday, the 20th March of 2009. We took the early morning Easyjet flight from Brussels to Geneva. It was a trip Kusuma and I had been planning since we came to Brussels. A long awaited trip and we were very excited. More, when the flight flew over the Alps, the scene from the window was enchanting!!



We'd booked the stay at Cristal Hotel. With an Ibis hotel experience at Paris, to be honest this was 1000 (yes thousand) times better. The rooms were spacious and well maintained. More importantly, they did not STINK. Good View from the room as well. And 2 mins walking distance from the Geneva Main station. Its very much a budget hotel.

We landed by 10 AM and then took a train from the airport to the Geneva Central. By now, we had realised we had done a mistake of not withdrawing enough cash in Euros. All in all, with 4 of us, we had just over 500 Euros. Coming to Geneva, tats quite less for our shopping, food and other expenses for 4 of us.


Geneva as such is a small city. We had all the time in the world to go around the city. Visited the UN office at Geneva. It was a moment of pride to see the Indian flag at the UN office after a long time. Yeah, people get more patriotic when they are not in their home country. :)


We had our lunch at an Indian Restruant "Gandhi" and set out to the other part of the city.


We were unlucky that day. It was quite windy, hence the Great Geneva Jeton was turned off. Its one of the "must see" spots in Geneva. Nonetheless, we took the ferry and had a view of the huge structure that spurts water to that great heights.

We shopped quite a bit. Swiss is said to be famous for watches and yes, Geneva is supposed to be the home for those watches. But believe me, they're VERY costly. Did not find any good one for less than 600 Swiss Francs. tats like 400 Euros. Arun badly wanted to buy a ROLEX. He started with a budget of 500 Euros and finally was ready even for 1000 Euros. But the prices were very very high. He did not get any "good" Rolex for any price less than 2250 Swiss Francs; tats like 1500 Euros!!!

Geneva is certainly not a place for a 2 day stay given tat the shopping malls are closed on Sunday all over Europe. By evening, we started making plans to get to the Alps next day. It was not possible by Train, coz by the time we got to the train station, counters (including information) were closed. Arun and I went around the station to see if we could rent a car for the next day. Finally, got connected to Europcar and we decided to rent it next day morning from the Airport.

Kusuma was tired and she caught up some sleep when we 3 guys roamed about to find some "swiss dish". When I checked with the hotel, they suggested "Fondue". We went to a nearby "Swiss Meal" and had them. We were surprised that they even served Indian Samosas. Back to the hotel to hit the sack as we had to get up early next morning as well.



Sunday (22nd March 2009) we got up early as scheduled and left for the airport to rent a car. We went in search of Europcar counter; we found none there and finally rented a car with Sixt. We went in search of a basic car to accommodate 4 of us. However landed with a Mitsubishi SUV. The Sixt executive suggested Iterlaken. The drive was just ecstatic. Everytime we saw a snow capped mountain, we thought we are heading towards that. Little did we realise that by then we were already climbing the mountains. We went by so many tunnels and some of them were atleast 2000 mts long. finally after 3 hours drive we were in Interlaken and now confused where to go.

We got some help of the locals and then asked the GPS to take us to Lauterbrunnen. Within half an hour drive we were at the foot hills and in no time boarded the train from Lauternrunnen to Wengen. Wengen is a small village; but one of the very famous skiing resorts in the world.


Oh!! Did I forget to mention, Arun left his wallet at the tickets counter at Lauterbrunnen and only realised of tat when we were half way in the train to Wengen. Once we got to Wengen, we went to the counter there and were told tat the person at the base had picked it safely and would return to us when we returned to the base.


We then settled for an Italian lunch at Wengen. Just the thought of "4 Indians from Bangalore and Hyderabad in Swiss; travelled from Brussels on easy jet; then driving a rented car (US Car rental company) to Swiss to get to top of Alps to Eat Italian Lunch" describes the extent of Globalisation. :) The Pizzas were too good. Then we headed to the nearest Cable Car to get to the top of the 2nd Peak Mannlichen.

The cable car travels 1900 mts over the cable to take us to the top of 950 mts from the station. Acrophobic that Vinod and I are, we were very apprehensive while in the cable car. We had a gala of a time at the summit. It was different to be there for the fact that we were the only 4 in that place who were walking tourists. We were surrounded by skiing people. People also asked us why were not skiiing. :)


It was an amazing experience sitting there at the top at a restruant and sipping coffee. Afterall tats why coffee is on earth!! What say? :)

We spent more than 2 hours at the top and then decided to descent from the summit as we also had to drive back to Geneva :). If it was not for he was the one to drive, it would have been very difficult to get Arun return to the base. We collected Arun's wallet and then it was a long 4 hours drive back to Geneva.


We had a tough time locating a fuel station to refuel the car as we were supposed to return it full tank. After about 1 hour circus finally refuelled the car and returned it at the Car Rental Parking and returned to the hotel.

When I was in NY, Srivatsan and I had once been to have "Burritos". So, I suggested people we try Mexican that night. Ah!! it was very very heavy with so much of cheese. Not to forget to mention that all 4 of us just had one portion of it and left the 2nd one untouched. What I had in NY was more in a bowl and not the ones wrapped in flour tortilla.

Finally an accomplished day on the Alps and we went to sleep with lots of good memories.

Next morning, we had to get up early by 4:30 to get to the Airport to get to Brussels by Easyjet again. Reached Brussels airport by 8 AM. Kusuma left to office from there as its halfway to Leuven. Arun caught up with Prem at airport and they left together. Vinod and I reached our homes by 8:45 and off to office by 9:30. Back to the same POOL OF SHIT. :(

Flight: http://www.easyjet.com/
Hotel: Hotel Cristal, Geneva (http://www.switzerlandhotel.net/cristal_hotel_geneva.html)
Car Rental: Sixt (http://www.sixt.com/)

Cost:
Flight + Hotel - €175 per person
Kharcha/Pani - €143 per person

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/kusumasharma/Switzerland#