August 15th, 2017 - Day 9 - Going back home

Going back home

Ending the vacation on a good note. Baishali suggested that I text Heidi and see if she could help.  I texted Heidi with all the details of the camera and the lost case opened with the SBB.  She got back shortly.  The camera has been located.  She is going to ship it back to us in US.  As Jeeves would have said,  " Lark's on the wings, Snail's on the thorn, God's in his Heaven and All's right with the World!".

It was a great trip to Switzerland. We all spent a wonderful time together. Got lots of souvenirs and tons of memories.  Thank God, we found the camera. I have most of the photos copied to the laptop but the photos of our last day in Spiez, trip to St. Beatus caves are still there in the camera.  And, there is a nice photo of Esha in it.  It would have been sad to lose that.  Now I have a nice portrait of Baishali, Anoo and Esha each.  Such a hard job!

Flying back home with the cowbells from the Swiss villages still ringing in the ears.  Here are some thoughts about Switzerland:

• Great public transport system!  I was thinking the 8 day fare for the Swiss Travel Pass at $1,000 for the Baishali, Anoo and me (Esha free) was high.  But, we got the bang for our buck for all the tram, ferry, train and bus travel that we did. The museum and factory visits were free too, thanks to the pass.  Travelling in the train was as comfortable as travelling by air.  The Swiss trains don't rock like Indian trains though.  Switzerland has lost a whole genre of train based songs like 'Chhaiyan Chhaiyan…'!
• Eating, drinking is allowed in the Swiss public transport.  The number of people we found eating and drinking in the Swiss trains, I expected to find a lot of obese people in Switzerland.  But, did not find many.  Is it the mountain air?
• Why is the place so damn costly? I think it was costlier than Hawaii.
• Greatest fun in the world is watching Anoo and Esha get on each other's nerves!
• Zurich and Geneva were typical cities.  Staying there would have been no different than staying in New York or Washington DC.  Krattigen and Emmetten were the real experience. On the next visit, would love to stay in one place like Krattigen and explore around on the bicycle. Very bicycle-friendly country.
• In summer they have so much rain and in winter all the snow.  No wonder the whole place is so green!
• A lot of smoking in public places. One habit Swiss people can do without.
• It was very typical sight in the Krattigen, Emmetten area was people hiking in good weather with two sticks in hands. Another secret to their good health.
• Never played so much cards since my childhood in Goregaon.
• Switzerland is mountains, lakes, cows, cowbells, chocolates, cheese, ice cream, trains, greenery.
• Met some nice and interesting people on this trip: Eddie from Ohio going to Zagreb, Andrea, the young man from Afghanistan, Heidi. In spite all the ugliness and viciousness that makes the headlines, the world is still full of wonderful people.
• Loved the Swiss beer.  Don't know why it is not more popular.  It has taste.  No aftertaste. After the long walks in the sunny Swiss towns Swiss beer was a great welcome.  Got to checkout some of them in Total Wine.

August 14th, 2017 - Day 8 - A Day in Zurich

A Day in Zurich

Started the day with filing a lost report about the camera at the SBB website.  I hope I get the camera back.  Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and got a number of good shots.

The guys at the desk in the Movenpick hotel in Zurich were very helpful.  They gave us a good itinerary for a one day tour of Zurich.  Took a train from Kloten Balsberg which was a 5 minute walk from the Hotel to Zurich HB.  Went down window shopping down the Zurich streets. At the Zurich HB station got Starbucks coffee; first one in more than a week.  It was good.  Did not quite like the Swiss/European coffee.  First of all the quantity is small. Secondly the coffee is luke warm. Thanks to Migros and Coop which covered most of our breakfasts and some of our lunches.

It was a nice warm sunny day so the walk up to the Lake Zurich was very pleasant.  Then we walked back to on Niederdorfstrasse towards the station.  We took a tram to the zoo. The Zurich zoo (or Zooh!) is still under construction. It cost the four of us about $80 to get in but it was not worth it.  Still our DC zoo is much better and its free.  I would consider the Sydney zoo next best.  We took a tram back to Zurich HB.  Again walked down the Niederdorfstrasse.  Had a lunch at an Italian restaurant.  After lunch we took a tram to the end of the Tram #2 route.  They had a nice picnic area there. It was nice to see people swimming in the lake, lying in the sun, running.  It was a little tiring day after all the waking both in the zoo and outside.  We tried to find the place from where the ferry left but could not find it.  We then walked back to the nearby railway station, caught the train back to Zurich Flughafen.  Took the shuttle back to Movenpick. 

After the evening bath it was time for the dinner which we had in the Dim Sum Restaurant downstairs (which BTW did not serve Dim Sum!).  It was time to reminisce about the trip over the dinner and plan for the next trip.  Anoo is looking forward to doing research in NIH next year summer.  Esha wants to see Italy.  Anoo and Esha agreed on Seattle, Washington.  May be next year's vacation will be in Seattle.

August 13th, 2017 - Day 7 - Last day in Spiez; Spiez Castle, St. Beatus caves, Interlaken and then to Zurich

Last day in Spiez; Spiez Castle, St. Beatus caves, Interlaken and then to Zurich

Disaster strikes!  We lost our camera in Spiez.  In a rush to catch the train to go to Zurich, I think we forgot the camera bag on the Spiez station, platform #4.  We got on the train which was very crowded.  After boarding the train we realized that we did not have the camera bag.  The train had just left the station.  We got off at Thun. I came back to Spiez in the next 45 minutes, but the camera bag was gone.  I checked with the ladies who were sitting on the bench that we had vacated but they had not seen the bag.  I came back to Thun.  We all boarded another train and came to Zurich by about 10.  We picked up some sandwiches at the station, took the hotel shuttle and came to Movenpick hotel by about 11:15.  Took a shower and went to bed closing an eventful day.  Hopefully some kind soul will find the camera return it to the authorities. Thankfully last night I had copied all the photos from the camera to my laptop and uploaded them to Picasa so we lost the photos of only today. This is the second camera I am losing.  In 1991 when my bag got stolen at the VT station, I lost Papa's Olympus.  History repeats itself after 26 years.

The day till then went well. We had initially planned that we will go to Zurich early and see the city.  Then, on Monday we will go to Basel.  Instead we decided to take it easy and dropped the Basel idea. That meant we could see Zurich on Monday and today we could explore Spiez, Interlaken and the neighboring area.  We left Krattigen Dorf and came to Spiez.  Took the same downhill walk to the Spiez marina.  The castle was beautiful and well preserved.  A taste of Swiss history.  After we finished seeing the castle, we were headed to St. Beatus.  Andrea had recommended that place.  Seemed to be close by.  Just across the Lake Thun from the Spiez marina.  Heidi had got us discount passes for the place.  There was about an hour wait for the ferry.  There was a nice little restaurant next to the ferry wharf.  Had a chilled beer there.  I have really started liking the Swiss beer.  It has a nice flavor and there is no aftertaste.  Got to look for them in US.  Don't know why Swiss beers are not popular.

It was about 50 minute ferry ride to Beatushohlen.  And then there was a huff and puff climb to the caves!  Here too the Swiss Travel Pass did not work but Heidi's discount passes did.  St. Beatus Caves are the Swiss version of our Luray Caverns.  If you ask me, Luray Caverns are better :-)  These were a lot smaller in comparison.  The walkway inside was also very narrow. Like Luray, this too is a wonder of nature.  Amazing to see this art of nature that took millions of years to 'build'!

From Beatus caves we walked down to the bus stop.  We took a bus to Interlaken.  One of the To-Dos for the Swiss trip was to eat fondue. We checked that in Interlaken.  In my opinion, fondue is the biggest scam in the restaurant industry!  They do not have to cook anything.  The customer does all the cooking and they get to charge the customer an arm and a leg.  Not something that one should try on an empty stomach.  Not something that I enjoyed, but we were in Switzerland and the trip cannot be complete without a fondue!  Next on the agenda was a walk thru the town of Interlaken (from Interlaken West train station to Interlaken Ost station).  We had initially thought we would take a ferry ride on the Brienze lake (yes, Interlaken is located between two lakes - Thus and Brienze - hence the name Interlaken!).  But, it was getting late.  We had to get back to Spiez and then go to Zurich.  So, we took the train at Interlaken Ost to Spiez.  Heidi was there at the Spiez station with our station.  She gave us a bottle of honey which they make themselves.  We said our goodbyes to Heidi, went to Platform #4, promptly lost our camera!

It was almost 10:30 PM by the time we reached Zurich.  We had dinner eating sandwiches at a shop on the Zurich Flughafen station.  Then we took an airport shuttle from Movenpick hotel and went to the hotel.  It was a long day.  Sweet and sour!  Sweet because the day was tiring but fruitful.  Got to see the beautiful Interlaken and the neighboring area.  Sour, for obvious reasons!

August 12th, 2017 - Day 6 - Matterhorn and Spiez waterfront

Matterhorn and Spiez waterfront

Today I think was the best day of the trip.  Things went like a clockwork. To start with there was no rain. It was cloudy but clouds soon went away and the Sun moved in.  It was about 2 hours journey from Krattigen Dorf to Spiez to Visp to Zermatt.  For the first time we saw the trains so crowded!  Right from Spiez station, there were a lot of people on the train.  One of the things I always wondered during this trip was, how come there were so less fat people in this country.   Now I know!  The pack their backpacks, grab walking sticks and go hiking.  The entire train journey was thru mountains.  Took a lot of pictures.

From Zermatt station there was another train ride, on Gornergrat Railway to a mountain top from where there was an excellent view of Matterhorn.  I have not seen Himalayas, so this was the first time I was seeing a mountain and it was HUGE!.  There were glaciers, there was snow (for us, this is officially this season's first snow!).  We had a lunch on the mountain in a restaurant.  It was quite crowded.  Took tons of photographs of Matterhorn.  There was a considerable amount of cloud cover which I was hoping would go away.  Eventually it did, but not entirely.  A small cloud (which reminded Anoo of Trump's hairstyle :-) ) remained.  So that was our best shot of Matterhorn.  Matterhorn was majestic.  So much can be written about Matterhorn.  That was one time when I wished I were an author to describe the view!

Oh, by the way, the Gornergrat Railway was not covered by the Swiss Travel Pass.  We got a discounted rate (for the 4 of use it was about CHF 140!).

After spending almost 2-3 hours in the shadow of Matterhorn, we made our return trip, back to Spiez.  It was about 4 or 5 PM by the time we came back to Spiez.  After almost 3 days of rains it was sunny.  Another advantage of the summer was that the day was long.  The view from the Spiez station of the valley was beautiful.  We walked down to the marina which was probably about a kilometer away downhill.  There were a couple of restaurants on the waterfront.  We had our dinner there in one of the restaurants.  We were next to the Spiez castle but it was late and the castle was closed.  We will go there tomorrow.  After dinner it was another kilometer walk - this time uphill!  A bus ride to Krattigen Dorf and after that another kilometer walk - also uphill!  I think we digested all the food that we had eaten.

Tomorrow the last day in Krattigen.  On to the next and final destination of this trip - Zurich.

August 11th, 2017 - Day 5 - Chocolate factory, Cheese factory

Chocolate factory, Cheese factory

Another rainy day. Interlaken is supposed to be a beautiful place but the bad weather is taking our business away from them. Rainy weather meant we had to find something to do indoors. We left home at around 10 came to Krattigen Dorf and caught bus #61 to come to Spiez.

Today we are headed to visit a chocolate factory and then a cheese factory. Today will be probably our maximum train hops. Spiez to Bern to Bulle to Broc-Fabrique to visit Maison Cailler chocolate factory. Later in the day we will come back to Bulle and go to Gruyere to visit the Gruyere cheese factory. Spending a lot of time on trains and buses. Getting the bang for the buck out of the Swiss Travel Pass. The punctuality of the public transport is amazing. Also each train station has a Milagro and / or Coop on or near the station which makes the grocery shopping very convenient.

Broc-Fabrique trip did not go well. For the first time I think the SBB app misguided. What was supposed to be a direct train to Bulle took us on a wild goose chase. We eventually reached broc-Gabri queen but after purchasing a ticket there was a wait of 3 hours to get in. Now we are headed to Gruyeres. Hopefully we can at least see cheese making.

Gruyer trip was short. It was a short tutorial on cheese making. Got 3 samples of cheese, one 6 months, another 8 months and the third 10 months old. Haven't tasted them yet but would be interesting to compare. We finished the Gruyeres trip in about 40 minutes and hopped on a train back to Broc-Fabrique before the ticket sale stopped at 5 PM. We had about 2 and a half hour wait before we got the tour. We saw a movie which was boring, had a hot chocolate which was not hot and was a rip-off at almost CHF 4 per cup.

The tour itself which started about 6:30 and lasted about an hour was good. Learnt some facts about chocolates.

• Milk chocolate is the most popular among Swiss at about 75%. It contains cocoa, milk, sugar.
• Dark chocolate is next popular at 20%. It contains cocoa and sugar.
• White chocolate is the least popular at 5% and contains sugar, cocoa butter.

The history of chocolate and the Aztecs was also interesting.

End of the tour was chocolate tasting. Ghirardelli and Hershey can learn a thing or two from Cailler about the treats at the end of the tour. I have never eaten so many chocolates before. They had a variety of samples available for tasting. Oh, and the best part! Both the Gruyeres and Cailler visits were covered under the Swiss Travel Pass so did not have to pay any entry fee :-)

Tomorrow looks promising with good weather. Should be able to make it to Zermatt.

Random thoughts

• Never saw so many cows outside India. Except there no stray cows. Cows here are all in pasture grazing on lush green grass!

• Bathrooms in the train are comparable to airline bathrooms except roomier. On stations they have McCleans - paid bathrooms- which charge CHF 2 per visit. Which is a good concept. But it would be nice to have some free bathrooms too. What if I gotta go and don't have cash?!

August 10th, 2017 - Day 4 - Geneva

Geneva

Rainy day today. It is going to be rainy the whole day as per forecast, both near Krattigen as well as at Zermatt. So we changed the plan and decided to go to Geneva instead. It was a kilometer long walk to the bus stop in the cold and drizzle but it was not bad. The bus #61 came almost immediately. A 15-20 minute bus ride took us to Spiez. We did some grocery shopping near the Spiez station in Milagros.  We took a half an hour train journey to Bern and then took a train to go to Geneva. Had our breakfast on the train. Bern to Geneva was a one and a half our journey. Geneva was sunny but a little cold. These train journeys are nice.  The trains have humongous windows and the scenery outside is, of course, divine!  When not looking outside and taking pictures, we play cards.  Anoo and Esha have taught us 'Go Fish' and Capitalism.  So, time on the trains is not boring at all.

Geneva is French speaking as opposed to most of the cities we visited so far where they speak German. But the good part is most of the people understand English and a couple of cases where they did not Google Translate app came to help.

There are 3 apps that I have been using on this trip:  Google Translate, SBB for timings of the trains to go from Point A to Point B, Swiss Transport App from iPhonso.com. The last app also helped a great deal from point A to point B with an added benefit of the bus or cable car information also included.

Geneva trip turned out to be mostly walking in the streets of Geneva and getting on and off buses and trams.  We did not visit any museums or popular tourist resorts.  We took an hour long boat ride on the lake Rhone which was fairly interesting.  We wanted to try fondue for lunch but the restaurant we wanted to go to; we tried getting there using google maps and could not find it.  So, finally we shared a pizza and pasta in an Italian restaurant.  Baishali and I also had our first taste of a Swiss beer.  It was quite smooth.  Got to look for it in Total Wines.  By the time we finished our lunch, it was past 5 PM.  We thought of going to the Red Cross museum, but found out that the museum closes at 6 PM so dropped the idea.  We took tram and a bus to get back to Geneva airport.  From there it was a one and a half our journey to Bern and half an hour journey to Spiez.  Again took the #61-62 bus to Krattigen and got home by about 11 PM. 

August 9th, 2017 - Day 3 - Bern and Krattigen

Bern and Krattigen

Got up a little late at 7:30.  Looks like the rooster took a break today.  But once we got up we quickly got ready.  Again had a sumptuous breakfast minus the eggs.  Thankfully the weather was nice in Emmetten.  Sunny with cool breeze.  Andrea dropped us at Stans station by 10 o'clock.  At Stans station I realized that my text sent thru AirBnB to Heidi did not reach her yesterday .  That means yesterday I had told her that we would be reaching Spiez by 12:30 and that message had not reached her.  Looks like there was some problem with the AirBnB site.  After a couple of retries the message went thru.  Heidi gave me her direct phone number. When she got the message she replied saying that the room would not be ready for us till around 3 PM and she will be able to come to pick us up earliest by 3 PM.  We decided to spend the time in Bern. We went from Stans to Luzern and from there we caught a train to Bern.  It was a beautiful one hour train ride to Bern.  At Bern we got off the train found a couple of lockers and left the bags there in the locker.  A big locker cost CHF 9 and a small locker CHF 7.  If you put extra money, the locker does not return the excess money.

The rest of the day we spent in Bern.  It was cloudy but thank God, not rainy.

Visited the house where Einstein spent his early days prior to publishing the theory of relativity. A modern day shrine! But his personal life was a mess. Felt sorry for his first daughter whom he apparently never met. Seen this pattern of messed up family life with Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela also. Is it the price one (and ones family) pays for the greatness?

Bern is a very beautiful and lively city with cobbled stone paths, taxis and buses and trams adding to the confusion (but still managing to stick the time) created by people walking in the middle of the road. Lunch was a roadside affair with bread, cheese and water. Had some delicious ice cream. We seem to be getting addicted to the Swiss ice cream and cheese. We took a lot of photos, got tired of walking, then came back to the Bern station and caught the train to Spiez.  Heidi came to pick us at the station. You step out of the Spiez station and you get a beautiful view of a valley and a lake.  It was another nice 10 minute drive in the mountains to Heidi's place.  A nice ground floor room with a queen size bed, a bunk bed for Anoo and Esha and a sofa.  Heidi's house is about a kilometer away from the nearest bust stop which is Krattigen Dorf.  Apart from running AirBnB, Heidi and her husband seem to run an apiary.  We took a walk to the village to see if we could pick up some groceries.  But it was late and the store (Volg) was closed.  It was another one kilometer hike back home - an uphill hike this time!  I guess next few days we are going to get a good exercise going back and forth from Krattigen Dorf to Heidi's place.  From her house you get a beautiful view of the town of Interlaken which is a town between two lakes (hence Inter-laken!) Thun and Brienz.  Had another bread and cheese dinner and went to bed.  Weather forecast is not good for tomorrow.  Esha found and Spider/Moth near her bed, so she has decided to sleep on the sofa.