Swiss

Being inspired much by the dance sequence of our Gabtun, I was very much interested to visit Swiss when I reached Sweden. Never expected that I would make two trips to Zurich within a span of 10 days. The first of which was for a certification examination that was sponsored by my organisation. The second was a trip that we had planned quite long back. We had a long weekend with Christmas falling on a Monday. Did not know that the following day of Christmas too would be a holiday and so had planned our trip only for three days.
Started from Arlanda Stockholm in Swiss air on Dec 22 evening. Was impressed with the short haul flight of Swiss air. Reached Zurich airport just after 23 hours. We had actually planned to buy youth pass for three days in the counter but the counter got closed at 23 hrs. So, we had to take tickets to reach Zurich HB and then collected the pass from there. The lady at the counter had so much patience even at such an odd hour that she calculated the prices of the tickets and the pass and finally let us know that Pass would be beneficial for our trip. Took our train to Interlaken from Zurich. It was through Bern. Reached Interlaken at 2 a.m on the 23rd. The station was completely empty except for the security guard. Enquired with him about our hotel and we got a shock when he informed us that it was 5 km from the station. We had booked the hotel "Funny Farm", and in the web site, it was mentioned like, it was around 15 minutes from the station. Were alomost in a deadlock situation wherein we had no way out. The security hinted that we take a taxi as it was too far and too late as well. He even asked us if he could get a taxi for us. But, we with our own doubts, hesitated to answer moved away from him. He suddenly disappeared and reappeared with a set of keys and unlocked his car. He signalled for us to get into the car. We were now in a much worse situation. Though we were stuck at the station with no means to reach the hotel that night, none of us had the courage to get into the car. Finally, relying on fate, we all got into it, and for the relief of everyone, he dropped us exactly at the entrance to the hotel. Three cheers to Swiss security !!!

Reached our hotel at around 3 a.m. Started for the biggest attraction in Switzerland - "The tallest railway station in Europe - Jungfrauch". Spent the entire day on the top. Tried a few stunts as well. We were very eager to go in a dog sledge but as the weather was not too good, we could not make it. We met an Indian couple, who were currently located in London, and who also stayed in the same hotel as we did. Had our dinner in a SriLankan restaurant. Had good Idlis and Dosas after quite a long time. We went to another mountain top - "Schilthorn" the second day. There was a bond movie "On Her Majesty's secret service" shot on this mountain. The top was too good and the revolving restaturant offered excellent food. The vegetarian lunch (swiss style) along with the salads was too good to miss.

On Christmas day, we took an early morning train to Zurich. Reached there around 10 a.m and was really bored when we found that all shops were closed. Got a one day pass and just boarded on and off so many buses. Did not have any place to go and hence just wasted the time. Reached Flughafen (Zurich airport) and shopped in a swatch showroom for our watched. Got too engrossed in getting gifts for our known ones that we were very late for our flight. Ran and ran till the gate. Was lucky enough not to have much crowd either in the Passport control or during secutiry check. Boarded our flight and reached Stockholm on Christmas night.

Good trip !!!