Switzerland
Green meadows, pristine lakes, towering peaks, and highways and railroads that are nothing short of engineering marvels, that is Switzerland in a sentence! We’re in love with this country. Well, we keep falling in love every now and then, and it’s usually with the last country we visited. In this case, it’s Switzerland, the last on our month-long Euro trip. It was also the most eventful, but more on that later.
Switzerland is a winter wonderland. And for those of us from the tropics who are not used to extreme winters that touch minus degrees, it’s best to visit Switzerland, and for that matter Europe, in February. The weather is lovely and there are relatively few tourists around. Although Italy was an exception.
Picturesque village on the foothills of a mountain hidden behind misty clouds
We did what most people travelling to Switzerland would do. We got a Swiss Travel Pass; it's convenient and the best way to hop on and off of public transport without worrying about a ticket. But here’s what we did wrong (I take the blame). An e-pass booked here, and not a hard copy from here, could have saved us 6000 rupees. We were a little too late in finding out, but you can be careful and save money while planning your Euro trip.
River Limmat reflects the night lights of Zurich
Our day trip to St. Moritz reinstated our belief in the beauty of the country, especially the winter wonderland part. Both of us have seen and touched snow before, but this was different. This was the first time we were on a hill white-washed all around by snow. Unless you consider a few minutes at the snowy Chang La pass on the way to Pangong Tso as the first time!
St. Moritz is a scenic 4-hour train ride away from Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB), with a change at either Chur or Landquart. Our next stop was Punt Muragl for a funicular ride up the mountain, Muottas Muragl. Breathtaking is a misnomer for the view from the sun deck on the top of this mountain 2454 m above sea level.
A sight to behold: At Muottas Muragl after a 700-metre climb with funicular railway from Punt Muragl
St. Moritz is a scenic 4-hour train ride away from Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB), with a change at either Chur or Landquart. And because St. Moritz was the most eventful part of our trip, we missed quite a few other attractions in Switzerland. Therefore we’re keeping our list for Switzerland open. We’ll come back soon to check off all of them and more later.
Meanwhile, here's some eye candy from the Swiss Apls and around.
