Mountain magic Harmony reader Debapriya Saha writes about his dream holiday in Switzerland Accompanying my daughter Shamita and granddaughters Shreya and Eshna, my childhood dream of visiting Switzerland finally came true on 27 September 2009. Our Lufthansa flight from Kolkata brought us to Zurich at 11 am local time for a truly memorable week. Day 1 A 45-minute drive through villages and green meadows in the Subaru SUV we’d booked in advance took us to Hotel Monopol in Lucerne, the largest town in central Switzerland on the shore of Lake Lucerne. Quickly completing the formalities, we found our way to the lake, stopping at a café for pizza and grilled ham sandwiches. An orchestra playing before a big crowd added a festive mood to the atmosphere. Walking for a while, we discovered a massive stone statue of a lion pierced by a spear carved on a hillside. The monument stands in memory of the guards who defended the palace of Louis XVI during the French Revolution. Next to it is the fascinating Glacier Garden — giant glacier potholes proving that Lucerne was a subtropical palm beach 20 million years ago. Turning back towards the city centre, we admired old buildings with their painted facades and towers, and covered bridges — including the famous 14th century Chapel Bridge — over the Reuss River. As evening descended and the lake began to glimmer with lights from steamers and boats, we returned to the hotel for an early night. Day 2 A quick breakfast and we were all set. The previous day, we had bought tickets for a round trip from Lucerne to Mt Titlis via Engelberg from the Citi rail station, a stone’s throw away. Realising that our railway passes covered the Engelberg to Mt Titlis segment, we explained our mistake to the booking clerk. Cancelling the double booking, she immediately refunded the appropriate amount. The cooperative attitude impressed us tremendously. Our one-hour ride to Engelberg was comfortable with English, German and French announcements at every station. It was a pleasant 10-minute walk before the next leg of our journey in the aerial cable car. During the ride to Mt Titlis, we had a 360˚ panoramic view of the breathtakingly beautiful valley from the gondolas in Rotair, the first revolving cable car in the world. There were restaurants and souvenir shops at Titlis Glacier Station. Kiosks offered gumboots and overcoats on hire. Though we didn’t venture far into the Glacier Cave, we enjoyed the Ice Flyer Chairlift gliding over glacier crevasses to Titlis Glacier Park; we felt we were floating over ice. During the journey back to Engelberg, we had beef steak and pork chops with beer at a café, sitting under the mild sun with the temperature at less than 20˚C. After the day’s trip, we were back at our hotel just before dusk. Day 3 Starting at 10 am, we traversed a dozen tunnels, driving past beautiful lakes during the one-and-a-half-hour journey to Interlaken. Lying between the Thunersee and Brienzersee lakes at the foot of the majestic mountain trio — Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau — Interlaken is a popular base for mountaineers and hikers in summer and skiers in winter. Before going to our hotel, we took a 20-km detour to Trummelbach waterfall, the only glacier waterfalls in Europe inside the mountains. Accessible by tunnel-lift, very steep steps lead to landings from where we could see gushing water emerge from the mountain caves. It was a thrilling experience and only my love for nature enabled me to negotiate the climb despite my knee problem and age! More a log house, Hotel Neuhauss Golf Strand was located a little away from the city centre. After lunch, I walked along Thunersee Lake — we had a beautiful view from our room — inside a reserved forest, passing joggers, cyclists and couples with walking sticks on the jogging track. However, the excitement of the next day’s trip to Jungfrau made me retrace my steps to the hotel. Day 4 Deciding on a round trip, we caught the 9.05 am train to Jungfrau. The route through the long Eiger tunnel was exciting with spectacular views of Alpine ranges and green valleys. At 11,332 ft high above sea level, Jungfrau — the highest train station in Europe — had cafeterias, a post office and tourist attractions. From the Sphinx observation hall, we got superb views of the summits of Vosges Mountains in France and the Black Forest in Germany. While the tunnel of solid ice chilled us to our bones inside the Ice Palace, we walked a bit on the eternal snow of the Plateau. It took strong coffee to fortify us before the return journey via Wengen and Lauterbriknnen. Stopping at Wengen village for some hot dogs, club sandwiches and salad, we basked in the mild sunshine as we waited for the next train to Interlaken. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for coffee at a café where an elderly Swiss couple began enquiring about Jaipur, Delhi and Mumbai. Their interest made us offer our help if they came to India. Day 5 We started for our next destination at 10 am the next morning in the Subaru. It was a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Zermatt, close to the northern Italian border. We passed cows grazing in green meadows, covered occasionally with edelweiss flowers. Swiss cottages with balconies filled with bright geranium flowers looked delightful. Our car suddenly entered a pitch dark tunnel and we found ourselves travelling aboard a train instead of on the road! This railway route through a 15-km-long tunnel saved us 45 minutes of road journey. At the fringes of Zermatt town — a car-free zone — an electric car sent by Hotel Butterfly received us. Nestling at the foot of Matterhorn, a pyramid-shaped, glacier-topped mountain, Zermatt is Switzerland’s premier mountain resort. A ski paradise in winter, it is a centre for trekking and mountaineering in summer. The town square has traditional chalets and a Marmot statue fountain. We visited a small 19th century Anglican church with exquisite stained glass windows. Armed with packed dinner and two bottles of local white and red wine, we returned to our hotel room and watched the darkening mountainside twinkle with lights. Day 6 We checked out after a good breakfast in time to catch the 9.13 am Glacier Express. Reputed to be the slowest express train in the world — travelling 291 km in eight hours — it starts at a height of 4,900 ft at Zermatt, descends to 1,900 ft, climbs to more than 6,500 ft at Oberalp Pass, and again descends to 1,900 ft before reaching St Moritz at 5,200 ft. Though looking at the Rhine gorge and mountain lakes from Oberalp Pass was the highlight of the journey, the beauty of the valleys, vineyards, rugged snow-topped mountains including the Matterhorn peak, pine forests and serene villages left us enthralled. During the journey, there was a commentary about the history of the place; prominent villages, people, architecture. Lunch on board was expensive and cost us Euro 103! An hour before reaching St Moritz, the train crosses the Landwasser Viaduct, an engineering masterpiece, before entering the Landwasser Tunnel. The entire journey entailed passing through 91 tunnels and 297 bridges. At St Moritz station, a waiting van took us to Zurich — a distance of 203 km starting with 65 km of winding roads. Despite feeling tired, we fortified ourselves with coffee and chatted continuously with our Pakistani driver about his experiences in Switzerland. Once we reached the highway, it was a smooth drive to Hotel Senator. We did over 12 hours of continuous travel that day. Day 7 In Switzerland, 75 per cent of the population speaks German, 15 per cent speaks French, and the remaining 10 per cent speaks Italian and other local languages. However, everybody manages a little English at public places; rail and bus stations, cafés, shops, hotels. Our last destination was the awe-inspiring Rhine Falls at Neuhausen, a one-hour road journey from Zurich. The largest in Europe, the waterfalls are only 23 m high but an impressive 150 m broad. We took a boat ride for a closer view of the falls and Schloss Laufen, a medieval castle. Climbing the steep stairs to the top of the castle was tough but the wonderful panorama egged me on. Back at Zurich, we did some sightseeing and shopping. We took lots of photographs, from the Alfred Escher monument to the famous Henry Moore sculpture in Zurichhorn Park. We had picked up souvenirs from various places and concentrated on buying Swiss chocolates from Confiserie Sprungli and cheese from the many-storied Jelmoli departmental store. Initially, we constantly converted Swiss Francs to Indian Rupees (1 CHF = Rs 47) and found everything costly! Our wonderful week in Switzerland ended on 3 October. Checking out of our hotel, we headed for the Flughafen Zurich where a Lufthansa flight took us to Munich for our connecting flight to India. We left the beautiful surroundings behind but took with us glorious memories of our wonderful vacation in Switzerland.