Swiss: Lovely "Luzern"

When we reached Luzern, it was pouring Cats & Dogs. After having a nice lunch - enjoying the views of beautiful Lake Luzern through the heavy rain,  we headed to the the place most folks go when it rains during vacations - a museum :))

The Luzern Transportation museum - aka "Verkehrshaus", was spread out in multiple buildings and had some very ancient train engines in addition to displays of sea and air transportation.

Finally it stooped raining and we wanted to checkout the Lion National Monument. As we were walking towards the monument, I asked a bicyclist to confirm if we are going in the right direction.  He said he is also going that way and walked with us. His name is Carl and he is a part-time mechanic and part-time sculptor -  making sculptures out of scrap metal.  He was so happy to have a foto taken with the girls :))

The Lion Monument was very simple with a wounded Lion depicting the Swiss Guards who were killed in 1792 during the French Revolution. We had dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant - Kanchi. The food was just OK at Kanchi.

The next day, it was still raining in the morning. Instead of visiting yet another mountain near Luzern, we decided to visit Bern, which is just 1-hr away by train (more on Bern in the next post).

When we returned from Bern, we visited the "The Chapel Bridge"- a historic, covered bridge built in 1333.

The Chapel Bridge is very close to the Luzern railway station and had many paintings dating back to 17th century. 

On a side note, after this EU trip, we have started recognizing the places showing up in Tamil movie songs :)) You might recognize The Chapel bridge from Surya's movie song:
Link => Sillunnu Oru Kaadhal - Newyork Nagaram Song
Though the song says Newyork City, it features the Arch near the Luzern railway station and the Chapel bridge. I also caught glimpses of the COOP store - a famous Swiss grocery store where we shopped regularly.

I strongly recommend taking a long boat ride in Lake Luzern.

The boat crossed the lake from one shore to the other, stopping in few small towns along the way.

Though it was almost the same, typical Swiss scenery - rolling green hills, tall mountains, emerald green color lake - the more we experienced it, the more we fell in love with Swiss :))

Clouds seem to spill over a mountain and about to embrace the town below.

The day we left for Salzburg, the sky turned a brilliant blue and I was able to capture the real charm of Luzern.

Click on this image to enjoy it in full screen!

 Luzern, the city by the lake, has a special place in our hearts.

Swiss: 11:10 to Luzern

After enjoying the magnificent mountains in the Jungfrau region, vowing that we would definitely come back in the future, we left for Luzern for the next leg of the vacation. From Wengen, we took the train to Lauterbrunnen and changed to another train to reach Interlaken. Interlaken (meaning, "in-between-lakes" ) is located between 2 lakes and the train from Interlaken to Luzern travels along one of the lakes - Lake Brienz. Of all the train rides, gondola rides, cable car rides, boat rides horse-carriage rides we took in this trip, I would rate this ride as "The Best" ride.  A picture is worth a 1000 words and  I will let the pictures talk :))

None of these fotos were digitally altered or "PhotoShopped" :)) You are seeing what my camera took. If you are wondering about the mind-blowing, eye-popping turquoise and emerald green color of the water, that is natural too because this lake is fed by the Glacial waters coming down the mountains.

Swiss: The "Mannlichen" Adventure

What was supposed to be a simple, easy and down hill hike turned out to be a very exciting, adventurous and uphill hike :))

After enjoying the Jungfrau trip in the morning, our eyes, hearts and stomachs full,  we decided to hike from Mannlichen (a mountain near Wengen) to Kleine Scheidegg - a 4.5 km hike - touted as the "not-to-miss" and the the best hike in the Wengen area. We took the cable car from Wengen to reach Mannlichen.

From the hiking trail: In the valley, at bottom right is the town of Grindelwald.

Closeup view of Grindelwald town.

The hiking trail had just been opened for the season after winter and snow had covered many sections of the trail.

Views of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau peaks - shrouded in clouds, the lush green meadows and the valley below.

We took many breaks just to sit and enjoy the magnificent scenery.

This one is for Siva :))

After we crossed more than half of the trail, we noticed that a recent landslide had blocked the trail. We took the detour and instead of going down hill, we started hiking up a steep mountain. From around 4 feet wide, the hiking trail started shrinking to 1 foot. Snow had covered sections of the hiking trail, making the trail slippery and wet exactly on those sections with deep slope on one side.! This spiked up our excitement and it was thrilling to cross these sections, holding on to the ropes.

After finishing the 2 hour hike at Kleine-Scheidegg station,  I enjoyed a "well-deserved" local beer
while the girls gobbled down a Swiss Apple Pie and Tiramisu :))

Swiss: Cricket & Masala Chai @ "Jungfrau"

*** Re-editing and re-publishing this post since Google ate my previous post ***

Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau are the 3 tall mountain peaks in the Jungfrau region. Of these 3 peaks, Jungfrau is the most famous, with tens of thousands of tourists visiting all around the year. On day 2, we decided to checkout Jungfrau.

It was cloudy at Wengen when we started and so checked at the train station about the weather in Jungfrau. The lady at the ticket counter said that it was sunny at Jungfrau right then. We took the train from Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg.








As the train was climbing towards Kleine Scheidegg, we saw the clouds covering the mountains and were worried little bit thinking the clouds might block the beautiful views from Jungfrau. 

Once we boarded the Jungfraubhan at Kleine Scheidegg and climbed higher, we left the clouds below :)
Before reaching Jungfrau, the train stopped at Eigerwand and Eismeer stations. All the passengers got off the train to take in the views from the massive viewing windows at these 2 stations.

Blue Skies, Tall mountains, hugging clouds, white snow - the first view from Jungfrau took my breath away :))
Also, there is less oxygen at the top of Jungfrau :)

Jungfrau has a huge Ice Palace with lot of ice sculptures. This place is so unique!

I predicted to Swetha and Shreya that Sheila is going to fall, went ahead and was ready with my camera :))

Couple of huge fotos are in display about the cricket match at Jungfrau, highlighting Kapil :))

Another awesome view at Jungfrau.

Of all the mountains we visited in Swiss, Jungfrau is #1. We had a nice lunch buffet at the Bollywood restaurant at Jungfrau. We reluctantly tried the Masala Chai at the Jungfrau train station. It was very yummy and authentic and hit the spot nicely :))

Swiss: Wonderful "Wengen"

Wengen, a beautiful, picturesque, small village nestled in the tall mountains of Jungfrau region was our home for 3 wonderful days.

After we landed in Zurich, we did a series of train hopping from Zurich to Berne to Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen to Wengen. The train ride from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and from Lauterbrennen to Wengen offered outstanding views and vistas. Though we were all tired and jet lagged, we couldn't peel our eyes from the train windows.

The only way to reach Wengen is through the train, uphill from Lauterbrunnen. No cars are allowed in Wengen and few electric vehicles owned by hotels operate to haul people and luggage to/from the train station. Wengen just has a  train station, a major road with shops and restaurants and plenty of hotels and pretty chalets.

Train ride from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen

Bird's eye view of Wengen

Cable car from Wengen to Mannlichen, which is at the top of this mountain.

View of Wengen from the Mannlichen Cable Car

Having fun @Wengen Train station while waiting for the train.

The only major road in Wengen

The chalet we had stayed, Bella Vista, had gorgeous views of the mountains.

View of the "Monch" peak from the bedroom.

Almost every window in Wengen had a window box with flowers :))