3. How Not to plan a Euro trip! - Here we land, Switzerland

Click here to read Part 1 : The Dream 

Click here to read Part 2: Bam! It's Amsterdam

Here we land, Switzerland

21 June 2022

 

We took a flight from Amsterdam to Zurich, and I messaged Sudhi when we landed. We had booked a self-drive rental car from Zurich airport, so we had to take the car and drive to Sudhi's home. He had shared his home location with us. A guy from the car rental company was standing on the airport with my name on the placard. 'It's the first time I am experiencing this, someone holding a placard with my name', I said, and we walked towards him. The car rental office was a few kilometres away from the airport and he had come to pick us up. We reached the car rental office. There stood our car waiting for us. A BMW X3.

 

It felt quite different to drive as it was a left-hand drive, however after the initial hiccup, I started enjoying the drive. The features like lane assist would keep me in lane and anti collission breaking would automatically break when the car is closer to the vehicle in front. I didn't have much to do, I wondered whether I was driving the car or the other way round! We did not get much time to enjoy the drive as we reached Sudhi's home. 

Sudhi welcomed us with hot home-made chai! Yum! The chai felt even more fulfilling as we were having tea for the first time in last 3 days.

 Sudhi, his wife Swati and 6-year-old daughter Swasti stayed there. Swati was on a business trip and would return that night. On reaching their house, Nachu instantly started playing with Swasti. Just like we got tea, it was a welcome change for her after seeing only us adults for the last 3 days.

 After the refreshing tea, we took some rest and visited the Lake Lucerne which was pretty close from where we stayed. We had a walk around the lake and enjoyed the natural beauty. Then it started raining and we had to head back home.

Sudhi, who is an amazing cook was ready with some amazing home cooked dinner and he also had stocked the local beer in his fridge for us. What is hospitality if not this? Athithi Devo Bhava! 

Swati came back from her business trip, and we all enjoyed some family time. Nachu was delighted to watch Peppa pig on TV after 3 looong days!

 

22 June 2023

As per Sudhi and Swati's suggestion, we planned to visit Rhine falls. Commute wasn't a problem anymore as we had a car to drive us around. Rhine waterfalls was a beautiful sight for the eyes. The waterfall was breath taking and we took a boat ride by the waterfall. We went close to the falls and the water sprayed upon us which in itself was a refreshing experience.

Rhine falls

After visiting the falls, we went to a street to have dinner. Walking to a Mc Donald's made us realize that everything in Switzerland is costlier compared to that in Amsterdam.

After strolling through the city for some more time, we went back home, again to some amazing home cooked food! 😋

Peppa pig played on TV, and we conversed all sort of random things. It was a relaxing evening, a perfect way to end the day considering we had a much busier day planned ahead of us.

 23 June

We started from home at around 9 and drove towards Lauterbrunnen. On the way, we grabbed some chocolate croissants and choco chip cookies. We realized that we were being robbed of having the real joy of eating chocolates back home. The amount and quality of chocolate in the croissants and choco chip cookies were unimaginable and the more we ate, the more we craved for more.

Since Simi was the main itinerary planner, first thing in the day, we used to ask her the plan for the day. In Switzerland, the answer was kind of a template, with only the place name changing. 'What to see there?'. 'Nature'. 

Nature, truly beautiful, not overrated a bit. Each view was a frame, and we really enjoyed the drive. We just wanted to stop at each point to click pcs but then we would never reach our destination. We did a few pitstops though. 

At one such pitstop, we did notice something interesting. We just got off the car and were stretching ourselves, when we saw 5 Porche cars come together, revving and park at the parking spot.  It was a sight to see. Yeah, they might be seeking attention, and they definitely caught not just ours but everyones around there. We keenly looked at who would get out of those cars. More than amazed, we awed seeing 5 sixty plus gentlemen get out of the car. Man, they were enjoying their retired life. We really wanted to ask if they would adopt us. We were also five, the counts matched! 😜

Back to reality, we continued our drive and reached Lauterbrunnen. Again, a pleasing sight to the eyes. We had lunch, roamed around and spent some time in the kids' park. 

Lauterbrunnen

By this time, Nachu was fully comfortable in walking along the footpaths without being held. Simi told her to be cautious in these unfamiliar places.'Unfamiliar? these are familiar places for me, she said!' and continued exploring the place.

We continued to Grindelwald, where we had booked our stay for the night.

 

24 June

We had to execute 1 out of the 2 plans. 1. Visit top of Europe (via gondola ride) or 2. hike to Bachalpsee lake. The weather that day wasn't too kind to us, it warned us of thunderstorms and less visibility. The ticket rates to top of Europe also helped us in deciding against going there. Trek it is! We still had to take a Gondola to Station Bort and then start the trek. While going to the gondola station, we saw someone selling grilled chicken. We bought a whole chicken as a snack in case we felt hungry on the way. We could get the actual lunch once we reach there.

View from the Gondola ride

Station Bort to Bachalpsee lake is more than a 2-hour hike. Contrary to the weather report, the weather actually was kind to us. It was cold and misty though, which was perfect for the hike, and we started the hike. It was an easy path, picturesque. The initial thrill of posing for photos died down a bit when we had to walk for more than an hour. It then slowly started drizzling and we we wore our ponchos. 

The trek

Break between the trek

It took us more than 2 hours to reach the destination. Nachu, without any complaints walked the complete hike with us, the complete 2 hours! When we reached there, some tourists saw her walk and welcomed her with claps and appreciations. It indeed was an appreciable feat, but she really didn't understand what she had achieved.

We walked to the lake, and it was dreamy. Beautiful. But our hunger overpowered the desire for taking pics. Speaking about hunger, we realized that there was no shop or cafe on the top. So, all we could eat was that one chicken than we had bought. After the hike, we were so hungry that the chicken transformed into just bones in a few minutes. Those few minutes were more than enough for the weather forecast to come true.

The rain became heavy. Fog filled up the area and we couldn't see anything a few meters away. We couldn't even see the lake, the beauty of which we thought we would enjoy after our lunch. We ran to the side of a small building and stood there waiting for the rain to stop. Nachu meanwhile who had a very hectic day from all the hike, fell asleep. Okay. So now how do we go back with the rains and Nachu sleeping?

The rain reduced but didn't stop completely, neither did we expect it to stop. So, it made no sense to wait as it would also get dark pretty soon. So, we carried Nachu (mostly me 💪), and walked back. Nachu had the soundest sleep, with even the rainwater falling on her not waking her up. 

Once we reached back, we were again energized with hot chocolate, then we walked around Gridelwald, had dinner,  and switched off ourselves recharging for the next day.

 

Gridelwald

Click here to read Part 4  - Its never late, for another chocolate