Switzerland

Early Glimpses

I used to be fascinated by the pictures of Swiss landscapes when I was a child. As the train entered Basel, at the northern Border of Switzerland, I started getting the thrill of a childhood dream coming true! I had reached the most beautiful country(perhaps) in the world, finally!

Basel wasn't very impressive from what we knew beforehand, and hence we decided to move on to Interlaken. Luckily, the train was standing on the platform and we hopped on well in time to officially begin the Swiss tour on-board Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS, God knows what that stands for!).

As the train gathered speed, I could see rolling fields giving way to hills and then higher mountains. It didn't looked much exciting until we reached Berne, the Swiss capital, with its azure blue Aare river and a small lake. After Berne, the scenery changed dramatically and we had the first glimpse of snow capped peaks. Beyond Thun, the train took its course alongside the Lake of Thun (Thunsee) which soon started playing hide and seek with us, thanks to the numerous tunnels along the way! The lake was just too beautiful and clean, with its forest lined banks and characteristic blue waters.

Soon we were in Interlaken, a tiny town nestled on the banks of two serene lakes, the Thun and the Brienz, and surrounded by high mountains on the other sides. But we had alternative plans, so we took the little train for Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken Ost. Again we were lucky enough to find it standing right there at the station!

Bernese Oberlands

We reached Lauterbrunnen after a nice toy train journey through tunnels and streams in a narrow mountain valley. Probably my vocabulary doesn't allow me to clearly express the thrill and amazement that I felt while witnessing the pristine Swiss landscapes during these journeys. But anyways, I'll go on and try my best.

Finaly we reached Lauterbrunnen, and from there to Strichelberg by a Mercedes bus which crossed the valley and its high waterfalls along the way. Then we took the Schillthorn Bahn, a cable-car which rode us above a really high cliff to Gimmelwald, our destination for the day!!

During all these rides, we never had to wait for more than a few minutes, which made me realize that actually we were not really 'lucky', but that the whole train system had been perfectly synchronized at every station so that nobody needs to wait! We checked in the Mountain Hostel of this little village, and were really impressed by the warmth shown by the hosts!