Europe Travelogue

I had been trying to go out for a solo travel for a long time. But the world conspired to put a dampener on it. Two years of Covid and then a personal setback made me feel that my travel plans are jinxed. So when finally, I was off one morning jet-setting towards Europe via Middle East, I pinched myself to believe it was really happening. An anxiety struck me that the plane might catch a snag and fly back to Delhi, but nothing of that happened and the jinx was finally broken successfully.

Never one to take a window seat on flights, I had purposefully taken one in this 7 hour flight from Muscat to Zurich, to see how the scene below changed. And it didn’t disappoint me. While mostly it was a cloud cover, I was thrilled to see some snow-capped mountains jutting above the clouds after we crossed West Asia and the edges of Black Sea.

As we neared Zurich I stopped myself from falling asleep and wanted to see this country first hand, first time, as to why everyone is mesmerized about this place.

As the plane started hovering, all I could see was multi-hued green patches. Well into the evening, there was still a fair amount of sunshine. The fields of light and dark green patches surrounded by hills which wore a rather dark brocade. As we descended further, I found that those are dense forests of fir and pine. The country has already impressed me from high above.

The immigration check was a breeze and once we were on our way to Oftringen on our chartered bus, I felt that I am back in the United States. That is how everything looked with the driving on the right handside of the road, with the building structures and the names of multinationals plastered. I hoped it still held enough charm to bewitch me in the following days.

Day 1 in Switzerland:

The next day was a trip to Mt Titlis, of which I have heard from so many folks back home. I was overjoyed that I get to stamp my footsteps on it as well. The journey to Engelberg from Oftringen was superb. While the cities looked all the same, the countryside was a whole different world. Majestic hills and lush green farmlands. Everything primmed, pruned and polished to greet the flood of visitors this summer. Even the roadside weeds seemed to have some sort of pride and would get offended if we called them so. Everything shone and glittered in the hues of blue sky, white snow caps, flecks of white clouds, and lustrous shades of emerald green as far as the eyes can see. The cottages were small specks, colorful, surrounded by bales of hay. It might be a luxury to live in on of those for life, I thought.

We reached Engelberg and proceeded to board a cable car or what was referred to as Gondola “Titlis Express” which could take 6 passengers at a time. It took us to Stand via Trubsee. Trubsee is a station used by the local population. It might be heavenly to stay on top of this picuturesque mountain breathing clean air.

The mesmerizing surroundings continued to enthrall our eyes but our ears joined in to enjoy the scenic beauty. What we couldn’t hear from inside the bus, we heard now, the loud but melodious tinkering of bells. Where could it be coming from? And then we identified the source, the cows grazing below wore bells and that was the musical sound that accompanied our journey up. Even with so many cows and horses grazing, there were no trace of litter anywhere.

Going up Mt Titlis

At Stand, we boarded a cable car, Rotair, which provided a 360 degree view. It was manned by Pasang. Could he be from Nepal? May be, as he greeted all of us with a Namaste. Not surprising, as more than half of us on the cable car were from India. While my eyes soaked in the gorgeous beauty around, I dared not let go off the bars to take pictures, we were already 6000 feet up!

We finally reached Titlis Gletcher.

Mt Titlis stood majestically, covered with deep snow, jutting rocks and glaciers, at 1 degree Celsius temperature. The sun provided the warmth and our excitement kept the temperature up. We hiked up to the top not minding the rapid breath or heartbeat and went to the 100m Cliff Walk. A suspension bridge, which gave us a view of the surrounding Alpine peaks, snow covered, the valleys below and just the magnificence of it all.

Mt Titlis in its snowy glory

We also got into the Glacier Cave, an ice cave were the temperature is maintained at -3 degrees celsius, and it is a meandering tunnel with ice sculptures on both sides.

After an hour of fun and frolic on the snow, innumerous photo clicks, it was time to look for refreshments. Tucked high up there was a restaurant where we gorged on pizza and fries and drink and walked towards the station to catch our Rotair back. As we headed down, you cannot possibly avoid the thought of a tear in the cables and the car hurtling 8000 feat down. But these are some engineering marvels with no accidents till date. From the Rotair, we boarded the Titlis Express again, and really wanted to deboard at Trubsee and visit the turquoise colored lake we spotted on our way up. The lake’s color kept changing as we descended from blue to green to turquoise as if beckoning us to make that call of descending in Trubsee against our tour manager’s direction. Unfortunately, we didn’t, and reached Engelberg and headed towards Lucerne, spelled as Luzern locally.

We were dropped off near Chapel Bridge, locally called the Kapellbrücke. It is a covered wooden footbridge spanning the river Reuss diagonally. On the other end is the St. Peter’s Chapel and thus the name. I had never seen a diagonal bridge so far. The bridge has a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century, although many of them were destroyed along with a larger part of the centuries-old bridge in a 1993 fire. Today, this bridge is a symbol of Luzern. Surrounding the bridge were thousands of tourists, and guess what, Indians outnumbered every other country.

We walked to the Lion Monument depicting a sleeping lion with a sword plunged. This commemorates the Swiss Guards of the King of France, Louis XVI, who were massacred in 1792 French Revolution.

We whiled our time at the crowded Rathasqui, shopping and idling around the lake Lucerne. Birds can be the same the world over, a duck came towards me for food.

We boarded the bus back to Oftringen, with a tired and satisfied smile on our lips, for a day well spent and an excited anticipation of what the next day has in store.