1st Stop - Luzern; Switzerland
3 weeks of feverish planning for Europe finally presented its reward – spacious seats upon Thai Airways and a picture-perfect view from Switzerland.
The journey there wasn’t as bad as I anticipated, 12 hours of being up in the air flew by pretty quickly since I spent most of my time sleeping, watching movies and eating. I must be crazy to love airplane food, really.
Switzerland seems to be built around its glistening lake, framed by mountains and wrapped in cloud and mist. Luzern's main attraction was centred at its vast body of freshwater, sprinkled with bobbing ducks and swans, paddle boats, steam-ships and the occassional powerboat. The close proximity of Swiss Alps suddenly dawned upon me; no longer was I looking at postcards of Switzerland, I was right at its doorstep taking in its splendour and beauty.I liked the way the Swiss live their lives. Pet-friendly environment; they allowed dogs on buses, trains, cable-cars...everywhere! Pace of life is nice and slow, especially in the suburbs, of which I caught a glimpse in Weggis. It was extremely quiet yet peaceful at the same time; there wasn’t anything unsettling on the nerves. Air is super fresh, their cars didn’t seem to spew out gases and toxic fumes. However, the standard of living here is a little high, with fast-food (self-service) costing about $15 Swiss Francs per plate, and a bottle of juice at about $3 Swiss Francs. Everybody was really friendly too; bus-drivers weren’t like Singapore’s grumpy ah-peks, neither were their citizens unsmiling and cold.
2nd Stop - Interlaken; Switzerland
Interlaken blew full force immediately on my face as soon as I disembarked the train. A light drizzle welcomed me into Interlaken, followed by what seemed a temperature of 18 degree Celcius (and below). Interlaken was quiet; it wasn’t as busy as a big town like Lucerne. It seemed really small, for I saw only 1 bus operating since I first stepped foot into Interlaken. Everybody there seems to cycle or walk to get around, and I soon realised why. Interlaken was a small town, with only about 2-3 buses operating every 20 minutes. It was faster to get to places by walking; one could even walk from Interlaken East station to their West station.
The plan to ascend Jungfroujoch (top of Europe), some 3000+m up in the air was almost impossible with improper attire. Nevertheless, we saw snow atop another peak, Schilthorn, 2000+m above ground level. The above photo, taken mid-way up the ascent to Schilthorn, is my all-time favourite of Interlaken, for that was really what Interlaken was all about - colourful, cold, peaceful and stunningly beautiful.