Given that I was able to combine two holiday days along with
several public holiday days and a weekend, Michael and I were lucky enough to
be able to visit Switzerland for a whole week, encompassing New Years. Now,
given my previous blogs, I know well in advance that this is going to be a HUGE
post. So I give fair warning that you either walk away from your computer now,
or be prepared to scroll through a lot of writing and photos. For the sake of
those who just want the abbreviated version, I will give you that now.
In short: 7 days, 18 trains, about 10kg of cheese, bucket loads of fireworks, 4
hotels and copious amounts of chocolates. A great holiday!
Now for the long version.
Getting up super early on New Year’s Eve, we made our way to
the Hauptbahnhof in Munich to catch the first of what would be many trains.
Over the course of 5 hours, we made our journey across to Zürich. Once we
arrived, we checked into our hotel before heading out to see the township of Zürich.
A mix of old and new, we quite enjoyed visiting 2 particular Churches.
Grossmunster from the outside looked very traditional including two identical
towers, one of which you were able to ascend. We happily climbed up to the
viewing platform using the very narrow winding stone staircase which (thank
goodness) halfway up became a somewhat wider timber staircase. But at the top
we were graced with a stunning 360 degree view of Zürich.
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| note the floating circus... |
But it was once we had descended back into the main hall of
the church that we realised Grossmunster was not as traditional as we first
thought. All the stained glass windows showcased ideas that were a smidge more
modern. A few illustrated cut cross sections of gemstone rocks all sitting next
to each other. This was quite pretty and colourful. Another window though
showed silhouette images of faces staring at each other, almost touching at
their noses, in black and white glass.
We eventually left this church and made our way across the
river to look at the floating circus and another interesting church, the
Fraumunster. This one was equally unique for its beautiful windows. These were
huge long panels of coloured glass which did depict more traditional images of saints
etc, was done in a much
more artistic sweeping style than that of most stained
glass windows. It was absolutely beautiful to observe.
By this time, we were starting to get our hopes up that we
had in fact found a town full of interesting untraditional Churches (as Zürich
was turning out to be quite an artistic town) so we made our way to the third
recommended church in Zürich – St Peters. St Peters here is famed for its clock
tower, boasting the largest clock face in Europe – with a diameter of just over
8m. But sadly, that was where the interesting stopped. It was such a plain
boring church both inside and out, so we decided to move away from churches.
We found ourselves soon after in the Lindenhof Park, where
we sat, took in the view of Zürich, breathed in the fresh afternoon air and
watched others in the park playing giant chess or bocce. Being well and truly
winter here now, the air was fresh and a little nippy and the trees quite bare,
but no snow and thus it was quite a nice stop. It wasn’t long though before we
moved on, choosing to walk through the shopping precinct, however, we walked in
the wrong direction, ending up in the ‘keep-dreaming’ section, which was
closely followed by the ‘not a chance’ area. By this of course I mean super
expensive. We just kept walking past shop after shop of expensive goods and
high profile names such as Bvlgari, Cartier, Channel, Louis Vuitton etc etc. So
as soon as we could, we turned away, up a side street, eventually crossing the
river once more to reach our side, finding refuge in the shops around our
hotel. Much more our level!
It was about this time that we decided to seek comfort from
the chilly winds that were starting to gust through the small cobblestoned back
streets. Michael really wanted to locate a chocolate shop/café so he could have
a hot chocolate (heiße shoggi according to the Swiss). I was hanging out for a
tea so we found the next best thing. A café bar that was advertising their winter
warming specials including a hot chocolate and a tangerine spiced chai latte.
That seemed just the ticket! But unfortunately,
this was where we first
discovered the extreme prices of Switzerland. These drinks (they weren’t
actually all that good in the end sadly) cost us 9 francs each. Now, living
with the euro now for the last 5 months, we are pretty good with conversions
and such but I will break it down.
The average cup of coffee in Germany is about 2 euros. The Australian dollar
sits at about 1.5x the euro. So about $3 for that same coffee. The franc sits
somewhere between the dollar and the euro. So we were expecting about 2 francs
50. Not 9 francs. For a better perspective, that chai latte cost me $12 aud!!!!
But sadly, that is the cost of Switzerland. We continued to discover this as
the trip went on. But we also decided to look on the light side. My dear uncle Frank
is someone both Michael and I love dearly, and find very amusing. So everywhere
we went, we discussed prices by saying…. “Hmmmm, that costs 12 uncles…. Oh, I
like this one better, and it’s only 5 uncles…. That was an expensive dinner –
70 uncles!”.
So by the time we had finished this super expensive, not
amazing tasting drink, we made our way back to our hotel for a few hours of
rest and recuperation. Having gotten up so early (and having worked throughout
Christmas) I in particular was very tired. So we rested, we emailed family in
Aus (who had already seen in the new year hours earlier) and we eventually got
ourselves dressed to head out for dinner. This ended up being a 2 hour walk
around the city trying to locate a restaurant that a) had a table available,
and b) wasn’t going to cost us 200 uncles. Eventually we were lucky enough to
get a table at a kooky little burger bar. Not what we were expecting to eat for
New Year’s Eve, but we did have a glass of wine/beer, and a really delicious
burger each. We then eventually made our way down to the river front where New
Years was to be celebrated by the people of Zürich.
Now, one thing that had already scared me in Munich was the
sales of fireworks in our local supermarket. And rightfully so, the night before
we left Munich, there were fireworks going off all over our village, some
frightfully loud, some soaring as high as our apartment balcony (13
th
floor). This was no different in Zürich, and if anything, was worse. There were
really loud bangs going off everywhere in the back streets near our hotel. But
then as we got to the river side area for the NYE celebrations, people were
setting off their own personally purchased fireworks everywhere. Thankfully,
there was a large area near the river where most people were safely letting off
their fireworks under appropriate supervision and the public was standing well
back. This didn’t stop the occasional firework from taking an unusual course,
flying sideways instead of upwards, frightening the crowd when it got a bit too
close for comfort. But it was quite an interesting atmosphere, having fireworks
all evening instead of just at midnight. Speaking of midnight,
while we waited,
we enjoyed a large bag of churros (only 9 uncles!) which were warm and sugary.
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| Crazy man letting off fireworks on the bridge |
We made our way out onto the main bridge, in the middle of
thousands, waiting for the hands of the clock to reach that magical number.
Slowly, slowly, we eventually heard cries all around of “Happy New Year”, and
lots of hugs, and a firework or two went off, and then – nothing. And we
thought…. Hmm, I wonder if there is something wrong with the fireworks display.
Everyone around us was still waiting with anticipation like us. A man meters
behind us kept letting off his own fireworks (thankfully straight upwards), and
still nothing happened. Come 12.15, we both decided we had waited enough, and
that clearly the internet had told us a porky. That Zürich was not in fact one
of the top 10 NYE firework displays. So we decided to return to the hotel.
We weren’t too upset, and we happily strolled hand in hand
back up the main street. Suddenly, as we were passing the next bridge, the
lights from the entire city went out. A massive bang rang out across the city.
We, like everyone else in the area, ran for the bridge as there were too many
buildings in the way otherwise. From the bridge, we stood and observed a
massive fireworks display. Bigger than any we have seen in Brisbane, it was
amazing! The only thing missing was some music. It started at 12:20 and didn’t
finish until 12:45! It wasn’t until the next morning when speaking to our hotel
receptionist that we found out that this is a Zürich tradition. The NY
fireworks never start at midnight. Always 20 past. We just wish we hadn’t
walked away from our original spot on the first bridge. It would have been the
perfect view. Not that it really mattered. It was still good from the second
bridge. Well, it was all good except for the person standing behind me who
decided my head was the perfect resting platform for his arm as he tried to
film the light display on his mobile. I kept shaking my head and it took
Michael stepping in behind me and pushing him out of the way slightly for him
to get the point. Talk about rude. I know I’m short people but that doesn’t
mean you can use me as your
personal tripod!!!
But that was how we
saw in our way into 2014. Returning to our hotel after the fireworks, we jumped
straight into bed in the hopes of getting at least a little bit of sleep before
the next leg of our journey.
DAY 2
So following our exciting evening in Zürich, we made our way
to our next stop – Bern. Bern is the unofficial capital of Switzerland (ie the home of the federal government) and was a short stop over for us on our way to Interlaken. Being the 1
st of January, there was sadly not much open
but we did still make the most of our time, wandering around the city and
taking in the old sights. We admired churches and city monuments from the
outside, including a onetime home to Einstein! But what surprised us most was
just how much elevation the town of Bern covered. The township of Bern was
visible up high on the mountains all around the town, all the way down to the
valleys below, and the town centre itself was on quite a high plateau in the
middle. It was unlike any other town we’ve seen. We were going to visit the
famous bear park, until we remembered it was winter and that the bears would be
hibernating. We did at least take the time to see some of the views and play on
the playground!
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| Michael with the Bear of Bern |
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| I felt sorry for the bear! |
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| above the door of the church - excellent detail |
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| A church in Bern - shame about the scaffolding |
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| Ok, so we are big kids! |
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| The view down into the valley (river) from the center of town. |
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All the streets had cellar entrances - which were actually shop fronts.
Most of them were shut this day but one was open. |
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| Michael couldn't stop laughing at the name of the town. |
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| clock tower |
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| Our hotel - the red building |
Jumping back on the train, we made our way to Interlaken.
Interlaken is situated between two lakes, hence
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| The view from our hotel window. |
its name. It was a beautiful
town and we were pleasantly surprised with just how much was open and how busy
the town was. It was an absolute hive of activity and we could hear loud sounds
coming from behind some buildings, music and voices on a microphone. We made
our way to our hotel to drop off our bags before investigating the sounds, and
discovered that it was the famous Interlaken New Year’s Day concert. The
manager of our hotel told us all about it, and told us that at 7:45pm, there
was also the traditional New Year’s Day Fireworks. We were excited about this
so we waited until about 6pm, and went into town. We saw a bit of the concert
(from afar) and looked at the food options in the stalls at the concert. There
was one food stall that had long queues so we took a closer look. The people
were walking away with what looked like cheese toast. It wasn’t until we were
close up that we could see why it was so popular. There were huge half cheese
wheels being held in metal contraptions which held the cheese under a heat
lamp. When someone ordered, the man would pull one of the cheese contraptions
forward, out from under the heat, and scrape the cheese that was melting off
the top onto the top of the bread on the plate in front of him. And then push
the cheese back under the lamp. That was it. And yet, it was clearly a crowd
favourite. In the end, we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, but I still
had cheese toast! Just a fancy version!
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| The cheese scraping in action |
DAY 3
Waking up fairly early, we had big plans for day 3. Basing
ourselves in Interlaken meant we woke to the view of snow covered mountains in
all directions. But the one that captured our interest most of all was
Jungfrau. More importantly, Jungfraujoch, which is the highest railway station
in Europe, sitting in the ridge just below the famous mountain peak. This was
our destination for the day, and one that we were really looking forward to.
We started the journey up the mountain from Interlaken Ost
Station with the first train taking us to Lauterbrunnen. This was not such a
spectacular trip but we knew there was bigger and better coming. It wound its
way around the valley floor slowly making its way up. Once we changed trains,
we started a more dramatic climb up through snow on a cog rail to the Ski
village of Kleine Scheidegg. By the time we got off this train, it was snowing,
heavily. Fur lined hood went on and stayed on! We ran around in the snow,
taking pictures of the foggy mountain tops until our final connection train
arrived. So far we had been on underway almost 2 hours. The third and final leg
of the journey was the special one. Heading up through the purpose built
tunnels through the mountains, with stops along the way at two specially built viewing
platforms in the face of the mountains. If you are an avid watcher of The
Amazing Race (American series), 2 seasons ago, the teams completed a challenge
at these viewing platforms where they had to climb out one viewing window and
rock climb their way around to the other. Standing at these same platforms felt
really awesome, not because I’m some crazy reality tv show junkie, but rather,
I knew what it looked like from the other side (from a helicopter view) and had
total respect for just how high we were in these grand mountains! (Ps: it was
snowing so hard we could not see out the windows)
When the train made its final stop, we wandered inside to
the entrance hall of ‘Jungfraujoch – top of Europe’ at 3454m above sea level.
From here you were directed to take the tour, but arriving at 12:30 meant we
decided to have lunch first. Making our way upstairs to the restaurant (by
passing the expensive self serve buffet), we decided to share a big pot of
Cheese Fondue! It had been on our list of to do for our time in Switzerland,
and we thought there no better place than atop a snow covered mountain!
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| High altitude observatory |
Making our way back down in the lift, we continued the tour
through Alpine Sensation tour. This was a special light and visual display
illustrating Jungfraujoch today, and how the vision came about in the late
1800s. There were dedications to the idea creator for the railway
(Guyer-Zeller), as well as a memorial for all the workers who lost their lives
while building the extensive rail system.
This was then closely followed by the
Eispalast – Ice Palace, or better described as a walk through the glacier. A
tunnel has been hewn into the glacier, along with a cavern half way through in
which ice sculptures are on display. It is kept at -3degrees at all times but
strangely enough, was not nearly as cold as other parts of the tour! I say this
because as we exited the Eispalast, we were thrown out onto the other viewing
spot (actually on the Jungfraujoch ridge), on the other side of Jungfraujoch.
Not as high as the first platform, but a better place to wander and play in the
snow. By now the sun had come out more and the views were incredible. That was
until a massive gust of wind came up one side of the mountain. We thought the
earlier smack in the face had been rough. This felt like ice slapping you in
the face. Quickly turning our backs on the wind, we made our way back inside to
warm up.
DAY 4
Travelling from Interlaken to Zermatt...
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Michael trying to use the force...
(or gravity as we went up a hilll...) |
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| We traveled through St Niklaus |
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| Verve Cliquot ice bar |
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| Wolli - town mascott |
Today we made our way from Interlaken to Zermatt. Where we
had really liked Interlaken, we instantly fell in love with Zermatt. It took us
2 hours to reach the ski town, but it was absolutely gorgeous. Zermatt is a
very eco conscious town, with the only vehicles being electric taxis and buses
(exception to this being police and ambulance) or horse drawn sleighs. It was
incredibly scenic and we were very excited to see what the town is most famous
for – the Matterhorn. And we didn’t have to wait long. As we rounded a corner,
our hotel in sight, the iconic mountain point loomed into view. A bit of cloud
hanging around its tip like a banner, it was still instantly recognisable.
Think Toblerone packaging and you’ll know which mountain I am talking about.
We
checked into our hotel, holding our breath to see where our room was located.
We were told 2
nd floor. We walked up the stairs and stepped onto the
landing. We looked for room 7…. Sure enough as we walked straight down the
hallway, we knew that we were in luck. Opened the door to our room, and there,
straight out the window to our balcony… the perfect view of the Matterhorn! We
were so happy!
DAY 5
Just as well we had listened to our hotel lady, because this
morning we awoke to heavy snow and dreary clouds overhead. So much cloud in
fact we could not see even the base of the Matterhorn. Being such a dreary day,
I ended up passing the first hour after breakfast on the phone to my mother. As
one does! On the rare occasion that we do get to chat, we make the most of it.
The fact that I was not running off to work etc meant that I could sit and chat
and tell her all about the beautiful Matterhorn, while she told me about the
horrific heat in Brisbane!
Anyway, we finally left our hotel sometime after 11. We had
decided to go for a walk up in the mountains, heading towards the Matterhorn,
but obviously not climbing the Matterhorn. We walked for just over an hour,
having wound our way up some steep snow covered tracks. Along the way we threw
snowballs, slipped over, sunk in up to our knees and I’d even eaten some snow.
No, not yellow snow. It was the fluffiest white snow I had ever seen. Freshly
falling, I couldn’t help but make a snow cone in my hands and take a lick!
When we got to the top (well, where we determined our top to be – level with
the first major chairlift), we stopped at a quaint Swiss restaurant for lunch
where we both had a beer and a rösti with Spiegel ei (fried egg) on top. And
cheese. Of course there was cheese! It was really yummy, super filling, and
very warming after our trek through the snow. After hiding inside for an hour,
we ventured back out and started the trek back down the mountain, this time
taking a longer winding route that was not quite so steep, thus avoiding major
slips. We both still slipped a few times but there were no major accidents!
This travelling clutz doesn’t usually disappoint I know but for once I managed
to stay upright! But by the time we reached the hotel, we had completed a 6km
walk! We were quite proud of ourselves!
The Matterhorn Museum was quite interesting, with an audio
guide telling us the viewpoint of a young man whose father was a mountaineer
during the times of the first successful climbs up the Matterhorn. The room in
which everything was contained was actually subterranean and although
artificially recreated, illustrated within the ‘dirt’ walls layers of time,
with objects embedded into the wall at different levels to indicate a period
all the way back to the early 1800s when Zermatt was first developing into a
tourist town because of the Matterhorn. By the time we left the museum it was
dark outside and the snow was falling even thicker than before!
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| snow falling thick and fast |
We then had a simple dinner in our hotel room again
(sandwich again, but this time with a little wine/beer) and had an early night as the following morning was set to be
an early start.
DAY 6
Today was a day that we had been particularly looking
forward to. We were making the journey from Zermatt to St Moritz in style. We
were taking a ride on the ‘Glacier Express’, the slowest express train in the world!
But seriously, it was a nice train ride! We arrived at the platform and were
shown our carriage (we had opted to go in first class for this trip) and we
took our seats (after hanging our coats in the wardrobe at the end of the
carriage). The carriage we were travelling in was a panorama carriage, with
windows starting at your side and expanding all the way up, turning at the join
to the ceiling and stopping halfway over our heads, with less than a metre of
roof between the two windows. So we were able to get a view of the mountains
towering over us as we wove our way along the famous railway.
An 8 hour journey, I won’t deny it did get a bit tedious
towards the end, but overall, we had a really lovely, comfortable experience.
The whole way along there was audio commentary about the surrounds and the
towns we were passing through. At lunch time we were served an incredibly yummy
meal and the waitresses even came back to give everyone a second helping!
Michael and I of course accompanied this meal with a nice wine/beer to make
ourselves feel like we were really travelling in first class (the first and
probably only time we will do this!). But by the time we reached St Moritz, we
were happy to be out in the fresh air again.
As we walked around looking for dinner, we came across a
very familiar looking name. I spied Hotel Hauser! Complete with its own
restaurant! So when we looked at the menu and found it to be a reasonable price
(for Switzerland), we went straight in! And what a lovely meal we had!
Michael’s main was a meat dish that was served with a chocolate cranberry
gravy… unusual but yummy! I had prawns…. as you do as an Australian living away
from home. When I see seafood on a menu, I jump at it!
To finish the night
(seeing as we still had a bit of a wait for our train) we decided to share a
small dessert of house made biscuits and truffles. With each selection, I took
a bite, and Michael finished it off, that way we both got to try each flavour.
This was working famously well, and we were enjoying every single mouthful!
That was, until we got to the last truffle. I took a bite, and was just telling
Michael how much I liked that one as it wasn’t as bitter as the dark chocolate
one, when I felt the burn in my throat. I stopped talking suddenly, and looked
at Michael. He looked at me, cocked his head to the side and said “Chilli?” I
nodded.
I waited for a minute to see just what would happen. It’s
been quite some time since I have had chilli, and sure enough, within 2
minutes, my throat was swelling, my breathing was laboured, my nose was
snuffing. I very quickly grabbed an antihistamine and swallowed it, and within
5 minutes, I felt mostly back to normal. I consider myself very lucky that my
anaphylaxis is so controllable as I know for some people it is instant
hospitalisation, but it still sucks when my allergen is hiding in plain sight.
So, bill paid, throat back to normal, we left Hotel Hauser
and made our way down to the train. We spent the next two hours winding our way
to Chur. We were sitting very close to another group of people in their early
20s, one a Swiss army cadet in full uniform. We felt very safe. Until he
decided to illustrate to his mates how to disassemble his rifle… and then they
all wanted to play with it! Luckily, this was only about 15 minutes before we
reached Chur.
Safely in Chur, we headed for our hotel, and were asleep
within the hour!
DAY 7
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| View from almost the top of Chur |
Eventually though it was time to collect our bags from our
hotel, and make our way to the train station. We didn’t leave without trying
the local Chur speciality. The Nusstorte. A nut tart. It was delicious.
2 long train rides later and we were back in our home –
Munich! We had a fantastic time away and were very thankful for having more
than just a long weekend. A whole week, what a dream. And it was so nice to be
outside enjoying the sun for a change! I hardly see it when I’m at work!
Sadly now it will be some time until our next Euro Trip. But
I am sure there will be other silly posts between now and then. Until then, Auf
Wiedersehen!
We made our way back towards the field near the concert
where the fireworks were to take place. We got a great viewing spot, and right
on 7:45, the music stopped and the fireworks started. This time we were only
100m from the launch site. These fireworks were as good as the ones in Zürich
the previous night. We loved every second of them (even though they were
ridiculously loud!) and couldn’t help but laugh as the charred remains of
fireworks started to fall down around us. Towards the end of the display, pieces
that were still alight were falling on the crowd near us! It wasn’t until we
got home to the hotel that we pulled off our jackets and found ash both on the
jackets and on our faces! Talk about a close experience! But we did thoroughly
enjoy the evening.
St Moritz was only a short stop over though, as regardless
of our special first class treat, there was not a buckleys chance we were going
to be able to afford even a night in St Moritz. A very wealthy ski town, home
to the winter Olympics twice, it was easy to see why we couldn’t afford a
hotel. However, it was worth a casual look around. We even stopped for dinner
before making our onwards journey.
