Travel Diaries-Switzerland-"Heaven on Earth"

22 hours door to door and we weren't even traveling to the corner of the world, but the journey did take us to Heaven on Earth.

Lucerne, a cozy little city in Switzerland known for its preserved medieval architecture, sits amid snow-capped mountains on Lake Lucerne. Its colorful Altstadt (Old Town) is bordered on the north by 870m Museggmauer (Musegg Wall), a 14-century rampart. The covered Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), built in 1333, links the Aldstadt to the Reuss River's right bank.

We were soon on our way to the Swiss Transport Museum. It's a museum built around all modes of transport, from airlines to railways, cars, shipping, construction technology, and even an F1 simulator. For me, the highlight though was the Lindt Chocolate Adventure a 20 min joy ride taking one through the history of Chocolate and the chocolate-making process and ending with a Lindt truffle to sample like one would at the Lindt factor!

Exploring the city can never be far… and while exploring Lucerne, we could not miss the Kapellbrucke. The Kapellbrücke (literally, Chapel Bridge) is a covered wooden footbridge spanning the river Reuss diagonally in the city of Lucerne in central Switzerland. Named after the nearby St. Peter's Chapel, the bridge is unique in containing 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. Subsequently restored, the Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world's oldest surviving truss bridge. It serves as the city's symbol and as one of Switzerland's main tourist attractions.

Switzerland shares borders with Germany, France, and Italy. The Italian influence is evident in the towns bordering Italy. Morcote is a beautiful village in Switzerland. In fact, the picturesque village on Lake Lugano is part of the Swiss Federal Inventory of sites worthy of protection. It borders Italy and the influence is evident in the food and cobbled streets. With its characteristic small alleys, the arcades of old patrician homes, valuable architectural monuments, and its natural beauty, Morcote is considered “the Pearl of Ceresio”. Of particular architectural interest, is the church of Santa Maria del Sasso, the terraced cemetery, and the Tower of the Captain. For those who love the nature and peace of these places, the beautiful Scherrer gardens, full of exquisite subtropical flora on the lakefront, are the perfect setting.

Heaven on Earth - have never seen something like this before, when a cable car cuts through clouds, atop the Mountain there is sunlight, but when you see down, you see clouds. The pictures suggests a painting, or an artists impression, but it's what the naked eye saw.

We started early as the weather forecast mentioned a possible wet afternoon. A train from Luzern to Engelberg, and a shuttle from the Engelberg station to the Titlis base camp... we were ready to climb 3020 meters to the Top of Mt. TITLIS. A Cable car to start the 1st leg of the climb to approx 2000 meters and then ROTOAIR, a rotating gondola that offers a panoramic view of the mountains as you climb, for the last 1000 odd meters.

We were fortunate to have arrived early before the tourist busses came in - we had our share of fun climbing the snow-clad mountain (just 250 meters), playing in the snow, and soaking in Heaven on Earth. A quick walk on the Cliff walk, and then we were back to Level 5 of the guest building. The rest of it is largely restaurants, gift shops, etc... Level 1 though does have a Glacier Cave, which is man-made and maintained to give the experience- a 300 m Long temperature-controlled and simulated experience.

A walk on the promenade in Montreux, and we could see a beautiful palace, not too distant from where we were. Curiosity led us to follow the path. Chillon Castle (French: Château de Chillon) is an island castle located on Lake Geneva, south of Veytaux in the canton of Vaud. It is situated at the eastern end of the lake, on the narrow shore between Montreux and Villeneuve, which gives access to the Alpine valley of the Rhône. Chillon is amongst the most visited medieval castles in Switzerland and Europe. Successively occupied by the House of Savoy, then by the Bernese from 1536 until 1798, it now belongs to the State of Vaud and is classified as a Swiss Cultural Property of National Significance. The Fort de Chillon, its modern counterpart, is hidden o the steep side of the mountain.

Switzerland and Skiing are synonymous, and the epitome of Luxury Ski Resorts. Gstaad is a Luxury Ski resort, made popular with Indian tourist as the cast and crew of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge stayed here during the shoot.... and parts of the movie was shot at Gstaad, Saanen (one stop away).

The base camp of Glacier 3000 is about 30 mins bus ride from the Gstaad station. Once at the base, large cable cars with a capacity of 10500 kgs (150 pax), take you up in 2 steps - from 1546 meters to 2525 meters and then from 2525 meters to 2971 meters. The last 29 meters, from 2971 meters to 3000 meters is the Tissot Peak Walk .... we were here on a cold chilly windy day.... temperature was sub-zero ( - 0.5°c), but felt like -5°c due to the winds. The views from there were magnificent- Picture perfect and we were lucky that the clouds cleared for a couple of minutes to give us a good shot.

The fun had just started, next, we took the chair lift to 2825 meters to the actual Glacier- This is like a suspended chair seat that can seat 2 people at a time. The climb itself was 6-7 mins. Once at the glacier, the crowd naturally thinned, and there was a Bob sled - a little disk-like structure - one sits in it and sled down, we surely did this!

Switzerland is home to Cheese and Chocolate, and we couldn’t miss an opportunity to visit the cheese and chocolate factories on this trip. The chocolate train, A 40 mins train ride - yes the train was Branded, had luxury old-world charm seating, and served us a chocolate croissant and a coffee each - took us to Montbovon.

A bus was waiting for us at Montbovon to take us to the village of Gruyeres, and the Le Gruyere Cheese factory. An audio-guided tour took us through the process of Cheesemaking- approximately 35kg of cheese yields from 400 liters of milk, and each cow yields 25 liters of milk. Cheese is all about consistency and flavors, and like a barista or a sommelier, the cheese maker plays a large role.

Time to explore the souvenir shop....and we were back on the bus to the village. After a 1 hour 45 minute stop at the village, we visited Château de Gruyeres. The Château was home to the bailiffs of Fribourg for nearly 300 years from 1555 to 1849 when the Bovy Brothers bought the Château as their summer home. One of the brothers was handicapped and an artist, so he invited his artist friends to paint and decorate the rooms. We could see the works of art as we moved across rooms.... 3 generations later in 1938 the nephews sold the mansion back to the Canton of Fribourg who opened it up for the general public.

Next was the highlight of the day - the Caillers chocolate factory. Once again a 20 minutes audio guided tour of the factory, followed by some interesting tasting - from some raw materials like cocoa, roasted almonds, and hazelnuts, to 10 different types of Bite-sized chocolates

Callier is the founder of mechanized chocolate manufacturing in Switzerland. He came together with Peter and Kohler 2 other manufacturers, and formed Callier Peter Kohler. During the stock market meltdown of the 1920s, they merged with Nestlé to form Nestlé Callier. That's where we were and the chocolates distinctly taste better than the Cadbury we are so used to in India - or it could be the ambient temperature which keeps the smoothness and flavors and crispness intact, without heavy refrigeration.

The music band Queen had come to Montreux to record an album - Yes, Montreux has had great recording studios even in the 80s. They were so impressed with the recording studio that when an opportunity came by, they actually bought the recording studio. Today a Queens Experience museum stands here with the Montreux Casino. With some memorabilia to see, and an experience center to experience mixing music in a studio, it was an hour worth the time... There is a little studio, where one can experience mixing music by playing with the faders - and that was the fun part of the tour here.

The Jungfraujoch (German: lit. "maiden saddle") is a saddle connecting two major 4000ers of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of 3,463 meters (11,362 ft) above sea level and is directly overlooked by the rocky prominence of the Sphinx. The Jungfraujoch is a glacier saddle, on the upper snows of the Aletsch Glacier, and part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, situated on the boundary between the cantons of Bern and Valais, halfway between Interlaken and Fiesch.

Since 1912, the Jungfraujoch has been accessible to tourists by the Jungfrau line, a railway from Interlaken and Kleine Scheidegg, running partly underground through a tunnel through the Eiger and Mönch. The Jungfraujoch railway station, at an elevation of 3,454 meters (11,332 ft) is the highest in Europe. It lies east of the saddle, below the Sphinx station, and is connected to the Top of Europe building, which includes several panoramic restaurants, shops, exhibitions, and a post office. Several tunnels lead outside, where secured hiking trails on the crevassed glacier can be followed, in particular to the Mönchsjoch Hut. The normal route to the Jungfrau and Mönch starts from there.

The Sphinx Observatory, one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world, provides an additional viewing platform at a height of 3,572 meters (11,719 ft), the second-highest in Switzerland. It can be reached by elevator from the Jungfraujoch.

We took the bus train (to Grindelwald Terminal)-cable car (Eiger express from 943 mtr to 2320 mtr) - Funicular (from 2320 mtr to 3453 mtr), to reach Jungfraujoch.

It's very organized and planned there to enjoy the Top of Europe. We went up to the Observatory at 3572 mtrs with temperatures touching -2°c. Breathtaking sites and visuals are here.

5 mountains, 5 cities, great food, good people, innumerable memories, it's been nature at its best, natural beauty at its best- where else could we have seen a red fox while traveling intercity on a train? Perhaps one of the best holidays we have had!

On this trip, we could have literally closed our eyes, spun around, and clicked a picture postcard.

No wonder Switzerland is Heaven on Earth!