Zurich

Rhine falls Klausen pass Lucerne and Pilatus

After a long day of flying, some adventures in finding where we’d be staying due to address mixups, foreign driving conventions and new surroundings, we finally reached our apartment, and were ecstatic to see Sanjana, Suba and Mahesh after a long time.

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Our first full day in Switzerland, we decided to drive to Rhine Falls, which is a short drive away from Zurich. The falls were very scenic and we had reservations to ride a cruise and see the view from the middle of the Rhine river.

After the cruise, we were delighted by Indian food that was available right by the water side, and ordered way too much food. It was a lovely day, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade of some trees, with a view of Rhine falls, with free entertainment being provided by a group of mimes. We followed this up with a walk along the river before heading back.

That evening, we decided to walk to lake Zurich and hang out there. We were meeting Mahesh’s nephew Arvind, and we had a good time just hanging out and dipping our feet in the lake.

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The next day, with Arvind guiding us, we decided to visit Klausen pass, and see what hikes we could find around there.

The drive to Klausen was really scenic, including a spotting of the Tell Monument as we were driving through the town of altdorf.

We bought some food for a picnic lunch, and made a harder than expected hike to a Glacier melt lake named Griessseeli. It was a beautiful day, and the views (and the alpine soundtrack of cowbells) kept us going.

After a lovely picnic lunch with views of the lake, glacier and mountains, a few of us opted to make the extra hike down to the lake, while the others stayed back, and walked back to the car instead. The lake water, being truly freshly melted ice and snow from the glacier, was truly freezing, and the progressive sensations of coldness, tingling, and sheer pain from standing in that watter for a few minutes is unforgettable.

We wrapped up our hike, and decided to make our day out a loop, by contininuing onward through the valley, and making a brief stop at Weesen, and to check out Walensee lake.

To cap off a lovely day, we had (unseasonable by swiss standards) dinner reservations at Chasalp, to enjoy a Fondue dinner in a lovely outdoor setting.

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A day in transit to Interlaken, we decided to stop in Lucerne, to check out the covered bridge and the surroundings.

We also took the cogwheel train from Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm, hoping to enjoy the spectacular views that it boasted. A cloudy / foggy day set limits on the views, but was unable to limit the amount of fun we were able to have on our own. A lovely experience overall.

A final drive to Interlaken brought us to our stay for the next week or so, with lovely views of mountains, and hourly reminders of the time.

More adventures in switzerland follow in the next post.