I know that each of us would want to go to Switzerland.
And of course, we will be definitely concerned about the expenses that we might have to incur if we are visiting any city in Switzerland.
This blog is only intended to give you a fare idea. Cost could differ based on your travel date and season.
The costs stated here are related to Geneva city and wengen.
Food:
Geneva Restaurants charge as much as in Brussels. But the only difference is that it is in Swiss Franks there.
Travel inside the city
If you happen to go to Geneva, you can book any hotel inside the city close to the Geneva main railway station. As all places are coverable by walk.
The city is not too big and there are abt 10 places of visit for tourists.
If you chose Hotel Cristal, then you can get public transportation pass for free from the hotel reception desk for the number of days you have booked the hotel.
Travel to Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen (Alps foothill)
This will cost about 100 franks per person in bus. I am not sure of the train.
From Lauterbrunnen, you can chose which ever peak you want to go to.
You can chose to go to Wengen village which hosts the Switzerland's summer holiday's Resort.
Train fares
These are the fares that I know of
Lauterbrunnen - Wengen 12.4 CHF
Lauterbrunnen - Kleine Scheidegg 160CHF
Cable car fare
Wengen - Mannlichen 40CHF
Apart from this, you need to consider the cost of your mode of transport to reach the city in Switzerland and the prices of the hotel.
As I could see for hotels in Geneva, the starting range is 150 CHF for a 3 star hotel.
So you calculate it now yourself on how much it could be for your journey :)
Hafe a safe and nice journey. Enjoy your trip!!
Friday 27 March, 2009
Tuesday 24 March, 2009
Switzerland - Dream comes true
Almost like every other common man in India, even I had dreams of going to switzerland.
Who will not, after seeing Hindi movies have such dreams? heheheh.. So here goes my experience about this exciting tour.
Have you heard of Geneva?
The city in switzerland which is renowned for Red Cross Organization and UN Head Quarters. (Is this heading back to ur history book of ur school? Ok lets come back..)
But this is definitely not the reason why we chose to visit Geneva rather than the capital city Zurich in Switzerland. Of course not even for the reason thinking that this city away from the capital would have more of landscapes and country side close by. Not at all.. Just for the reason that it was the only city in Switzerland which we could reach via flight by economical means :)
Yes! U caught it. Typical mentality of middle class people. Not to offend anyone though. Just kidding..
We chose Geneva for the fact that it is closer to the world famous Alps mountain range.
So all plans were in place. To visit the city and do some shopping on saturday. Let me remind you that shops will not be open on sunday in Europe except for the souvenier shops(all the countries I know of in Europe at least). Swiss chocs, Swiss watches, Swiss cheese -- list goes on when it comes to shopping.. Isn't it?
Sunday plan was just to drive to the alps, go to the highest peak and return by night. Monday morning return to Brussels - the usual routine.
There are just very few popular places in Geneva city for tourists. Of which we chose to see the UN Head Quarters, flower clock, jetto, fountain in the old town and the Lake. We skipped the watch museum as it would get late for us and as we assumed it to be a little far from the city centre.
After visiting a happening place like Paris, for us Geneva seemed like a not so special city though it had quite a number of tourists in the off peak season.
So we landed in the morning at around 10am in Geneva. Took a train from the airport and checked in to the hotel. Lodged our bags and started to discover the city with our list of tourist places. But our stomach would not listen to us. So we went to UN HQ and came back to an Indian restaurant by name Gandhi for lunch. The food was good and the price was moderate. Then we moved for a long walk discovering the city to digest all that we ate :)
The walk along the lake and boating was enjoyable. The flower clock is adorable.
The arrangement and presentation is too good. Was lost in thoughts tat we have so much to adore in our country. We have such a vast heritage that we have not popularized. We should preserve and give it importance like what is done here.
Seriously, most of us have not visited so many places in our own country thinking its possible in our life time. Could be true. Then I was back to the reality.
Stroll along the shopping streets
Rue de Rive and Rue des Marche are the shopping streets in this city. The streets have shops which sell chocs, pastries, jewellery, clothes, watches, souveniers and opticals.
When it comes to shopping for swiss watches, Geneva like all other swiss cities is costly and not affordable. But clothes, food and chocs seemed to have same price in Euros as in Brussels. We shopped a swiss watch for me? CHOCS for us and some momentos to carry back home.
The chocs are so yummy and tempting that I really cant stop eating them. Lindt chocs is a famous speciality there.
Then by 6pm all shops started shutting down their shutters and eventually we had to leave the street. We walked towards the information centre to find out if there were any possible public transportation or if there were any car rentals close by to reach swiss mountains next morning. Unfortunately everything was closed and could not gather too much of information. We went in search of Car rentals in the city in vain. Not much help. But managed to jot down the number and call them up.
Finally a ray of hope! The car rental in the airport will be open and the timings were noted. And for the dinner, my hubby and his friends tried the swiss special vegetarian cuisine fondue. I was unwell and skipped my dinner. I heard it was too good.. I am sad that i missed that opportunity. Anyway, I wish my self better luck next time..
On sunday, we all woke up by 6, got ready by 7 and left the hotel to discover Alps on the switzerland side. We asked the car rental guy to guide us. He suggested us Interlaken which is 2 hrs drive from Geneva. Interlaken is 215 km from Geneva city.
Near Interlaken, there is a place called Lauterbrunnen which is the foothill place.
The drive view is just unexplainable by the words in my vocabulary. Completely snow capped mountains covering the alpine trees. yeahh!! I said alpine trees. Remember reading this in your Geography books? heheheh.. Never mind..
Here ends our drive as we were told to take train or cable car to the peaks. May be because drive is difficult.
From Lauterbrunnen, there is train to the hill peak. On a smaller peak, there is a village called Wengen village. Train takes abt 15 min to reach here from Lauterbrunnen. The houses in Lauterbrunnen reminded me of the typical houses I saw in Uttaranchal when I went to my himalaya trek. The snow reminded me of those sleepy nights in a tent in the himalayas where we realized we were sleeping in a pool of snow only by morning. Ahh!! I am lost..
uhhhh!! So we bought our tickets to the wengen village - the first peak on the train journey. We did not have much time to decide after hearing the fare as the train departure was in a min.
We were in the train heading towards the peak. The train is just a 2 compartment one. Very small with a seating capacity of abt 50 people in each. And the tracks... Its a 2 way track at some places and one way track at some places. This reminded me of Indian Railway system. The trains here unlike city trains used to wait for signals to proceed further. Was good to cherish all life time memories. We reached the peak and I had to come to reality yet again. huh!! yet again..
We reached the Wengen village (supposedly famous Swiss holiday resort - did not know of it till I started writing this blog) which is 4180 ft above sea level (thats 1274mts). I was surprised to see literally a village on snow capped mountain. I was awestruck to see the facilities there. I wonder how the government provided the electricity and water supply there. As far as I could imagine or see, there were no roads to this place. 'Train' was the only means!
We roamed about a bit and then went to hog in an Italian restaurant. The pizza was yummy.. My mouth waters even now. I am just imagining how more tasty can a typical Italian Pizza can be in Rome during easter when I am there next month. Lets wait and watch :)
Then we headed towards the next peak called Männlichen(2343mts=7687ft above sea level) which is reachable only by cable car. The cable car's cable spans 950m and ascends to a height of 1069mts. We bought the tickets and the car was ready to take us aboard and drop us to the land of heaven :)
We got out of it and everyone else except me were so thrilled to see the snow. I had seen such snow in Mt Baldy, USA and also to a greater extent in Himalayas. Somehow I was less talkative and my presence of mind was absconding. I am still to find out reasons for this. All the excitement I had was seemingly no more. It was chilling but sunny. And no winds to add to it. So fortunately a pleasant weather for us on the hill top. There were restaurants on the hill top where we drank a hot swiss milk coffee. May be after this our legs and hands warmed up and not because of sun :p
We spent quite a lot of time on the hill top watching different valleys and skiing lads and ladies. I could also see a child less than 2 yrs skiing without fear ..... Guess we should also be trained like this from childhood to be adventurous right at young age.
Then we descended to Wengen for some Wengen shopping and took a train back to Lauterbrunnen from where we drove along the 'Thunersee'. Pacific sea which reflected the tranquilities of our mind and soul. Hmm am becoming too philosophic... hehhe.. Apparently, we drove back to the airport and handed over the keys. Returned to Geneva city and had a burrito in a Mexican restaurant which was not so good. But the day long experience kept us in good mood to hit the sack with a lot to dream.
So here unwinds our journey. I know its a lot that I have told..
But a life time memories and experience which I would carry back home from Europe along with me.
Who will not, after seeing Hindi movies have such dreams? heheheh.. So here goes my experience about this exciting tour.
Have you heard of Geneva?
The city in switzerland which is renowned for Red Cross Organization and UN Head Quarters. (Is this heading back to ur history book of ur school? Ok lets come back..)
But this is definitely not the reason why we chose to visit Geneva rather than the capital city Zurich in Switzerland. Of course not even for the reason thinking that this city away from the capital would have more of landscapes and country side close by. Not at all.. Just for the reason that it was the only city in Switzerland which we could reach via flight by economical means :)
Yes! U caught it. Typical mentality of middle class people. Not to offend anyone though. Just kidding..
We chose Geneva for the fact that it is closer to the world famous Alps mountain range.
So all plans were in place. To visit the city and do some shopping on saturday. Let me remind you that shops will not be open on sunday in Europe except for the souvenier shops(all the countries I know of in Europe at least). Swiss chocs, Swiss watches, Swiss cheese -- list goes on when it comes to shopping.. Isn't it?
Sunday plan was just to drive to the alps, go to the highest peak and return by night. Monday morning return to Brussels - the usual routine.
There are just very few popular places in Geneva city for tourists. Of which we chose to see the UN Head Quarters, flower clock, jetto, fountain in the old town and the Lake. We skipped the watch museum as it would get late for us and as we assumed it to be a little far from the city centre.
After visiting a happening place like Paris, for us Geneva seemed like a not so special city though it had quite a number of tourists in the off peak season.
So we landed in the morning at around 10am in Geneva. Took a train from the airport and checked in to the hotel. Lodged our bags and started to discover the city with our list of tourist places. But our stomach would not listen to us. So we went to UN HQ and came back to an Indian restaurant by name Gandhi for lunch. The food was good and the price was moderate. Then we moved for a long walk discovering the city to digest all that we ate :)
The walk along the lake and boating was enjoyable. The flower clock is adorable.
The arrangement and presentation is too good. Was lost in thoughts tat we have so much to adore in our country. We have such a vast heritage that we have not popularized. We should preserve and give it importance like what is done here.
Seriously, most of us have not visited so many places in our own country thinking its possible in our life time. Could be true. Then I was back to the reality.
Stroll along the shopping streets
Rue de Rive and Rue des Marche are the shopping streets in this city. The streets have shops which sell chocs, pastries, jewellery, clothes, watches, souveniers and opticals.
When it comes to shopping for swiss watches, Geneva like all other swiss cities is costly and not affordable. But clothes, food and chocs seemed to have same price in Euros as in Brussels. We shopped a swiss watch for me? CHOCS for us and some momentos to carry back home.
The chocs are so yummy and tempting that I really cant stop eating them. Lindt chocs is a famous speciality there.
Then by 6pm all shops started shutting down their shutters and eventually we had to leave the street. We walked towards the information centre to find out if there were any possible public transportation or if there were any car rentals close by to reach swiss mountains next morning. Unfortunately everything was closed and could not gather too much of information. We went in search of Car rentals in the city in vain. Not much help. But managed to jot down the number and call them up.
Finally a ray of hope! The car rental in the airport will be open and the timings were noted. And for the dinner, my hubby and his friends tried the swiss special vegetarian cuisine fondue. I was unwell and skipped my dinner. I heard it was too good.. I am sad that i missed that opportunity. Anyway, I wish my self better luck next time..
On sunday, we all woke up by 6, got ready by 7 and left the hotel to discover Alps on the switzerland side. We asked the car rental guy to guide us. He suggested us Interlaken which is 2 hrs drive from Geneva. Interlaken is 215 km from Geneva city.
Near Interlaken, there is a place called Lauterbrunnen which is the foothill place.
The drive view is just unexplainable by the words in my vocabulary. Completely snow capped mountains covering the alpine trees. yeahh!! I said alpine trees. Remember reading this in your Geography books? heheheh.. Never mind..
Here ends our drive as we were told to take train or cable car to the peaks. May be because drive is difficult.
From Lauterbrunnen, there is train to the hill peak. On a smaller peak, there is a village called Wengen village. Train takes abt 15 min to reach here from Lauterbrunnen. The houses in Lauterbrunnen reminded me of the typical houses I saw in Uttaranchal when I went to my himalaya trek. The snow reminded me of those sleepy nights in a tent in the himalayas where we realized we were sleeping in a pool of snow only by morning. Ahh!! I am lost..
uhhhh!! So we bought our tickets to the wengen village - the first peak on the train journey. We did not have much time to decide after hearing the fare as the train departure was in a min.
We were in the train heading towards the peak. The train is just a 2 compartment one. Very small with a seating capacity of abt 50 people in each. And the tracks... Its a 2 way track at some places and one way track at some places. This reminded me of Indian Railway system. The trains here unlike city trains used to wait for signals to proceed further. Was good to cherish all life time memories. We reached the peak and I had to come to reality yet again. huh!! yet again..
We reached the Wengen village (supposedly famous Swiss holiday resort - did not know of it till I started writing this blog) which is 4180 ft above sea level (thats 1274mts). I was surprised to see literally a village on snow capped mountain. I was awestruck to see the facilities there. I wonder how the government provided the electricity and water supply there. As far as I could imagine or see, there were no roads to this place. 'Train' was the only means!
We roamed about a bit and then went to hog in an Italian restaurant. The pizza was yummy.. My mouth waters even now. I am just imagining how more tasty can a typical Italian Pizza can be in Rome during easter when I am there next month. Lets wait and watch :)
Then we headed towards the next peak called Männlichen(2343mts=7687ft above sea level) which is reachable only by cable car. The cable car's cable spans 950m and ascends to a height of 1069mts. We bought the tickets and the car was ready to take us aboard and drop us to the land of heaven :)
We got out of it and everyone else except me were so thrilled to see the snow. I had seen such snow in Mt Baldy, USA and also to a greater extent in Himalayas. Somehow I was less talkative and my presence of mind was absconding. I am still to find out reasons for this. All the excitement I had was seemingly no more. It was chilling but sunny. And no winds to add to it. So fortunately a pleasant weather for us on the hill top. There were restaurants on the hill top where we drank a hot swiss milk coffee. May be after this our legs and hands warmed up and not because of sun :p
We spent quite a lot of time on the hill top watching different valleys and skiing lads and ladies. I could also see a child less than 2 yrs skiing without fear ..... Guess we should also be trained like this from childhood to be adventurous right at young age.
Then we descended to Wengen for some Wengen shopping and took a train back to Lauterbrunnen from where we drove along the 'Thunersee'. Pacific sea which reflected the tranquilities of our mind and soul. Hmm am becoming too philosophic... hehhe.. Apparently, we drove back to the airport and handed over the keys. Returned to Geneva city and had a burrito in a Mexican restaurant which was not so good. But the day long experience kept us in good mood to hit the sack with a lot to dream.
So here unwinds our journey. I know its a lot that I have told..
But a life time memories and experience which I would carry back home from Europe along with me.
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