SWITZERLAND TRAVELOGUE
Day 1
Taiwan-Amsterdan-Zurich
This is our third time traveling to Europe, yet our first time traveling to a non-English speaking country in Europe. As I’ve helped planned some of our earlier trips to Singapore, England, and Hong Kong, I did the same this time with Switzerland, reading tourist books, browsing online for ratings on certain tourism hotspots and restaurants, and downloading hiking routes beforehand. But what I did not brace for this time is the change in language, which made it harder to navigate through the streets of Switzerland where we don’t speak German, Italian, or French.
As we got off from the plane, the first challenge appeared. Most airports in Europe are all tightening security measures these days because of potential terrorist attacks and immigrants moving into the region. Thus, the airport security check for inbound passengers are extremely tight. As we were lining up for passport checks, the officer inspected the passport rigorously and held magnifying glasses to check, asking intensive questions like “First time to Europe? What is the purpose of your stay? Any family and friends in Europe?” There was a tense ambience looming in the air as the officer stood and frowned slightly while inspecting strenuously at passports, and looked straight into your eyes.
Zurich was a clean and beautiful city yet it was a commercialised one, with major clothing chain stores occupying most of the ground floors of the city. It serves as a connecting point for travellers, so after a dip of the city landscape we boarded on the train and headed for Lucrene.
Day 2
- Lucrene: Mount Pilatus, Swiss Alps
- Lucrene Old city
After one day in Lucrene, I’d say this is one of the most livable cities I’ve ever been to. Despite the visitors that flock to the city on Summer days, its a clean city well managed with nicely manicured greens, an emerald green Lucrene lake glistening right in the middle of the city, cool summer breezes from the Alps, an old city composing of traditional European houses that neatly line up in beautiful colors, and best of all, a pedestrian and bike friendly city. Bikes routes are drawn all over the city and we see a lot of bikers roaming the city in harmony with the light traffic, and the cars stop for you whenever pedestrians cross the road (even large trucks), a phenomenon I’ve never seen before. Never before have I felt safer on the road in a foreign city.
We went on the golden round trip in Lucrene Mount Pilatus, one of the Swiss Alps. We took a boat ride on the beautiful Lake Lucrene, with the clear emerald green water glistening under the sunlight. Along the ride, the old town’s traditional households dotted the valleys and up the hill, a harmonious and serene landscape in a beautiful lake district. After a 40 minute boat ride, we arrived at Alpnachstad, the foot of Mount Pilatus, and looking up we could see fluffy white clouds rising up the Pilatus Kulm, the tip of the mountain covered with some snow.
We took a steep 45 degrees train ride up to the Pilatus Kulm, up 1696 meters in a 40 minute train ride, and the train was elaborately designed with the slope of a ladder so that passengers onboard don’t feel the dizziness. The train rumbled past the rocky cliffs, panoramic green valleys that tumbled like a sheet of green carpet, past the clouds, and into the Pilatus Kulm with white sheets of unmelted glass around its peak. The air was fresh, cold, and clean, and I took deep breaths inhaling the Swiss alps in. We took a walk to the peak of the Pilatus, and along the way spectacular valleys plunged down into the clouds and we could see the Luzern lake in the far distance. Feeling blissful and carefree as we trudged along the path.
In the evening we walked around the old town of Lucrene, and toured around the lion monument, the old wall, and tried to navigate our way to the restaurant Dad proposed. After getting out of the bus which took us further into Lucrene, which has drastically less tourists and traffic, we took out our huge map and tried to correspond (without success) to the locations on the map. After searching for the restaurant fruitlessly, Dad decided to ask a waiter right in front of us for the restaurant. Turns out we were standing right in front of the restaurant, going round and round in circles while our destination had been beside us all along. It was a quiet restaurant with no music, yet there was a relaxed, comfortable, and beautiful ambience looming in the air. Blond hair combed back, blue eyes, friendly smile, a lot of steady eye contact, very polite and courteous, he was one of the reasons we stayed after realising the we might have stumbled into the wrong store.(We didn’t, but looking at google map it showed we were one block ahead. He spoke slow and clear English elaborately, and kindly translated every single dish on the menu for us, even elaborated on what each dish contained. So when he asked “so how do you know our store?”, Dad pointed to the map and said he saw it on the map. If he said “Oh, we stumbled into the wrong store by mistake.”, it would be really funny. Anyway, one of the best things having dinner out was that we talk while the meal is prepared, and we’re not the kind of people who slips out our phone while waiting. We talked about our trip, future endeavors in HK, and whatever came to mind. The meal was a traditional Switzerland meal, for instance my meatballs with mashed potatoes. (richly cooked with a sauce like cheese, blueberries-for the meatballs, and mashed potatoes that melts inside your tongue) Dad and Danny ordered beef, cooked medium well, and Mom ordered chicken breast.
SWITZERLAND TRAVELOGUE (PART 1) 李傳惠
Day 1
Taiwan-Amsterdan-Zurich
This is our third time traveling to Europe, yet our first time traveling to a non-English speaking country in Europe. As I’ve helped planned some of our earlier trips to Singapore, England, and Hong Kong, I did the same this time with Switzerland, reading tourist books, browsing online for ratings on certain tourism hotspots and restaurants, and downloading hiking routes beforehand. But what I did not brace for this time is the change in language, which made it harder to navigate through the streets of Switzerland where we don’t speak German, Italian, or French.
As we got off from the plane, the first challenge appeared. Most airports in Europe are all tightening security measures these days because of potential terrorist attacks and immigrants moving into the region. Thus, the airport security check for inbound passengers are extremely tight. As we were lining up for passport checks, the officer inspected the passport rigorously and held magnifying glasses to check, asking intensive questions like “First time to Europe? What is the purpose of your stay? Any family and friends in Europe?” There was a tense ambience looming in the air as the officer stood and frowned slightly while inspecting strenuously at passports, and looked straight into your eyes.
Zurich was a clean and beautiful city yet it was a commercialised one, with major clothing chain stores occupying most of the ground floors of the city. It serves as a connecting point for travellers, so after a dip of the city landscape we boarded on the train and headed for Lucrene.
Day 2
- Lucrene: Mount Pilatus, Swiss Alps
- Lucrene Old city
After one day in Lucrene, I’d say this is one of the most livable cities I’ve ever been to. Despite the visitors that flock to the city on Summer days, its a clean city well managed with nicely manicured greens, an emerald green Lucrene lake glistening right in the middle of the city, cool summer breezes from the Alps, an old city composing of traditional European houses that neatly line up in beautiful colors, and best of all, a pedestrian and bike friendly city. Bikes routes are drawn all over the city and we see a lot of bikers roaming the city in harmony with the light traffic, and the cars stop for you whenever pedestrians cross the road (even large trucks), a phenomenon I’ve never seen before. Never before have I felt safer on the road in a foreign city.
We went on the golden round trip in Lucrene Mount Pilatus, one of the Swiss Alps. We took a boat ride on the beautiful Lake Lucrene, with the clear emerald green water glistening under the sunlight. Along the ride, the old town’s traditional households dotted the valleys and up the hill, a harmonious and serene landscape in a beautiful lake district. After a 40 minute boat ride, we arrived at Alpnachstad, the foot of Mount Pilatus, and looking up we could see fluffy white clouds rising up the Pilatus Kulm, the tip of the mountain covered with some snow.
We took a steep 45 degrees train ride up to the Pilatus Kulm, up 1696 meters in a 40 minute train ride, and the train was elaborately designed with the slope of a ladder so that passengers onboard don’t feel the dizziness. The train rumbled past the rocky cliffs, panoramic green valleys that tumbled like a sheet of green carpet, past the clouds, and into the Pilatus Kulm with white sheets of unmelted glass around its peak. The air was fresh, cold, and clean, and I took deep breaths inhaling the Swiss alps in. We took a walk to the peak of the Pilatus, and along the way spectacular valleys plunged down into the clouds and we could see the Luzern lake in the far distance. Feeling blissful and carefree as we trudged along the path.
In the evening we walked around the old town of Lucrene, and toured around the lion monument, the old wall, and tried to navigate our way to the restaurant Dad proposed. After getting out of the bus which took us further into Lucrene, which has drastically less tourists and traffic, we took out our huge map and tried to correspond (without success) to the locations on the map. After searching for the restaurant fruitlessly, Dad decided to ask a waiter right in front of us for the restaurant. Turns out we were standing right in front of the restaurant, going round and round in circles while our destination had been beside us all along. It was a quiet restaurant with no music, yet there was a relaxed, comfortable, and beautiful ambience looming in the air. Blond hair combed back, blue eyes, friendly smile, a lot of steady eye contact, very polite and courteous, he was one of the reasons we stayed after realising the we might have stumbled into the wrong store.(We didn’t, but looking at google map it showed we were one block ahead. He spoke slow and clear English elaborately, and kindly translated every single dish on the menu for us, even elaborated on what each dish contained. So when he asked “so how do you know our store?”, Dad pointed to the map and said he saw it on the map. If he said “Oh, we stumbled into the wrong store by mistake.”, it would be really funny. Anyway, one of the best things having dinner out was that we talk while the meal is prepared, and we’re not the kind of people who slips out our phone while waiting. We talked about our trip, future endeavors in HK, and whatever came to mind. The meal was a traditional Switzerland meal, for instance my meatballs with mashed potatoes. (richly cooked with a sauce like cheese, blueberries-for the meatballs, and mashed potatoes that melts inside your tongue) Dad and Danny ordered beef, cooked medium well, and Mom ordered chicken breast.
Day 3:
- Lucrene →Mount Titlis
- Lucrene:old city
Woke up early in the morning for another epic endeavour: climbing up another Swiss Alp-Mount Titlis. We took a train from Lucrene to Engelberg, and cruised around the beautiful little cottages dotted in the countryside of Lucrene, Engelberg, and other counties. After rolling by countless valleys and spectacular mountain ridges, I think to myself, what does it feel like to live in such a beautiful county with fresh air, clean water from the Alps, no traffic, and just unfathomable greenness everywhere you look? Must be a carefree one without distractions from the outside world, the politics, the terror attacks, the social media, the beauty and luxury and glamour, the academics, the busy life, the global warming, the everything. But it also extracts a lot of fun from our everyday life, the fast paces and rigor from school, the dining out /watch movies/ exhibitions/activities, the efficiency of technology. But whenever I see bikers and runners running along the countryside, I think to myself they must be the luckies people alive to breathe in fresh air and suck in the beauty of all this green.
The ride up Titlis mountain was an elaborate and adventurous now with the transportation choices combined, first with small cables with the 4 of us inside, ascending into the colds watching valleys become small cubes underneath our toes. Then we boarded the Titlis Rotar, a huge sphere with glass panes on all sides, that rotes itself and lets passengers see the panoramic view of the Swiss Alps covered in snow. Titlis was of higher mountain range compared to the Pilatus, reaching 3000 meters thus its huge black mountain gorges are covered in snow. We trudged in the snow as we reached its peak, and getting my running shoes deep into the snow was not a fun experience, yet it was my first experience with such huge inches of snow, so I enjoyed it and tried not to. Mom and Dad are with their Gortex shoes, and Danny and I had on our running shoes and basketball shoes, which worked badly and turned wet and slippery.
We took the Titlis flyer to the glacier park, and it was a cable with our feet hanging along midair. Down below are deep inches of snow and unfathomable mountain ranges, and Danny was really apprehensive after knowing that we were gonna try some transportation like that. His fear of heights showed through his repetitive questions on the Titlis flyer. Anyway, gliding through glaciers and snow was a wonderful experience, with a kingdom of white all around us.
Day 4:
- Lucrene, Interlaken, Grindelwald
- Hiking (First-Balpchsee-Bort); 5 hours
Today we arrived at Grindelwald, a connecting point for further hiking trails or discovery into the Alps. Hiking in Switzerland should not be a once in a lifetime experience. We took the cable car up to “First”, and started our 5 hour hike through the black rocky mountains covered with white snow that loomed before us, followed with carpets of green grass and forests surrounding us. We first took a trail up to Lake Balpchsee, and along the way the air was clean and fresh, the breeze was cold as winds blew from the gorges of the alps, and sun was shining right above our heads. As we rose steadily with the rocky path, I think what’s so different of Swiss hikes compared to the other hikes in Lake district, greater China, and Taiwan is that the gigantic mountains looming over our heads are covered in snow, a contrast of black rock and white snow that makes it stand out from its green mountain counterparts around the world. As we hiked to the end of the lake trail, a U-shaped gorge covered with snow appeared right before us, covering a 180 degrees landscape and led to a green turquoise coloured lake right before it. It was like stepping into a postcard, with snow covered mountains, glistening green lake, spectacular green valleys all in one picture, and we sat down and took the scene all in as we rested in front of the lake. (The water was ice cold and very clear, and as I dipped my hands into the water, it was like swiping through frozen ice water!)
Next came our epic little adventure. We chose a “advanced” route as we ascended the mouton, thus leading to a soil covered and slightly smaller trail along the spectacular valleys of green before us. The trail then transited into a stone covered trail, and along our adventure we were the only ones enjoying the scenery for ourselves, as our connecting 3 hour hike we only saw 2 groups of hikers. Along the way, along the panoramic green valleys and forest trees, along the great mountains in the distance covered with snow on its peaks, along with the fresh air, cool breeze and blazing sunlight, I told myself to take it all in and remember this moment. Never had I enjoyed a hiking experience more, as the scenery and temperature was the best mix I’ve ever experienced in my life. Occasioinally there were streams or lakes of clear Swiss Alps water, and I told myself I’m definitely gonna travel to Switzerland just for the beautiful nature itself-particularly hiking around the region in the future. These natural scenes stay with us throughout our lives, and when I visualize them from time to time, it offers a contrast to, and relief from, present hectic lives or difficulties.
