Random Musings of an Unemployed Mind: Little Swiss Miss

OK - so you knew this was a-coming, so no surprises on this post. But now - about the Switzerland. There are 2 major things that come to mind now once we are back in good old Deutschland. The Swizzies - have a lot of cash. A lot of it. And sadly, they do expect the junta who go there to also have a lot of the afore-mentioned cash. Messieurs Chopra and Johar obviously meant that whole spiel about 'transporting' Indians to a place they could never go to ... because it is clear that even though they didn't need to, they had definitely looked at the prices on a menu card in a Zurich restaurant.

Point two. Gorgeousity. I don't think I have anywhere physically put down my camera because I was tired of clicking. Here's a shot, there's a shot and everywhere's a scenic shot. There are lush green lawns that look good enough to chew the cud on, fluffy white clouds that envelope strong mountains and inviting lakes that beg to be jumped into - and I'm totally unromantic and far from being a poet. They just have this wonderful abundance of natural beauty which they have obviously done their job in taking care of, and the end result is this picture perfect postcard. Even the cows look coordinated with the the landscapes. And yes, I'm referring to those B&W cows that look like pinup models for butter and milk ads.

But now on to the pictures - needless to enumerate, we had a fabulous trip.

We got off to a 'different' start by flying into Zurich from Cologne (explanation in my previous post) and then hitting the Zurich main station.

They had a volleyball ??! match I think happening when we were there (Yes, inside the station - they just add sand, seating areas, beer and crowds. Voila.) Which is the blue enclosure you can make out. The bus type thing is actually a restaurant, and the flying well-endowed example of femininity is utterly random. I guess they think it looks aesthetic. You got me.

So we stayed at a smallish hotel (we were on a tight budget - I know cheap tickets and cheap hotel - but TIGHT ok?! Just stick with me on this) called 'easyHotel'. Of course it was kinda snickeringly ironic since its a stone's throw away from the Zurich red light district. Tons of easy ___ ahem, ahem ... moving on, this is a family blog. But this hotel is designed in the same vein as the indian 'Ginger Hotels' - affordable, nothing fancy and very business-like in feel. It in fact had the same color scheme as well. I tell you these Tata chors ...

We ate at the restaurant above - Raja Bongo ... I know, ha ha and all that. But you won't be laughing when I tell you how much Mr Bongo and Co looted from us for what one can only describe as a modest Indian meal. 1 aloo mutter, 1 vegetable biriyani, 1 raita and 2 beers = close to the Indian equivalent of 4000 bucks. Highway robbery ... in fact I would say Expressway robbery. It was though slightly comforting to see Kingfisher Beer on the shelves, manufactured in the UK and imported by the Italians - now that's an international beer!

So our plan for day 1 in Zurich was to head out of it. We took up a tour to Mount Pilatus (around 7000 ft) - most famously believed to be the resting place of THE legendary Pontius Pilate (the judge who presided over Christ's trial, and more notoriously ok-ed his crucifixion). Of course nothing to prove or disprove the same - but interesting nevertheless.

The bus ride started at Zurich, and went through meadows and some other pretty Swiss towns (more notably in them - Kussnacht, which is supposedly where the famous William Tell shot an arrow through an apple on his son's head and did some other cool Rajnikant-type stunts), before finally reaching the pretty town of Lucerne.

Isn't that puhrtey?

Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo!!!

A traditional Swiss house in the smaller towns ...

At Lucerne, the order of the day was to see the famous Lion Memorial - a really quite imposing statue of a dying lion, dedicated to Swiss soldiers who lost their life while they served under the French ... for most Swiss, it is more a memorial of a really bad time, when they, who usually are neutral, were forced to send their sons to serve under foreign kings just for the money.

Bata Zindabad!!! Mera Desh Mahaan and all that :-)

From there we wandered around Lucerne a stumbled upon a .... flea MARKET!!! And once exposed to that irresistible word starting with 'M' and ending with 'K', it was necessary to do some looking around. We did find quite a few oddities ...

Did you know they sold the Matrix Trilogy in a box set like this with a FREE cool Neo doll??!! DUDE!!!!

There was tons of stuff to see around Lucerne as well (Did you know it was the 5th most popular tourist destination as figured by Tripadvisor? So there!) ... so sights with brief intros below ...