The last blog on our Europe tour Part-3 journey up to Salzburg was covered. This blog part-4 covers journey between Munich-Zurich- Lucerne -Mt Titlis-Zurich-Delhi. .The complete itinerary looked like :
We boarded Euro cities train no 196 and was excited for what we were about to see passing through the Alpine region while it was snowing.
When we reached Zurich we were in for an unexpected problem. I had seen in google map that Hotel I had booked was just 100 m from Zurich railway station. How ever I had no internet connectivity in Europe except WiFi available in all the Hotels we had stayed. We started walking with our trolley bags in a direction I remembered. However instead of next left turn from the railway station, we took left turn the moment we came out of the station. In was raining and we took out umbrellas adding to our difficulties of walking. Soon we knew that we are lost. There was no one in the street for asking the way and we stopped at an road junction. Soon we saw a postman delivering mails. He was very helpful and we were happy to know that we were still near the Hotel. We soon walked to the hotel and checked in.
Zurich is the financial capital of Switzerland and the largest and the busiest city. As per wikipedia it is "Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years (although this only indicates human presence in the area and not the presence of a town that early)"
In the room I used the universal pin converters to charge our mobiles and tab from a Swiss power outlet. However I forgot to disconnect the tab which stopped working in the morning due to some fault may be over charging. Now we were dependent only on space left in the memory cards in our mobiles, camera and the flip video recorder. I called the travel agents to know about next day's program and was pleasantly surprised that our bus for sight seeing to Lausanne and Mt Titlis will start from the bus park just opposite our hotel.
DAY-9 Zurich to Mt Titlis
As we were likely to be late and since we had to catch our 10 PM flight to Moscow, we needed to check out and keep our luggage in Hotel's left luggage room after enjoying nice buffet break fast of the hotel. We asked the hotel reception to book for us train ticket for Zurich Airport for evening train. In the morning we had reached the bus park in front of the hotel. While waiting for the Titils bus we met Mr & Mrs Prasad from Vizag India, who were also going to Titlis by the same bus. We boarded the bus and started enjoying the views on way to Lucerne.
LUCERNE
On reaching Lucerne we had a walking tour of Chapel Bridge, Monument of Dying Lion and other attractions.
Scenes beyond Lucerne on way to Mt Titlis was breath taking. We came across rope ways routinely used for transportation by village residents of higher altitudes. We were to use cable cars and rotating Gondola to reach to the top of 10000 ft Mt Titlis.
ENGELBERG AND MT TITLIS
We reached Engelberg cable car station within 1 hour and went ahead to buy the cable car ticket up to Mt Titlis. We two and Prasad family occupied same closed cable car meant for 6 people. We were immediately transported to fantasia land. Each of us were frantically using camera and video recorder and we did not speak for first 5 minutes. We needed to change cable car to "Rotair Gondola at a particular place. In between the car stopped probably for skiers. There it was written in Hindi " टिटिलिस पहाड़ की चोटी पर कृपया बैठे रहे " at the next change for Rotair also contained following written in Hindi "विश्व के प्रथम घूमने वाले गोंडोला में आपका स्वागत हैं " Seems may Indian visit this place, we saw many Nepalese too. Mt Titlis has MSL of 10620 ft.
By the time we returned it was little late for our train to Zurich Airport - Particularity as we were to collect our luggage and train ticket from Hotel reception. We rushed to railway station, and it took some more time to locate platform for the train going to airport. Any way just as we reached the train was about to move. My thanks to the train conductor who allowed us to enter the higher class compartment which was nearest to us. Anyway when we reached there was no hurry since check in was still to start. We were sweating due to layer of warm clothes due to heating in the airport and had to locate wash room quickly for changing our clothes. We had to spend one night at Moscow airport for our flight. We went clicking.
Blog Part-1 : Day 1: Delhi-Moscow-Munich (by air), Day 2 Munich-Nuremberg-Prague, Day Prague day 2 to 4.
Blog Part-2 Day-4 Prague to Vienna Day 5 Vienna to Budapest Day 5 to 7
Blog Part-3 Day 7 Budapest -Melk- Salzburg Day 8 Salzburg- Munich
Blog Part-4 Day 9 Munich to-Zurich (By Train) Day 10 Zurich -Lucerne-Mt Titlis-Zurich. Day 10 & 11 Return to Delhi via Moscow
See this part of journey on you tube 1. Europe trip part-4 Munich-Zurich-Lucerne
Blog Part-2 Day-4 Prague to Vienna Day 5 Vienna to Budapest Day 5 to 7
Blog Part-3 Day 7 Budapest -Melk- Salzburg Day 8 Salzburg- Munich
Blog Part-4 Day 9 Munich to-Zurich (By Train) Day 10 Zurich -Lucerne-Mt Titlis-Zurich. Day 10 & 11 Return to Delhi via Moscow
See this part of journey on you tube 1. Europe trip part-4 Munich-Zurich-Lucerne
2. Lucerne-Engelburg-Mt Titlis-Zurich
Hotels where we stayed:
Night-1 :NH Munich airport
Nights 2&3 : Hotel Barcelo Prague
Nights 4 : Hotel Kavalier Vienna
Nights 5&6 : Hotel Mercure Budapest (Buda)
Night 7 : Hotel Ramda, Salzburg
Night 8 : Hotel Ibis Parkstad Munich
Night 9 : Hotel Walhalla Zurich
Night-1 :NH Munich airport
Nights 2&3 : Hotel Barcelo Prague
Nights 4 : Hotel Kavalier Vienna
Nights 5&6 : Hotel Mercure Budapest (Buda)
Night 7 : Hotel Ramda, Salzburg
Night 8 : Hotel Ibis Parkstad Munich
Night 9 : Hotel Walhalla Zurich
DAY-8 Munich to Zurich
The Cosmos tour no 6050 for covering Hungary, Czechia, Austria and Germany was over on Day 8 and we had celebrated the same with a fare well dinner in a Munich restaurant. We still had another 2 days to cover a slice of Switzerland and then back to Delhi via Moscow. On day 9 in the morning we took our break fast early in the morning in Hotel Ibis, Munich and then called for a Taxi to go to Munich haupt bahnhof (Main Railway Station). Yes you heard it right we had planned to take a Swiss train passing through snow covered Alps.
The Hotel lobby was slippery due to continuous snowing for the whole night. It was raining even in the morning. We were surprised when the taxi driver replied to me in Hindi. I asked him how he knows Hindi ? Is he an Indian or Pakistani? He said he is from Afghanistan and he has learnt Hindi from viewing Shahrukh Khan's movies. So my daughter was right we were going to Yash Chopra's land i.e. Switzerland. We tried to capture last minute views of Munich from Taxi.  |  |
| Ibis Hotel-Munich | In Euro-rail Munich to Zurich |
We boarded Euro cities train no 196 and was excited for what we were about to see passing through the Alpine region while it was snowing.
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| In Euro-rail to Zurich | In Euro-rail to Zurich | In Euro-rail to Zurich |
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| In Euro-rail to Zurich | In Euro-rail to Zurich | In Euro-rail to Zurich |
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| In Euro-rail to Zurich | Reached Zurich | Reached Zurich |
Zurich is the financial capital of Switzerland and the largest and the busiest city. As per wikipedia it is "Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years (although this only indicates human presence in the area and not the presence of a town that early)"
In the room I used the universal pin converters to charge our mobiles and tab from a Swiss power outlet. However I forgot to disconnect the tab which stopped working in the morning due to some fault may be over charging. Now we were dependent only on space left in the memory cards in our mobiles, camera and the flip video recorder. I called the travel agents to know about next day's program and was pleasantly surprised that our bus for sight seeing to Lausanne and Mt Titlis will start from the bus park just opposite our hotel.
I had earlier visited Swiss towns of Geneva and Lagenthal but they were official visits & this was my first visit to Switzerland as tourists.
DAY-9 Zurich to Mt Titlis
As we were likely to be late and since we had to catch our 10 PM flight to Moscow, we needed to check out and keep our luggage in Hotel's left luggage room after enjoying nice buffet break fast of the hotel. We asked the hotel reception to book for us train ticket for Zurich Airport for evening train. In the morning we had reached the bus park in front of the hotel. While waiting for the Titils bus we met Mr & Mrs Prasad from Vizag India, who were also going to Titlis by the same bus. We boarded the bus and started enjoying the views on way to Lucerne.
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| Walhalla Hotel | View of tram from Hotel |
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| With Prasads @ Bus park | Zurich HB Station |
We were looking to both sides of bus for photographic views and both our cameras and video recorder was busy as we did not want to miss anything.
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| On way to Lucerne | On way to Lucerne | On way to Lucerne |
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| On way to Lucerne | On way to Lucerne | On way to Lucerne |
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| On way to Lucerne | On way to Lucerne | Hofkirche Leodegar Chrch |
LUCERNE
On reaching Lucerne we had a walking tour of Chapel Bridge, Monument of Dying Lion and other attractions.
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| Jesuit Church, Lucerne |
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| Chapel Bridge, Lucerne |
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| By the side of Lake |
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| Monument of Dying Lion |
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| Mt Pilatus Mountain Railway |
Scenes beyond Lucerne on way to Mt Titlis was breath taking. We came across rope ways routinely used for transportation by village residents of higher altitudes. We were to use cable cars and rotating Gondola to reach to the top of 10000 ft Mt Titlis.
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| Lucerne Engelberg | Lucerne to Engelberg | Lucerne to Engelberg |
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| Lucerne to Engelberg | Lucerne to Engelberg | Lucerne to Engelberg |
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| Lucerne to Engelberg | Lucerne to Engelberg | Lucerne Engelberg |
ENGELBERG AND MT TITLIS
We reached Engelberg cable car station within 1 hour and went ahead to buy the cable car ticket up to Mt Titlis. We two and Prasad family occupied same closed cable car meant for 6 people. We were immediately transported to fantasia land. Each of us were frantically using camera and video recorder and we did not speak for first 5 minutes. We needed to change cable car to "Rotair Gondola at a particular place. In between the car stopped probably for skiers. There it was written in Hindi " टिटिलिस पहाड़ की चोटी पर कृपया बैठे रहे " at the next change for Rotair also contained following written in Hindi "विश्व के प्रथम घूमने वाले गोंडोला में आपका स्वागत हैं " Seems may Indian visit this place, we saw many Nepalese too. Mt Titlis has MSL of 10620 ft.
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| Mt Titlis Cable Car | Mt Titlis Cable Car |
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| Mt Titlis Cable Car | Mt Titlis Cable Car |
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| Mt Titlis Cable Car | At Mt Titlis |
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| Mt Titlis Cable Car | At Mt Titlis |
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| At Mt Titlis- Ice flier | At Mt Titlis |
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| At Mt Titlis-Cliff Walk | Skier cable car Stop |
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| At Mt Titlis -Ice Flyer | At Mt Titlis |
By the time we returned it was little late for our train to Zurich Airport - Particularity as we were to collect our luggage and train ticket from Hotel reception. We rushed to railway station, and it took some more time to locate platform for the train going to airport. Any way just as we reached the train was about to move. My thanks to the train conductor who allowed us to enter the higher class compartment which was nearest to us. Anyway when we reached there was no hurry since check in was still to start. We were sweating due to layer of warm clothes due to heating in the airport and had to locate wash room quickly for changing our clothes. We had to spend one night at Moscow airport for our flight. We went clicking.
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| Moscow SVO Airport | Moscow SVO Airport |
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| Moscow SVO airport | Moscow SVO airport |
We had an interesting incident in Aeroflot flight between Moscow and Delhi. We were not able to mention food choice during booking and usual anwers to it during check in was "we will serve you Indian Veg meals, if available". We managed. However we were sure our choice - Indian Veg meals. will be available in Delhi flight at least. It was Thursday and both of us needed only veg meals. To our dismay the air hostess had only chicken rice as Indian meals. When we refused and told her we won't have anything, She was at pains to see that we donot go hungry. She offered to serve chicken rice after removing chicken.. We smiled at her. She had her own doubt whether a vegetarian will eat chicken rice with chicken removed. She was how ever at pains to make us eat something. We were famished too having spent 16 uncomfortable hours without proper food, since hardly any vegetarian food was available at the airport. She however brought some bread, butter, fruit etc which was ok with us. So wait for my next travelogue.. neigh traveblog. Some videos are enclosed.
Monument of Dying Lion Lucerne
Monument of Dying Lion Lucerne
Cable Car to Mt Titlis
On Titlis Top (Peak)
It was really such an experience ..out of the world. That's why evey beautiful place in India, we always rename as Switzerland of India.
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