Being in Europe for around 8 months, I was wondering what really Switzerland feels like as it is praised by almost everyone as being a beautiful country. So, with a long Easter weekend coming up, I had determined to go and have a look. And it was sure a good visit.
The first one were the Rhine falls, situated nearby Zurich (obviously the Rhine river). The Rhine falls are the largest falls in Europe and you need to take a really quick 4-5 minutes boat ride to reach there. There is so much water around you that it feels as if it is drizzling around.
There are multiple points, one is a landmass right in the middle of the falls which has steps going all the way to the top of the falls. Another one is the Schloss Laufen, a beautifully situated castle at a cliff on the side of the falls.
Then next on to the highest altitude place in Europe, which is Jungfrau (4158 meters). Not only the destination Jungfrau but also the way to get there was a spectacular two and a half hours train ride. You could see the landscape morphing from lush green to pure whites as you go higher.
The train network is really very good in Switzerland. All of them being electrified, they sure are conscious about the environment. This also reflected in the fact that the air was so fresh to breathe in, making me feel like we live in way too polluted environments in the urbanized areas. Squeezing out every bit of energy was designed in the steep rails. When the trains climb up, they use up electricity. But when they go down, they generate the same and give it back to their grid where the other trains can utilize it. Thumbs up for that!
Now over at the top. Being at such a high altitude, I experienced little problems while breathing. Not sure if everyone experiences the same. The top had quite a lot of attractions like the panorama spot, snow caves and an open area called snow field to relax around in the snow. Unfortunately, the weather was not good being snowy and windy with around -10 degrees celsius, which barely allowed me to see anything after a few meters. The panorama platform was a strong mesh floored metal platform. I didn’t notice the mesh flooring until I looked down and was freaked out seeing nothing below (I’m afraid of heights by the way 😨). It is a protruding platform with absolutely nothing below it!
After playing around with the snow with my colleagues and getting tired, we started off to return back.
The next one was Mount Titlis, yet again a spectacular view where a cable car rides to the top and have a large area to roam around in the snow. The weather again was not very good but much better than in Jungfrau. At least it was not very windy but still was snowing.
Here we actually played around bombing a lot of snow balls and making snow fairies. Some areas were abundant with thick layers of snow where I tried to go in and ended up knee deep in snow.
There was also a cliff walk bridge, which actually connected two cliffs together. Yet again, a strong metal mesh flooring with nothing but rocks covered with snow way below. As I walked over it, the whole bridge was bouncing, which was even more terrifying for my colleagues who are much more afraid of heights than me. While I was enjoying jumping on the bridge, they freaked out and stuck to the side rails 😈. Nevertheless, it was time well spent.
So that ended the visit. I would definitely say that Switzerland is a place to visit at least once in your lifetime (it is expensive though). With a variety of landscapes from greens to whites, winding roads, tunnels, extensive rail network and most importantly the fresh feel you get, the visit is well worth doing once.
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