A Pinay in Europe

Previous: Day 4 - Wengen and the Jungfrau Glacier

That trip to the Top of Europe (Jungfrau glacier) was the best experience so far since we arrived in Switzerland four days ago!  Now we have to do another high altitude experience, the 4,478 meters high and world famous Matterhorn!  No, we are not climbing to the top, we will merely attempt to get as close as we can to see it and that’s where our next destination will be -  Zermatt.  From Wengen to Zermatt, it takes 3 hours and 4 changes of trains…holy cow!  But no panic, the Swiss train network is as perfect as can be so getting on and off trains will just be a breeze.  And in order to reduce the possibility of missing our trains, we asked everyone, even if the answer is right infront of our eyes, we asked!  Imagine, if we didn’t do that, it would be horrendous running around and getting lost with our heavy luggages! 

From Wengen going down to Lauterbrunnen were we caught our train to Interlaken, the scenery is a sight to behold.  Waterfalls, lovely church spires,  mountains and picturesque villages.

On the trains, we got seated on the same cars as these passionate backpackers who take mountain/ice climbing seriously.

This is the church-spire of St Niklaus seen on the Visp-Zermatt leg of our train journey.

Our train arriving in Zermatt station

Omega clock on the train station!  This is where we bought our tickets for a cogwheel train ride up to Gornergrat, 3,089 m in altitude

On our way up, we see ski lift and cable car stations such as this one.

..and hikers, too!  That’s the Matterhorn covered in the clouds!

Such pristine beauty!

I couldn’t stop clicking my camera for all these awesome view!

After some 45 minutes of continuous climbing, we got off the station in Gornergrat.  You can see the same train going back down.

Getting out of the train, we have to feed our tickets to these barriers so we could get in.  It’s the same when going out.

Some of the passengers went off in their hiking gears as soon as we got out of the train.

The map showing Zermatt below and where we are now (top, encircled)

The train station seen from our viewing deck.

I wanted so much to pose like them but I have fear of heights!

Sleep tight, monsieur!

Time to sit for a drink…and for the camera!

Gornergrat church

and a Gornergrat vendor.  She’s selling watercolour paintings of this beautiful scenery!

The majestic Matterhorn!

A family of hikers

On our train trip down, we had to stop few times to pick some passengers.  This is a mirror on one of the the train stops reflecting the passengers getting on the train 

A better view of the Matterhorn.  Does it remind you of something?  The “Summit” mineral water bottle of course!

Hop, we are going down…

Back in Zermatt, it’s like there is a hotel facade beauty competition!

or a flower display contest…

Nice!

Zermatt, like Wengen, is a carless town.  Only electric vehicles ply the streets.  Our taxi driver tells us that only ambulances, police cars and fire trucks are allowed to run on diesel.   A fully charged electric vehicle runs only up to 7 hours, hence, their cars are fitted with two electric engines so that one acts as a reserve for the other.

 

Notice the small size of their vehicles.  They run smoothly and very efficient for heavy luggages.

After our Gornergrat cog train trip, it’s time to hit the cable-car express!

And by “Express”, it means you don’t even have time to stifle a cry as you will be very busy holding on to the rails!

The cable car station stopping midway, in Schwarzsee

Unfortunately, we went on too late, at 4pm, they close at 5pm.  The ticket seller says we need at least 3 hours to enjoy the Glacier Paradise which is the highest stop of the the Cable-Car express.   ”It doesn’t matter”, we told her, “we just want to experience the  cable car!”.  She says we have 45 minutes remaining and that includes the ride going up and back down.  It’s okay, we thought.  We have been to the Jungfrau Glacier and the experience is probably the same.

This is the Schwarzsee stop.  Getting hungry is no problem as there are restaurant signs placed on strategic spots.

Here it is.  We found it, hurray!  But we can’t eat, there’s no time, argghhh!

Neat!  this must be for mountain bikes (there’s a lot of them who go up there!) needing some screws tightened.  You see this facility just outside the cable car station.

A quick information before you set out to hike

The Matterhorn again, seen from the cable car going down

It’s like Switzerland in miniature! 

The big town of Zermatt in the valley below

Farm cottages

Back on flat land, we saw these strange things.  Ahh, it’s for storing your skis but you have to insert 2CHF to unlock and lock the thing.

Time to do some serious sightseeing now.  This is the old part of Zermatt where we got to see ancient chalets.

An outdoor museum!

The cross with its typically-alpine roofing, to protect it from snow

This one too..

Young shephers suddenly arrived with their flock of goats, great opportunity for picture taking! 

The next morning, before we checked out of the hotel to catch our train to Geneva, I woke up early to do some photography.  This is taken from the bridge just outside of our hotel.  A cloudless view of the Summit…errr..Matterhorn mountain. 

 

On zoom…

And the cemetery which is in the center of the town, just next to the church.  There is a big space dedicated for mountaineers around the world who died trying to climb the Matterhorn.

The Parish Church of St Mauritius built in 1913

The Police Station

An alpine mailbox

Next: Day 7 - Geneva

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Previous: Day 3 - Interlaken, Switzerland

We had our hotel booked in Wengen so from Interlaken, we caught the train to Lauterbraunnen (30 mins) then changed to another train for Wengen (15mins)

The Lauterbrunnen train station

No need to search for a train arrival/departure board as the cog wheel train to Wengen stands on the quai that says “Wengen”.  There were so much tourists of various nationalities; the camera-toting tour groups of Chinese, Japanese and few Indians who would pose all over the rail tracks, below rail notices, next to luggage lockers, alongside the rail fencing and every standing structure there is, while the Europeans are geared to the max with their telescopic hiking sticks, polar jackets, rock-climbing shoes, and some passionates with their hiking gears such as snow axe, ropes,  anchors, helmets, etc. 

We arrived in Wengen a little before 8pm but it was still light, thank goodness.  Now our first job is to find a way to find our hotel.  It’s supposed to be only walking distance from the station, well, Wengen is but an alpine village and every place is walking distance.   Besides, there is no public transport here, with the exception of a cable car,  and it is illegal to have a car.  It is a pedestrianized village, their only way of preserving the clean air environment.

There is a large electronic map at the station and we only had to press the button next to where our hotel’s name is written and voila, a long red light flashed up on the map, connecting the spot “You are here” (which is at the train station, of course!) up to the spot where our hotel is located.  Seconds later, we were walking along the narrow snaking road going up the hill, a bit steep, if you ask me as we were struggling to pull our heavy luggages up!

It is so easy not to get lost because there are clusters of signs directing you to your hotel or even to a pub, and they are even color-coded, such utopia!

This is the view from our hotel room window.  Such a postcard beauty!  The building on the left is the cable car station and the street below is the main street which is typically quiet except for the noise coming from the travellers’ rolling luggages.

Tourists wheeling their luggages up to their hotel. 

 

One can phone the hotel for a pick-up but with the miniscule size of the vehicle, they can only take on the elderly and those with reduced mobility. 

And these vehicles run totally on electricity.

The only diesel-run vehicles exempt from plying Wengen roads are ambulances, fire trucks and police cars.  Even these are sized only a little bigger than a rubbish bin to adapt to the narrow roads.

The picturesque mountain village of Wengen is situated at an altitude of 1274meters, on a sheltered terrace high above the Lauterbrunnen Valley at the foot of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau mountain ranges! 

It is also a flowered village.  The only houses that have no flower displays are the abandoned ones.

The cable car station with cars as big as a bus leave the village every few minutes, to go up the peak of Mannlichen, a good starting point for hiking activities.

We went hiking the next morning and it was such fun exploring the flora and fauna, including a giant slug slowly crawling on this road.

Charming facades of chalets that are like museum showcases.

Every house and building has to be bedecked with geraniums, so lovely!

Next day, we set out for our trip to the Top of Europe - the Jungfrau glacier.  So much tourists also waiting for the same train.

Noticeable is the large amount of Chinese tourists.

The trip to the Top of Europe

This is the cog railway starting from Interlaken all the way to Wengen and continuing up to the Jungfrau.  The cogwheel of the train meshes into the toothed rail (seen in photo) so the train could climb up steep hills.

We boarded the train and as it slowly ascended to the top, we see hikers preferring to climb on foot rather than by train. 

Climbing up

Maintenance work along the way is continuing.  Mountains are eternally eroding and it is important to build strong retention walls to keep it from crumbling down, or at least, to minimize the damage as a consequence.

Fantastic scenery.  No wonder their cattle produces such delicious milk, the grass is free from any forms of air pollution.

I think the bell is too heavy for him, he seems to be straining from the bell’s weight…

Wow! that must be liters of milk!

Alpine flowers

..and snow fences

…and family hikers

Small patches of lakes of the purest water, you can probably drink from it.

Terrace above the clouds and snow

Slate-roofed houses and frozen waterfalls

The highest street signs in Europe

After some 40 minutes of negotiating a long tunnel, the train stopped for 5 minutes on this spot to allow the passengers to have a quick view of the glacier panorama

And this is what we saw from the window!  the purest white blanket of snow!

Then after few more minutes, we finally arrived at the Jungfrau village, a whole complex of restaurants, shops, cinema, Ice Palace and observatory deck built at the top of the Jungfrau. 

Inside the Ice Palace where I struggled to walk on ice.

And enjoyed posing next to ice sculpture of seals

and bears

and penguins, too!

Tourists posing by the ice walls

Some people just can’t leave a place without leaving their mark.  This is part of the railing on the icy wall where one has to hold tight so as not to slide.  I was sliding all the time!  The soles of my shoes are so worn out, they are actually as smooth as a baby’s skin, no wonder they cannot grip on ice!

Even at nearly 3,500m above, advertising is still good business.  They have to use ice-proof printing material, I supposed.

This was our way of leaving our mark, signing our name on this Unesco banner.

We ventured out on the snowy wonderland and my nephew had so much fun wading on snow

We also went out to the Sphinx observatory to experience being up and outside the glacier surroundings.  Be aware though that the high altitude could pose breathing difficulties.

And before saying goodbye to Jungfrau, we paid homage to the man responsible for making it easy for ordinary people (like us) to climb up to this place even without knowledge of mountain climbing…Monsieur Adolf Guyer-Seller.  He initiated the building of the Jungfrau Railway in 1893.

One last photo op before boarding the train back to Wengen

Next:  Day 5 - Zermatt and the Matterhorn

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Previous:  Day 2 - Lovely Lucerne

From Lucerne, we took the Golden Pass Panoramic train to Interlaken Ost.
There is a “Golden Pass line VIP seats” on offer by the Swiss railway site but I decided to ignore it and just followed the same route via regular train for a fraction of the price and which is covered by our Swiss Pass anyway so we just hopped on.  With the VIP seat, you have to pay extra. I’m glad I made the right decision since the train we took was the same “panoramic” train but on 2nd class which is not really a big deal.  You see exactly the same view.

This is a map stuck on all the tables on the train showing the mountainous journey from Lucerne to Interlaken.  Travel time is a little over two hours.

By “panoramic”, you get a commanding view of the exceptionally picturesque scenery consisting of mountains, colourful Swiss chalets ….

 

 …. pretty villages with their tall almost needle-thin church towers

..serene lakeside towns such as Brienz which is a good starting point to explore the Bernese Oberland

The train turns to cogwheel mode as it slowly climbs up the mountains

Finally arrived in Interlaken where my guests saw snowcapped mountains for the first time since arriving in Switzerland 3 days ago.

But the real highlight of our short trip to Interlaken was the paragliding adventure of my 11-year old nephew

photo courtesy of the Twin Paragliding company

For 160CHF (206USD) and half an hour floating in the air, it’s an experience of a lifetime!

Next:  Day 4 - Wengen and the Jungfrau Glacier

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Previous: Day 1 - Wondering Zurich

Lucerne is only 50 minute train trip from Zurich and is the starting point of our improvised Golden Line - Glacier express route.  And with our Swiss Pass bought from Zurich, it was like Utopia hopping on and off trams, buses and trains without the hassle of  queueing up for tickets.

 

Lucerne train station

As soon as our train arrived in the city, we immediately searched for the Tourist Office to ask how we could find our hotel.

Showing us a tourist map, she patiently explained that it is only a 10-minute walk from the station passing through Lucerne’s most famous landmark - the Chapel Bridge.

This is my second time to be in Lucerne but the picture-postcard beauty of the place still leaves me completely speechless..

Almost all buildings in the old town are decorated with frescoes such as this one showing the Last Supper

Yes, frescoes and paintings everywhere.  Even the Chapel Bridge, Europe’s oldest wooden covered bridge, contains paintings dating back to the 17th century.

A must-eat when in Switzerland is their chocolates.  They are simply divine!  It must be the high quality of the milk that their cows produce,  the highest quality of grass that the cattle eat and the purest Swiss air that they take in. 

The annual music Blue Balls festival was ongoing and various bands were scattered in tuck away places such as this one in the Kurplatz open air pavilion by the lake.

This is a pastry shop specializing, obviously, in croissants.

I’ve been eating croissants in France but the Swiss version is shaped more concave. 

Lucerne is an elegant and wealthy city.  I came to that impression after seeing these gilted iron signs.

..and hair salons using convertibles as their company cars

It’s also a very catholic city.  During the Reformation, Lucerne was the only major Swiss city that remained Catholic.

It’s also a very disciplined city.  Even without cars coming, you have to wait for the green light before crossing…

The 17th century Jesuit Church with its onion-topped twin towers is the symbol of the catholic church’s struggle against Protestanism

Combined ferry-cable car-cogwheel train ride can take you up to the Rigi, Pilatus and Stanserhorn mountains for some sightseeing above the clouds

Our hotel in historic Burgerstrasse standing next to an old timber-framed building

Next:  Day 3 - The Golden Pass Line:  From Lucerne to Interlaken

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 European Tour 2011

I’m in Switzerland at this moment playing tourist guide to my sister and her family.  So at last, the European itinerary I have been burning my eyebrows for for the last few weeks is finally getting into reality.  From Paris, I flew to Basel and took a one-hour train to Zurich where I joined them.  They came from Dubai and we are really looking forward to this 4-country European tour which is to start in Switzerland.

Day One - Zurich

 It has been voted several times as the best place to live in the planet.  It is the financial capital of Switzerland and also the wealthiest city in Europe.  The streets are kept spotlessly clean and the water on the river is crystal clear.  The only foreign objects that we saw floating are the feathers of the swans that inhabit the river.

The Alps mountains in the background, the monumental Munster Bridge (1836), the Limmat river and the beautiful old buildings make Zurich an outstanding picture-postcard beauty. 

Trams from every direction come every few minutes.  It is the best way to do additional sightseeing. 

Never have I seen a jewelry shop display using ice sheets as props!

When dining out, you will find that a bottle of mineral water is as expensive as a bottle of Swiss beer so you have the choice of taking an empty bottle and re-filing it at every sight of a water fountain.  There are lots to be found in busy street corners.

The streets and outskirts of Zurich is always busy with roadworks.  No wonder every infrastructure works and all streets are clean as maintenance works is high priority in the city.

Sorry for the poor quality of the image, I just took this from our moving tram.  The Swiss are obsessed with statues.  Nice though.

We must not forget the Switzerland is the home for top-rated culinary schools so when I saw these chef-clad people, I assumed that they are culinary arts students.

You don’t get bored riding in Zurich trams.  They provide reading materials placed in glass boxes like this one.  They are also hung neatly by the windows.  I just hope they also come in English version.

They also use computer screens to indicate the tram stops and the time it takes to reach one stop from the other.

It is only in Switzerland that I see bakeries displaying a 3D image of their bread.  A powerful form of promotion, I suppose.

He looks 14 but is already directing traffic going to and from the  Zurich Zoo.  Like in France, young students are put on on-the-job training in the summer.

The Swiss are fitness-freaks. 

The University of Zurich Zentrum ranks among the top universities in the world and No. 7 in Engineering, Science and Technology.  Albert Einstein is its most famous alumnus.

The Zurich train station (1847)  is the largest railway station in Switzerland, serving up to 2,900 trains daily.

Next:   Day 2 - Lovely Lucerne

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It’s the favorite place to be every summer and since it’s the peak season of summer, our theme this Monday is everything about the Beach.

It’s the ideal place for romance
Bournemouth, England

and for showing off nice costumes and errr…..curves, with the boyfriend
Menton, France

A great place to get carried away behind the rocks, with Doogie on watch
Ventimiglia, Italy

A place to display your new shape, after going through extreme dieting
Menton, France

Tops of them all, to get the bronze effect
Menton, France

A place for grandpa to feel young again
Spotorno, Italy

To attain sublime peace and quiet
Spotorno, Italy

Or simply to catch up with reading
Spotorno, Italy

or plain sunbathing
Bordighera, Italy

In the summer, it’s the place to be…anyway
Cannes, France

and bond with friends
Nice, France

or just a quiet day with your loved one
Lyme Regis, England

A place where beach-umbrella-and-sunlounges-for-rent is booming
Cannes, France

A place to socialize
Cannes, France

or to enjoy the sea under the shade
Cannes, France

to read on your rented beach cottage
Lyme Regis, England

Or simply frolick in the water
Nice, France

But beware, it can be a deadly place
Ayshire, Scotland

or lovely place when meeting up with your long lost lover
Lido Beach, Venice, Italy

But the winter gives an entirely different picture
Wales, United Kingdom

so summer is still the favorite season
somewhere in the south of France

for families to picnic on a Sunday
Whitby, England

I simply love the beach!

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The place I dream to be this moment is Paris. Why? Because tomorrow is the final day of the Tour de France which culminates with a spectacular finish at the Champs Elysees, i.e., cycling round and round for eight times around the avenue. But I am not in Paris so the most I can do is to blog about the places we have driven past several weeks ago where the Tour went past as part of its itinerary:

This is a roundabout in the Grandes Alpes where a model of a cable car and bicycles hang side by side. The area is a skiing region, hence the cable cars. The bikes signify that the Tour de France shall be passing there.

The banner at close range

This is the Serre Chevalier Vallee where that roundabout is. It was the departing point of the Tour on its 21st of July lap. The glacier mountains of the High Alps are seen in the background.

Another spot where we saw this welcome sign for the Tour de France.  Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux is in the Rhone valley where Lyon is situated.

And this is the closest I could get to the finish line, this photo I took from the TV in 2007.  Sorry for the not-so-nice image but at least I can say that it’s my own photo

By the way, you should watch the last round as it shows Paris viewed from the sky, fantastic! It’s like going on a sightseeing tour from a helicopter complete with historical narratives from one of the TV presenters!

Let me quote again here my post of July 2007 about the Tour.  That was the time when the Spanish Roberto Contador won the race.

Yesterday was the last day of the Tour de France and I was glued to the télé (’TV’ in France) watching the colorful cyclists bike their way round and round the Champs d’Elysées and back to the Place de la Concorde at least 8 times! Eight times because they had to tackle the required number of kilometers before a winner is declared. The winner is a 24 year old guy from Madrid, Spain and how composed and good looking he was yesterday, as if he just came out of the shower, a face so impeccable and nary a sign of fatigue!  (Note:  I learned later that they do take a shower before they face the camera!)

Anyway, it was not the winner to whom my eyes were glued at but rather, to the breathtaking bird’s eyeview of Paris! And everytime a historical monument or a famous place is shown on TV, the TV commentator switches into that of a tourist guide informing the televiewers the name and history of such and such a place! 

My mother used to talk about our very own Tour of Luzon in the 60s and how she used to get out of the house to watch the colorfully-clad cyclists drove past the street close to where they used to live.
They should revive this friendly competition in the Philippines, not only to encourage sports among our PC/cellphone-obsessed youth of today but also to promote local tourism. The private sector and the Department of Tourism could work hand-in-hand in making this idea turn into reality and like France, make it a tradition for all generations to come. But no cigarette nor liquor advertising please!!

 Tour de France 2007

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South of France

After being in Paris and Lyon for the last several weeks where the weather was almost always grey and raining, it was sunshine paradise to be back in the south of France and even more bliss when I went to Menton beach yesterday!  It was so good, I suddenly found myself worshipping the sun and the blue sky as I’ve never done before!

No wonder the French Riviera is still the favorite summer destination, I saw and felt it myself!  Well, this has been our principal home for so many years so we got so used to the warm climate but our partial move to Paris made us miss the sunshine, tongs and sunbathing so much that when I came down by TGV the other day and saw the turquoise blue sea from the train window and felt the sun on my skin, I told myself how lucky I am to have the chance to live here.  

My first errand was to mail some letters so I went to Menton and how sublime to see it frolicking in colours, humanity and activity!  Summertime is when various activities are organized by the Mairie (town hall) and private clubs:

Sailing

Parasailing, anyone?

Bungee trampoline at rest.

Trampoline jumping

Volleyball

Of course, in the middle of this - and high up - is the lifeguard

Lifeguard dogs doing some rescue demonstrations

where the children are invited to play the part of being rescued

No, he’s not in the lifeguarding team, he’s actually patrolling the area for breadcrumbs!

After sunbathing and swimming, there are lots of restaurants to choose from

Everything has been set up for all your needs, such as this portable toilet

A backpacker at pause

Music and dancing being organized for tonight

Lifeguard dogs at rest

Market fair organized by the Overseas Territories of France such as Guadalupe

The Friday flea market is on.

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Menton is one of the most beautiful towns in France. 

It is one of my most favorite places to spend the day, simply because it takes only 1-euro to get there from where we live, by shuttle bus.  It’s an ideal place to do my mail errands, such as what I did today, and after that trip at the post office, I went scouting for photo opps, with my point and shoot in tow, set on pin-camera mode. 

Everybody is on holiday mood on this seaside town.

Saw this concave image of a building reflected from a ball display of a shop and I thought it should make an interesting photo

The petunia display of a restaurant

potpourri for sale

Menton is the lemon capital of France so lemon liquors are one of their specialities

Herbs for fish recipe, the sachets the color of the sea..cool!

The main road to Menton is lined up with citrus-laden fruit trees.  A lemon festival take place every February.

It’s the National Day of Belgium yesterday and this bouquet of flowers sporting the colours of the Belgian flag lies on the monument of King Albert I.  Menton has a close affinity to Belgium because the King used to visit the town regularly.

A Menton hotel

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Paris 

I was at the Gare de Lyon yesterday morning waiting for my train to Nice and while watching the crowd going and coming infront of me, I thought instantly that these scenes could be a great topic for my blog today!

Here goes.. 

Advertising agencies know exactly where to put publicity banners, like this one of Longines

Gare de Lyon is one of the six large railway terminals in Paris.  It is the northern teminal of long distance trains enroute to the south of France such as Lyon, Marseille and Nice.  With TGV, France’s fastest train, one can be in Lyon in two hours for a morning meeting and be back to his office in Paris in the afternoon.

Like an airport, there are also catering companies serving the trains, as seen in this passing catering truck.

A train of rubbish bins passing by

And just like the airport,  security is high priority in train stations such as the Gare de Lyon

The Abbey Road…. train station version

Men in caps

ichi..ni..san…click! 

“Where’s my train…?”

“I need to clean my water tank…”

The catering truck at work

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