Growing up in India, it was impossible to escape visions of
misty green mountains and flowing chiffon sarees that are the cultural
ambassadors of Switzerland thanks to Yash Chopra & co. Would it not then be
sacrilege to live so close by and not pay Switzerland a visit? As I explained
this fact to my husband, he did what any long-suffering married man would do.
He handed me his credit card, blocked 5 vacation days on his calendar, and went
back to work. It takes ages to get your man to this level of give-uppyness, but
ladies, you must persevere.
Off to Switzerland we went then, on a train so sleek and
fast that it has often swept the eyelashes off my anatomy when it has whooshed
pass my platform at small stations in Amsterdam. Never able to sit peacefully
in one place, I managed to find unreserved seats right behind the driver, and
get a cockpit view of the journey through Germany. As I type this paragraph, I realize that
writing about the next eight days will take me reams and reams of virtual
paper, so I’m just going to write a helpful article for any of you planning to
undertake a Swiss odyssey.
Where to stay:
Look at the map of Switzerland. It’s a fairly big country. Now zoom out and
look at the map of Germany. THAT is a really big country. When in Switzerland,
just stay wherever you find affordable (good luck!) and comfortable
accommodation. We had booked ourselves into a number of different cities, but
in hindsight, seven nights in Basel or Bern would have been more or less the
same. If you’re staying at hotels that are a notch below your usual standards,
make sure to include a night at an Etap hotel, which makes everything else feel
miles better. A big thumbs up to the YMCA hostel in Basel, which has clean and
comfortable en suite rooms, an affordable breakfast, and access to a sparkling
communal kitchen, which brings us to the next point:
What to eat: Euro
notes or, if you want a colourful meal, Swiss Francs. About 6 hours into your
Swiss visit, you will realize that you cannot win the battle against food bills.
When McDonalds is twice as expensive as back home, and back home is a fairly
expensive Western European country, then you know you’re in trouble.
Fortunately, two gigantic supermarket chains: Coop and Migros have stores
almost everywhere, and if you go in the summers, you’ll find that spending under 20
francs on yogurt, salads, fresh fruit and some cheese and bread for two makes
for a very satisfactory compromise, at least once a day. Sit down for a hot
meal, and you either lose no less than twice that sum, or you ingest good old
McDonalds, (I bet the 100% recyclable burger boxes come back as coffins for
the patrons). Of course our vegetarianism means that we go prepared to just eat
our own socks if needed when we travel through Europe, and things might be
different for you.
How to go about:
As soon as you land in Switzerland, throw your bags in the hotel, eat the Toblerone
on your pillow, grab something cold to drink before you get a heat stroke (Yash
Chopra, I want my money back! I got sunburn and rashes in "misty" Switzerland)
and head to the ticket counter at the station, and get your Swiss Pass. One
magical ticket to all the trains, buses, trams and boats for the rest of your
trip. It’s not cheap by any standard, and you’d probably not spend that much
money if you just did what you came to Switzerland thinking you’ll do, but when
you’re on a train with your Swiss map spread in your lap, and you see a darling
little station that you just MUST hop out at and explore, and you can guess
with a little common sense how you will find an alternate route back, then the
Swiss Pass lets you do just that! The map that comes along with the pass is your best friend. We took a total of 21 train rides within
Switzerland, about 5 boat rides and a cable car ride as well. Would we have
done as much without the pass? Never!
What places to visit:
That’s something we can all safely agree to disagree about. Of all the
places we managed to visit, Bern was my favorite walk-through city, Zurich my
favorite overnight halt, and the hike down from Lake Trübsee to Engelberg my favorite scenic bit. The best thing about
Switzerland is that if you find yourself travelling to a tourist trap that’s a
big letdown, you can go visit something cute or surreal or sublime that is
always just half an hour away! We ran from Interlaaken within an hour, and took
refuge in a small lakeside town till our train back showed up, with our grocery
store yogurt to keep us company.
Trains: The Swiss
Pass says on the back that we’re in a country where transport runs on time.
They are not exaggerating. It’s only because the Swiss are a peaceful and
non-violent nation that half-severed bodies who did not board their posteriors
at 9:00 sharp are not seen regularly on trains. Also, every train has unique
character and charm, and the ones with pull-down windows can con you into
thinking trains are something you stick your head out of. I was pulled back
into the coach by the husband’s aghast look and an approaching electric pole
that almost gave me a new hairstyle. The Glacier Express was beautiful despite
the dismal lack of glaciers in the summer, and though civilized folk will tell
you otherwise, it is quite ok to carry your own sandwiches on board and refuse
the criminally expensive three-course meal everyone else chooses to have on
board.
What to carry/buy:
Carry a camera with a decent memory card and a reliable battery, and everything you
need to charge it up and take hundreds more pictures the next day. There are
some kooky safety plugs in many hotels that do not let you use even European
plugs, but you can get convertors from the hotel. And whatever else you might
need, because Switzerland is not a great place to be buying clothes and
essential supplies from. In fact, unless you have cow-bell dementia from too
much Shahrukh Khanning, you needn’t buy anything except some chocolates for
folks back home. Buy coffee at Starbucks once or twice a day, and four francs
will get you a visit to the loo, a drink of water, a laxative (can’t call that
sludge coffee, I’m afraid), and 20 minutes of Internet time to download the map
of whatever city you’re in.
And finally: The
famous sights are so full of tourists that you’d think the roads of India and
China would be empty all summer. To avoid rib-cage fracture and the frustration
that comes from the vague sense of unreachable aloo parathas or sambhar cooking
somewhere nearby, study the itineraries of tour companies online. Note down the
10-odd places in Switzerland on their “must-see” list. Don’t see any of them.
