switzerland

When I was a kid my dad went on a business trip to Switzerland and brought back an amazing block of chocolate. It was displayed like a storybook – you would open the top flap of the box, which was around A4-size, and reveal a milk chocolate hazelnut scene of the Swiss Alps. Evidently this chocolate was too good for children and so was hidden in my mum’s bedside drawer (ingenious!). It was the most delicious chocolate I had ever tasted. I could not stop myself eating it. I would sneak in for a small piece (maybe a bit of the mountain tops) and then ten minutes later another piece… then another… and another, until after a few days all that was left was perhaps a lone goat grazing in the corner meadow (my logic: I haven’t eaten the whole thing so maybe they won’t notice). I’m pleased to report that our recent Swiss experience was just as delectable (without the guilt and slightly queasy aftermath).

We spent 5 days travelling across Switzerland by train and were amazed by the natural beauty of the country: a diverse mix of snow-covered mountains, lakes, rivers, steep cliffs, waterfalls, meadows and pastures, farmland, rugged landscapes and palm-tree lined shores. The cows really do wear big bells around their necks, the air is fresh and you can understand how Heidi was restored to full health through nature’s curative properties.

Day 1: Golden Pass train around Lake Geneva to Montreux to Lauterbrunnen (just outside Interlaken). This is known as Bernese Oberland country and is the setting for many Bollywood films – the spectacular landscapes are seen as an appropriate backdrop for the dramatic, highly romantic themes in the films. As such, the area is a large Indian tourist market (the first we’ve noticed in Europe so far). Our hotel room had waterfall views.

Day 2: up Jungfraujoch (the highest station in Europe and guaranteed snow year round) then Golden Express train from Interlaken to Luzern. Luzern is also situated on a lake and is home to Europe’s oldest wooden bridge and a lovely historic town centre.

Day 3: Luzern to Chur to catch the Glacier Express train to St Moritz. This journey takes you across bridges, through tunnels blasted out of the mountains, along cliffs and through stark landscapes. St Moritz is huge during the ski season and in summer, but at this time of year it’s a ghost town (we didn’t mind). We saw a deer while walking in the woods (I originally thought it was a large hare – who knew deer had fluffy cotton tails?)

Day 4: Bernina Express from St Moritz across the Bernina Pass, into Italy at Tirano, bus around Lake Como, back into Switzerland at Lugano. Again, amazing views and between St Moritz and Tirano you descend some 7,000 feet around like a corkscrew. A flash rainstorm meant that we couldn’t really see Como, but enough to remember how much we loved Italy and to appreciate the more laidback sites (as the guidebook says, ‘While the Swiss love meticulously manicured gardens and painstakingly renovated houses, the Italians take things a bit easier’).

Day 5: Lugano and home from Milan Malpensa airport. Lugano is a great summer, sunshine holiday town with Italian-speaking, very well dressed people, and a great place to just relax (in that strange last day of the holiday, can feel the hours ticking down to when you have to get to the airport, please let me stay… just a bit longer, I’m not ready to go back yet, please, PLEASE!!! relaxed kind of way).