A thing I noted in the last 3 days in Austria and Switzerland is that there are many Chinese people around, and I reasoned that it might due to the increased number of Chinese tourists who cannot speak English. And they do bring new ideas and use their connections to get more travel agencies to tie up with their place of work, like hotels and shopping complexes. And based on the small talk this morning, I confirmed that Chinese were good businessmen. The guys were chatting about how they get their Rolexes from here on heavy discount and go back home and sell them for a huge profit. On the other hand, I felt that doing business on travel makes them enjoy the travel a bit lesser and give more importance to the associated shopping.
I came on this European trip primarily for this day. This day started off beautifully, with overnight rain clearing up the sky. The roads were deserted as today was Christmas day, except for a few buses, in which almost everyone carries their pet dogs as well. I did spare a thought for all those people in the Service sectors, who need to do their job and wouldn’t be able to spend Christmas with their families, like our coach captain who has a lovely 3 year old daughter. We went to the Lion Monument, the symbol of the Swiss guard and took a few pictures. The sad looking lion is a symbol of faith and loyalty until the last breath. The tour manager told an elaborate story around this monument, but I was too busy using my camera to bother much. We even spotted an Indian restaurant Kanchi nearby, but as with everything else, it was closed.
Next up was my favorite part of the tour, the climb up Mount Titlis. We had seen a few pictures prior to booking the tour and it looked awesome. We went in the bus till the base and took a series of 3 cable cars to reach the top, the last of which is the first rotating cable car in the world. The view was simply stunning during the journey with the snow covered slopes forming the core of the spectacular scenery. Given that this was the main activity of today, we had more than 3 hours at the top, which was great. We were cursing a lack of snowfall during the trip, but on the top, it was snowing constantly. We could admire the beautiful structure of the snow flakes as they dropped onto our hands. We were covered with all the warm clothes we had, but we were a bit skeptical about the sports shoes that we had, which might get wet. So, we wore two pairs of woolen socks each, and it turned out to be a wise decision as our feet did not become too cold.
The top of Mt Titlis stands at 10000 feet and it recorded a temperature of -10 degrees Celsius today. That itself wouldn’t have been too bad, but for the strong wind at the top around 30 kmph. The first time we went out in the snow, it was too cold for me to bear, although I had myself covered from head to toe. We had a bit of an experience in the snowy conditions, but had to return back into the roof within 10 minutes. I was so freezing cold that I felt numb especially in my hands and face. I was guilty of trying to act smart and make a snow ball with my bare hands. I had also lost the feeling in my nose and it was more like a squishy lobe when I touched it. I couldn’t see my nose, but I could see my wife’s had turned all black. I have seen a lot of Discovery serials about people being caught out on the snow and Mt Everest treks and so on, but this was the real deal. What a first experience with snow. We then went for a hot lunch. We heard about an Indian restaurant up here, but that seemed to have closed this winter, so we had to make do with some French fries, salad, spaghetti and cappuccino/ shocolade. But I was sick of the constant spaghetti bash in my stomach, so I acted a bit rashly by overdoing the fries, which I had to waste. Switzerland costs a bomb and a simple lunch cost us around Fr 60, which is close to Rs 3000. I had a gulp when I realized that I was sorely running out of Swiss francs and our dinner was at stake.
Having a hot lunch (and it was searing hot) in my stomach and having had a taste of snow, literally, made us better prepared next time around. We had taken a plastic cover which enabled us to slide around in the snow easily, given us an exhilarating experience. The snow was so soft and powdery, and it spits in your face and just melts away seamlessly. It is not like rain which keeps dripping, but it just disappears without a trace once you are in warmer weather, leaving you a bit cold though. We had great fun throwing snow bombs, making snow man and playing around in the abundant snow. The brain reacts a bit slower in these conditions. Before I could comprehend what my wife said, the plastic cover she handed over to me just flew off, and off it went with the wind. I realized it a second later and gave chase, but the wind was just too strong, and it just flew away. Having given up on the precious plastic, we started trekking to the other end of the cliff. It was probably a kilometer long, and we thoroughly enjoyed the trek. In the far reaches of the peak, the snow was so soft that my leg went in almost knee deep. And like it happened with the glove yesterday, God sure didn’t want to disappoint us during this trip. I saw the plastic cover fluttering on the guard rails at the far end like a caged butterfly. I lifted it carefully and presented the trophy to my wife, who couldn’t be bothered less. But what a view we got at that point, with cliffs hanging around precariously. We stayed there for a few minutes before I felt my hands starting to get numb. Knowing that we had a long trek back, I turned around and realized to my shock that we could see not more than a few meters ahead, with thick fog eclipsing everything else. I thought I will feature in the next episode of “I shouldn’t be alive”, if I were to make it out of here :P We carefully mapped the path we had taken earlier and retraced the same path, trying to stay away from the guard poles along the way. We were surprised to see a few skiers starting to ski down slope just as we were coming back in that thick fog, but they would be more used to these conditions than we were. It was such a relief when we finally made it into the roof, and within a couple of minutes, I was back to normal again. We took a quick break and couldn’t resist a couple of other minor excursions out into the wild snowy peak. The snow shower became thicker, but our hearts melted away faster than the snow flakes at this experience.
We went to a photo shop below and were made to wear a traditional Swiss dress and pose with a yoodle. While collecting the framed photo, I was surprised to see Virender Sehwag and Nana Patekar staring at us there, from similar photos. Arghhh, if Sehwag can do it, so can I! We went down through the cable cars, but I began to miss the mountain already. Our perky single tour manager proudly announced that he had SMS-ed his ex-girl friend whom he claims is unhappily married. “Wishing you a Merry Christmas from 10000 feet above in Mt Titlis and wishing you were here with me.”
Having come down from the highs of the mountains around 4.30pm, we went for a walk around this small town. We had glimpses of the beautiful swan lake, a bridge built in 1333 and numerous buildings with distinctive architectures. The shops above the ground were all closed, but the weather was much better than yesterday, so it was pleasant walking around. A 5 minute walk from the hotel lies the railway station, which was bustling compared to the rest of the town which was aghast today. We found quite a few Indians wandering about, who might have been here on-site from one of the numerous Indian IT companies with Swiss clientele. I was impressed with an inter-city train departing Lucerne every 2 minutes. The sleeping coaches are single deckers while the seating coaches were double deckers. It was nostalgic for my wife who had spent the better part of this decade traveling between Chennai and Bangalore. We did find that all the shops in the railway station were functioning as normal, including supermarkets, shops and eateries. We did a quick roundup and found packed Bombay pulav in the supermarket and Indian vegetarian fried rice in an eatery run by Indians, which we promptly had for dinner.
Mount Titlis was indeed a truly wonderful Christmas present for everyone on this tour, especially for us who had never felt snow in our hands before. Good things never last, but then how many people were doing better things this Christmas? Off to a different country tomorrow after a good night’s sleep, knowing that I had a truly wonderful experience today. And that I didn’t run out of Swiss francs and compromise my dinner.
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