Swiss Tales-a Road Trip

I consider myself lucky. I had the opportunity to attend a conference e in Geneva in the first week of February. The first few thought that came to mind was WOW, this is the first time I will be visiting Switzerland, it will be snowing, should I stay back for a couple of days, post the conference, to travel and see some places. The answer to my last question was YES. So I spoke to my son and daughter-in-law who are based in London, to check out if they are available for a road trip in Switzerland, they were game for it! So the planning started and both of them ably charted a road trip and the journey began from Geneva.

We hired a car, from Europcar, and drove through Lausanne, to a tiny but picturesque village – Miège - where we had booked accommodation in an Air BnB. A comfortable 2 bedroom, one bathroom, flat equipped with a kitchen, living area and a small sit out. Basic utensils were provided. What stood out was clear instructions were provided to the guests on how to enter the house by punching in numbers in a secure door lock, and what to do and what not to do. Instructions and contact details to supermarkets, restaurants, takeaways were provided. We reached our accommodation late in the evening and on our way had picked up some grocery and food. Me being a vegetarian, I had to carefully pick up food that I could eat and it was pretty easy. I believe that with most of the world understating vegetarianism and vegans, grocery shops also stock food to cater to people like me. It took us around 4 hours to reach Miège from Geneva as we stopped a few times. The drive was lovely, all you could see was the contours of the Alps, different shapes and sizes. Some were capped with snow, some were bare and some were dotted with pine trees. Miège is a municipality in the district of Sierre and boasts of a unique mixture of history, culture, marketplace and restaurant. It is also a place to taste one of the finest vines. Like, in India we have coffee and tea estates attached to residences, vine yards were spotted outside people’s home.

Miege, Switzerland-Notre Dame replica- Miège is first mentioned in 1226 as Mieio. The municipality was formerly known by its German name Miesen, however, that name is no longer used. Miege houses a replica of the famous Notre Dame cathedral. After traveling around the quaint little town we returned to our house at Miege-the ski village.

The next day we woke up to a barrage of snow. Our car, the lawn, roads the mountains were all carpeted with thick snow. Surely we were disappointed, assuming that we had to be caged in the house. But when we saw the neighbours shoveling their drive way, the city civic authorities sending vehicles (that looked like tractors) clearing the road of snow. This gave us an impetus to get ready, armed with layers of warm clothes and some snacks and water, we drove out of Lausanne. Our first stop was Lake Blausse.  

Blausee is a small lake in the Kander valley above Kandergrund at 887 metres, administratively, it belongs to the Bernese Oberland. The small lake, which is really more a pond, is in the middle of a beautiful 22-acre nature park. According to a legend it is said that a maid lived close by and fell in love with a shepherd. Every day they would row on the lake and spend some romantic moments in the moonlit nights. Unfortunately, one day the shepherd fell off the cliff and died. The maid, would row everyday to mourn for the loss of the shepherd but drowned to death. Legend says that the lake turned to an intense blue colour which matched the maids eye colour.

Factually the lake was created by a landslide over 15,000 years ago. The water is crystal clear and is at a constant cool temperature.

Our second stop was Zermatt, what comes to one’s mind when you think of Zermatt is the Matterhorn Peak. Zermatt is famous for its Ski resorts and is a transport free village. The only way in and out is a train from the neighbouring village - Täsch . Our adventure started after we took a funicular to Sunnega (this houses people and all the ski equipment) and then walked down the ski slope.  We checked with the Tourist centre, since we wanted to go and have a meal at the famous Chef Vrony at Findeln. What we didn’t realise was that when the officer mentioned it is only 10 minutes walk, it was on the snow  ski slope meant to advanced skiers and not tourists on foot! We saw young, old, children where the mothers were holding a harness and skiing after them. This made one realize that people will do anything for the love of skiing. Holding my daughter-in-law’s hand I managed to walk on snow for 45 minutes. The journey was full of adventure, slipped twice – like a professional ballerina – legs in a shape of a diamond, felt scared a couple of times, but never gave up.

Our journey to eat at the Chef Vrony-Findeln was surely an adventure. It is precariously perched on a peak. Originally it was a Swiss Chalet and is today a Michelin-star restaurant, listed in the Gault Millau guides. It is surrounded by the Alps and overlooks the gorgeous Matterhorn peak – lovingly known as the Toblerone Peak. To our disappointment we could not find a table, since we had not booked in advance. However, we were directed to another restaurant which was equally beautiful. The view from the small plateau where the restaurant was perched, was breathtaking. The hostess was a chirpy lady and tried to keep all the patrons warm and happy. We had a hearty meal and were wondering if we had to trudge all the way up? However, we were informed that there is a Gondola (suspended tram) that will take us back. We bought our tickets and went high up facing bitter cold and returned to the base.

The Matterhorn Peak is on the border of the Swiss and Italian Alps. It represents 4 faces which are steep and these face the compass points. No man has dared to venture this glacier. I was in awe of this huge beauty-clear, pure and mighty.

The Principality of Liechtenstein was the next stop. It is the sixth-smallest country in the world and lies in between Switzerland and Austria in the heart of Alps. History says that the Princes of Liechtenstein originally hailed from Lower Austria. They purchased the County of Vaduz and the Dominion of Schellenberg in 1699 and 1712 and merged the 2 areas via an Imperial Diploma.

Vaduz is the capital and home of the Prince of Liechtenstein. Vaduz has a car-free center and encourages tourists to walk around freely. We had a sumptuous meal at Restaurant Adler. The host was friendly, speaking fluent French and managing English. The only words we could say was merci and smile and appreciate the ambience.

We visited Bern and saw the house where Albert Einstein Lived. Being Sunday,

the house was closed, but we managed to catch a glimpse of the house (from the outside). It is located in the center of the Old City at Kramgasse 49around 200 meters from the Clock Tower (Zytglogge

On our last day, we returned to Geneva and walked towards the UN building and Geneve lake. The UN building looks so grand with all the colourful flags swaying with the wind. The Huge chair with 3 legs and one broken leg, speaks of history and stands in from of the UN building main entrance. It symbolises opposition to land mines and cluster bombs, and acts as a reminder to politicians and others visiting Geneva.

To me the trip was awesome, lots of learning and speaks history from every corner.

Fact Sheet ·         Better to have a car and drive around ·         Air BnBs are good and cost anything from 350 swiss franc to 500 swiss franc for 3 nights and 4 days ·         Take lots of warm clothes (layers, if possible), a good pair of walking shoes and an empty water bottle (water is one of the most expensive drinks in Switzerland!)