Europe Honeymoon (3) - Switzerland
Finally! Finally we reach Switzerland, which supposed to be our first stop in our Central Europe trip, but end up late by 1 day. We saw some of our tour members taking the same flight from Stockholm to Switzerland. They inform us that they reach Stockholm quite late and wasted time at Finland Helsinki airport for nothing. We understand that some of the members have flew to Rome for transit to Switzerland, and some couples and families are separated. One couple who is on honeymoon is separated, the guy took flight to stockholm while his wife took flight to Rome then both transit to Switzerland. It is all because of Finair who allocated flights by alphabetical order and therefore, couples and families are separated. We are lucky because we took extension and therefore, Finair treat us as separate from the rest of the tour group.
We reach Zurich at late night 11pm and we are dog tired and dash to wait for our lugagge, and also help collect same tour members lugagge (who are still trapped at Rome). We met up with Dennis, our tour guide who bring us to a western 'foodcourt' called 'migros'. The food is 8 Swiss for a Salmon rice. We also went to purchase some Switzerland chocolates, but our tour guide told us that the true good chocolates are Belgium Chocolates. Our coach driver is an Italian and seems quite nice.
Our coach took us to Novotel hotel, which is v near to the airport. Our tour guide told us the tour agency change the hotel due to this emergency as it is closer to the airport. The hotel is quite clean and ok.
The following day, our tour guide explained to us that he will try to cover all the itinerary but will require us to wake up earlier each day so as to catch back the lost time. Some of the tour members have arrived from Rome but some are still there as they missed the connecting flight due to flight from Rome travel halfway stop by to refuel.
We went to Berne, the capital city of Switzerland, and see the famous bear pit. Berne means 'bear' in the olden tongue and the history says that the king decide to having a hunting contest and first animal hunted will be used to name the place, which is a bear.
Berne is not a very big place (surprising) whereas Zurich seems to look more like the capital. But Berne has a history being made capital and thus it remains so. Zurich is more business and not so interesting. There is a big old clock tower at Berne which tells the time, sun and moon time in zodiac signs. There are trams everywhere, and bus travel by electricity (first time i saw tram). Then tour guide give us 1 hour break for lunch. We grab a hot bread takeaway for lunch then went walk around. There is a bazaar and M is so happy, he bought fresh fruits. I managed to take a look at a small departmental store and bought 1 t-shirt.
We then proceed to check in at our hotel at Lucerne (hotel Europe) at night. Our tour guide then drop us at Lucerne city for our free and easy with directions to walk back to the hotel. We went to see the Swan lake (so beautiful) but most of the shops are closing(they close at 6pm). The night darken v fast and their 6pm is like our 7pm. We took some time taking fotos and shop around.
Then we have a quick stroll along the lake back to our hotel to join our tour group for dinner, we are rather late when we reach the hotel and our group is waiting for us. By then, our tour guide has picked up the remaining members from the airport and some has lost their lugagge and very cold as no jackets. The dinner is so-so and the hotel staff doesn't seem to be happy serving us.
The following day, our tour guide bring us to Lucerne town to collect our free gift (a small teaspoon) at one of the branded watch shop and also look at expensive watches. He also bring us to see the Lion monument to commemorate the bravery of the Swiss Guards during the French Revolution.
Lucerne has many interesting watches and clocks. They have clock rings, waist clocks, musical boxes, cuckoo clocks etc. The ice-cream at the corner shop is also cheap and nice, with big scoops of ice-cream. The Swiss are basically proud people (according to tour guide). Some dislike China Chinese and will treat us better when they know that we are from Singapore (not china tourist).. We saw big China tour groups. We also done some shopping and walk around the place. We also saw another bazaar market and bought fresh fruit juice and jam. Then we went back to the hotel for our dinner.
At night, we went out with G and J to walk around Lucerne and we went eating at Macdonalds and drink at pubs. The night scene at Lucerne is so nice. We did saw some youngsters quarrelling outside a pub and immediately police came to settle the issue (seems like they are quite efficient), but in general the the town give us the impression of safety. We also saw a bunch of sailors making fun of one of their colleagues by asking him to wear women clothes and parading, but they are just having fun and does not disturb other people. The mood is jovial and peaceful and we have nice time at Lucerne.
The next morning, our tour guide bring us back to shop as some members of the tour grp lost their lugagge are do not have any jackets with them, thus need to buy some jackets as the weather is quite cold (about 10 degrees). Then we set off to Rhine falls (also at Switzerland) and saw the big waterfall.
We are disappointed to know that we can't visit the additional tour at Mount Titis due to time constraint (as we lost 1 day due to Finair strike) because i understand that there is where the ice mountains are. Nevertheless, we set off to our next country - Germany by the same coach.
We reach Zurich at late night 11pm and we are dog tired and dash to wait for our lugagge, and also help collect same tour members lugagge (who are still trapped at Rome). We met up with Dennis, our tour guide who bring us to a western 'foodcourt' called 'migros'. The food is 8 Swiss for a Salmon rice. We also went to purchase some Switzerland chocolates, but our tour guide told us that the true good chocolates are Belgium Chocolates. Our coach driver is an Italian and seems quite nice.
Our coach took us to Novotel hotel, which is v near to the airport. Our tour guide told us the tour agency change the hotel due to this emergency as it is closer to the airport. The hotel is quite clean and ok.
The following day, our tour guide explained to us that he will try to cover all the itinerary but will require us to wake up earlier each day so as to catch back the lost time. Some of the tour members have arrived from Rome but some are still there as they missed the connecting flight due to flight from Rome travel halfway stop by to refuel.
We went to Berne, the capital city of Switzerland, and see the famous bear pit. Berne means 'bear' in the olden tongue and the history says that the king decide to having a hunting contest and first animal hunted will be used to name the place, which is a bear.
Berne is not a very big place (surprising) whereas Zurich seems to look more like the capital. But Berne has a history being made capital and thus it remains so. Zurich is more business and not so interesting. There is a big old clock tower at Berne which tells the time, sun and moon time in zodiac signs. There are trams everywhere, and bus travel by electricity (first time i saw tram). Then tour guide give us 1 hour break for lunch. We grab a hot bread takeaway for lunch then went walk around. There is a bazaar and M is so happy, he bought fresh fruits. I managed to take a look at a small departmental store and bought 1 t-shirt.
We then proceed to check in at our hotel at Lucerne (hotel Europe) at night. Our tour guide then drop us at Lucerne city for our free and easy with directions to walk back to the hotel. We went to see the Swan lake (so beautiful) but most of the shops are closing(they close at 6pm). The night darken v fast and their 6pm is like our 7pm. We took some time taking fotos and shop around.
Then we have a quick stroll along the lake back to our hotel to join our tour group for dinner, we are rather late when we reach the hotel and our group is waiting for us. By then, our tour guide has picked up the remaining members from the airport and some has lost their lugagge and very cold as no jackets. The dinner is so-so and the hotel staff doesn't seem to be happy serving us.
The following day, our tour guide bring us to Lucerne town to collect our free gift (a small teaspoon) at one of the branded watch shop and also look at expensive watches. He also bring us to see the Lion monument to commemorate the bravery of the Swiss Guards during the French Revolution.
Lucerne has many interesting watches and clocks. They have clock rings, waist clocks, musical boxes, cuckoo clocks etc. The ice-cream at the corner shop is also cheap and nice, with big scoops of ice-cream. The Swiss are basically proud people (according to tour guide). Some dislike China Chinese and will treat us better when they know that we are from Singapore (not china tourist).. We saw big China tour groups. We also done some shopping and walk around the place. We also saw another bazaar market and bought fresh fruit juice and jam. Then we went back to the hotel for our dinner.
At night, we went out with G and J to walk around Lucerne and we went eating at Macdonalds and drink at pubs. The night scene at Lucerne is so nice. We did saw some youngsters quarrelling outside a pub and immediately police came to settle the issue (seems like they are quite efficient), but in general the the town give us the impression of safety. We also saw a bunch of sailors making fun of one of their colleagues by asking him to wear women clothes and parading, but they are just having fun and does not disturb other people. The mood is jovial and peaceful and we have nice time at Lucerne.
The next morning, our tour guide bring us back to shop as some members of the tour grp lost their lugagge are do not have any jackets with them, thus need to buy some jackets as the weather is quite cold (about 10 degrees). Then we set off to Rhine falls (also at Switzerland) and saw the big waterfall.
We are disappointed to know that we can't visit the additional tour at Mount Titis due to time constraint (as we lost 1 day due to Finair strike) because i understand that there is where the ice mountains are. Nevertheless, we set off to our next country - Germany by the same coach.
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