Dear friends,
Happy to receive your feedback and response for the earlier parts of travelogue. Here we go for the third part of the same.
Day 6 – Switzerland – Mt. Titlis
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| Lucerne City |
When the Tour Manager announced
the schedule of the day, there was an outbreak of cry - yes, the ladies in joy and the men in anguish.
Oh ya, shopping at Switzerland were the most awaited event all these days.
Swiss chocolates, Swiss watches, Swaroski, Red Wine, Cow bell, Swiss knives,
Fashion garments and accessories – what not!!! The tour manager took us to
Lucerne city to do our shopping and spend our time by ourselves. We took a nice
walk around, went into various shops, did some shopping and finally assembled
to start to Mt. Titlis.
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| Lucerne - Shopping malls |
The tour manager had promised a surprise lunch and finally he
announced it to be a South Indian Meal at Hotel Viktoria. We were happy that we could enjoy our
sambar and rasam varieties. Because, all these days the meal had been North
Indian with roti/naan, dhal, paneer gravy, aloo gravy, basmati rice and yoghurt
mostly. One or two items varied sometimes, otherwise it was typically the same.
But we were more surprised (!!) to see that we were offered Idli, Oothappam and
lemon rice along with chutney, sambar and raitha... Dei, ithu South Indian
tiffin da, meals illai da – The person next to me says, neenga mind voice nu
nenaichu sathama pesitteenga 😄
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| Engelberg - View from cable car |
After the surprise lunch, we
headed towards Engelberg. From here, we had to take a cable car to reach Mount Titlis. Mt. Titlis is also located in a stretch of Alps Mountains at a height
of 3,238 metres above the sea level. The rope for the cable car looked steep
going up the hill; however it wasn’t scary like a roller coaster while moving
up.
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| Cable car |
The cable car is designed to accommodate 8 people at a time and it was a
delightful sight to look at the beauty of nature around. We were also amazed by
the man made facilities that help us to reach the top of such hills to enjoy
the beauty, both at Jungfraujoch and at Titlis. We crossed a station Trubsee
and then alighted at the next station called ‘Stand’. From there we had to take
the next cable car – the first 360 degree rotating cable car and it
accommodates around 80 people at a time. But of course, we didn’t have a
seating arrangement, and we had to stand through, of course, the ride was only
for few minutes. (Is that the reason, the station was named ‘Stand’, Lol!! 😆)
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| In the open space |
Finally we arrive at the top of
Mt. Titlis, the rotating cable car taking us above the glaciers and what a spectacular
view!! There we had come to the open space to enjoy the snow and we had few rides and
activities like the Ice Flyer and the Cliff Walk. The Ice Flyer is another
cable car, but this time it is not a closed one; an open cable car but with the
safety seat locks. We took a ride in it and enjoyed the beauty surrounding us
with a white carpet (bayathai velila kaattapdaathu, okay?!!)
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| Ice Flyer |
The cliff walk is
nothing but similar to a hanging bridge, however one might find it scary if he
takes a glimpse on the ground. We took only a small walk around as we were
running out of time. A cut-out of DDLJ is still available there and do I need to mention that we took pics near that as well?!!
On the top of the mountain, when it is freezing cold, it is
adventurous to try out the delicacies in ice cream, ain’t it! Why to miss
all that fun! Yes, we had different flavours of ice cream to test our taste
buds and we relished them. It was time to get back to Engelberg and we took the
same route for return.
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| Return ride in Cable car |
We had a long way to travel at the
fag end of the day; yes, we had to reach Varese at Italy to check in the hotel.
The next few days were to be spent at Italy. We finished our dinner at an
Indian restaurant and checked in to the Hotel Ibis Styles Varese. This Ibis Hotel was much better in terms of space as compared to the one at Zurich.
Day 7 – Italy – Venice
After our continental breakfast
(yes, again bread, croissant and cakes – one week la naakku sethu pochu pa!),
we travelled towards new Venice. A long travel for around 4 hours. We had a
cruise awaiting our arrival, ready with food to be served to us. On reaching the
spot, we boarded the cruise, quite a small one as compared to the Seine cruise,
the food was already served on our tables. The boat took us across the sea while
we relished our food.
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| On a Cruise towards Old Venice |
We alighted at the Old Venice, but we were stunned at the
hot climate. It was blazing hot with around 36 degree Celsius temperature. At
Venice, the tour manager took us to Morano for glass demonstration. It was such
a delight to watch a piece of glass turning into a flying horse logo of Ferrari.
There were several show pieces, jewellery, masks etc at the Glass factory. Our
next spot was St. Mark’s Square. The square has a beautiful Church of St. Mark,
a bell tower and a huge adjoining space which connects to the commercial
centre.
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| St. Mark's Church |
From there we reached the banks
of the creek to enjoy the Gondola ride, the speciality of Venice. Venice is
connected only through water and there is no road or any other transport
service available there. The small yacht called Gondola sailed through the
narrow canals and passages and we witnessed an age old city withering away,
eroding in the water underneath. People seem to stay only from second floor
onward as the ground and first floors looked vacant and unattended.
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| Canal and the gondolas |
Day 8 – Italy – Pisa Tower
When we stepped out of the hotel
after our breakfast to start our tour for the day, we saw several road side
shops open early in the morning itself. Before the bus would start, we took a
quick look at the shops – belts, handbags, shoes, dresses all in very
reasonable and sometimes cheap rates. After heaving a big sigh as we didn’t
have enough time to shop there, we started our journey towards the Ferrari Car
Museum at Maranello.
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| At Ferrari Museum |
The fastest car in the world – Ferrari – it was
breathtaking to watch the different models of Ferrari cars in stunning colours
and shapes. We also had the opportunity to get into one of those beautiful cars
and take pictures as well.
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| Doesn't she resemble Lightning McQueen? 💓 |
The tour manager had arranged
packed lunch for us and we had it in the park nearby. Post lunch, we started
towards Tuscany, where one of the wonders of the world ‘the leaning tower of Pisa’ lies. Once we reached Tuscany, we took a shuttle bus and then a short walk to arrive at Pisa. We
reached the ‘Square of Miracles’ which includes the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa
Baptistery and the Bell tower, which is the leaning tower.
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| The Leaning Tower of Pisa |
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| Pisa Cathedral |
The leaning tower is
55.86 metres tall on the lower side and 56.67 metres on the higher side. The
Square of Miracles is built with Italian Marble and is a beautiful site to
visit. We walked around the tower, the cathedral and the baptistery and took
several pictures. Of course, a few posing to push the tower to make it stand erect 😂
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| Pisa Baptistery |
We had some coffee outside and then headed to the Indian and Italian Restaurant for dinner. Later we drove towards Prato
to check in to the Hotel Datini. This Hotel, in my opinion was the best among those we stayed till then with spacious rooms, bed and other facilities. But I had to quickly reverse my opinion after the breakfast the next day!
Part I here
Part II here
Part IV (Final) here
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