Got off a 16 hour plane ride and onto a train for another 3 hours.


Switzerland Photos



Meringen

Armed with only my meager high-school German and college-level French, Rana and I finally made our way, via the train, to our destination in Meringen which was also the starting point of our biking tour. Our first hotel stay was at Sherlock Holmes Hotel. The Reichenbach Falls was just walking distance behind our hotel. The waterfall itself was the very place that inspired Conan Doyle to end his popular Sherlock Holmes series by having the final struggle between the detective and his arch-enemy, Professor James Moriarty, and both plunge to their deaths down the waterfall. On my climb up to the waterfall, I turned to look over the city in the evening sun and took a deep breath in awe. The city was so peaceful and so beautiful to a point that almost seemed like a fictional setting for a fairy tale or a dream. The city nestled on a leveled and very green plain; however the edge of the city was instantly guarded and completely surrounded with massive walls of jagged peaked mountains. There seemed to be no gradual elevation from the flat plains to the mountains. I imagined the mountains and hills at one point of time suddenly decided to shoot up for the sky to preserve and protect this quaint little Swiss village.

As I write this blog entry, I am sitting in our private outdoor patio with an AMAZING view facing the grandiose, fantastic, unbelievably massive mounds of rocks covered in greenery with tall streaming mountain waterfalls. Large mountain waterfalls were not a rarity for this town. I had actually counted four great falls surrounding the village. Besides the one within our balcony view, there are two more in the mountains behind us and one in view from the main streets of downtown. I was able to walk up to the Reichenbach Falls, and the view on the way up of the city was magnificent, spectacular, and, like all views I’ve seen in Switzerland so far,…breathtaking! From above, the city sits on a very green valley. Traditional, rustic structures blended with local stores, restaurants, hotels, and local residences speckled the landscape, topping off the overwhelming beauty with sounds of splashing and running waters that can be heard through the town. The flat plains stretched across the parameters of city limits and the landscape suddenly shoots up in to powerful strapping forms accompanied by rolling green hills, eventually merging into massive snowcapped rocks that reached higher for the sky. The town maybe a bit quiet and small for us, city folks, but I don’t ever imagine getting tired of such sights and sounds. The weather was sunny and warm but its cool blowing winds made a jacket an essential. Despite our suffrage from jetlag, it didn’t restrain our spirits nor did it discourage us from exploring the town. We arrived into the city from Zurich on train. The train station at Zurich was just across the street from the airport. The memorable ride to Meringen was very scenic and filled with numerous enormous, boundless, crystallized bright blue and turquoise lakes, surrounded occasionally with clusters of small villages and back-dropped with picturesque green valleys with herds of grazing cows.

While on our way to Meringen, we were accompanied by a group of college students from India. Rana quickly befriended them because they were from a place nearby Rana’s home state. I presumed they may have found us a fascinating couple, due to our differing ethnic backgrounds. Rana told them he was living in the United States and introduced me as an American born Chinese (ABC) as well as his wife. Before we got off on our stop, they asked us to pose for pictures with them. I figured we have become a roadside freak show since we didn’t know them well enough to warrant a pose and a picture with them. I could only imagine what they would say about us to their friends and family when they show our pictures back in India. “This is what happens to you when you stray away from your family and homeland, they will marry just about anyone!” Rana told me as India’s economy progresses, more Indians can now afford to experience the wonders of traveling outside their country. Thanks to many popular Bollywood movies, Switzerland, which has served as locations for numerous Indian music videos and settings for movie daydreamers, has become one of the top “must see” destinations for Indians.

We walked from the Meringen train station through the town’s main streets to our hotel. Life here seemed simple and quiet except when interrupted by visitors, hikers, and bikers. As I sit here on the balcony during the dark early morning, I look up to the dark masses in the distance and I am still taken back by their immensity and surprisingly serene beauty. The food, so far was not too surprising thanks to my college French teachers, I was prepared and constantly had to remind my husband that we are not in America. He was a bit taken back by the prices and food portions. He also did not realize, unlike America, most of the businesses closed mid-day and early in the evening. One of the things we both can agree on and loved were the blissfulness of and desire for Swiss coffee. Swiss coffee, espressos, lattes, and many more, were creamy, thick, sweet, flavorful, and strong. They are magnificent!!! Also thanks to our frequent visits to Starbucks back at home, we were able to fork out the doe. The coffees ranged from 3.50 to 13.00 Swiss-francs a cup. The conversion rate was $1.14 per 1 Swiss-Francs.