Our Swiss journey started by exploring their main capital city – Zurich.

Zurich located in north-central is the largest city in Switzerland. Zurich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and railway station are the largest and busiest in the country. You will find many museums and art galleries in the city including the Swiss National Museum. Discover Zurich through its Churches, Museums, parks & nature, architecture, opera, ballet & theaters, Sports (FIFA), Nightlife & clubbing, education & research centers. Not be missed is expensive shops along the famous Bahnhofstrasse.

Zurich is a leading global city among the world’s largest financial centers (Institutions & banking companies) despite having a relatively small population. City ranks in the first top 25 cities in the world for “Best quality of life”.  

Day1: Zurich City highlights Tour & Boat Ride

1. Zurich City highlights – Experience Zurich’s main attractions in 2hours guided tour. It’s a hassle-free trip combining coach bus sightseeing, with guide commentary all the way, it’s an ideal option for those people who have short on time & want to see as much as possible. Our tour was for 2hours starting from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. The tour includes main attractions: Old town, the Swiss federal institute of technology, FIFA, Swiss national museum, opera house and a ride on the cogwheel railway (Dolderbahn), to sight the marvel’s, superb mansion which is renovated into a Five-star grand hotel ‘Dolder’.

After the city tour, its return by coach to the original departure point where your tour concludes.

2. Boat Ride – Making our way towards Lake Zurich we enjoyed beautiful and mesmerizing scenic view by taking a boat ride. The view is so amazing, clean water lake, calm, nice weather you just feel to stay back!! When you reach the shore, they will drive back to Zurich along the stunning Gold coast.

Transport: Tram, Taxi within the city.

Day2: Rhine Falls & Chapel Bridge.

1. Rhine Falls – Its Europe’s largest waterfall. What a lovely day! Cloudy, drizzling a perfect weather for a great location to enjoy the beautiful waterfall. There are 2-3options to view this mesmerizing waterfall from which we opted for ‘Rock’. There is a mighty rock which stands in the middle of the Rhine falls and one can reach there by taking a boat ride. We took a boat ride (paid extra not included in the Swiss pass) to reach the middle of the Rhine falls. From the rock one can observe the natural spectacular view by standing on platforms that jut out and partially hover over the Rhine.  We almost spend half of the day at Rhine falls.

Not to be missed is Indian vada pav (burger), samosa and kadak Tea near the Rhine falls.

Transport: Trains available from central Zurich train station to Rhine falls.

Back to Zurich & next travel To Lucerne. At Lucerne, we check-in at Hotel and headed to explore the new place.

LUCERNE

2. Chapel Bridge – It is a covered wooden footbridge spanning diagonally across the river in the city of Lucerne. The bridge contains a number of interior paintings which makes it unique. After being destroyed in an incident it was restored again and opened for visitors. It is one of the world’s oldest surviving wooden bridge which assists as Switzerland’s main tourist attractions.

Take a walk around the old city near the bridge or city.

Transport:  We went to the main station and visited Chapel bridge, its just 10/15mins walk.

Day3: Mt. Titlis, The Lion Monument & Cruise Ride

1. Mt. Titlis – It is a high alpine attraction and viewing point. you can experience, panoramic views, Glacier Cave, eternal snow and ice, Cliff Walk, open Ice Flyer giving views across the Alps.

It was an amazing experience to reach till top by cable car & Gondola but the day we visited, the weather was cloudy, showering rain, & foggy. So, we were not able to view or admire the mesmerizing views from alps because of zero visibility at the top.

Food and Beverages: Restaurants available.

Not to be missed:

• Click photo with super hit Bollywood star poster from the movie DDLJ (Shahrukh Khan & Kajol).
• Take photos in their traditional outfit. (details mentioned in Shopping page)
• Movenpick Ice cream. (details mentioned in Food-Dine).

Transport: Train from the main station to Engelberg, then bus/walk for 10mins to the valley station from there aerial cableway & a rotating Gondola all the way to Top.

2. The Lion monument or Lion of Lucerne – After spending half of the day at Mt. Titles we headed to see ‘The Lion monument’ which is a sculpture of a mortally wounded lion as the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.

Transport: By Bus from the main train station.

3. Boat/Cruise Ride – We still had time to explore the place and the best thing we could do was our favorite a ‘Boat trip’ ride at the lake. We did a cruise ride, which is included in the swiss pass.

Day 4: Mt. Rigi (green mountain) & Mt. Pilatus.

1. Mt Rigi:  The Rigi mountain located in the central Swiss is also known as “Queen of the mountains”. The whole massif is entirely surrounded by the water of the three different bodies: Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug, and Lake Lauerz. It’s a View of Mountain and lakeside city. The whole area offers many activities such as skiing or sledging in the winter, and hiking in the summer. Take a walk or hike and admire the views of the Swiss Alps from the top.

As we were ascending to the top in the cogwheel train, we could witness the beautiful nature, grazing cows, wildflowers, and enjoy steep slope cogwheel ride. Once reached the top we did some photography and relished an amazing view and live music band. A group of musicians were practicing/playing a nice traditional music which we could attend and enjoy. At the top, there is a restaurant and a few small stalls/shops to satisfy your hunger.

Transport: Train, cogwheel train.

We went back to the main station and headed towards Mt. Pilatus by another train.

2. Mt. Pilatus: Mt. Pilatus is a massif mountain composed of several peaks and is known for world’s steepest cogwheel train ride. We reached at the top by cogwheel train, it’s the world’s steepest cogwheel ride & we were amazed to see the way it operates, really worth. There are 4 cogwheel trains which operate by crossing the same rail track and ascends /descends by taking visitors. Once we reached the top it was a spectacular view of the alpine scenery, the Alps and Lake Lucerne. We relaxed on the terrace and clicked some photos. There is also a short climb up on one of the peaks for a greater/panoramic view.

We descended by the same steepest cogwheel train but there is another option to reach down i.e. Aerial cable car (Dragon Ride). The cogwheel travel itself is a great adventure to experience. We enjoyed the ride by passing through the lush meadows, mountains, sheer rocks, deer/chamois and sighted the steepest railway track descending.

 

Traveled back to Lucerne and headed to Interlaken.

please check my next post of Interlaken Day5&6.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All expenses are done by me. There is no advertising of any brand.

Disclaimer: The content of this blog is solely my views of a place and food. This is not to offend any class, religion, ethnicity or nation. My views can change from time to time based on my latest experience. I am an independent owner of this site and the views expressed in this are my own. All photographs are owned by me. 

Till then…

Stay Happy & live your dreams!