Roman Holiday...

By the time we reached Rome, our jetlag was almost gone and we got up fairly early. Our hotel had a breakfast for 10 euros per person. But since we knew that we could get a fairly cheap dinner just outside our hotel, we skipped that. Once we stepped outside, we were hit what looked like a flea market, the oppressing heat was the other thing. It was hot and a little humid and it was not even 8 in the morning!!!!

We stepped into a coffee shop which was buzzing with activity. We tried to order cafe latte. However, the Starbucks training we get in US led us to ask us for Latte. The lady kept on repeating "latte latte??" and thought we kept on saying yes, she was asking again and again. Finally a guy who looked like an Asian, asked us if we wanted a latte and finally the lady shrugged a little and went into the kitchen. A little later she returned with two steaming glasses of milk and a big question mark on her face!! Latte really means milk in French (italian as well must be). Sheepishly, we drank the milk and stepped out.

We walked back to the train station and found hundreds of tourists, locals all waiting in a line for a hop on bus. We did not know what that was all about, so we thought we would be able to manage with a map and unlimited day pass like we did in Amsterdam. However, we were soon proven wrong. The chaos and the heat just did not make it worth it. We joined the several others and bought the day pass for the double-decker open bus. I think that was the wisest decision. They take you to the top 10 tourist destinations and you can hop on and off whenever you want.

The first few places were that we saw were the Piazza Venezia, another excavation site, an old market kind of building and then finally we reached the Colloseum. It was the one things that I was absolutely excited about being in Rome. You have to be aware of the several tourist guides who will try to get you to pay for the tours. We had to wait in the line to get in. People cut in the lines, and you just have to wait patiently. We got a guided tour where the guide rattled off how it used to be covered in marble, how there was hierarchical seating, where the clergy sat.

After that, we saw the king's palace, which is a bit of a let down and then headed towards Vatican city. It was amazing. No other word. Its beautiful and strangely peaceful. The only problem was that it was HOT. Fortunately the Romans made sure that there is fresh drinking water fountains. From there we went to the church with the face (remember Roman holiday?). But it was closed. I was not going to stick my hand in it anyways. :)

Finally we went to the Trevi Fountain which was breathtaking. After a very very long day, we found the perfect Italian cafe where we rested our tired legs. Finally we rushed to catch the last bus back and went to all the places again by sunset and night. The bus stopped at Vatican again and just waited there in the night..so peaceful!!

The next day, we stopped by the only thing we had missed, the Spanish Steps. It was okay. The thing that strikes you about Rome is how much its like India. Yet the charm that it exudes almost makes you think like you are a princess who has run away from home to have the time of your life....

When in rome...

The flight from Geneva to Rome was pretty uneventful. I think we fought about something..I fail to remember what it was about. Must have been quite irrelevant. :)

When we landed at the airport, I almost felt like I had left Europe and reached Mumbai. The weather was hot, the airport was more like airports in India, no fancy stuff. The orderly fashion in which people stand at airports in US was missing. It was a mad frenzy to get the bags of the belt into the carts and whiz past the others like you were the first to arrive.
Again, we just vaguely knew where the hotel was. You would think that by this time, we would have learnt a lesson. But nope. We were in for the adventure. :)

We had actually booked a car in Italy as well since we were getting a real cheap deal. But everyone had warned us about driving in Italy and no one had warned us about Geneva. So, we decided to do a "no-show" at the car rental. Fortunately, there was no credit card needed to book the car. When we came out, we were hit by the warm weather and sheer number of people...I almost thought that someone was going to say "chalo chalo sawari baith lo...gaadi paanch minute mein nikalegi". There were several buses waiting and for about 13 euros they take you to the city center. It was past 8 and we were worried about how we were going to get to the hotel. We knew it was very close to the train station, but did not where. The bus journey took us to places and streets that were slowly getting deserted. After we reached the train station, it was completely deserted with just one newspaper stand open. We didnot want to start walking in any direction since all the streets looked similar. Again, we did not know where to find the street names. To top it all, we had no maps.

We asked the newspaper guy and he did not know the hotel, but knew the street. He pointed us in the direction and we started to walk. On the way, there were a few stores open which looked like the typical grocery stores back in India. There were a few internet places open, but the place looked quite shady and we were too worried to get in. Finally, we found our hotel which was on the second floor of one of the buildings. It was a pretty old hotel but functional. We went down to get dinner. For about 10 euros, we got pizza, salad, panini, soda.

This was the only place which did not have an A/C. I guess booking online sometimes has its drawbacks....

Zurich and back..

We left Interlaken quite late in the day and then drove to Zurich. Again, we did not know where the hotel was, so we had to do the difficult task of looking it up in the map. We were hoping that it would be better than Geneva. When we reached the city, before we knew it, we were drawn into another maze of streets; only this time they were called Strasse. The German influence on this side of Switzerland is undeniable. However, at that moment, again, we had to look for the hotel. Fortunately, for some blessed reason, we found ourself going around the railway station. We had a book of maps, which was very hard to read. We found a parking spot, and then went inside the railway station. We purchased a map and tried to pore over it to locate the hotel. Just as we were about to give up, we found a huge map on the wall with the names of the hotels and leds. We had to press the name of the hotel and the led started blinking. Miracle!!

Fortunately, this time, we drove around for about 30 minutes and then found the hotel. Again we set out to look for dinner. By this time, we were quite bored with all the baguettes, quiches, paninis. We called a few Indian restaurants (there are quite a few in Zurich) but they were pretty pricey. 40 CHF per person was not justified. So again we went to the railway station and found a Chinese restaurant which had a cafeteria kind of a feel. We ordered some thai curry and rice and then again, after getting lost a few times, went back to the hotel.

The next day, we decided to start early as we wanted to reach Geneva by 5 pm to catch a flight to Rome. On the way back, Neeraj's cough and cold was pretty bad and so we decided to not make too many detours. We went to the UNO building, but there was a line to get in and Neeraj was simply not upto it. So we drove to the airport and Neeraj read his book while I walked around for sometime drooling at the beautiful watches.

By then, we had were feeling a guilty about how much we were spending and so we both resisted :). Finally after immigrating, we sat in the departure lounge where mind you, people can smoke inside the terminal. Sad :(

Exhausted, but in love with Switzerland, we headed to our next destination, Rome.

I believe I can fly....

After a breakfast of fabulous coffee and all kinds of bread and cereal, we asked Chris about paragliding. He told us how he did it once and was so hooked that he went and bought the whole gear. He said he did it for quite sometime, until one of his friend had a terrible accident and was in rehab was over a month.

Not very encouraging, since I am quite scared of hurting myself. But since Neeraj really wanted to do this for a long time, I decided to go along...They are all experienced people, Chris reminded. He also booked the tour for us. Neeraj and I decided that since both of us had spent plenty of time in snowy regions when we were studying, we would spend the money that people spent to go to Shilthorn etc, and spend it on paragliding.

The ride cost was 150 CHF including a hotel pickup. There was another Indian family with a 10 year old girl who were also going to paraglide with us. Once at the main office, they explained the rules and safety precautions. Also packed the backpacks video camera's in a trunk. They would also take pictures once in air for 20 CHF extra. What the heck? You do it only once, so we went with it. Neeraj carried our Sony elph with which you could take a short clip of about 5 mins. They then piled all of us including the pilots in one van and we set out. After introductions, they told us to pick the pilots. Pick someone your size :) Yeah right :) We drove up the moutain for about 20 minutes and then walked to a cliff, though not that steep. The pilots immediately set to work. They unrolled the gliders and set them on the ground. I was with a quiet but tall guy called Patrick. Once every chose the pilots, they handed all the gear. We had to wear windbreakers, a jacket which had a seat at the back. Then the pilot hooked the parachute and himself onto the jacket and explained that during the take off, keep on running for as long as you can. Avoid the temptation to sit!!

Patrick and I were third to take off. Since Patrick was so much taller than I, my legs were lifted within a few feet and even before I knew it, we were in air. Just like that. There were lush green mountains, the ice-capped peaks, the two lakes, the city....it was just so amazing. Patrick took several pictures. The only sad part was that on a warm and clear day, there is not much breeze and you don't stay in air too long. So the whole journey lasted about 10 minutes. As we got closer to land, Patrick explained what to do when we land. Again, keep on walking..don't sit or else I will fall on you, he reminded.

The landing was smooth and it almost seemed like it was all a dream. Neeraj's pilot did a few antics like the spirals and circled a tall hotel building, but since I was terrified initially, Patrick was very cautious. I was almost jealous of Neeraj for being able to do that. After the pilots all packed the gear, we walked back to the main office which was right by the meadow we landed on.

After that, we had a choice to be dropped to the hotel, but we did not want to go back. We went to this restaurant which had the menu written outside in hindi. I almost thought like I was back in India. There were busloads of Indians everywhere. Later we found out that Interlaken is a favorite place for Indian tourists.

I tried the German sausage and Neeraj had some Thai curry like dish. It was alright, but at that time, even a feast would have made no difference. We were too excited. :))

Later in the evening we drove up the mountains and just drove and drove for a couple of hours. For dinner, finally, we tried the famous Cheese fondue. Unless you like cheese and really love alcohol, I would pass this one. It had a fairly large percentage of alcohol. We were not impressed at all.

The next morning, we were to start to drive to Zurich. We had heard that Zurich was not a very fun place, so we decided to spend the morning and a good part of the afternoon in the moutains, stopping to have coffee or munch on something. We took the gondola up to one of the carless villages up in the mountain. The gondola ride was like the cable car ride in lake Tahoe, but you can never stop being amazed by so much beauty and peace. We found the best pasta in the whole trip in one of the villages. After we came down, with a really heavy heart, we said goodbye to beautiful Interlaken and its beautiful people....

Up in the alps...

Interlaken is an extremely charming little town with very friendly people. Chris and Ursula recommended that we go take the cable-car or cog-rail or drive up to atleast one of the peaks. Hurry! she reminded. But first lunch..We found a mall with a food court with fairly good and cheap food. I hada quiche (again) and coffee.. Gotta love the milk coffee there..It was about 3:45 by the time we were done with lunch and the last cog-rail one up was at 5. So we hufffed and we puffed and ran (in the beautiful meadows) of Interlaken...:)

The journey up the cog-rail was unbelievable, it took about 10 minutes to go up. It was a little like the cable car ride at Heavenly in Lake Tahoe. Except that I was not that scared. :) Once we reached up, the view was simply amazing. You can actually see why that place is called Interlaken. Its in between two lakes. The calm green of the lakes, the whiteness of the Alps. One can't simply help but relax.

We spent about half an hour up there and then took the last rail down. The interesting part is that there is another car which goes in the opposite direction. By this time however, Neeraj cough had turned pretty bad. We went to a local pharmacy and got some aspirin. Note to ourselves to always have basic medicines.

For dinner, we just got some cup noodles, Ursula graciously provided some hot water, forks. Neeraj was sick but still thinking about paragliding.