Switzerland


Saturday/Sunday/Monday August 17-19

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We left Sydney on Thai Airways, in business class thanks again to a US Airways award, at 10:00AM. To our surprise Sydney airport was a total zoo particularly the lineup for the tax refund where I claimed $300+ for my new MacBook Pro and a stunning Escada outfit which I was wearing. We arrived pretty much on time at BKK and we were, through immigration, baggage collection and van transfer to the Novotel airport hotel in less than 30 minutes.  I had forgotten that I had booked a Club room so as it was past 5:00pm we freshened up and hit the lounge for drinks and canapés which we called dinner then hit the sack early (local time).

The next day, Sunday, we departed BKK at 1:10pm for Vienna then Zurich on Austrian Airlines - which was fitted with there newest flat beds in business class but was otherwise unremarkable. Neither of us really got any sleep on the flight so when we finally arrived at the Radisson hotel at Zurich at 10:00pm Sunday night we were totally exhausted. It was pretty much immediately off to bed.

We got up, showered, and had a mediocre breakfast at the Radisson - thank goodness it was included in our free upgrade to a "business class" room. We setoff in our Avis hired car (booked a Golf but got a Citroen Picassa) and drove to Engleberg - about an hour from Zurich. We arrived in on-and-off torrential rain just before mid-day and dropped our luggage in our wonderful apartment. Cindy (a long term tenant in another apartment in our building) came and introduced herself - a Brit who seems to divide her (and her husband John's) time between Kiribilli and Engelberg - we must get the whole story on this.  

In spite of the rain it was quite mild - high teen's. Cindy mentioned that it has been very hot in recent days and that the weather should improve the following day.

After checking out the apartment we headed back to the village to visit the tourist office, have some lunch and do a preliminary bit of shopping. All this was accomplished and we returned to our apartment around 3pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and trying to stay away in spite of what felt like terminal jet-lag  After cold cuts for dinner we hit the sack very early.

Tuesday August 20

Dieter relaxing on our deck


Up to a nice day - cool (high teens) and partly cloudy. After breakfast (wonderful fruit salad with lots of raspberries and blueberries) we drove the short distance to the parking lot for the gondola to the Trubsee (the start of the series of lifts up to Mt Titlus). There is a small lake with a few row boats and a couple of mountain restaurants here - we elected to climb to the top of the Jochpass chairlift - a steep challenging climb of 1h15m. We passed many happy Swiss cows grazing and ringing there bells incessantly.  From the top we took the chairlift back down to Trubsee where we had a most unremarkable lunch at one of the mountain restaurants (not quite Zermatt standards by any means). We then decided to walk back to Engleberg which turned out to be a very rough and steep track in many parts - it took 2 hours to get down - when combined with lingering jet-lag we were both pretty zapped by the time we got back to the apartment in the late afternoon.  Even though it was only about 18 ℃ it was still sunny and pleasant enough to sit on our terrace for fives'es. 

I made a grilled spatchcock with roast potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner - certainly hit the spot after our meagre lunch.  A bit of reading and surfing the internet and it was time for bed.

Wednesday August 21

Wow - a totally sunny day but still cool - high teens. We took cable car up to Brunni then did the Brunni Pfad - a long winding track up to Brunni Hutte with the intention of having lunch there but we decided to just have a refreshment and took the chair lift back to Brunni where we had an excellent lunch of a salad plate and a flammenkucken before heading home. We relaxed in the late afternoon sun then had mushroom pasta and salad for dinner.

Thursday August 22

Dieter made it too

Another beautiful sunny and mild day - around 20℃ so we headed up Mt Titlis which required an additional payment for the final circular rotating cable car to the summit at 3028m (really nothing compared to the Kline Matterhorn at Zermatt which is 3400m).  It was about 6℃ on top but felt much warmer as we walked on the glacier with at least 1000 of our best Indian and Chinese friends (the tourists are everywhere) - there were at least 30 busses in the car-park at the bottom.  We took the cable car back down as far as Stand at 2428m then hiked down to Trubsee at 1796m - the hike was extremely challenging particular for me on the steep rocky steps which went along a cliff's edge - we finally made after an hour-long slog. One of the highlights of the trek, besides the stunning views over deep valleys, was spotting a few marmots clamouring over the rocks. We had planned to have lunch on the terrace at the hotel at Trubsee but after looking over the buffet we decided to give it a miss - what has become of that famous Swiss mountain cuisine.  Instead we took the gondola back to Engleberg and went to the monastery in town where we had a snack in the "bistro" and bought some cheese from their famous cheese factory (we had some of the cheese for dinner that evening and I must say the French don't need to worry about the Swiss taking over in the cheese stakes). Quite exhausted we went home for five'es on our balcony and had a light dinner of a salad and bread, cheese and cold cuts.

Friday August 23

Another mild and only partly sunny start to the day with rain predicted later in the afternoon. We drove to the third area a couple of k's away - Furenalp. This is a hiking only area; i.e. no skiing. We took a very small and rickety cable-car (holding only 10 people) up to 1840m, the start of many hiking trails as well as a launching spot for paragliders and of course a mountain restaurant. We hiking down a very steep track (800m altitude) to the start of the cable car. The trail was rated 2-boots (or medium), same as yesterdays, but in our opinion quite a bit easier - it took us less than the suggested time of 2h. We then took the cable car back to the top and had an excellent lunch at the restaurant there - roesti and egg for Dieter and a salad plate for me. We did another 1h hike on top then headed back to the village.  We went out for dinner at one of the best restaurants in town, Spannort, where we had an excellent meal - venison for Dieter and veal cordon bleue for me. The shock of the evening came when a very short taxi ride home cost 20CHF - a world record in terms of cost per km - the taxi service here must be run by the same branch of the mafia who run the electric taxis in Zermatt !! It was also bucketing rain with lightning and thunder when we left the restaurant.

Saturday August 24

Last night's storm had cleared to a partly cloud day with a high of 18℃. We decided to take it a bit easier and just do a 10K circuit from town - pretty much flat - it took us along a creek and past the Furenalp gondola. Back in town we went to the local Italian restaurant for a salad and shared pizza - salad was great but Ventuno does not need to worry about being overtaken for the best pizza in the world stakes. We did some more grocery shopping and got home as the afternoon rain set in - so I did some laundry then spent the remainder of the afternoon reading then making dinner - spatchcock again.

Sunday August 25

We got up to a cool (high of 13℃) and continuing drizzle - looks like the fine weather may be behind us. We took a hike along the Aa river to Obermatt where we turned around and headed back to Engleberg as the first 3/4 of the hike is the most scenic. There were 7 amazing bridges along the way as well as an outdoor kitchen and dining area complete with flowers on the table.  Fortunately the rain held off. We had a late lunch at home then spent the afternoon reading and blogging etc. I made pasta and salad for dinner.


Monday August 26

It was yet another cool and cloudy day - we assumed a repeat of the previous day so we headed up the gondola then chair lift to Jochpass from where we hiked to Engstenalp where there is a nice hotel and several lakes. We had a so-so lunch at the hotel restaurant then continued walking to another lake but turned around when it seemed to threaten rain.  We hiked part way back to Jochpass where we took an ancient and very slow chair lift back to the top. Just as we arrived at Jockpass it started raining heavily - we were not really equipped for this change in weather so we took the chair lift (covered thankfully) back to Trubsee then the gondola back to town. After a quick stop at the Co-op (grocery store) we headed home just in time for showers and five'es. We had a rack of lamb and roasted veggies for dinner.


Tuesday August 27

The weather had not really improved overnight - it was cool, overcast but not raining when we got up. We set out from our apartment to hike up to Ristis (top of Brunni cable car) - Dieter thought it would be an easy walk so he did not even bring his poles - big mistake !!! It was a tough, rough, steep, slippery, muddy goat track covered in cow plop. We even had a couple of encounters with ill-tempered cows who refused to move off the track. We finally made it to Ristis in light drizzle - fortunately our sprits were lifted by an excellent lunch of a salad and flammenkucken.  Even though it was still drizzling we decided to hike back down with a planned stop at Fluehmatt for afternoon tea. The walk down to Fluehmatt wasn't too bad so we stopped for coffee, plum pie and a beer - guess who had what. When we set out for the final descent it had started pouring rain - we took a different track from here than on the way up and amazingly it was even steeper and tougher. We finally arrived back at the apartment looking like drowned rats - we had planned to continue into town to buy some bread for our dinner of cold cuts and cheese but decided this was too much so we had to eek out our leftover bread. It was another quite evening at home listening to music from Spotify on our nifty Bose portable speaker.


Wednesday August 28

As the forecast had predicted it was raining and very closed in when we got up - hopefully this would be last day of such inclement weather. We decdied to go to Lucerne for the day and set out around 9:30am reaching the well known Transport Museum around 11:00am. On the drive the rain intensified to a complete  downpour making our decision to head to the Museum first seem like a good idea. We spent a couple of hours chekcing out the museum which is very interesting - covering trains, planes, boats and even tramways. We left our car at the museum and walked a few k's along the lake front (as the rain had cleared to a partly cloudy and mild day). We stopped at a lovely outdoor cafe for lunch - the cafe was part of the hotel casino so was a bit on the exxy side (but then everything is in Switzerland) - we had a light lunch of openfaced sandwiches then continued walking into the old town. We walked over the famous covered bridge which had been rebuild after being destroyed by fire in 1993  - last time we were in Lucerne was before the fire. We returned to Engelberg just in time to do a quick grocery shop and stayed home for dinner.


Thursday August 29

Finally another only partly cloudy day - we took the rickety Furenalp gondola then did the long walk to the bottom. The first 1/3 was very hard going as the trail was steep, very muddy and washed out in places. The whole walk to the bottom took about 3h15m. We then took the gondola back to the top for lunch at the mountain restaurant then headed home for anothe quiet evening - cold cuts, cheese and bread.

Friday August 30

A real sunny day so as planned we drove to the start of the train up to Pilatus - this is the steepest cog-wheel train in the world (48 % in many spots) - we got off at the mid-station and hiked the rest of the way to the top - 2h15m hard yakka. Just as we neared the summit Dieter spotted a Steinbock, a very rare antelope. At the summit we had a well deserved lunch on the outdoor terrace of the hotel at the top then walked the trail which goes to the highest spot - about 45m return. Then it was all the way down by train and back to Engleberg - we enjoyed a well deserved dinner at Spannort in the village - this time the taxi home was only 15CHF - looks like we got cheated last time.


Saturday August 31

Another beautiful mostly sunny day with a high of 19℃ - we hiked all the way to Trubsee - a grueling climb of over 2 hours - Dieter thought it was even harder than the hike to Pilatus. We took the gondola back to mid-station and went to a mountain restuarant for lunch then walked / hiked back to Engelberg. We did some grocery shopping then back home for some laundry, showers etc - it's getting to the end of this phase of the holiday. We had an excellent dinner of Zurich veal (aka Geschnetzeltnes) mainly because I ordered veal fillet at the butcher without realising it cost $100/kg !!


Sunday September 1

 

Last full day in Engleberg - I spent the morning reorganising the packing for the safari and mid-stream went into a complete panic when I thought I had lost my wallet - after unpacking and re-packing everying I finally found it just beofre Dieter was about to call and cancel all my credit / debit cards - yikes !!! So panic averted and packing pretty much done - we drove to Lucerne for the rest of the day arriving in time for a light cafe lunch and nice walk around the old city. The day was mild and as per normal, cloudy with a couple of rays of sunshine peeking through from time to time. We got back to our apartment just in time for showers and a last load of laundry followed by a potluck dinner of left overs. 


Monday September 2

Up early for final packing and clean up then off to Zurich and the Radisson Blu at the airport for an overnighter - TomTom managed to get us a bit lost on the way to airport (due to out of date maps - really need to get these upgraded) but we managed to return our hire car with half hour to spare and were all checked into the Radisson by 11am with an upgraded room. We dropped our stuff and headed into town for a walk around and some lunch. As it would happen we did a bit of unplanned shopping - a beautiful sports jacket for Dieter and a light high fashion track suit for me - all made in Italy and 75% off. Back at the hotel we showered and had dinner at the Filini - the Italian restaurant at the Radisson - shared mezze plate and shared pizza - just right for the night. Off to bed early in anticipation of a 6am wake up call.

Tuesday September 3

We were off to Nairobi on the 9:25am Swiss Air flight.

© Pat Schafer 2013