Sunday, June 03, 2007

Europe - Part 2 : Switzerland - Mt. Titlis, Interlaken

Alrighty, I'm back with more uploads from the trip! So you guys should really know Mt. Titlis if mentioned? Yes, I bet. Mt. Titlis is one of the very famous moutains in the Swiss Alps located in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland, overlooking Engelberg. The mountain stands at 3238 metres, which is about 10,267 feet above sea level. I must say, the scenery over there can really make you go speechless. Just so spectacular!


Just look at the progression of the scenery as the cable car ascends. The cable car system connects Engelberg to the top through four principal stages (Gerschnialp, Trübsee, Stand and Kleintitlis (3,020 m). And in order to get to the peak of the mountain, you'd have to change 3 different cable cars. One being the ones you often see at Harbourfront - Sentosa Island, and next, a rather spacious rectangular one which fetches about 60 persons and lastly, passengers board the world's first revolving cable car at the last station. That cable car has the ability in housing a capacity of approx 80 passengers per trip. Fascinating har!


The 3 different stages of the cable car rides took approx. 15 mins each and just like that one could easily get to the top of the mountain like Titlis in just about 45 mins! Isn't that very fast?? And as you can see, at different stages, the scenery changes and as you ascend higher, it just felt as though the world is beneath your feet and you just feet... AWESOME!

The glacier experience! Honestly, this is the first time I came into contact with snow. And the experience was just great beyond words. But one has got to be careful while stepping on glacier, it's damn SLIPPERY!



On our way down! Above is the platform for the 2nd stage of the cable car. If I'm not wrong, it is about 8,000 feet above ground.

Right after the excursion to Mt. Titlis, we were on our way to Interlaken. And along the way during the ride, we were treated with splendid views of a mega lake. The water was really a clear blue-ish-greeny and what more can I say about the scenery yet again. *Drools*

En-route to Interlaken, we made a little stopover at this picturesque lake. I don't know which one is this (possibly Lake Thun), but all I can recall is that it is one of the lake that links with another at the other side of the mountains and in between these 2 lakes (Lake Thun and Lake Brienz), there's this piece of "land". And this piece of "land" is where Interlaken is. The meaning of 'Interlaken' suggests the location of a "land" in between 2 lakes. Yes, that's how it got its name. Interesting, no? I certainly think it is! And not to mention, this is one place I'd never forget. Just look at the vast plains that surrounds the lake and straight ahead, one can easily spot the Swiss Alps protruding above the forested mountains.
Alrightie, from here, you can see the scenic view of the lake from uphill. Doesn't it look like an exquisite piece of drawing? Somehow, the second picture above from here reminds me of the Norwegian valleys. I really love this place so much. Look at how the houses gather around the lake. I was kinda wondering how these residents even get their groceries when they're at such a rural portion of the country. Well, most of them are farmers. So why do they even need a supermarket? And a question was raised - "How do pregnant women even get to the hospital on time for delivery?" The answer's simple. They will do the math with regards to which month they will be "flushing" their "fruits" out and they will make their way to the hospital ONE MONTH before the predicted date of delivery. And Swiss Mommas don't do caesarean. They reckon that REAL moms are the ones who endure the pain giving birth naturally. Now, that's what I call Girl Power!

After about an hour drive passing by Lake Thun and the spectacular scenery that you've seen so far, we finally made our way to Interlaken. The first thing after checking in to the hotel was, DINNER! We were really famished by then! And the specialty of the night for dinner was, what else but the Swiss Fondue Dinner! At first I was like... erm... are we gonna have our airy stomachs filled with just chunks of fruits or whatsoever? But well, our tour leader, Jason, brought us to a traditional Swiss restaurant. And over there, they offer one of the best Fondue meals in the town of Interlaken. I was surprised to learn that there's not only chocolate fondue, but cheese fondue and MEAT FONDUE! Like WOW!
Now look! This is meat fondue. There're choices of chicken or beef that we could choose from. And what we just need to do is to dip the raw meat into the pot above (which is filled with this amazingly tasteful HOT soup) and after a few, we could put them in our traps! There're also various sauces that can go with the meat. It was fantabulous!


Not to mention, the cheese fondue tasted rather bitter at first. We dipped chunks of baguette into the hawt cheese that's how it's eaten. But once the cheese hardened, it became something like that of the picture above and the boss of the restaurant actually came to our table and scrapped off the remains of the cheese for me! And oh gawd, it was probably the BEST thing I've tasted so far. IT'S REALLY CRISPY! So GUT!
The boss told me he got his muscular frame just by eating THAT everyday. Not to mention, he's really BIG. But OH, this piece of food is HEAVENLY! Well, no introduction needed. Chocolate Fondue! Great as it tasted!
This, as you can see, is an Alphorn. It's a curved wooden horn, sometimes as long as 6 meters (approximately 20 feet), used traditionally by herders in the Alps to call cows to pasture. Well as of now, it's definitely to entertain tourists like us. The boss demonstrated a blow and it produced a "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" sound. It kinda sounded like the tune produced by a Didgeridoo, a wind instrument of the Indigenious Australians which is made of hardwood. But well, I certainly think the Alphorn looks rather magnificent and seemed more interesting than a Didgeridoo. No hard feelings, Aussies.
So there will be one person who'd be pulled out for a little performance with the Alphorn and there you can see so very crystal clearly, that's ME! Yes! I was asked to try blowing the Alphorn. It was really really tough if you ask me! You need to muster the technique and you've gotta collect as much air from the point you're standing at and push your lungs to the furthest in order to make the Alphorn "SING" it's tune (regardless of whether it's out of pitch or not). I tell you, I failed. I almost farted while blowing that piece of thang! That's how bad! But it was all so funny!
While we were enjoying the knee-slapping performances by members of the other tables (there was this lady from the other tour group who volunteered to give the Alphorn a try and seemed rather smug initially, as though signalling that she's really gonna succeed in her agenda. When she went near the mouthpiece, all I could say is that she looked like a Pufferfish as she attempted to blow the horn! I was really hilarious and everyone in the restaurant was almost in tears! It was that funny!), I also spotted this. No, that's not a parachutist, but rather, a mountain glider! There wasn't just one, but a few of them! That's a really cool sport if you ask me!
So after the scrumptious fondue dinner, we decided to take a stroll and explore the small yet wonderful town of Interlaken. Interlaken is really just a tourist hub and very little locals actually reside in this area.
Never have I thought I'd see Credit Suisse in such a place like Interlaken.

Mommy in front of our hotel! And our room is on the 3rd storey, 2nd and 3rd windows from the left (right in the middle). Yes, we our room has 2 windows! But I must say that it was really noisy at night and we couldn't really sleep well all thanks to the nightgoers who were constantly parading down the street even at 12 AM! I really love these! The Elvis and the Scuba Diver cows! How cute are they?!?! I had a good laugh just by looking at them on the shelf.

A perfect view of Jungfraujoch's peak from Interlaken. Charming, aint it? By the way, that's the Hohematte park right in front. The locals love this place. I don't deny it's really nice taking a stroll at the park.
This is Victoria Jungfrau Hotel, the most exquisite and expensive hotel in the whole of Interlaken.
La Terrasse is a fine dining restaurant at Victoria Jungfrau. If I'm not wrong, it costs a whopping CHF100-200 for a 4-5 course dinner per person, and if you were to do the math, be ready to slash an approx. SGD 300 from your credit card.

I was really surprised to see Hooters in Switzerland! Yes, you see it right, it's HOOTERS! The waitresses for Hooters over here at Clarke Quay should consider putting pails over their heads and bind themselves with cheongsams becos' not to mention, the girls over at the Swiss' franchise command the restaurant with their beauteous assets that are to DIE FOR!

Chocolate bars! They looked really great but too bad as it was, the shop was closed when we passed by.
After the little tour around Interlaken, we decided to stop for some cheap and reasonable snacks and so McDonald's was the best choice as it's the only so called 'restaurant' that was still opened. And if you scrutinise, you could see a rather interesting burger by the name of "Chicken Mythic" to the left and the rather protruding Ad in the middle, McRosti. No, I didn't have any of them. I decided on just a McFlurry, M&Ms! They even have Orange McFlurry, which I think is rather cool
Alright, I don't mean to sulk that bad and NO, the McFlurry M&M's tasted really good. I was just sad that the day was going to be over soon...
As you can see, the street was really quiet and after finishing my McFlurry, that's when the day was really OVER!


freed his mind P.Y.R.A - U.G.I.N.E at 8:00 PM [comment]

Life is beautiful, so are you.


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About E.K.Z.Y
'U.G.Y.N'.
Simplicity.
Loves the WORLD.

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Glee
: Endless Love

"Anything that has real and lasting value is always a gift from within."
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Sentosa Outing 21Jun'06

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