Bern | Geneva | Zuric | Lucerne | Lausanne | Montreux | Basel

Magistic land of Switzerland: It has been a long time since I wrote about this dream come true- destination. It’s been over 10 years since I visited this place, but all the memories with this place are super fresh even today. It was my first place to travel abroad, and that too alone without family/parents.

Switzerland is indeed a dream travel place for everyone due to its pristine scenic beauty, panoramic snow-covered mountains & glaciers, picture-card cities, crystal-clear lakes, and adventure sports like paragliding, skiing…etc.

I went to this paradise for a 10-day study tour with my college, where I was doing my master’s in Business Administration. Although my schedule was pretty packed with classes, I tried to explore the country as much as I could in my free time/free days.

Here’s what I could explore-

Bern – “The Capital City”

The capital is indeed beautiful, clean, and less populated compared to its big cities, Zurich and Geneva. I personally loved walking here. Also, the entire city is a UNESCO site. We stayed here for the first 5-6 days of our study tour.

Old Town of Bern

It is a huge 6km arcade, which is very unique in style. It has bars, cultural venues, and Various shops on both sides of the lane. This town is characterized by Clock Tower, Prison Tower, Sculptures at every interval, facades of sandstone, and fountains. The entire lane is very beautiful. We spent more than a couple of hours roaming around (and we thought it would just take 15-20 mins to cover the lane, as there is nothing much to see), fascinated by its overall appearance.

Zytglogge (Clock Tower)

This clock is the city’s main clock and thus has an authoritative function. This is why it is the city’s main attraction for tourists.

The Bern Minster

It is Switzerland’s largest and most significant Church. I saw the proper church for the very first time, and it was simply beautiful. We climbed up to the top to get the view of the entire city which was amazing. We could see the river, streets, and the whole city in one shot.

Apart from these, we also hired a cycle that was free to use to just go down the street. It was fun to ride a cycle here.

Zurich  –  “The Party Capital”

It is the largest city and is also known as the Business Capital of the country. Most of the company’s headquarters are situated here. The city is very vibrant in nature. And the culture here is also very cosmopolitan, unlike other cities in Switzerland. We were stationed here for the rest of our trip.

There is nothing much or anything unique which the city offers in my view for the tourists compared to other regions of the country. The only attraction I found here was Lake Zurich – which was serene and nice.

Geneva

Jet De Eau (Waterfall)

It is a fountain in the middle of Lake Geneva at a height of 140m. It has become one of the crowing symbols of this city.

Palais de Nations (Palace of Nations)

Once a UN headquarters, it now serves as a UN Office in Switzerland. We had our visit here under our college program. It has a huge assembly hall with a collection of unique art/pictures mostly gifted by different countries.  The landscape ground around is kept so beautifully. This place is worth visiting, especially for students. I loved this place.

Lucerne/Luzern

Chapel Bridge

It is the landmark of this city and is said to be the oldest wooden bridge in Europe. I was very fascinated with this bridge, as one of the Bollywood movies was shot here during this time. And when that movie got released, I was like, I have been to this place, I could actually relate and admire the beauty.

Water Tower

It is also a landmark figure and is situated right in the center of the lake and Chapel Bridge.

Mount Pilates

It was the most amazing experience all together. The travel was a mix of Gondola and Train. I still remember the Ariel ride was very steep. It was the first time a saw a Gondola having a capacity of 20-25 people at one go (I have only seen 4-5 people capacity max). The view on the way and at the top was amazing.

Lausanne

The city is a little different in terms of its architecture. We explored the city on foot, although there is nothing much to see as a tourist attraction or a specific thing to see per se. The roads are also steep to walk. But walking in narrow streets compared to other cities was a different experience.

Sometimes, it is good not to run for a specific monument/tourist attraction to see. In my opinion, doing nothing and just walking also allows one to notice small things that otherwise would have been overlooked.

Montreux

This city is famous for its Jazz festivals. A lot of artists come to perform here. But the reason this place fascinated me was because of its casino, and a part of the “Casino Royal” movie was shot here. The casino was really charming for me as I had never seen a casino. It had both the money tables small as well as big to play. For me, it was like a sightseeing place. I really enjoyed being in a casino and playing a super small bet just to get a hands on experience of gambling.

Basel

Zoo – It is the most visited place in this city and the second most tourist destination in Switzerland. It’s the best zoo I have ever seen to date.

Apart from seeing all the tourist spots mentioned above, there was one small adventure which I did riding a motor boat. I exactly do not remember where we hired this boat. it was the first time I had the entire control of the motor boat (generally, there is a driver who drives it, and you are actually just sitting and enjoying the ride and views around). It was super fun.

Also, We used to have a lot of fun in the fountains on the roads of Zurich and Geneva after our class in the evening. It was very refreshing.

The best thing about this entire trip was that we were given a travel pass to rome around.  The same pass was valid for Trains, Trams and Busses. So we really didn’t care much as to whether we had boarded the right train or not. We were happy-go-lucky types, and all had similar thought processes that we would explore the place where this train/bus would take us (if we boarded the wrong one).

Commuting for a student is expensive here. So, we really had free hands and tension-free minds when it came to transportation. I had always thanked my college for providing me with this leisure so I could just go wherever I wanted to…

It was indeed one of my memorable trips with lots of firsts and adventures (paragliding in Interlaken, ropewayon a snow-covered mountain in Junfraujoch, motorboat).

So, are you ready for your next trip to Switzerland?

For my more post on Switzerland:

Interlaken –  https://wp.me/p4u71w-zH

Jungfraujoch – https://wp.me/p4u71w-zP