A festival, A cruise and A waterfall - Lucerne!

 Eurorail to all Indians brings to mind the Yash Chopra movies. We took TrenItalia from Rome to Milano, Milano to Art Goldau and from there, Lucerne, Switzerland! We moved trains from Milano to Art Goldau in exactly five minutes, all seats in First class.

 A short bus ride took us to our tiny Hotel by Lake Lucerne. Nothing much to say about the Hotel itself, no "belle views" since a high wall blocked any possible view of Lake Lucerne. It was clean though, with just one unforgettably rude overseer.

The streets downtown were crowded with party goers. Stages were erected at very short distances with beautiful rock music blaring out. We even met our old neighbours there. As usual, we began hunting around for vegetarian food and found people queuing up for wraps. But ew! The 'chefs' handing out the wraps were profusely sweating, wiping it with their hands, happily handed over the wraps to the waiting customers who said nothing...yes we too had the same wraps hoping ours were cleaner. 

Winding, fairytale roads of Lucerne below cloudy hills...paradise!

We then moved to the beautiful Kapellbrücke chapel bridge for a walk and some pictures of this ancient covered foot-bridge on the river Reuss. Shopped for a few souvenirs, had food at an Indian restaurant and retired with a sigh.

The next day was our day trip to the amazing Mt Titlis, which I have blogged about already. 
Day 3 was when we took a train to Interlaken. Scene after breathtaking scene rolled past us as we sat comfortably in our First Class seats. We had some delicious soups and pasta at the Pantry car too. Whether to explore Lake Thun to the west or Lake Brienz to the East was a question. It got resolved when the concierge said the boat to Lake Brienz left in two minutes. We managed to get in just as the gang plank was about to lift off.

Wonder who lived in this castle overlooking Lake Brienz...

A friendly, handsome Captain greeted us and ushered us to the top floor since we had First Class tickets. With the cool breeze in the afternoon refreshing us, we stared in silence at the green mountains and the lucid waters around us. A canteen inside the cruise served us hot chocolate and finger fries, so we never wanted to leave the boat for small stopovers and pictures. It was evening by the time we docked. Even the restless kids never asked for their devices, so awed were they by nature at her best.

A waterfall gushes into Lake Brienz

Words don't do justice to Switzerland's pristine beauty. On Day Four we took the train to Rhine Falls. 
The captain of the small boat we took to hover around the foot of the Fall, said that the River Rhine is 1253 km long from Switzerland to the Netherlands. I shuddered a little as the boat chugged too close to the Falls, but reminded myself that it was just a few metres tall. We headed to see the sculpture of the 'Dying Lion' after a tasty lunch. 

Men may come and men may go, but you go on forever Mighty Rhine....

May no lion suffer as thee...

The world's most mournful monument is how Mark Twain describes the sculpture of the dying lion at Löwenstrasse. Set in solid stone, the wounded lion was sculpted to commemorate Swiss soldiers who were killed during the French Revolution. It is set in a beautiful park with lofty old trees, and beneath the sculpture embedded in rocks, is a small pond, all befitting the grace and majesty of the animal. 

It soon started to drizzle and we took our umbrellas and headed to the 'Old Souvenir Shop'. Sure enough, a friendly old man patiently showed us the cuckoo clocks of Black Forest, which I ticked off from my wish-list! We got one that cost us € 196. But its not a purchase you get to make every day! We took a few pictures atop the many steps of a chapel next to the shop. Had a very expensive but simple and tasty Indian dinner at Kanchi. The staff was gracious too. We retired early that night, since we had a train to catch the next day, to make our way to Paris via Basel! 

Watch out for Paris.... will take you there soon ....!

WHY BUY SO MUCH ?

Just read a story about a disciple asking the Buddha for a new bedsheet. Upon being asked, he said he used the old sheet to make window curtains, the curtains to make napkins, the napkins were used to make mops, the mops being in tatters were used to make wicks for oil-lamps! 
Whew! That was actually a trip down memory lane. Why? Our older generation actually has used old saris to make curtains. I have made Indian dresses out of old saris too. We have seen our elders buying vegetables using cloth bags sewn from old clothes. Now why have we become so obsessed with showing off our buying capabilities ? I wonder if we were better off with less spending power just a few decades ago. 

• There was no need to shout out to our elders to use less plastic, because they anyway did. 
• Plastic tiffin boxes have replaced the old steel and brass-lined lunch-boxes. 
• We never had to worry about plastics or colours leeching into our foods.
• Plastic disposables have replaced the beautiful plates and bowls made of leaves.
• Siblings now hardly wear hand-me-downs because of changing fashions.
• We never bothered about evening wear, gym wear, night wear, party wear, office wear, just our uniforms and a few clothes so carefully bought for our birthdays, New Years day and Diwali.
• Replace the word clothes with shoes - how many ever heard of sports shoes, dress shoes, beach-sandals, etc? Nah, in my childhood, it was a pair of shoes for school and a pair of sandals for everywhere else.

Do you agree friends? What's your idea to buy less and save the earth?