St. Moritz

St. Moritz, one of the little town in Switzerland I like the best. It could be because, it was the first place and first time I saw snow. After leaving Lugano, we drove to St. Moritz. 

In Switzerland, there are a lot of mountain passes that you have to cross in order to reach another place. It means that we are crossing from one mountain to another. As we were on the pass leading to St Moritz, there were already a tiny weeny bit of snow. But it was so little, it melted immediately as soon as we touched it. When we reached there, the weather was very cold (it is always very very cold the day before it snow, but less cold once it started snowing). When we went for dinner, the waiter told us that it might snow the next day, but we only believe him half heartedly because we were at the another place before that, where the locals said it would snow, but it didn't happen. 

The next morning, it did snow but again very little, and for a short period only. We were pretty disappointed and was hoping that it will snow again. The following morning, Christine woke me up at 7am in the morning. I asked her why she woke me so early, and she told me she had  a surprise for me. 

We were staying in an apartment facing a big lake in St Moritz, and across the lake, we could see the mountain with lots and lots of pine trees. I opened the curtains and was so happy and shocked to see everything in white. It had snowed the night before and was still snowing. It was such a pretty sight, I can only described the scenery as something out of a Christmas postcard. 

We quickly changed and walked in the snow to a bakery nearby. Somehow, freshly baked croissant tasted so much better when the weather was cold. It snowed for 3 whole days. Although there were nothing much we could do during that time, I definitely had the best time then. 

Lugano & Milan

The next place we drove to was Lugano, a city very near to Milan, Italy. The people over there behaved more like an Italian, and drove like an Italian (just like how we are here in Malaysia) too. In other parts of Switzerland, the Swiss were more patient but not in Lugano. We rented a small house there and stayed for a week. I remembered it was one of the most expensive place we stayed, probably because it was near to Italy. 

In Lugano, we visited a nice  church, a chocolate factory and a miniature park. It was the first time I saw how chocolate were made, and we got to taste chocolates for free there. You can actually eat as much as you wanted to. The miniature park was fun too, because everything there were miniatures, even the trains, churches and everything else. 

 

We also took a train to Milan, Italy. It was a very very crowded place. I have never visited a city where there were sooooo many people. We were advised by the Italians that there was a lot of pickpockets there, and were supposed to be careful. I still remember on that day, the train drivers were to have a demonstration, and we were so worried that we will not be able to travel back to Lugano, but fortunately nothing happened. Milan was a beautiful city, but it is definitely a place where I don't think I would want to go back a 2nd time. 

Beautiful Lake at First

If I recall correctly, I think the mountain's name was "First". I don't know why it has such a funny name, maybe it was the first mountain the Swiss discovered :)

In order to reach this mountain, we have to go by cable car. Once we were up there, we realised there were nothing much to see. But after checking out the map, we noticed that there was a lake located in the middle of the mountain, and judging from the map, it didn't look too far to walk. So, we packed some food from the nearby restaurant (thinking that we can have our picnic there) and started walking. However, after almost an hour walk, there were still no sight of the lake, except for a few cows munching grass nearby, and the fantastic smell of cow dung! We began to worry that we could have taken the wrong route. 

Fortunately, we met some people who were coming down the mountain and so we enquired from them whether there was a lake. Imagine our horror when they told us, yes, there was one but it was another 1 hour walk from where we were. Since we were neither here nor there, we decided to continue our journey (cursing and swearing at the map, of course). Finally after another 1 hour walk, we saw the lake. That was when I understood why people were willing to take the walk even though it was far. 

Look at the picture, wasn't that worth it? 

Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe

Jungfrau is the highest mountain in Europe. The technology there is so advance, that they built a railway and have a train that takes you directly up to the mountain, although the height of the mountain is 11782sq ft above sea level. Of course, advance technology doesn’t come free, so we need to pay almost RM200 per person for the less than an hour ride.

 

Due to its height, the mountain was covered with snow even though it was late summer. The weather was not extremely cold, except when the wind blew. It was the first time ever I saw snow, and the memory is still so fresh in my mind. It’s hard to forget the experience of seeing the whole world in white. We were so excited playing with the snow that we totally forgot that we should not be staying out too long, because due to the bright sun and the snowy environment (which makes you feel less hot but actually it was hot), it was very easy to get sunstroke. And before we knew it, most of us had a terrible headache from the sunstroke.

But no matter how much the head hurts; it was still worth it because it was truly a once in a lifetime experience J

 

Gorge in Switzerland (sorry, can't recall the name)

We visited this gorge (in the picture) near Grindewald during that 2002 trip. Unfortunately I could not recall the name of it .... It was the first time I went to a gorge, and it was pretty interesting. The walk up to the gorge was quite long and steep, but in the end it was worth the walk. The view was soooo fantastic and it was such an amazing sight.

 

There was an apple tree outside the entrance of the gorge. That was the 1^st time I had came across an apple tree! There were just so many “1^st time” when I was there. After we came down from the gorge, we had lunch near the waterfall, which was at the end of the gorge, enjoying the calm and serenity of Mother Nature.