Today we had to start again after two days break in Zurich. Frankly now I am tired of Zurich. All the more since I did not find it pretty. It was just another cosmopolitan town. So today we decide to explore Lucerne, Bern and all the DDLJ locations (without which my trip to Swiss is not complete..but ofcourse ;))

So without much planning we start off our day. We boarded the train at 7:30 to Lucerne just to get down there and get wet in the rains. We planned to board the train to Bern in one hour. I wanted to see the ‘Kapellbruke’, the Chapel bridge spanning the Rheus River in the old town of Lucerne. Fortunately for us it was just 300 metres from the Railway station. So without getting much wet, we rushed to the bridge. It is supposed to be the most photographed place in the Swiss but with full due respect to the water tower and the creaky bridge, it was disappointing. Since it was raining and we were disappointed too, we thought of taking the next rain to Bern instead of waiting there for one hour for the next train. We returned to the station in 12 minutes and there was a train to leave in 3 minutes. We rushed to board it and finally thought of looking around Bern in a little more detail.
I looked into the Lonely Planet while Priyendra tried to doze off. Suddenly he sprung up with the idea of going to Rome. We got off at Bern. Cancelled our bookings for Friday night hotel at Chur and Saturday night hotel at a hotel near Zurich Airport. We booked airline tickets to Rome as we could not get the Euro rail train tickets from Swiss. We booked a hotel in Rome for two nights. Priyendra spoke on the phone to the hotel folks for the cancellation and in the meantime I video chatted with Mummy for 10 minutes. Now Priyendra was back on track with his energy to the brim. He thought we had seen enough of Switzerland and wanted to bring our trip to a ‘dhaansu’ ending. Although I would say it was ‘dhaansu’ + expensive.

We picked up a tour map from the tourist information center. We had to see the Old town for which the focal point is Bern’s Zytglogge, a clock tower. Apparently Einstein (who hailed from Bern) honed his thoery of relativity studying the clock tower. Few of the landmarks marked were fountains. There were 11 such fountains and believe me they were very very normal fountains. Moti Jheel’s dancing fountain has more glory associated to it than these 11 fountains which were marked as tourist spots. The three other highlights for us in the old town were ‘Einstein Haus’ where he developed his thoery of relativity in 1905. He stayed in this house in the old town which is now a tourist attraction, Berner Munster and the Bundeshauser. Berner Munster is a very pretty 15th century cathedral whereas Bundeshauser is the house of the Swiss Federal Assembly. It had a very impressive building and it contained the statues of the nations founding fathers.

Well now enough of Bern. But we enjoyed our one hour stroll through the Old town. After Bern, we felt we have achieved something for the day.
We started off for Spiez now. Spiez is very picturesque. The small railway station is at a height and from the platforms you could take beautiful views of the lake.

We had to board multiple trains from Spiez as after this the places are very small but I think this was the most beautiful part of Switzerland and I am sure you will all agree if you like the locations in all Yash Chopra pictures. This is again countryside but this is all in the base of the Alps. Although I would not deny the beautiful train ride from Lucerne to Bern. But guys this is the point from where we knew we have seen this place in some movie.

We had crossed Spiez while going to Interlaken but we did not get down there. Btu now we had to board the train to Swiezman from Spiez. Now all those wondering what is this place Swiezman, this is the same place where Kajol missed her train to Zurich in DDLJ. There was this shop where SRK is buying a Swiss knife where he is asking the price and says “This one… and this one…” This shop is like a small Wheelers shop on the Swiezman Railway Station. Kajol runs on the platform before missing her train is the parking area nest to the platform.

Enough of Swiezman, from here we board the train to Gstaad. Now Gstaad is this small extremely rich town where I could see mostly the 401k junta. This is the same place where SRK and Kajol have to board the bus. The bus station is still there and here she looks at the church and says “Woww! This is so pretty” So the funny thing is this church is in Saanen but they shoot it from Gstaad.

Gstaad also had the Early Beck shop where Kajol in the song “Zara sa jhoom loon” picks up something from a shop and the shopkeeper stops SRK to pay the money. apparently this shop was in the movie ‘Bachna Ae Haseenon’ too. At the end of this song they are on a buggi. This place is again Gstaad. You see the Early Beck shop there again.

Next stop was Saaned. This place has the church, the bridge where SRK says “Raj, agar yeh tujhse pyaar karti hai to yeh paltegi…Palat, Palat Palat” and ofcourse the same train station. We found about all these DDLJ locations searching for stuff online but Saanen is the only confirmed thing (ofcourse other than the Early Beck shop) becuae you see the stations with “Saanen” written on it in the song too.

Now all DDLJ locations covered and we have to take a train to Zermatt. Now Zermatt effectively is on the other side of mountain of Saanen but one has to go back to Spiez and take two trains from there to reach Zermatt. We reached Zermatt at 10:14 in the night. This is one of the few places where people ski all the year round. This again was a very very pretty hill station.

Here we had booked ourselves in a boutique hotel. This place offered the spectacular views of Matterhorn but sad enough that same night and the following day it was cloudy and we missed Matterhorn. But we enjoyed the hotel. It was a bed and breakfast. I had toast with butter and cheese while Priyendra ate eggs which he was craving for
xxx
We decided on what to do in Rome on Saturday and slept well although just for 4 hours again. I am sure we will need a break from this break to sleep well. We have slept little and seen a lot. I have also been forced to sprint to catch the train which is about to leave in a minute, multiple times now

Here is the link to the pictures for the day