european horizon – day 8 and 9 (switzerland to paris)

finally last leg of the journey and my most anticipated part. when i was young, i would casually look at pictures of paris and wondered what its really like to be there. or i’d watch tv and see paris in full technicolour. one of those was while watching anthony bourdain’s a cook’s tour (paris edition) and marvelling about the beautiful city and its food.

two hours into the journey, i snuck over to the tour guide and borrowed his european guidebook, searching for les halles, once the central market of paris. in the city itself, we were driven round the city (free city tour) and like any trusty french fiat, got stuck in the notorious parisian traffic. what’s amazing about the traffic jams is not the tailback, but how the motorbikes are still able to zip through the deadlock. give these bikers an inch between your vehicle and the fella in front and they still able to cut in front of you !

while doing the city tour, we stopped by the tomb (mausoleum) of napoleon bonaparte, eiffel tower, join the crazy traffic at the arc de triomphe roundabout and drove down the champs elysee. then to our final accommodation on the tour. how befitting it was that i got one whole room to myself ! (read: two beds; one upper, one lower) upon arrival, we were greeted in the dining hall with a tray of escargots. naturally the mere thought of eating snails freaked some people but not moi. moi is a gourmet. if its edible, moi will eat. and consequently polished off about 20 plus of the little delicious things. that night i had the most peaceful sleep of the whole tour.

you definitely need more than one day to call all the landmarks in paris. after a good breakfast, i was an energizer bunny ready to go. first a group photo with the eiffel tower as the background. then it was to napoleon’s tomb. where his body is in a plain brown marble sarcophagus, and his personal coat and hat were on display. definitely one of the must see places. (even if you are an stiff upper lip englishman). next a walk up the champs elysee from the base to the arc de triomphe. the walk up the enitre length of the champs elysee is uphill and actually a road thats far longer then the one you see lined with shops and tourists. the best photograph position of the arc de triomphe is from the center of the champs elysee which means standing in the middle of a busy road. sounds cazy but i did it !

upon reaching the arc via underpass, dont forget to buy a ticket for you to go inside the arc itself. (stairs only). the view from the top is second only to the eiffel tower but you do get the best bird’s eye view of the champs elysee. time for lunch. but not among the overpriced cafes in the tourist belt. tip: even in paris there are good and cheap cafes just a little outside the main touristy areas. for me, i went to les halles. bit of history lesson: les halles used to be the central market of paris until 1971. obviously, all these people need to eat so there’s lots of cafes around the area. i popped into one cafe and had a main, dessert and cafe au lait (coffee with milk) for only 18+ euros! considering that one main dish in the tourist area will cost at least 15+ euros. plus i got extremely exceptional service. case in point. i made a mistake of having my coffee served at the start of the meal so by the time the main arrived it was cold. the waiter kindly took my coffee back to the counter and after my meal replaced my cold coffee with a hot one. now that’s service!

after lunch went to the louvre museum because we we had to go straight from there to dinner and cabaret. we went down to the carpark basement where our coach was but there were no toilets nearby for us to change into formal clothes for the cabaret. until the driver ok-ed for us to change in the bus, with the curtains drawn down! ladies first and then men, separately. (duh) then off to dinner (more escargots!) and then cabaret. at the cabaret, each person was allowed half a bottle of champagne (hic!). the show was typical cabaret stuff featuring dancing and singing topless women. all of us had a great time and all the performers were all very professional. by the way, photo-taking is strictly not allowed during showtime so please leave your cameras at home. the entire show lasted about 1 plus hour so we reached back accommodation around midnight. was so tired had a quick shower and fell asleep soon after.

tomorrow: paris to london (home!)

arc de triomphe (photo taken from middle of road)

eiffel tower (taken from top of the arc de triomphe)

tomb of the emperor napoloen (viva l'empereur!)

european horizon – day 6 and 7 (venice to switzerland)

another long ride to start the day. this time climbing into the swiss alps. i was so worried about getting altitude sickness since i’ve never been so high before. but i need not worry. the “climb” up was gradual so acclimatising was easy. by the way, the monotonous journey was broken by some scenic spots and this was accompanied by the essential “oohhs” and “ahhhs”.

we didn’t go directly to our accommodation but made a 2 hour stop in Lucerne since it was along the route. visited both the “sleeping lion” stone memorial and the Lucerne bridge. unfortunately, part of the bridge was burnt in an accident a few years ago so you will see three sections, the original, restored and burnt sections.

once at accomodation, we were free to explore the surroundings after dinner. our accomodation is located in Lauterbrunnen next to the famous Staubbachfall. of course, being a city boy, the only waterfalls i’ve seen were in drains or the water pouring out from your showers. therefore, i scurried up to the waterfall as fast as i could. the journey to the base of the waterfall was simple and easy. to go up and into the waterfall was the exhausting and dangerous part. exhausting because you need to breathe harder due to the relatively thin air compared to sea level. and dangerous as the inside of the waterfall is very, very wet.

to get inside the waterfall is simple. first, you zig zag up a mound to reach the base of the waterfall. then enter a tunnel (which looks like some time tunnel to dont know where) to reach the rock surface. basically put, the tunnel leads you from the top of the mound to the actual base of the waterfall. once you’ve gone through the tunnel, you will have to navigate a very wet, very slippery and poorly lit (read: natural lighting only) path for approx 10-15 mins (depending on fitness level and i’m not really fit by the way) before reaching the end of the waterfall.

that night we had a party in an underground bar converted from a bomb shelter. theme for the party was ABC. Anything But Clothes. (but keep your underwear on!). after the party, everybody was trashed in some way or another.

day 7: trip up to Jungfrau mountain. again, city boy from tropical climate explores something new. this time: snow! first time to switzerland and first time playing with real snow. (and not fantasising the shaved ice as a replacement for snow) the trip up into the mountains was cold but surprisingly, when you are out int he open amongst all that snow, it actually was quite warm and i started sweating a bit. rode on the dog sled but disappointed as it only went around in a circle. then generally ran around the whole place taking lots of photographs. that sums it all for switzerland. next: paris for 2 more days and then home!

tomorrow: switzerland to paris, france

Staubbachfall

newest mountain in switzerland: mt toblerone

swiss countryside