Italy & Swiss 2022!

Already been a week!
The trip was in many ways a Deja Vu experience.
Right from the moment, we landed in the city of Zurich! Seemed like time had stopped moving since we were last here seven years ago.
The roads, the streets, and the stores they seemed like nothing had changed.
We moved around here without google maps.
And since it was Sunday as we walked down the streets, we were predicting the stores that will be coming and just next to that is where we should meet in case we get lost.
As we continued our journey to explore the other side of Switzerland.

Thank God things were different. Else it would have been a crazy holiday experience.
We explored the Italian- Mediterranean side of Switzerland Lugano and Lausanne & Montreux.
Lausanne was known for the Olympic Museum, and Montreux was very much like Como and Lugano was like the typical European small-town charm.
These towns were in their way beautiful and as we travelled to each of them. We could notice many shades of blue water. The narrow streets with colourful structures were some of the things we missed about Europe and travelling in the last couple of years…
Italy – Milan Centrale station seemed to have changed a little. But the structure remained the same. Dumao the cathedral and the shopping centre both were nostalgic experiences. As it was a decade ago or the 1st European trip ever from India was to Italy. The Cafes, the tourist buzz and the stores in this hundred of years old architecture and space were worth revisiting too.
Venice: The Land of Espresso! And coffee for Italy. The San Marco square, the faint memory of remembering the Florian Cafe being a little around that particular column, the walk past the bridges and the boat experience that we did this time from the station that had gone through a complete makeover from the last time we were in Venice in 2012.
We did not do the gondola ride this time as we just had a day in Venice.
Quite a few new stores opened and many remained where they were!
I remember this particular store that would have Ferrari & F1 merchandise and this was the time I was more interested and related Italy with Cars like Ferrari that I wanted to just go and visit this store!
There were too many stories that I relived on this trip to Italy & Switzerland.

Planning to travel around Switzerland. Some of the cities around Zurich & Geneva are mentioned below.

Train Travel from Zurich:

  • Lausanne – 2 Hr 15 Min.
  • Montreux – 15 from Lausanne( 2 Hr 30 Min from Zurich)
  • Lugano – 2 Hr
  • Fribourg  – 1 Hr 30 Min.
  • Lucerne –  45 Min.
  • Bern – 1 Hr.
  • Basel – 1 Hr 10 Min
  • Zermatt – 3 Hr 12 Min
  • St. Moritz – 3 Hr 22 Min

Train Travel from Geneva:

  • Interlaken – 2 Hr 15 min
  • Montreux – 1 Hr 10 Min
  • Lausanne – 45 Min

North & South India Journey

Tamil Nadu, was on my travel diaries for a while Now! Or for that matter travelling around India other than Mumbai and 2022 has been a surprising year that’s been inclining towards spirituality naturally.

Varanasi, An offbeat destination to celebrate your birthday!

Yeah! Right! But being born in Nashik! And having celebrated my 25th in Amristar. This shouldn’t be a Shock!

The boat journey through the Ghats witnessing the Sunset & sunrise was very calming and beautiful.

Birding chirping, Bird feeding, boat sailings and a cool winter settled in two luxury properties that had their charm & Views.

A short trip of eating three days food menu in 1 and a half days was very upsetting and unsettling to the stomachs of all of us.

Dharamshala.

Another spiritual awakening city in the Himalayas was the travel we went ahead with from Amritsar after thinking over all the possible travel plans around.

A five Day Short trip was two days of travel and three days of sightseeing. The hills have characters that set them apart from the other regions. And sharp turns and small spiral roads keep your head spinning around.

The quietness, stillness and kindness of the people out there are humbling. And something that’s difficult to find in larger cities across the country.

The landscape is all different around one country that speaks so many different languages and showcases the culture of each region that the south Indian region was the most Conscious about plastic. Everything was either brown paper bag, Plastic was replaced with metal cans and one Ltr water bottles were replaced with five Ltr’s. The hills here were much more greener.

While we were trying the Momos in Dharamshala we were enjoying Dosa, Malabar parathas and dark chocolates & ice creams in the south region.

Some More Writing- 2022