Swiss Tour Day 1 - Glacier 3000, Saanen - Gstaad

Our day 1 at Switzerland was planned for places around Gstaad. One of the most expensive places of Swiss, often the favorite holiday destination of cricketer Virat Kohli and Anushka, and Bollywood stars Saif and Kareena and more. When we planned for Swiss, we knew we wanted to explore as many versatile things the country had to offer. Glacier 3000, apart from the beautiful glacier, offers the Dog Sled ride, and Saanen in Gstaad was the place where Bollywood movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and many other Bollywood movies were shot. 

We had booked our Swiss Travel Pass on SBB website long before our travel dates and that covered all our travels around Swiss by trains, ferries, buses, most cable cars(others with 30% to 50% discount). So we need not book our tickets on every ride which saved most of our time. We often hopped on and off trains and buses with jiffy. Glacier 3000 dog sled was offered on discount which included glacier ticket too. I will have a separate post for different passes offered by Swiss.

Husky rides/dog sled at Glacier 3000 is fixed for a window of half an hour and you need to plan your visit accordingly. Since we were travelling from Interlaken, a train ride from Interlaken to Gstaad, bus from Gstaad to Col-du-Pillon, 2 connecting cable cars from Col-du-Pillon to glacier top, Ice express chairlift to get down and finally walk to the husky ride point, that's how we had to reach our days activity. 

We started from Interlaken by 7:30 in the morning, we had packed our theplas from India and had picked hummus, salads, yogurts from Coop previous evening at airport. Had our thepla wraps on our train journey. Interlaken to Gstaad train ride has 3 transfers - Interlaken West to Spiez, Spiez to Zweisimmen - Zweisimmen to Gstaad. The train runs once in an hour with travel time around 2 hours. So we couldn't miss our train we had planned, ran to catch the connecting bus next to Gstaad railway station. Gstaad railway station to Col-du-Pillon bus stand of glacier 3000 is half an hour ride. Col-du-pillon - Cabane - Scex Rouge cable car travel time 15min operating every 20minutes. Like they say the journey in itself is so beautiful, taking a Golden Pass Panoramic route from Interlaken to Gstaad(which goes further till Montreux) gives you the spectacular views of mountains, wooden chalets, the green meadows, Swiss cows.  

Two things to do at Glacier 3000 are Dog Sled and Peak walk by Tissot depending on the weather. Weather can be too unpredictive at times, while it was sunny when we reached the top, it started snowing in few minutes. Most peaks have live webcams which you can watch out for, and plan your trip to the peaks accordingly, if you don't have any prior bookings. But most activities like dog sled get sold out days before, so we didn't have option but to book in advance. 

Dog Sled is limited to winters till the snow lasts. While for summers from June to September Glacier offers Alpine coaster along with Peak walk. Alpine coaster shot in Ranbir Kapoor starrer song Aahista Aahista from Bachna Ae Haseeno movie. There is cafe and souvenir shop on the peak, if you plan to have a cup of steaming hot coffee on the peak and to take home memorabilia.  

By 2 we were back to Col-du-pillon, and took our bus to Saanen. Saanen is around 20km and takes around 30 mins. There is a dedicated display board which covers all the shooting spots of Bollywood movies around Saanen and Gstaad. Since we visited in shoulder season, whole of the village was just for us, not even a single person around. We walked around the narrow lanes, enjoying the magnificent views of the chalets and snow capped peaks.

DDLJ Saanen Bridge

DDLJ church where Kajol goes to pray

Saanen Railway station

We took the train back to Gstaad, wandered around for an hour till our next train to Interlaken. Interlaken is quite touristry, while most shops close by 8PM during shoulder season, you can wander around feeling the vibes of the Alpine Town till late night. 

               

Frankfurt Tour in 7hrs of Layover

So the day had arrived, our flight to Zurich was at 3AM with a 7 hrs layover in Frankfurt. We left home early and had almost finished our immigration by 1AM. While hubby and kiddo went on wandering around the new T2 Terminal of Kempe Gowda International Bengaluru, I took a nap around, as we had whole of next day to travel and explore Frankfurt. Since we had a Schengen visa, we thought of making use of our 7hrs layover to explore Frankfurt. Our flight was on time and we reached Frankfurt by 9AM. We were already served with breakfast at flight so we were all set to explore the new country Germany. We had planned to visit Romer Berg the cultural hub of Frankfurt. The metro connectivity in Frankfurt has great accessibility to explore the city. Of the 2 major lines S and U, while U has a nearer metro station to Romer Berg, S has a direct connectivity to Frankfurt airport. So we opted for S line(S8 or S9 route) so that we need not change S to U at Frankfurt HBF station which is the major hub of Frankfurt, instead walk few extra miles from Hauptwache station on S line. Frankfurt metro offers a day ticket for 5 people at 22 Euros, which allows you to travel through out the day. We took our ticket at airport metro station and boarded train to Hauptwache. 

I had watched enough of vlogs on day visit to Frankfurt on a layover and every road seemed so familiar which were watched on the vlogs. A 30mins ride reached us to Hauptwache metro station. You can opt to take a last mile connectivity of a tram or just walk for 5-10mins exploring around to reach Romer Berg. 

Romer Berg square houses the Romer building the city administration of Frankfurt. The square also has the Old St Nicolas Church, Historical Museum and the central fountain of justice which dates to 1543. In 16th century, it was named one of the most beautiful squares in Roman Empire. The square  was bombed in 1944 during WW II which burnt the historic buildings and the present half timber facades were reconstructed between 1950 to 1980. The square hosts the Christmas fair and the place turns magically light. The place has souvenir shops around and authentic German bakeries which are centuries old, which none of the new bakeries could match the taste of their breads and seeded rolls.

Just 5mins walk from Romer Berg Square is The Eiserner (Iron Bridge) a pedestrian bridge which connects central old town to southern Sachsenhausen district. Which was rebuilt too in 1946 after the WW II . Its well known for the colorful love locks couples leave there as a symbol of love and affection.

Breads and seeded rolls of German Bakeries 

We spent almost 3 hours there wandering around, before we took our metro back to airport. Unlike in India, airports have no security check at the airport gates, anybody can just walk into the airport. Since we had also finished our immigration into Schengen in the morning, our flight to Zurich was domestic which was much hassle free. The flight got delayed by an hour and by the time we reaches Zurich it was already 6PM in the evening. We bought our Swiss SIM and picked food at Coop(for our next day travel) at airport. We had to catch our direct train to Interlaken West by 6:45PM. Unfortunately the direct train got cancelled, we took the next train to Zurich HB. The Zurich HB train to Interlaken too halted for maintenance at Bern. A lady in the train with us asked us to take train to Thun and take a next train then after. There we were at Thun at 8:30PM, in the freezing night, in an empty railway station of Swiss, not sure if we were about to get any train to Interlaken. Checked the buses next to the railway station and they informed, no buses run in Swiss post 8PM. Worse we were expecting was to check in to any of the hotels in Thun and then take a train to Interlaken the next morning, but that would disturb our next day travel plans. While waiting and checking around, everybody around and the SBB Swiss Train App showed there was a train at 9:30PM. The display board finally read the next train at 9:30PM to Interlaken. 

We had informed our hotel on our check in at 9PM, based on our direct train from airport to Interlaken, and we were still in Thun till 9:30PM still 20km away waiting for our last mile connectivity to reach the hotel. Most small hotels in Europe have fixed reception hours, they just go off on time with even the main doors locked. And the best thing is they have digital locks or digital lockers with the key card kept within at the entrance of the hotel to access the hotel main door and the room with the same card, and they share the pin on call if you reach during odd hours. Finally we reached Interlaken West at 10:30PM and walked to our hotel and called off our first day in Europe. 

Women's Emotional Retreat with Kshemanava

I was part of Kshemavana's Love your Liver Retreat in 2023 and had made lots of lifestyle changes post attending the retreat. Its been over 2 years now and had gone off track with my diet, workout and sleep. I was looking for a visit again for that motivation to get back on track, when I came across their Women's Wellness Retreat scheduled for 21st to 23rd of Nov, just a day before the retreat. I immediately applied for Friday leave and planned for the 3 days retreat. You can find my previous posts on Kshemavana here. 

Kurma block in lights

Women's Wellness Retreat too was wonderfully curated, with yoga and kriyas in the morning, treatment through the day, meditation in the evening. Being emotional wellness, this time we had sessions on emotional detox, anger detox and fear detox which included introspection, workshop and brain storming sessions. Retreat also had aqua yoga, pranayama and sound healing sessions. Balinese massage and foot reflexology were much needed relaxation treatments. Infra Red Sauna and herbal pack were other stress reduction treatments we had this time. While emotional health is influenced by sleep and diet, we had relaxation meditations namely Mind Sound Resonance Technique(MSRT) and trataka to end the day with. The menu this time too was very well curated and also filling, which helped us work on our emotional detox, unlike in the last retreat when we were put on fasting diet to heal us physically. The menu this time too was no grain, with fruits, sauteed veggies and banana flour roti. We also had cooking session, where we were introduced to a salad, a smoothie and a soup, a good way to include at least one grain less meal a day when back home. 

Dhayana - the meditation hall, the vibes in this hall in extraordinary 

One of the lunches - full meal with detox water and red sandalwood water

Me soaking in the vibes of the ambience after a foot reflexology treatment

Kshamavana now also has 2 cattles. One of the passtimes during my stay at Kshemavana was either take a barefoot walk on the lush green lawn or cuddle the cattle, both being so therapeutic. That's it for this  post, will update this post again after few months of practicing the techniques taught at the retreat to be more stable emotionally, and come up with my observation.