Paragliding at Switzerland with Skywings

There are many tandem paragliding companies who have kiosk around Hohematte Park in Interlaken. We came across Skywings Paragliding through the brochures available at our hotel reception and booked with them. The basic package starts with 10-20minutes flight with add-ons for photos and videos, double air and coffee and cake. The total activity time for 10-20mins flight is around an hour and a half, with drive to the hill top, few minutes trek and the preparations. 

Swiss Tour Day 2 - Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen Valley

Our day 2 at Switzerland was for Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen valley. Hubby had gone on an early morning paragliding, and we started our Interlaken tour with Kursaal Garden, which has Yash Chopra statue. Kursaal Garden was 2mins walk from Hotel Harder Minerva where we stayed. Yash Chopra is named as Ambassador of Interlaken, with numerous scenes of his movies shot in the region, which attracts many Indians to visit Interlaken. Kursaal Garden is also known for the manicured flower beds, Kursaal Brunnen Fountain and the Congress Center and Casino. Most of the lanes were still getting ready with the floral plant arrangements for the upcoming touristry summer season. 

Yash Chopra statue at Kursaal Garden, Interlaken

Interlaken Ost(East), train station is the primary departure point for all the mountain trains, while trains to rest of Swiss have connectivity from both Interlaken Ost and Interlaken West. Interlaken Ost station is around 15mins walk from Kursaal Garden and we took our train to Lauterbrunnen. Lauterbrunnen, an Alpine village, in the glacier carved U-shaped valley, also known as the Land of 72 Waterfalls, with many springs and falls. While there are not many waterfalls during summer, Staubbach Falls is mostly active throughout the year, which is also the highest free-falling waterfalls of Europe falling from 297meters. Lauterbrunnen was too touristry even during shoulder period, while a few minutes trek gave a calm serene views off the crowd. Lauterbrunnen is also the gateway to car-free mountain villages Wengen, Murren and Gimmelwald on either side of the valley. 

Staubbach Falls

After wandering around for few hours, we walked to Lauterbrunnen bus station and took our bus to Stechelberg Schilthornbahn station. Stechelberg is known for the cable car to Schilthorn mountain peak, where James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service from 1969 was shot at the iconic Piz Gloria revolving restaurant. The Schilthorn cable car goes via Murren with a change over cabin at Gimmelwald. We thought of getting off at Gimmelwald and exploring the Alpine mountain peak village instead of going to too touristry Schilthorn. The village was all for ourselves, and the trek through the village was beyond joy. The village also houses Europe's first honesty shop entirely unattended, self service village store, were you pick up the things and drop your cash with a note into the postbox or just pay online. This tiny village also offers the views of famous Jungfrau peak. The trek was just too good to be real, with the purest airs in a car free village. We still wondered how do those people even manage just on the cable car transportation which only operates through the day, with no other connectivity, apart from trekking down to Lauterbrunnen. While taking the cable car down, we were accompanied by a local who was just going down through the cable car to take her pet for a walk and took back the next cable car up home.

Gimmelwald village

We took our bus back to from Stechelberg Schilthornbahn station to Lauterbrunnen and then train to Wengen. Wengen is the village on the opposite mountain of the valley, which can be reached by train. It was around 6:30 in the evening by then, we took the train to Wengen, enjoyed valley from the other peak for an hour before we took the train back to Lauterbrunnen and then to Interlaken Ost. 

As the valley village disappears, as you move up to Wengen

Wilderswil just an empty station on the Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen route 

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 15mins operating every 20mins. 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 20kms 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.