Schweiz & Deutschland

My wife and I just came back from a 10 day trip to Switzerland and Germany. Very beautiful countries - well worth the money and time for the visit. If any of you are planning to go there, do let me know and I can make some good recommendations.

Let me start with why we chose these two countries.

• Since the visit was planned for 10 days, variety in experience was most important so we would not get bored doing and seeing the same things.
  
• Although both of us appreciated art to a good extent, we were not ready to invest our time and money entirely on museums and monuments which pervade several European countries. Europe has a rich history and I should commend them for having preserved it in its greatest form, but unless you are a historian or deeply into art forms, you would not appreciate it to the level deserved. Both of us admire nature to a far greater level than museums. Switzerland has the Alps which I have always pictured in my mind for a long time. Germany has the greenery and castles and rivers. It brings in the right blend of nature and history, so we would also experience its historical significance too.
  
• Quality was important than quantity, so we kept to just two countries instead of scrambling far across cities in the continent. There was enough variety for 10 days in Switzerland and Germany. Moreover, adding more countries in the Eurail pass costs much more than additional days in the same country.

Reluctant to splurge with travel agents and vacation planners, I spent several months on persistent research to find out what the best places were to visit in the ten days we planned to be there. It is indeed less expensive to do it yourself. For us, all costs (including visa, tickets, food and any related expense) for 10 days totaled to around USD4100, which was no where close to what others offered for 5 days. Planning ourselves worked out excellently well because we decided what we want to see, and could dynamically change when we wanted. Researching was itself a nice way to learn about the places of significance. It ended up being more satisfying at the end of the day because we did it all by ourselves!

These were our best sources of information.

• Rick Steve's Germany & Rick Steve's Switzerland - I got these books from the local public library and carried them with me during the trip. Wonderful books with a lot of good information. Very comprehensive, and eliminated the need for a guide in several places. His short suggestions on logistics for some places are excellent, but many times very brief - not fully understandable by a person new to the place. You will need to follow up and get more detail from other sources, perhaps from people at the point of interest itself.
• My brother and sister in law who have visited and lived in Germany for a while.
• Tourism websites for the specific cities we chose to visit.
• TripAdvisor.com for hotel reviews, reviews on attractions and things to do, posting questions whose answers I could not find elsewhere on the internet. Great site! Very helpful community. Every passionate traveler should become a member, contribute and share.
  
• Kayak.com for hotels and flight tickets.
• Phone. This was the BEST source of reliable information for me! Reading from books and Internet is one thing, but speaking on the phone directly with the people you will be dealing with there is the best thing you can do from home. I used prepaid computer-to-phone service using Yahoo Voice. Germany calls were around 1 cent a minute and Switzerland calls were around 2 cents a minute. I just prepaid the minimum $10 which was more than sufficient for me.
  

We took a 5-day Germany-Switzerland Eurail Saver Flexi Pass. It was strange that the saver pass was available only for 1st class, but it was nevertheless good because the 1st class coaches are relatively empty and calm. It came to $350 a person, which is excellent considering cost of travel here in the US. We decided to keep our luggage light since we would need to be really mobile. So each of us had just the small pull-along suitcase along with a backpack. We decided to spend money on laundry in the middle of our trip and reuse our clothes.

Food was a very important concern keeping in mind our vegetarian diet. An option was to pack, but it was out of the question considering the time and effort for cooking during the trip, and the luggage restriction we placed for ourselves. Here is what we did. We carried with us a box of cereal bars each. We decided to buy fruits along our way regularly. I found several places to eat from vegetarian restaurant sites like www.happycow.net. I even found that the Subway Sandwich chain is widespread in Germany. Searching for Indian restaurants in Google maps also worked well. The maps and notes about the restaurants I prepared and took with us was well worth it. But I must say however that by the time we came back home, we were really longing for some home cooked food. We were tired of the bread-butter-jam, sweet cereals and sandwich routine. What we wanted was some traditional home-cooked Vettha Kozhambu, Rasam Saadam, Applam, Beans curry and most importantly, Thair Saadam. And if possible, all this on a vaazhai elai! Thoughts of these delicacies were pervading our minds during the last few days of our trip!

For cash, we carried with us travelers checks for safety, but we mostly relied on our ATM cards. Before leaving, I notified our banks and credit card companies about our travel plans so they would not block our withdrawals for suspicious activity. I found out that the best card in our pocket with the least fees was the Bank Of America debit card. It had the least exchange fee of 1%. We didn't expect the $5 ATM fee charged each time by BOA while we drew cash in Switzerland. [I was told in TripAdvisor that ATMs in Europe never charged ATM fee]. However, withdrawals from Deutsche Bank in Germany (partner of BOA) was excellent - no exchange fee, no ATM fee. The exchange rates offered were excellent and on par with the then rates.

Here was our actual itinerary very briefly. I would say we stuck to about 80% of what we planned initially. We changed dynamically depending on the weather and interest in variety.

Day 0: Fly out of EWR to ZRH in the evening hours.

Day 1: Landed in ZRH in the morning hours - Cleaned up quickly - to-go breakfast from airport fast food - Train to Luzern - Luggage in station locker - Self-guided walking tour of old town - Lowendenkmal monument - Lunch at Kanchi Indian Restuarant - 2 hour cruise on Lake Luzern - Golden Pass Route (scenic train) to Interlaken West - check-in to Rugenpark B&B - Dinner at Little India - town walk - crash for the day

Day 2: Breakfast at hotel - Paragliding in Beatenberg (highlight of the trip) - Interlaken scenic river walk - Lunch at Welcome India - Bus to Neuhaus - Unsuccessful attempt to boat in Lake Thunersee (no rentals available) - back to Interlaken by bus - some shopping - dinner at Tamil Take Out Shop (bad one) - crash for the day at Rugenpark B&B.

Day 3: Breakfast at hotel - Train to Lauterbrunnen - Luggage in lockers - Cable up to Grutschalp - Hike to Murren - Cable to Birg - Cable up to Schilthorn - Lunch at Revolving Restaurant - Cable down to Murren - Hike down to Gimmelwald - Cable down to Stechelberg - Bus to Lauterbrunnen - Luggage from locker - Train to Grindelwald via Zweilütschinen - Pick up pizza dinner - checkin to Mountain Hostel - eat and crash for the day

Day 4: Breakfast at hostel - Relax - Walk around Grindelwald - Train back to Interlaken West - bus to Neuhaus - Pedal boat rental on Lake Thunersee - Ate packed lunch in middle of the lake - back to Interlaken by bus - Swiss Army knife shopping - Checkin back again into Rugenpark B&B - Dinner at Little India - crash for the day.

Day 5: Breakfast at hotel - Train to Brig via Speiz - Glacier Express (scenic train) to Chur - packed lunch in the train - To Freiburg (Germany) via Basel - dinner at Subway - Checkin to Intercity Hotel - crash for the day.

Day 6: Breakfast at hotel - Train/bus to Feldberg - Decision to hike despite rain prediction (the best decision in the trip) - Ate packed Subway sandwich in the Black Forest - lost for a while in woods - traced our way back into safe path - cherish successful hike - bus/train back to Freiburg - relax - walk in old town and Cathedral - dinner at Jaipur - crash for the day.

Day 7: Breakfast at hotel - Train to Heidelberg via Mannheim - Local bus to castle base - up the hill by funicular - guided tour in castle - down by funicular - walk into old town - lunch at Subway - Walk across the riven on the Old Bridge, climb up to the Philosopherweg for excellent city/castle view. Bus back to station - Train to Koblenz via Mannheim - Check in to Hotel National - walk into Old Town - Dinner at Taj Mahal - crash for the day

Day 8: Breakfast at hotel - Bus to Koblenz KD dock - Rhine River Cruise from Koblenz to Bingen - lunch in the ship - Walk from Bingen KD to Hbf - Train to Munich via Mainz/Frankfurt - dinner at Subway - check in to Four Points Hotel - crash for the day.

Day 9: Self-made Bread/jelly/ketchup breakfast - The day for Mikes Bike Tour to Neuschwanstein Castle - Walk to Train station - Train to Fussen - Bus to Castle base - Steep hike up to castle - view from Mary's Bridge - Castle Tour - Hike down via the waterfall gorge - Hike to Tegelberg - Alpine Slide - Bike Ride in the hills and around the lake - Bus back to Fussen - Train back to Munich via Buchloe - Pizza Dinner at station - bus to hotel - crash for day.

Day 10: Self-made Bread/jelly/ketchup breakfast - Got Munich Public Transport day tickets - U-Bahn to Station - Luggage in Locker - S Bahn to MarienPlatz - Find that the bike tour planned is canceled that day - self tour to Viktualienmarkt - U-Bahn/bus to English Garden - packed Subway sandwich lunch - bus back to station - Train to Zurich - dinner in train's restaurant - shuttle to Moevenpick Hotel Aiport - check in - crash for the day.

Day 11: Shuttle to airport - check in luggage - breakfast at airport - fly out of ZRH - arrive at EWR in the afternoon.

OK... that's good enough for this long post. When I find some time, I will describe the highlights of our experiences at the best places in the next posts.

Update: Here is the blog post with details of our experiences