Trip To Switzerland

When you have visa for 26 countries why cant you take a advantage of it? Yes I took it. I am Anoop Krithivasan pursuing Masters in Automotive Engineering at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt. During my Christmas holidays I visited Switzerland. Even though it is not a part of European Union, It is a part of Schengen countries. So your visa is valid to make a visit.

Things you need to take care while visiting other countries are:
1. Mode of Transport
2. Accommodation
3. What the Places that  you can visit in that particular season along with the cost to visit.
These things can make you visualize the budget approximately. As far as I know there are no student offers in Switzerland and it is a costly place to visit.

Here I would like to share my experience. 

I came to know about my Christmas holidays in October Last week, So I booked my ticket by first week of November. Since I booked it pretty early, My to and fro cost was 60 euros. A tip to everyone, Deutsche Bahn Covers almost all the Schengen countires with train and bus facilities . It is very easy for a student to travel. When you’re booking through Deutsche Bahn there are two types of prices Spar-Price and Flexi-Price. When you take Spar-Price your route, time is fixed and when you take Flexi-Price your route is fixed but you can travel any time on the day of travel. Spar-Price are cheaper and affordable by students.

I planned a trip in such way, that I travel one way by bus and the other way by train. The journey stared from Ingolstadt to Munich by Deutsche Bahn Train. From Munich to Zurich by Deutsche Bahn Bus. I crossed three countries in three hours by bus. The Route was Germany (Munich, Lindau), Austria (Salzburg), Switzerland(St. Gallon , Zurich). It was a exciting trip with beautiful scenarios of mountains, pine trees etc. Once on reaching I had my family to welcome and take care of me. I had my aunt, uncle, brother. It was a blessing for me.

Places of Visit

My first visit was Part of Alps mountain Engelberg-Truebsee-Titlis (Part of Alps mountain) with one of highest mountain peaks.It was a nice experience of travelling via cable car till one point, visiting  the Ice cave with beautiful art work which is covered with ice 365 days. I then followed it up by crossing two mountains by Cliff (Height is 3300 meters above sea level).  I was seeing snow for the first time . I had my first brush with Skiing, and tubing. In Truebsee (Part of Alps mountain) there is a hotel called Belmont which serves delicious Alpen Macaroni Pasta and Vermicelli cake.

Over the next few days I visited Olten , Einsten coffee house etc. Then I visited one of the world’s costliest market – Zurich Market . You can find all branded stores like Armani,Gucci, Louis Vuitton etc. Prices range from 3000 euros to 22, 000 Euros. 

In my Last few days of vacation I Visted Verkehrshaus der Schweiz (Swiss Transport Museum), Lindt chocolate factory Löwendenkmal (Lion Monument) and Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) in Lucerne. I had the opportunity to look at the documentary of making Lindt chocolates from transporting coco beans to final product at the factory.

An Interesting fact: There is no bank called Swiss bank in Switzerland. They have banks like UBS, Credit Swiss etc. They are similar to Banks we have in India like Indian bank, State bank of India etc.

One cannot complete the Swiss trips without these:
1. Understanding the German from Swiss dialect. It is bit difficult to understand the way they pronounce the words with a mix of french dialect.
2. Buying a Swiss watch , chocolates and souvenirs. I did all of this.

On return I came by train from Zurich,Lindau, Ausburg, Ingolstadt. Ingolstadt welcomed me with  snow fall.  I still hope to visit Swiss , to visit Geneva , Basel three country point (Switzerland – France – Germany) to fulfil my yet pending dreams.

See you soon everyone.