the switzerland song

this is an incomplete account of my switzerland trip. just for those who've been asking me to write about it, here are a few broad impressions..


Switzerland. The word has seldom been uttered without the accompaniment of a dreamy sigh, born of watching reels after reels of escapist cinema shot in its other-worldly landscapes, while sitting in a land that has dystopia festering a stone’s throw away from islands of prosperity. To an eye that’s used to watching stark contrasts nestle side by side, Switzerland stuns with its consistent aesthetics. From the moment you land in the country, till you board your flight back, it’s an unbroken impression of immaculate beauty.
So there I am in the heart of Switzerland, in the lake city of Lucerne, walking down cobbled pathways as the smell of freshly brewed coffee and cigarette smoke mingles with the crisp June morning air. Your senses immediately open up to the sprightly newness of the place. On a sensory high, you make your way through a very disciplined traffic (cars halting politely to let you cross over, jolly passers-by navigating the pavements on skateboards and scooter- bikes, and some very fashion-conscious people) to reach Lake Lucerne. Once aboard a tourist ship, you get a better view of the town - its old architecture, the flower-laced Chapel Bridge (built in 1333 as a protection from outside attacks and which houses paintings depicting landmarks in the town’s history), the towering churches, the vintage clock-tower, the picture-perfect Swiss houses, the electric buses with their huge glass windows threading through clean-cut streets – all reeling over the bridge into the lake.
Sailing away from the town, the Alps now watch over the lake from behind thin mist and floating clouds. Look far and blue hills melt into the horizon. Look up and snow vapours from white-capped mountains touch cobalt skies. Look down and the lake is liquid emerald, sinking inverted pines in its deep green waters. You put an imaginary frame around any spectacle and it turns into a painting, what with the pigment-rich colours, neat contours and a distinct sense of harmony.
As you move beyond the town of leisure and luxury to the countryside, the landscape gets richer. Engelberg is a fairy-tale land made of wooden houses set against verdant hills, with windows often painted to strike a delicious contrast with the façade, underlined with multi-coloured flowers bursting out of dainty flower pods. The manicured grasslands, the cosy cogwheel trains cutting through lush expanses, Jersey cows grazing languorously, the music of their cowbells fading in the twilight and the perfect agreement between the human and natural world are enough to make you believe that you are witnessing utopia.

While Mount Titlis and Mount Rigi give you a 360-degree view of the natural prosperity of the Alps, so untouched by the perils of civilisation, cities like Lugano and Zurich flaunt its human equivalent. A round trip of Switzerland will also give you a taste of German, Italian and French cultures cuddled inside a country smaller than Maharashtra.

Cheese and chocolates, Alps and lakes, flowers and buildings, peace and beauty – Switzerland is really a glimpse of life at its best. You won’t need a mythical heaven to dream of after you’ve seen it.