Once upon a time in Europe – Part 6 – Interlaken

Continued from Part 5 – Peak District (UK)

Reached Swiss at 11pm and narrated the whole UK trip along with photographs to my brother and sister-in-law. Called up Anitha to tell her about my arrival but she gave me a bad news instead – Kairas got temperature and also has running nose. She shouldve got it from me and who else ! I took everything with me back to Switzerland, but left my fever and cold there for Kaira; ; I felt terrible !!!

I spent the next day at home resting. There wasn’t any sign of my temperature coming down and I had the irritating cold too. Moreover, I was too lazy to go out all by myself. I could have asked my sister in law (s-i-l from now on) to come along, but somehow didn’t feel like bothering her. My bro left for work in the morning and agreed to join us for lunch. He had taken a week off from office to be with me for the rest of my holidays. Our trip to Paris was in another two days and in between we had a day to roam around in Switzerland. It was S-i-l who suggested Interlaken and none of us thought twice. My bro immediately switched on his PC and started searching for directions with the help of google maps.

We woke up on time, got ready and surprisingly there wasn’t any confusion until then. While Dhwani was getting ready, my bro and I went out to get our rented car. It was an Audi A6 Avant. Cars never excited me, but I did notice a few of my friends dropping their jaw when I showed the below snap to them. Here, check it out and you will go ‘wow’ too:… (no, not me; the car 😉 )

The only issue we had was with the GPS inside. It worked perfectly, but it took us few minutes to get it work in accordance with our IQ levels. Btw, I shouldn’t be using the word ‘us’ because I still don’t have a clue on how to make one of those things work !!

After fixing the baby seater for Dhwani, we all started our journey listening to the directions from the GPS girl.  Its supposed to be a 5 hour drive from Basel to Interlaken.  On the way, with a small diversion was Augusta Raurica – ancient Roman ruins in Switzerland, almost 20-30 kms from Basel. My brother knew that I had a fetish towards ancient monuments, museums, etc. and wanted me to visit the ruins before we reached Interlaken.  For info. on Augusta Raurica, click here.

I don’t think I had mentioned this before. My brother is one of those human beings who doesn’t like taking photographs of fellow human beings. He could go on taking snaps of grass, flowers, mountains and beautiful locales but without humans. I am just the opposite and my logic is very simple –  take snaps of all those mountains and trees, but try to include a person (obviously, someone whom you know) somewhere in the picture. How else would anyone know that we had been to that place ? 😀 😀

So, when he captured this on his camera…………

…….I captured this on mine !!!! 😀 😀 😀 😀

Heres another grass photo of his and this is my current desktop wallpaper too :

After having a snack, we proceeded towards Interlaken. All was well until now ! In an hour, Dhwani became restless and cranky and started crying. Ohh, ‘crying’ is actually too small a word for what she did back then !! S-i-l tried different stunts to get her to sleep, but none of them worked. She cried for hours long, but yes, with regular 5-10 mins break to pacify us and to give a relief for our ears. I am sure even that automated GPS girl was closing her ears so that she could think straight to guide us !

Here are some of the snaps taken during the drive, but only out of brothers compulsion. He called me a ‘good for nothing’ for sitting in the front seat and doing absolutely nothing holding a camera, no, two cameras !

On the way, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and also for getting some warm milk for Dhwani. Snaps taken from in and around the restaurant :

Finally, we reached Interlaken. By then, we were partially deaf because of Dhwani; but she stopped crying the moment we took her out of the car. Guess it was because of that child seater; she wouldve felt uncomfortable and restless sitting in it. But, what to do; rules are rules ! in those parts of the world, it is mandatory to have a child seater in your car when you are traveling with a child . I sincerely wish such rules come in India too. Don’t we watch all kinds of two wheeler stunts on the road with small kids in between ?

Anyway, there wasn’t much of an activity in Interlaken. My S-i-l kept asking me if I was hungry and suggested that theres a restaurant named Hooters which she wanted me to visit. She went on and on about Hooters, but I wasn’t feeling hungry and so ignored all her promotions for the restaurant. Apart from window shopping and posing for snaps, we just walked here and there with no specific aim in mind. And during all this, my S-i-l kept mentioning about Hooters. Beyond a point, it was beginning to irritate me too 😉

We entered a supermarket to get a few basic amenities for the 3 day Paris trip starting from the next day. While dropping things into our shopping bag, my brother picked up a small tube of toothpaste. He said that the one he has at home is large and for convenience sake during the travel, a small tube would be better. I asked him to keep the toothpaste back and told him that I have a small tube with me and that would be more than enough for the three of us for the whole trip. (There is a reason why I mentioned this incident and you will know it in the next part)

It was 4 pm and we decided to get back home. My S-i-l started chanting ‘Hooters’ again and while going back, she even showed me the restaurant. I couldn’t see anything special there, but then, she herself came out with the significance of Hooters – It’s a famous restaurant where real hott girls serve you food in minimal clothes !!!!! I wasn’t married back then, and I was kinda rejecting all the proposals too. My family would’ve got scared and probably, my S-i-l wanted me to rejuvenate all my dormant senses by taking me there !!! 😀 😀 😀  But had she mentioned this exclusive feature of the restaurant before leaving, I would’ve given it a try going there, atleast for water 😉 Guys, check it out in google !!! 😀 😀 😀

We had a relaxed return journey as Dhwani remained silent most of the time. After dropping S-i-l and Dhwani at home, my bro and I went to leave the rented car at its place. He is an excellent driver and can drive for hours without getting tired. If he is at the wheels, one could expect a smooth, relaxed and tension free ride. We didn’t have any issues during the entire journey, but while trying to get the car to its station, he hit the car on a sign board at the entrance and that left a small scratch on one of its side. My bro seemed upset; no, he WAS upset. Who wouldn’t be ? After driving safely all through the journey, this stupid thing had to happen; that too at the end while leaving the car at its place.

After getting back home, we had dinner and packed our stuffs for the Paris trip.

The next day morning, when my bro went inside the restroom :

Bro : Vimmalllllll….you idiot !!!! I shouldn’t have listened to you ! I should’ve never taken you seriously !!!

Me (to myself first and then to him) : Now what ?

To be continued…..

Also read :

Once upon a time in Europe  —

Basel , Zermatt, Chateau de Chillon, London City, Peak District (UK)

Next part in this series : Paris