My trip to France and Switzerland is one of the most awaited trips of my life as I needed a break from what I was going through. Also, this is one of the most meticulously planned trips. Many things had to be taken care of considering that we would be in a land which is completely different from ours in terms of culture, currency, weather, and ways to travel.
Our initial plan was to visit Paris, Geneva, Interlaken (Jungfraujoch) and Amsterdam and stay in Paris, Geneva and Interlaken. But we had to cancel hotel booking in Interlaken and drop Amsterdam from the itinerary due to the reasons which I will get to in the next paragraphs.
Positives from the Trip
Eurail Pass
One of the travelers’ acquaintances suggested this when our itinerary was sent to him. This pass allows anyone to travel around Europe without purchasing tickets separately. One can plan and choose the Eurail pass which is available for 4 days, 5 days, 7 days, 10 days, or 15 days of travel in a month. I can assure you that the tickets would cost much more than the cost of the pass.
You can choose between a pass for 1st class seating and 2nd class seating, I personally didn’t find much difference between either of the classes. So, you can opt for a 2nd class pass.
Seat Reservations with Eurail Pass
Europe has two segments of trains, one which needs you to reserve a seat and the other one which doesn’t need a seat reservation. I stumbled on this when checking about Eurail pass. I went through videos and articles to understand the reservation process. I completed seat reservations to Geneva on the day of landing in Paris. This was not our initial plan, one mistake, explained in the learnings, forced us to go to Geneva on that day.
Train Journey in Europe
As expected, the trains were neat, convenient, and fast. During transit to various places, we had to change trains as there was no option of a direct train. We were a bit nervous if we could make it as the time between the transit was around 6-9 minutes in most cases. But the change process was very convenient, no crowd in the stations helped us catch the next train around 2-3 minutes before the departure.
We enjoyed the journey from Geneva to Interlaken more than that of Paris to Geneva. Paris to Geneva journey seemed to be sitting in a Vande Bharat express from Secunderabad to Khammam but Geneva to Interlaken was at a different level. That journey has offered what the eyes have been eagerly waiting for. Adding a sip of coffee standing in the pantry to the eye pleasing view made the experience memorable.
Interlaken to Jungfraujoch
Being uncertain about every part of our schedule we didn’t book any tickets from Interlaken to Jungfraujoch, a place considered the top of Europe as it stands at an altitude of 11,362 feet. We just made sure about the availability of day trips from Interlaken to the top of Europe. But getting to that place is much easier than we anticipated. Tickets can be purchased at the vending machines placed in the Interlaken OST train station. Ticket price per adult was CHF 213 ($237). The journey has three parts, riding a train till Grindelwald, a cable car till Eigergletscher and another train till Jungfraujoch. The total journey takes around 1 hour 15 minutes with no hiccups during the changes.
Riding in a cable car gives the spectacular view that Switzerland has in offering, the country is part of many itineraries just for those worth capturing views. The snow-covered mountains offered a pleasant experience with the wind supporting us by staying calm while we were there.
Visiting What the Trip is All About: The Eiffel Tower
From the time we were back to Paris from Geneva, our legs were dragging us to take them to catch the view of Eiffel tower. But my friend must report at the conference venue before that. We had to walk around 500 meters to the conference venue after alighting at the metro station. While walking our eyes caught a view of the tower where 30% of it is visible above the buildings which seemed to be guarding it. That moment felt very disappointing to each of us, we all wondered, is this what we have been waiting for. The glimpse of the tower reminded me of the sentence one of my cousins, who visited Paris a couple of years ago, used to describe the Eiffel Tower. He said, “there is nothing great about Eiffel Tower, it looks like a taller version of the TV tower located in Malakpet, Hyderabad”.
After reporting at the conference, we went to the base of the Eiffel tower. We tried not to be intransigent, but the structure standing tall in front forced us to retain our perspective. We clicked a couple of pictures and went back to the conference post which we proceeded to the cruise ride.
The Eiffel tower was lit up while we were waiting for the cruise to start, the light emitting from the structure made it look good. So, we thought it must be visited during the night. The cruise moved in a line covering famous structures such as Louvre Museum and Notre Dome Church. The ride helped us understand how great and grand French architecture is. Those buildings were too good.
The cruise took us close to the Eiffel tower before returning to the starting point, the distance offered us a spectacular view of the tower from the base to the top with lights glitter covering it. Our adamant perspective was shaken and turned over with that.
Not so hardcore tennis fans in me and my friend felt excited realizing that we can visit Roland Garros (the stadium where French open tennis tournament takes place). One of the search results in Google gave us confidence to visit the stadium as it said, “the place is open to public all days without any need to buy tickets”. But to our disappointment that information is not correct, one must book tickets a day before to visit Roland Garros. We travelled an hour one way to visit the place, that disappointment turned into excitement when we saw Eiffel Tower from the place it is supposed to be while riding on the bus. We immediately got off the bus.
Eiffel Tower: View from Trocadero
To grasp the beauty, Eiffel Tower is not supposed to be seen from its bottom but from the viewpoint located beside Trocadero metro station. That view is just mesmerizing, it provided an opportunity to understand how big the tower is compared to other buildings around it and realize that a city was built around the tower. Our first view was around 3 PM. Whatever the case is, we didn’t want to miss the night view, so visited the place again at 9.30 PM to fill our eyes with the beauty enhanced by the lights.
Learnings and Tips from the Trip
Reservations and Tickets
It is advised to plan the trip and get seats reserved in trains ahead of time. The change in our plans mentioned in the first paragraph was due to the unavailability of seats when we tried to book. Though our cancellations have worked in our favor, I advise reserving seats.
Most of the entrance tickets can be booked online, one must witness long queues to get tickets at the location. We experienced that at Louvre Museum and Eiffel Tower, we were able to get into Louvre Museum as we reached the place very early on one of the days, but we couldn’t climb the tower as there was no chance of getting tickets.
Monalisa Painting
Louvre Museum is all about the original Monalisa Painting, we saw the painting just to avoid any regrets we might have for not seeing it after stepping our feet so close to it. After seeing the painting, none of us could understand the reasons behind its fame. It might be artistic brilliance but a layman like me couldn’t grasp even 1% if that brilliance.
Pick-Pocketing in Paris
Paris is known for theft we were careful to save ourselves by anticipating the types of thefts that might take place. But what happened was nowhere close to what we were prepared for. The whole incident requires detailed description, you can read it in the next day or two in a separate post.
The trip to Paris and Switzerland helped me add some wonderful moments to my memory bank. Three days at Annamesse, Switzerland and three days at Nogent Sur Mane, Paris made us feel the place and interact with people around.
Cool Neel. Good description of your trip.