Coffee morning in Switzerland

In my last post on Switzerland, I explained why we had not chosen a hotel in Zurich, a place we were visiting, and why we had selected Lichtensteig - a place some 57 kilometres away. When we reached Lichtensteig at night from Frankfurt, I for a moment thought that the place was rather too far away and may be we plan on shifting to Zürich. But we were too tired to make any decision so we hit the bed and went to sleep.

Next morning I got up early as usual and went out in the balcony of our motel and sat on the chair. And then the Swiss spell took over me. The cool October morning was so refreshing that I forgot about everything else and started to enjoy the morning. Ever inhale of fresh air was so refreshing with a scent of green foliage all around us.

While I was being refreshed by the Swiss morning, my family was getting up inside and my younger son spotted the coffee maker with dozen of sachets of different coffee flavours. And soon he came out with a sizzling hot and fuming coffee freshly brewed for me. And as I sat there and started to sip the coffee, the complexion of the morning suddenly changed. Only those who have had a coffee in an unpolluted environment like that of Switzerland can fathom the joy I felt as I sipped through my coffee cup.

You may feel the refreshing effect the coffee and the Swiss morning had on me from the photo above - something that I still cherish the memory of.

My wife too came out to enjoy the morning as I had been for quite sometime now.

I could have sat there for hours, but we had just one day to visit Zurich for there was so much to be seen in such a little time. So I was literally dragged out by my family and we started our Swiss morning drive towards Zürich - the largest city of Switzerland, located northwestern tip of Lake Zürich.

I have much to talk about Zürich, which I will breakdown in a number of posts - including the Zürich Film Festival, a glimpse of which we were able to catch on almost its last day.

My earlier post on Switzerland:
To Switzerland - my childhood dream comes true
Two days and two nights in Lichtensteig, Switzerland

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Two days and two nights in Lichtensteig, Switzerland

From Frankfurt to Switzerland, our next destination was Lichtensteig - a countryside small town some 57 kilometres east of Zurich. It was here that we had booked a motel for our two days and two nights stay in Switzerland.

Why Lichtensteig and why not Zurich - some may ask as there are very fine hotels in ZUrich and instead of travelling for one hour each day from this small countryside town to Zurich was just wastage of time?

Well my son had a answer for this: When looking for hotels before we left Kiel, Germany, he was mindful of his father's dream of visiting Switzerland and a place which was quiet, refreshing and pure. Naturally such place was not possible in Zurich - a big city with all its noise and crowd. So he looked for motels in the countryside around Zurich and that is when he found one motel in Lichtensteig.

And when we were heading towards Liechtensteig, I was rather getting jittery on the distance of the place from Zurich as it took almost one hour from the Zurich turning to the Lichtensteig. But when we reached the motel, the freshness of the air with a strange pleasing aroma took away all my tension and reservations - and believe me I felt rejuvenated. 

The motel we stayed in has a picturesque view of the countryside and whichever window we looked from, it was pleasing to see lush green hills covered with thick carpet of grass and vegetation, guarded by tall forest trees.

 Street of Lichtensteig - good to find old pal Morris Minor 1000

 

 My son standing in the balcony  - the place I sat and enjoyed my morning coffee

The motel was one of two best abodes we had in our entire tour of France, Switzerland, Italy and Holland. The second best was in Milan, Italy - I will talk about it when we reach Milan!!

The motel with its slanting wood roof was complete in all respect. It had a small kitchenette with all necessary utensils and cutlery, that came handy for my wife to fix us a dinner on the very first night and later for making sandwiches fro carrying along for our day spending in Zurich and then for the road while going to Italy. The bathroom wa simply superb with extraordinary fittings and facilities including the jacuzzi.

The motel also provided a large screen TV and a powerful music system - something my sons enjoyed to their full. And before I forget, there was a coffee maker with dozens of flavoured coffee sachets and we made sure we taste each one of it and of these a few I tasted when I sat in the balcony and sipped it sip by sip amid the cool and sweet smelling breeze of Switzerland. I will talk about in one of my next posts.

Evangelische Kirche - The new city church

 We posing with the tremendously rich and lush green background

And as I said, it was from here that we went out to Zurich to spend the entire day and while we were here, we enjoyed the Swiss mornings and nights to our fullest. If you happen to be visiting Switzerland and want to really enjoy your stay in a true countryside, mark Lichtensteig as one of the best place you would ever come across in Switzerland.

My account of Switzerland continues.....

My earlier post on Switzerland:

To Switzerland - my childhood dream comes true

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The Moon, Clouds, Night and I

One is never ready for scenes when these appear - specially when one is driving. But last night I tried to prove this as I was driving alone and I could see the moon, almost full, near a piece of clouds. I was so fascinated by the scene that I slowed down and kept looking at the moon.

But then suddenly moon hid behind the cloud - and that was when it forced me to stop. The moonlight made the edges of the cloud to glow - a perfect scene to be shot instantly - a moment to be frozen before it was too late.

And I froze the moment with my Galaxy S4 smartphone camera - for this perhaps is the most lovable shot that I have ever taken. I wish I had my Nikon Coolpix L280 camera with me to have shot the moment with much more clarity. But this is what all I could get - for me its is simply amazing.

Zoom did not come out well

I tried the zoom, but it carried lot of noise as can be seen in the second shot. Have you ever tried such shots while driving?

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Pakistan Army team wins Cambrian Patrol Competition - Teams India and US stand second

Pakistan Army though smaller in size than many armies of the world, specially the neighbouring Indian Army, is an army of highly professional soldiers, which makes up for its numerical imbalance by its highly skilled manpower and trained soldiers.

And the high standard of training, motivation and leadership of its soldiers shows- not only on the domestic scene when fighting the menace of terrorism, but also internationally when participating in competitions and exercises where the best teams from around the globe are also participating.

Cambrian Patrol is one such prestigious patrolling competition which is held every year in the Wales under the 160th Infantry Brigade of the British Army in the rugged and harshest terrain of the Welsh Black Cambrian Mountains. This year the competition was held from Friday October 16 – Sunday October 25.

It may be added that Exercise Cambrian Patrol began in 1959, when a group of Welsh Territorial Army soldiers designed a weekend training event featuring long-distance marching over the Cambrian Mountains and culminating in a shooting match on the Sennybridge training area.

This year around 140 teams from a record number of international patrols, with teams from New Zealand, Poland, Pakistan, Czech Republic, France, Denmark, Australia, Holland, Ireland, India, Canada, Chile, Brazil, The Royal Army of Oman, USA, Poland, Switzerland, Lithuania, Nepal and Georgia participated.

The competition tests the planning, leadership qualities, military skills and above all stamina to beat the rugged terrain of the patrolling area of some 55 kilometres with a heavy gear and equipment weighing 60 pounds hanging on their backs. During the patrolling exercise which spans over two days and nights, the teams, comprising eight men, are subjected to fieldcraft challenges, cold river crossings in full gear without boats, mock attacks on enemy positions and other specialist challenges like First Aid, Map and Compass Skill / Practical Navigation, Weapon Handling, Field Craft, Fire and movement (Up to section level senior patrols), Communication, Marksmanship, Country Code and Harbour/Hide Drills.

Teams that successfully complete their mission are awarded a gold, silver or bronze medal or certificate of merit.

This year, the Team Pakistan secured the first position, shared with that of New Zealand, while Teams USA and India secured the second place. Team India may have gone in to depression for they always boast of being superior to Pakistan - this loss and Pakistan's victory should open their eyes and take stock of their boasting all over the world.

Watch a small video of the competition, shared on Facebook by my friend Anwar Khan, and the announcement of the gold medal winning team:

The Champions PAKISTAN
Posted by Anwar Khan on Sunday, October 25, 2015

Well done Team Pakistan Army!!

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To Switzerland - my childhood dream comes true

Frankfurt overnight stay was a rather disappointment for all of us as we expected a hustling bustling city with lot of tourists and malls. But we had selected a wrong day to be in Frankfurt. With the entire city closed, anything worthwhile that we saw was the overview of the city from the Galleria in the old city center and you may say the big bubbles.

So we bid farewell to the city rather early and started our journey to Switzerland - for my childhood dream to come to true.  For some unknown reasons, Switzerland always fascinated me, and it still does, and I wondered whether I would ever be able to see this heavenly country or not. But suddenly things turned in my favour when we made a hurried plan to visit my son studying in Germany and being Germany with a Schengen visa stamped, we were fully 'qualified' to move about in the Schengen countries.

While planning our stay, my elder son was mindful of the the fact that a hotel in Zurich, which was our destination, will not provide us the opportunity to see the real Switzerland and its scenic beauty. So he kept surfing the net and finally found a hotel in Lichtensteig, a small town some 57 kilometres due east of Zurich. Thus we started off from Frankfurt and at Karlsruhe we switched over Highway E15 to E52, and then switched over to Highway E41 bypassed Stuttgart and entered the Swiss border ahead of Singen. Then on we followed the Highway 4 till Winterthur and then headed to towards DestiMotel - a cool place to live in Lichtensteig.

We left Frankfurt but our leaving could have been disastrous as I made a blunder while driving and was almost overrun by this tram seen above. While driving on the right, I was to turn left for a turn and I ignored the tram coming behind me after I overtook it when it was stationed on a stop. It was the loud bells type horn from the tram that almost saved me. This was quite a 'Great Escape' and I thanked my starts for having being saved and hurriedly moved out of the city and headed towards the Swiss border.

The landscape on both sides of the highway was truly fascinating. The lush green hill slopes with tall trees raising on the skyline, the driving was all fun and pleasure.

Somewhere in between when we stopped for my usual coffee break, I switched the piloting seat with my son to concentrate on taking photos as I wished. The landscape was full of hills through which tunnels have been holed to avoid turns and gradient. So one really doesn't feel the rising gradient and when one exits from a tunnel, one is amazed to see the elevation change from the place we entered the tunnel.

A horseman we came across who was transporting two of his well fed and bred horses in the trailer behind his pickup. And quite naturally these could not escape being shot at from my end!!

The best scenes were the one like below: Immaculately flattened hill slopes with green grass with some sandy patches with huge trees now very close to the road.

Reaching the Swiss border was so refreshing and the welcome sign on the custom check post was so inviting for me to take a photo - but I did not know that we were not allowed to take the photos of the checkpost and I was spotted taking photos by the Swiss guards and were ushered to the side. Now this was a bad start into Switzerland and my dream of going and seeing Switzerland seemed to be at the crossroads. 

However, the staff was helpful in 'releasing' us after seeing our documents and of course after ensuring that I have deleted all the photos of the check post. I wish I had had those as remembrance of entering my childhood dream country - but perhaps the custom staff did not understand my childhood feelings.

The sign boards now turned green as against the blue colour in Germany and we now had to hit Winterthur from where were to to go to Lichtensteig. 

Although we kept seeing Zurich in the list of places ahead, we soon diverted to a hilly road and suddenly the landscape changed. And here came the Swiss cows which were seen grazing on the green pastures along both sides of the roads. The traffic too thinned as we were headed for the typical Swiss countryside.

Te houses en route were beautifully decorated. Hedges well kept and flowerpots immaculately placed right from the roadside gave a feeling of the aesthetic sense of the people lived there.

I had only seen such high pillared bridges in photos of Switzerland - but it was awesome to find this one when almost close to Lichtensteig.

It took us almost evening time before we reached Lichtensteig and it wasn't difficult to find DestiMotel - our hotel for the next two days in Switzerland. The motel was a sloped roof house turned into a motel for some tourists like us who preferred to visit the countryside rather than settling into rather crowded streets of Zurich.

We were shown around the first floor by the owner, who also owned a heavy bike shop behind the motel. We had nothing to eat and the owner was helpful in taking my son in his jeepster to the almost closed only grocery shop of the town to buy eggs, potatoes and bread for our makeshift dinner.

Tired as we were, my wife hurriedly cooked scrambled eggs and we we had the steamy dish eaten away in seconds. We then hit the beds for tomorrow was to be a long day as we had so much to see in so little time we had - just one day!!

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