Achtung!

The word isn't used in the right context but I just love the sound of it.

So how was the trip to Switzerland, you say.

Well, I'm glad mum and I went.

I boarded the airplane with the Amazing Race kind of mentality- the Mum and Daughter team. Suffice to say it wasn't as smooth as butter. And me losing the 512mb memory card didn't help. But as every cloud has a silver lining, haha, we ended up with 2 new 2gb cards and took a total of 1887 photos.

Switzerland is so beeeaaauuu-tee-fuul, as the average Caucasian would express in their exaggerated manner. Because it really is. Rolling hills, stately alps, lakes like sheets of glass... even the blind would take wonderful photos with a digital camera.

Surreal view from Mt. Pilatus.


Lake Lucerne from the Church Bridge.


Random lake. Lakes of these sizes would be termed seas in Malaysia.


Each glacier has a name, like how each cow has.


Cows, bells, and everything else.

But topping it all was the great and unexpected company during the trip. During the welcome session on the first day I was somewhat unpleasantly surprised that the whole tour group (36 in total) comprised of only 2 people below the age of 50- me and an Australian Vietnamese who's 30+/- *horror* , and only 3 Asians. As the days went, they proved to be really sporting, witty, and intellectual. Here are some examples:

"Hey, that's a morgue!"
"Yeah, people are dying to get in there."

On the train through the Bernina Pass that has only 800+ tunnels:
"I think I'm starting to get tunnel vision."

These people know for sure that Malaysians don't live on trees. Some have even been to KL for holidays. And when Australians and Americans start to discuss politics, I just sit back and listen, silently thanking GP for though not allowing me to participate, was sufficient for me to follow the conversation without getting too lost.

Mum and I rather favoured the company of three people:

Here's John whom we always accidentally bump into. Terribly nice.

The one next to me is 85-year old Isabel who STILL works at a card distributing company, and at the far right is Marge whose bark is louder than her bite and has either given or sold 199 of her homemade bags in 2 years.

It's interesting to note that life after 55 or after retirement doesn't necessarily consist of only watching pay TV and medical checkups. Instead, one is free to do almost anything in the world, be it reading up and researching on Dali, taking care of granchildren, overseas trips that last 9 weeks, making personalised travelogues, joining a choir... as long as one has the health and financial means to do so. Probably quite foreign to our Asian ears are "My grandparents went paragliding last July", but that's what an elderly couple from the tour did! Amazing zest, these people have, hardly a common denominator of the senior society here.

Oh, weather is a real conversation topic in small, small Switzerland (pop. 7.5 million) because a 3 hour drive from atop the alps to lakesides like Lugano brings you from freezing -6c to a scorching 34c. Illustrated with clothes, it's something like this:

to

Of course, what's a trip for me without gastronomic endeavours, doggy sighting and artsy stuff? Foodwise, Switzerland is extremely disappointing. I suppose I'm a phillistine after all when I'd decline traditional Swiss cheese for 12-pieces-in-a-pack-Kraft singles. The only Swiss? dish that I like is barley soup.


But the Swiss make up for that because the country is an absolute doggy heaven! Doggies on trains, doggies in restaurants, doggies in parks... *woo hoo*

Doggy on snow!


St Bernards smooching.

Okay art definitely isn't at its zenith in Switzerland, but look at their woodcarvings...

The dog. I wasn't carved.

What else can I say? Switzerland: I like. But perhaps the Swiss could adopt curry as their national dish and grow chillis...