I teamed up with Hassaan for this road trip who drove to Karlsruhe, DE in his car all the way from Ljubljana, SLO. The trip was full of sightseeing, song listening, sleeping in the car and in Hassan's case, cursing Italian drivers or accusing bad drivers of being Italians :P
Day 1:
After almost missing the Juma prayers we left Karlsruhe for Freiburg. Spent a few hours there and tried searching for the entrance to the Black Forest but apparently the elves have hidden it pretty well :P So we decided to head to Zurich. We spent the rest of the daylight hours (which are a lot in this season) exploring the city on foot listening to stupid fans cheering for their pathetic team for the FIFA world cup match with Honduras). The weather was sunny and hot. So was the crowd :P We finally hit a doner shop for dinner and a cool Slushie along the Limmat river. We stumbled upon ETH Zurich, the source of the paper that became the foundation for Boltay Haath during the walk through the city. Hassan's car (Renault Megane) earned the nick name 'Megan Fox' during this trip.It was parked deep inside the labyrinth of old streets we got lost twice before finally finding it. If only there was an app to help us find our car :P
Day 2:
We left for Matterhorn mountain early morning. Its the highest mountain peak in Switzerland and second highest in the Alps. (Fact: Its only half the height of K2.) On the way we went over the Furka Pass in the Alps. The roads were all zig-zagged and twisted in a paper-clip scheme. It looked like a pretty dangerous path but we eventually made it. On its highest point the road was at more than 2400 meters above sea level. At one place we discovered a pristine water fall and filled up all our bottles with 'alpine' mineral water.I had a bright idea of selling it but apparently its illegal so all I got was two coke bottles full of the most delicious, freshest glacier water and an almost frozen hand while trying to fill them.
After a couple of stops on the way (which could not be resisted due to the sheer beauty of the scenery) we reached Matterhorn Mountain. Beyond one point internal combustion vehicles are not allowed so we had to take a train to the summit town (Zermatt). It was almost like the Muree mall road but 100 times more developed. The chair lift could take us even further but it took 1 hour to get to the top and based on the schedule of the car we would not have had enough time to spend there so we decided to not go further and save the 60 EURs :P We bought souvenirs though.
From the Matterhorn Zermatt we went to Bern and guess what? The capital of Switzerland is Bern and not Zurich. True story. We got to see USA lose to Ghana at a local Mc'Donalds. We visited Einstein's old house from his patent office clerk days. Just like all capitals it was a pretty boring place. What made it a little interesting was how a guy wearing pants on his knees tried to convince a random chick to go to a party with him by rapping in front of her. It didn’t work :)
Day 3:
On the Bern to Geneva leg of the trip we watched the road signs change from German to Italian and finally to French. Lots of historical places in Geneva. Weather was sunny and warm. Rather than going home from Geneva we decided to go to the Annecy lake in France. It was a really beautiful place. Overflowing with local talent :P
We started a new tradition (for us) during the trip. There are old fountains in every city and town in Switzerland which have provided the citizens with drinking water since ye olde times. So wherever we went we collected water from these fountains for drinking. The water really is delicious. The ‘ghaat ghaat ka pani’ tradition continues to this day.
On the way back it was smooth driving with cruising speeds of 180 km/h on the German Autobahns where there were no speed limits. You could feel the Porsches and Audis whizzing by at what must have been more than 200 km/h. Except for the occasional work-in- progress slowdowns it was an awesome driving experience. I missed my Khyber more than a few times. Especially its right hand drive 'feature'. Even though it couldn’t pull of 180 even on German roads :P, I dedicate this trip to the memory of my trusty Khyber.
Major stops:
Karlsruhe, Germany
Freiburg, Germany
Zurich, Switzerland
Furka Pass, Switzerland
Taesch, Switzerland
Materhorn Zermatt, Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland
Annecy, France
