after 12 days of absence, im finally back, and very blur now.. dunno wad is going on at all in council..

a brief summary on what happened on the 12 days..

DAY 1

erm.. actually, there is nothing on day 1... we just gather at changi airport and await the 13 hour flight to Zurich (zoo-rick) , financial capital on Switzerland..

so.. first meeting with the rest of the tour group, and there seems to be many coincidences.. firstly, my mother's colleague and his family also went on that trip.. secondly, there are two other YJCians in the tour...

journey there was good, as expected from SIA. the food they served are always among the best of the in flight food. but halfay through the journey, i got a bit scared.. firstly, when we were flying over Iran, i was afraid that their nuclear reactors might just explode and hit our plane.. a few hours later, as we flew out of the Caspian Sea and into Azerbaijan/Georgia area, i experienced one of my worst ever turbulence.. i was so afraid that the plane might crash lah.. but of course, we arrived safely or else i wont be here typing this.

DAY 2

arrival at Zurich international airport in the morning and we were greeted by gusts of cold air.. no snow though.. temperatures were around 5 to 8 degrees Celsius and as we spoke i could see water vapour.. upon arrival, we were immediately brought to the Rhine Falls at Schafaussen (sha-fao-sen) , the widest waterfall in the whole of Europe. i must say i was a bit stubborn, cos everyone wore their jackets except me. but i feel that we have paid so much money, we should experience the climate here.. as our tour guide, Sam, said, we pay money for the cold, Europeans pay money for the sun.... lol..

stopped there for some photo shots before proceeding to the next destination - Germany!! actually, we spent only a few hours there, just to see the black forest..

yep.. so we crossed the german border....

and on to Titisee (ti-ti-say) , more commonly known as the black forest. first sight of snow there. and there were many beautiful sceneries, especially with the mountains, trees, lakes, snow all in one area..

i may often quarrel with my bro. but one thing good about him is that he is often picky about food. since there is rum in the cake, he gave me his whole portion.... that is why i like him :) he always gives me all the good food, like the half a lobster when we were in Australia.. lol..

oh, did i mention about the ducks? there were like tons of ducks there in europe lah.. haha!! all thanks to the one who cursed me to be haunted by ducks while on holiday...

so we went to the chapel bridge.. nice place.. too bad it was destroyed by a fire some time ago.. so the one i visited was not the original one.. anyway, saw ducks again........ many.... in facts, there are many ducks all over switzerland.....

DAY 3

first thing in the morning: we are off to Mount Titlis. we had to get through 3 cable cars before reaching the top. it was absolutely breathtaking up at the top.. yea.. breathtaking and breath taking.. at more than 3000m above sea level, i had lots of problems when breathing, especially since im running.. haha! maybe i shouldn't have ran..

back to Lucerne after we came down from the mountain. went there to see the Swiss lion.. the one in the sec3 social studies textbook.

we were then brought to the shopping area in Lucerne where we were given some free time to look at the watches, swiss knife etcetc.. but the main point of going there is just to get the spoon given by rolex.. lol.. but i still got my swiss knife, with my name engraved on it:)

off to Bern (burn) after that for a short tour of the capital of Switzerland. nothing much there, except for the parliament buildings and the bears in the centre of the city.. stayed there for about 1-2 hours before heading off to Interlaken (in-ter-la-kern), the town between the two lake.

had fondue dinner that night:D three types of fondue altogether: cheese fondue, meat fondue, and chocolate fondue.. the cheese tasted kinda weird, or maybe it was the bread.. the meat seemed to take forever to cook.. but the choc fondue was the best.. omg.. the chocolate.. the fruits.... it all makes you want to go for more..

the main thing to do today was to climb up to Jungfraujoch (yong-frau-yolk), top of europe.. it is the highest point a tourist can achieve in europe. situated at more than 4000m above sea level, we had to take a couple of trains before finally reaching the top.

DAY 5

this would be our last day in Switzerland, before we head to Italy. first stop: Montreux (mont-roll), a city situated on the banks of Lake Geneva. went there for one reason, to see the Chillon (she-ong) Castle.

stayed there for a while before heading to our final place in Switzerland, Zermatt, to see the mountain - Matterhorn. but first, we have to get to Tasch, where we board a train to the plateau.