Switzerland 4 - 14 Aug 2008 - The first 2 days

This is sort of an impromptu trip suggested by my hubby. Well, I kinda 'made' him take me there through my constant whinning about how lucky ser kin is, staying in switzerland, enjoying the fresh air, blah blah blah. So he booked the tickets with his krisflyer points and we landed in the land of the alps on 4 aug.

On the first day, ah kin took us around town and we spent half the time hovering over kitchen wares in Coop, a department store. We discovered that our husbands and ourselves love to check out kitchen stuff.


Ah Kin introduced us to the drinking water fountain.

A colouful sculpture at the main train station, Hapbahnhof.

The main train station, Hapbahnhof. We spent some time here trying to figure out what train passes to buy.

Then in the evening, after ah kin's very healthy (mostly vegetables) but delicious dinner, we took a walk with her and her uncle tan around the neighbourhood, admired the nice cottages and took in some fresh crisp swiss air. Uncle tan said we must breathe in as much fresh swiss air as possible and purge out all the polluted s'pore air.

Rhein Fall, Schaffhaussen and Stein Am Rhein

When I woke up in the morning at about 6am the second day, I opened the kitchen window and breathed in precious fresh air and took this picture from the kitchen window of the surrounding houses. I cherished the quietness and did my breathing exercises. Then I woke up my hubby for a morning walk around the forested path near ah kin's place. This would be my routine for most of the days at ah kin's house.

We decided to take it easy since this is supposed to be a relaxing trip. We went to the famous Rhein Falls. We were so amazed that we could feel the waterfalls at such close range. It was breath-taking..

After the Rhein Falls, we went to Schaffhausen, a quaint little old town, to have lunch. During the course of our stay in swit, we realised that the restaurants in Switzerland were not very creative. The standard menu items were sausages, potatoes either in fries form or rosti (like hashbrown) form, local cheeses and some sandwiches. In some better restaurants, veal would be part of the offing. So our first meal in the restaurant in Schauffhausen was quite unique really. I had ravoili with tomato fillings while hubby had chicken gordon bleu. I did some decent shopping in this old town in a shop that sold surprisingly cheap clothes - 3 tops for SF3.99, SF6.99 and SF9.99. To find cheap things in swit, you really must be patient and lucky.

The buildings in this old town were just beautiful with paintings. The buildings in Stein Am Rhein were equally mesmerising. So I prefer Schaffhausen and Stein Am Rhein than Lucern. Lucern was just too touristy.

(Top) Through a window atop the castle in Schaffhausen. Yes, we climbed those steps. The wood-carved structures inside a church in Schaffhauen.

(Below) The streets in Stein Am Rhein. Very few cars.

Another building with paintings in Stein Am Rhein.

Sitting at the bench taking in the beautiful sights of the lake.

I could stay here all day...