Gstaad - Glacier 3000

I am no less than a celebrity is the feeling I have for a long time now! I am saying this because, I always want to get away from the crowd especially while am vacationing. Not that people around pester me for my autograph or request selfies with me (wah!) 💭😁 , yet I need a lot of space to breathe. Gstaad is one such secluded town chosen during the last few days of my honeymoon period. 

Gstaad is located 1050 metres above sea level in the Canton of Bern in Southwestern Switzerland. Also, it is a part of municipality of Saanen. Thus you get to see Saanen hoardings in most places. The 2 hours of train journey from Interlaken with mesmerising views ended as I reached Gstaad station. Must say, the air conditioned trains in Swiss is a luxury! It is spacious with comfortable leg space, cushioning seats with the utility table to point out a few. Coop store at the station has all the eatables, refreshments, you need. I am specifically saying this because, there were no Indian restaurants in here! 

Living Street image.

Hotel Gstaaderhof was 10 mins walk from the station, but interesting was the living street path we walked in. It is a task to pull your bags. My traveller husby had asked me to travel light so that it gets easy to handle the bags. But you know! I had to carry huge luggage for my own reasons and ended up howling everywhere 😓. Little did I know that my Mr would allow me to shop abroad 😜. On our way was a small church, mouth-watering aroma of the chocolate store and a small coffee shop , few shopping stores. As I crossed a Swiss restaurant , I looked at my husband and planned to dine there to taste authentic Swiss delicacy! As we reached the hotel, my husband was so happy seeing the pretty receptionist. That being said, he had more reasons to spend time at the reception 😏. Whereas I was tired pulling my bag and was happy for the assistance I got further from the hotel staff. I got to eat the complimentary Swiss chocolates as soon as we entered the room 😋. 

My happy husband amidst the greens.
My click! He argues that the wires above could have been avoided😏.

View from our room window!

I loved the accommodation here! The window of our room was such that one can sit on the window slab and enjoy the iced mountains! I immediately made some hot coffee for both of us and sat there for sometime. The very thought of that moment is so refreshing. It was a leisurely day, we both took a long walk while it was drizzling. It was like a private land meant for just the two of us! I started posing for pictures, humming sensual songs this time got louder with a little dance moves. My husband went mad with whatever was happening around him. I clicked a few pictures of him, ignoring his bla bla instructions to click the way he wanted😁. So much do men know about photography?😛 The uphill road walk with a few Swiss cattles grazing in the green fields felt nice. I even took a picture with the Swiss cattle who invited me with its cowbell tunes 😜. To be precise, I was amidst the Swiss scenic beauty which caught my eyes during the train journey. Further, we witnessed a small bridge crossing a stream and besides the narrow stream were the smooth rocks lying all around to add to it's beauty. We walked along the stream for some time splashing the ice cold water at each other. Then we walked back to the coop store only to figure out that the shops here close by around 3-4 PM. There was an umbrella basket left outside the coop store, as if there were no thefts happening. I even planned to take one cute colourful umbrella for which I got bad looks from the man of my life. (Caution : Robbery is a crime, the statement here is only craziness and doesn't intend to support the act) 

Posing with Swiss cow!

The stream!

Fondue!

Remember I had told you my plans to try authentic Swiss delicacy for the evening? Oh yeah! It was time to get ready for a Swiss dinner date but duh! No attire can get pretty in such cold weather when you're all packed. Here we arrived at the restaurant where only one table was occupied while the rest was our choice to comfortably choose. I chose to sit near the glass panes with a good outside view. The waitress handed over the menu and asked us to try Fondue upon asking for an authentic Swiss dish. I was checking out the pictures in the camera as we waited for the food to arrive. The wait was over seeing the waitress coming with the portable gas stove 😧. I even thought if we had to cook and eat ourselves but thankfully 😅 it was to heat the half melted cheese. Then arrived this basket full of wheat bread chunks, not just one but two of them with different shapes. I had a blank look at my husband and asked him to try first😀. He was like "ok, so this is what these people eat!?". The cheese tasted good but how many of us enjoy eating wheat bread with however tasty the cheese is? We had to eat for the Euros spent on it. Both of us wanted one other to eat more so that we finish😆. Jokes apart, we leisurely spent time at the restaurant and I crashed coming back to the hotel. I had to rise a little early for our next day's mountain excursion. My Mr had to check on the bus timings and collected some info from the receptionist which took a little longer with the pretty one.  

At the ground station.

The cliff walk called Peak Walk by Tissot. 

Glacier 3000 mountain excursion was just 20 mins away by bus. As the name indicates, it is 3000 metres in height, located in Les Diablerets, western Switzerland. It is known for it's winter adventure sports. The mountain gondola here was named glacier 3000 itself. The blue gondola looked like a mini bus since it was rectangular in shape. The 15 minutes summit excursion was uniquely beautiful. At the top, it was literally raining snow and probably the reason for it to be less crowded. But we had no flexibility to wait for a sunny day during our short visit to this place. Nevertheless, the glacial world was spectacular at the "Peak Walk by Tissot ". This is the suspension bridge connecting two mountain peaks. The alpine mountain on a snowy day has it's own lust, though one has poor visibility! The high cliff walk and the giant mountain peaks are the main attractions at the summit. My Mr reminded me of Baa Nalle Madhuchandrake (It is a Kannada movie, wherein the hero takes his own wife to honeymoon in the iced mountains and pushes her off the cliff 😨) attempt to be made by him😈😈. He might have thought I'll be scared and plead not to. But you know, none of his filthy tactics worked with the fearless me!😀 Yet he made me forcefully pose for some cruel poses. Every husband wants to feel superior and such actions give them so much joy for once. 

Coming to the adventures, there was a large selection of sports activities such as Skiing and Snowboarding, cross-country skiing and ski tours, sledging, hiking. Also includes, Ice Express chairlift, Alpine Coaster, Snow bus, Dogsled rides, Sliding in the Fun park, Helicopter Glacier Flight. Sounds exotic adventures isn't it? Due to poor visibility and heavy snowing, all the sparkling white activities were closed😞. Thus I have nothing much to talk about the fun activities apart from posing and playing in the snow. Restaurant BOTTA served us Indian buffet for our lunch along with Panoramic view around it. Both of us liked the food and hogged like we starved for days together. Happy tummy was more than satisfied , it was like food for the soul and feast for the eyes. 😜 Thus our last mountain excursion in Switzerland ended as we boarded the Glacier 3000 gondola to the ground station. It felt like a private affair since there were none other than us in the gondola. The steep ride was no less than a roller coaster. My husby took a complete video of our entire gondola ride from the top of the mountain till we descended to the bus station. My sensual songs continued until the bus arrived. By then, my Mr had amusingly started liking my craziness I think, as I was stared all the way until we reached the hotel. 💏

Timer click and a pose unexpected from my Husby!

I had to run up to the gift store nearby before the shop closed! Guess what I had to buy, the very famous Swiss Cow Bell. I still have it hanging near our main door. It is pricey but I wanted a big one like I have seen in the movies. My Mr couldn't deny anything for his budding love towards me 😉. After a tiring day, we figured out that there was microwave facility at the hotel we stayed in. So we used our ready-to-eat packets for dinner. My Mr wished to be here again in this weather in our old age. Awww..this vacation was going to end and we had so much to talk about the vacay highlights. In reality, we had come closer to knowing each other's thoughts and to set a strong base to the rest of our lives. 😊  

The next morning was our planned journey to Zurich where we had overnight stay before boarding our Emirates flight back to Dubai and then to Namma Bengaluru. The Flag hotel was spacious enough for our stay in Zurich with the wide continental breakfast spread. Not to forget, there was a Turkish lady who served us yummy pizzas, rolls and fries at a small eat-out nearby. She did not understand English, yet we managed to communicate somehow. She got so friendly that she even gave away some varieties of coins to my numismatist Mr. We skipped our planned visit to the chocolate factory and went roaming in the streets of the capital city. We happened to visit the Shopping Mall to buy some gifts as a takeaway. We spent the day at leisure, thinking of our journey the next morning to our home country INDIA. That's how our memorable 8N9Ds Switzerland honeymoon wrapped up. 😊


In case you have missed my earlier parts of the Swiss tales, 
Lucerne - https://thehappyminds.blogspot.com/2018/01/lucerne-mount-titlis.html
Interlaken - https://thehappyminds.blogspot.com/2018/08/interlaken-jungfraujoch.html