Gulliver's Travel - Vol 5. The Maple Leaf Story

the romantic tour

todays the first chance that i've had in a little while to get a decent chunk of time on the net, so hence, the 3 posts in one day...a little extreme but it couldn't be helped...sorry they're long too. it'll be a bit of a marathon to read them all at once, so break it up. stop, revive, survive.

So, the Romantic Bus Tour (Andermatt to Grindelwald: these places are in the upper regions of the Swiss Alps). I guess i'll have to shed a little of light on it to be fair. so lets start from the begining.

There was nothing romantic about getting up at 5:30am to catch the train in order to make it to the bus stop out near Andermatt to kick off the tour. It became even less romantic when i stepped out of the front door. It was dark, wet and cold. Eventhough its summer over here, the first rays of sunlight give no warmth...they just look pretty. The outside air was cool with a bit of a bite to it...enough to give you goosebumps and make your nipples go hard. i was shivering in my hoodie. but i figured, this is gonna get better, the clouds were clearing up, sunrays were beaming through the clouds...it had to be a good sign. i was wrong, and it started to rain halfway to the the train station.

Arrived at Andermatt station at 8:03, bus left at 8:30am. It was a Sunday and everything was closed. no worries, i'll just appreciate the surrounding scenery...afterall i was in the swiss alps, with Andermatt station sitting at a lofty 1200m. I looked around...i was enveloped in a blanket of cloud and everything was just a mist. it was quite fresh at the elevation too. mmmm romantic. Hey, it was just a bit of cloud, it could clear up, it was 8:25am, things were on the up, i mean the tour was about to start. Now for this tour, it required mandatory bookings so i had my ticket ready and jumped on the bus, found my window seat and sat down. Fingers were crossed...i was waiting for a pretty young swiss lass to sit down next to me. The pretty young swiss lass didn't really turn out to what i had envisaged...he was old, bent over double and had that old man smell. No romance there.

Now i don't really understand why they called it the romantic tour. I mean the trip went through some of Switzerland's most stunning landscapes...but not exactly romantic. the bus drove through the Fruka Pass which was a road that had about 40 hair pin turns as the road wound its self up and down a valley from one side to the other. it was awesome and i was enthralled but not romanced...but just as i was about to give up hope on the whole romance thing, love came roaring down the road in their dozens and it did not disappoint...albeit only short lived. Down the road rocketing through the hair pin turns came a whole pack of Porsches, 25 in total - a range of 911's , GT2, GT3's and a few Boxsters S's. My mouth went dry, my knees became like jelly...I was in love. They roared past round the hairpin, some fishtailing a bit, but man...it was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen. truly amazing...and the sound, it was heavenly. But they left as quickly as the came and once again i was a lone ranger.

the rest of the tour went without much excitement, the scenery being the only real exciting thing. and so there ends the story of the romantic bus tour...with no "and they lived happily ever after".

So in conclusion, if you're in switzerland next time, go on the romantic tour but don't expect love to come knocking on your door lol =). A truly worthwhile trip though, the things you will see on that tour will blow your mind. it is simply amazing. No romance, but I had a ball, so two thumbs up for that!

ps. i'll try to upload some pics when i have the facilities to do it. rite now all comps at the cafes don't let me use their usb ports, so i'll wait till uni starts in Sept.

posted by Lemdog @ 7:43 PM