So before I left, if any of you asked me where I was going - I was like - Stockholm, Greece and 4 days someplace we haven’t decided yet.

We finished Stockholm, got to Rhodes, and the day after my birthday, we decided that we had to decide what we were doing next. We had been batting around ideas of the Amalfi coast and Istanbul and monasteries near Athens until this point. But routes were tricky from Rhodes and I hated the idea of spending too long in an airport and plane.

So we took a different approach and looked at flights out of Rhodes and then out of the destination to Stockholm. Taking most direct routes and prices into consideration and what we hadn’t seen yet, we landed on Zurich. Now on paper and based on flights, this seemed like a good route and was also economical. So we booked the non-refundable tickets and were very proud of ourselves.

Now here’s the problem with tunnel vision, we didn’t think about the cost of actually staying at the place we picked until after the tickets were booked and we had to find hotels 😂. That's when we remembered how expensive Switzerland is. But we are scrappy and so embraced the challenge.

So off we headed ro Zurich and the two posts I do on Switzerland is about how we travelled through the country on a budget!!!

Again, as we waited at the airport in Rhodes, we began our research. How do we get around there - should we rent a car or use public transport. Parking is pricey and not easy to find and train passes are expensive. After comparing a number of options, we ended up choosing to get a swiss travel pass.

We picked up the pass on landing in Zurich. It covers all trains, trams, buses, and some attractions for four days (and this was on sale). But cost a whopping 200 dollars per person. Being the people we are, we had to maximize this, so we packed our days in Switzerland to the brim. Here is a map of Switzerland's network if you are curious.

Back to Zurich. Since we had our handy passes in hand, we grabbed some dinner and went into Zurich city around 9pm to roam around town. It was a weekday and so it was relatively quiet in the city but we walked a bunch anyway and saw what we could.

Budget saving tip number 1: Eat at the local grocery stores (coop and migro were popular). They have good food and it is very reasonably priced compared to restaurants where the food prices are exorbitantly high. When I say high, I mean a coffee runs around 10 bucks in a coffee shop.

We woke up early the next day, packed our carryons (we are light travelers) and headed out on our great swiss train ride. Our first stop was Luzern. This was a short 1 hour 15 minute train. The city is a UNESCO heritage city and gorgeous. We put our bags in a luggage locker and checked out plenty of fun sights including a chapel bridge, a lovely cathedral and a lion monument. The lion monument was controversial and put in place to commemorate the fallen swiss guard during the french revolution when revolutionaries stormed the palace in Paris.

We got some fresh bread from a farmers market, shared a 10 dollar coffee (our one and only in Switzerland before we switched to coop coffee), and checked out a glacier garden.

Now this place was awesome. The entire area where Luzern now stands used to be a glacier and the garden has really old rocks. Now the coolest parts was this mirror exhibit where we got to get lost in a maze of mirrors (super wonky), a chance to see actual fossils and an underground walkthrough where they go through the history of the universe in these caves. The end was this vista where we got to see all of Luzern.

On our way to the Musegg wall, we noticed this sandwich store that had a long line. We grabbed two sandwiches from there (veggie schnitzels) and they were delicious. After this, we climbed up a tower at the Musegg wall and checked out the Jesuit church in Luzern before going back to the train station, getting our luggage and hopping on our next train to Interlaken.

Budget saving tip number 2: For a change from coop food, local bakeries are a good bet for fresh sandwiches and savory pastries (particularly for lunch).

Now Interlaken is a city which is very popular with Indians. I didn't realize this until Harneet informed me that it is the area of switzerland featured in many Yash Raj movies (a huge bollywood producer). We checked out these cool waterfalls, a church and monastery and just walked around the city. One of the most famous movies in Bollywood (Dilwale Dulhaniyaa le Jayenge) was shot here. Right at the station was a little restaurant from the movie where we picked up some chaddi phaad chai. As I was looking for things to see in Interlaken, a statue of Yash Chopra came up in Google Maps. He is apparently the ambassador of Interlaken. I got a picture of the statue with Shahrukh Khan!!!

After a delicious coop dinner, we again got our luggage out of the luggage locker and took our last train(s) for the day to Zermatt where We booked a last minute hotel.

Budget saving tip number 3: This is a little risky but we generally found much better hotel deals when we booked 24-48 hours before a stay. This is what we did in Zermatt and in Zurich.

That was day 1 in Switzerland. My next post will cover our next two exciting days here.