Love at first sight

An initial apprehension about negotiating a foreign land gave way to awe as Ma and I landed in Zurich airport, took a TRAIN to Customs/Immigration, collected our registered luggage of one suitcase, took a train to Luzern from the station right next door to the airport, changed trains and finally arrived at Kriens Mattenhof station, a stone's throw from our hotel. I have also declared my unfailing loyalty to Google Maps and Airtel's international roaming packs. 

 

When the scenery matches one's imagination of the landscape described in 'Heidi', which, let's be honest, wasn't entirely butchered in the Cartoon Network adaptation, one tends to stare in awe. Thankfully, if the destination is the terminal station, one needn't worry about missing one's stop at all. Helpful railway crew made the journey to our hotel easier. What made it slightly difficult was Ma's wobbly trust in my navigating abilities, despite Google, and a tendency to ask random passersby for directions. I was secretly glad nobody else managed to help her and she HAD to admit I was right when I smoothly took her to the hotel.

 

When on a vacation, my mother and I like to walk as much as possible. Just the two of us. When we visited her aunt's house in Cooch Behar many years ago now, we spent our days walking around the place, discovering lanes, alleys, thoroughfares and old, regal buildings. Of course, we also took car rides to nearby tourist spots, but walking allows us both time and our own space to take in a new place.

 

So, on our first day in Switzerland, after depositing our bags in the hotel room, we took a 6-minute train ride to Luzern and walked around the area. Google Maps was a blessing. And my mother was impressed. That's the ultimate goal, I think, of most people — impressing the mater.

 

We walked the length of Chapel Bridge (Europe's oldest covered wooden bridge, with 17th Century art on its supporting panels inside, some of which was destroyed in a fire in 1993, I think). Wikipedia has provided this information, and there's more where that came from. The souvenir shop inside the bridge was selling fridge magnets and stuff, but we decided to buy things on the last day. (We couldn't buy things on the last day because the shop was closed when we got back from Jungfraujoch around 8pm).

 

My mother doesn't have much interest in art and sculpture, she just likes pretty things. And that's her choice. My purpose of bringing up my mother's lack of interest is to explain how Luzern's Lion Monument, carved out of rock in 1820-21 to commemorate Swiss Guards massacred in the French Revolution in 1792 (thanks again, Wikipedia), moved her. She had a visceral reaction to it, seeming to understand the dying animal's pain. It brought to my mind a supposed factoid I read about it before the trip — the author Mark Twain had reportedly said of the Lion Monument, that it is the most moving monument in the world. And it did seem so to me. 

 

Right next to the Lion Monument, or Lowendenkmal, is the glacier garden, a museum chronicling the geographic-geologic (I think) history of Lucerne (They keep spelling it Luzern or Lucerne. I never know which to pick). We discovered entry was free if you had a Swiss travel pass (we had one for three days) and took a walk through it. At the end, there was a mirror maze, reminiscent of something out of the 'Arabian Nights', including appropriate music. We had a lot of fun navigating the maze and marvelling at the science behind it. 

 

We had spent the entire afternoon-evening walking around the area, and lunched at a deli-type place where we mixed and matched food (it was slightly disappointing, but it was the first day of our vacation, and Ma and I were above these earthly objections).

 

We returned to the railway station for our train to Kriens Mattenhof (I will surely write a post about the Swiss transportation system, the new love of my life). Our late lunch kind of kept us full, and we each ate a couple of cookies before going to bed. Somewhat early-ish. But there was sunset at 9pm and I wore sunglasses at 8.45pm. My body and mind were confused.