Day 9 - Grindelwald, Jungfraujoch and Lauterbrunnen

When we woke up on Day 9, the rain had not subsided. We were quite taken aback, because we had planned for a visit to Jungfraujoch. We decided to still go, since there was nothing to do in Interlaken on a wet day, anyway.

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It was quite a pleasant surprise, when our train from Interlaken pulled right into the town of Grindelwald, it started snowing! Great! I've never seen snow falling before...We bought the train tickets to Jungfraujoch and walked around Grindelwald, soaking in the Christmas atmosphere. The town is right below the imposing Eiger mountain ( but we couldn't see it due to the snowfall), and was nicknamed the 'glacier village' for its proximity to two large seas of ice.

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After an hour in Grindelwald, we boarded our train to Klein Scheidegg, where we were to change to Jungfraubahn ( Bahn = Train in German). Along the way we saw multitudes of snow-covered pine trees and small huts with smoking chimneys...i really felt like i was in the land of Rudolph and Santa Claus =) The last leg of the train journey passed through nearly 10km of a rock tunnel. This tunnel took 16 years to drill in 1912 and it overcomes a gradient of 25%, covering an altitude of 1400 m.

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Midway during the train journey, the train stopped inside Eiger and Monch to let passengers down for a 5-minute visit to the viewing platforms. It was a very very very foggy day, so no passengers went down for a look. Finally the train pulled into the sci-fi Sphinx metereological station. Wen Lee and I tried to get outdoors but the wind that day was between 70-90 km/hr...i almost flew away from Top of Europe...!

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And so, we went to buy some postcards to post home from the highest post box and highest train station in the world! WooHoo~ With that done, we visited the Ice Palace within Jungfraujoch. There were a variety of ice sculptures and it felt like being in an icecube at this place... it was minus 8 deg C in Jungfraujoch, so you can imagine how chilly i was, considering the fact that i find even air-conditioned rooms far too cold.

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Later we took the train back down, not to Grindelwald but to Lauterbrunnen instead. It wasn't snowing in Lauterbrunnen, which was lucky for us because Lauterbrunnen has countless beautiful cow pastures and stone walls. We walked along the unpretentious town, towards its famous waterfall, Staubbach Falle. I was astonished when i saw the waterfall because instead of the gushing water i saw from the travel booklet i was holding, i saw a semi-frozen waterfall. Darn.... We had our late lunch/early dinner at a small eatery in Lauterbrunnen.

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We took a train back to Interlaken, and shopped in town. We purchased some watches, and the old man at the shop talked to us. He asked where we were from, and he surprised me by saying that he comes to Singapore/Malaysia for vacations frequently and named us the places he'd been too, including Kuantan! Haha... Hearing him rattling out the names ( Lumut, Kuantan, Melaka, Penang, KL, Genting Highlands, Kota Kinabalu, Redang, Kuching and his next intended destination Langkawi), this Swiss man has officially been to more places in Malaysia than i have!!

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As usual, we got back to the hotel just after sundown, with Wen Lee enjoying her beer. Beer there was cheap and she had been meaning to get a big can and so she finally got her wish!

羅志祥 撐腰

Xiao Zhu's latest MV, quite an interesting one. In the music video, he runs a marathon, thanking important people and places in his life. Among the people and places making cameo appearances (in that order) are his mentor, fellow host, Taipei Arena, Taipei Ximending, TV producer, drama director, previous co-star, duet partner, dance instructor, rumoured girlfriend, showbiz buddy, personal assistant ( who also happens to be his cousin ), make-up artist and lastly his mother at the crossing line. Haha...this MV is my favourite among all his other works. Happy Chinese New Year!

Day 8 - Interlaken and Bern

Today, it was bye-bye to wonderful Lucerne and hello Interlaken! It was raining...drat it.... In our train, we met this jolly old man from Zurich who was on his 3-day trip around Switzerland. He spoke to us in his halting English and took several photographs of us with his cellphone...haha...

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Interlaken , according to several friends who've been there, is a very outdoorsy kinda place. The view in Interlaken is incomparable, gazing at the Jungfrau mastiff from a distance with its icy peaks and a running stream cut right through the town. We saw nothing of that sort during our 2-night stay there, much to our disappointment. It was raining all the way, temperature was about 5-8 deg C and it was much too foggy to see anything. It was sad, cos i was looking forward to the stunning views in Bernese Oberland =(

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We checked in to the Chalet Oberland, within walking distance from Interlaken West train station. Our plan to visit Mystery Park was ruined when our receptionist in the hotel informed us that the place has shut down. I was getting hyped up about those Mayan temples, Egyptian Pyramids etc. and it all came crashing down. Fret not, we had a back up plan, to take a furnicular up Heimwehfluh near our hotel. We walked there in the drizzle only to find the furnicular has been closed due to bad weather. Bahhh.....

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We were left with nothing to do... anyway, we went to have lunch... i had Goulash Soup which was very soothing in the cold. Wen Lee and I discussed and decided that we should head to Bern , about an hour's journey away. We were slated to visit and stay in Bern on our last day, but our schedule for that last day was rather tight, and so we thought it may be a good idea to get some of our itenirary out of the way first.

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Once we were in Bern, we wandered around it's fairy-tale cobbled streets of its Old Town. Switzerland's capital is so proud of its medieval town centre, and it has been declared by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site.

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We spotted the Bundeshaus (Swiss Houses of Parliament) from afar. No one would miss this building built in an impressive Florentine style complete with a stained glass dome. Just nearby is a market on Barenplatz selling food and garments. This place is also dotted with cafe terraces.

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With the aid of a map, we managed to find the two places we were looking for just a street away from each other : Munster and Einstain Haus. Towering above the roofs of the old town is the huge Munster, an enormous church which took 150 years to complete. I stared in awe at the main portal , with its sculpture of the Last Judgement made so meticulously and detailed.

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As for Einstein Haus, it is a small museum which was the humble apartment where a young Albert Einstein lived with his family while he was working for CERN. I have always thought that Einstein was German, but from here i discovered that he renounced his citizenship and adopted a dual Swiss-American citizenship....hehe...yeah, i know...my general knowledge is pretty limited!

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The cold was getting to my bones plus it was getting late and we returned to Interlaken. We dined in the restaurant on the ground floor of our hotel. We had a Fondue Chinois meal, which came with a large plate of beef, assorted pickles, various dipping sauces, fries and a pot with a soup base. We wiped everything off our plates and almost died from overeating. After dinner, we were treated to live performances of traditional Swiss music which included yodelling, the Alphorn and a string quartet..

We went back to the hotel to rest. Speaking of the hotel, i love the heated floor in the bathroom and the three peaks on our hotel bedframe which symbolises the 3 famous mountains in the area : Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

Agent LL's Pizzeria Part II

OK, back to making pizza. The dough is out of the bread-maker....this part is the hardest work... kneading kneading and kneading. Then it's rolling, rolling and rolling.

Whoaaaa.... Pizza toppings! The best thing about making your own pizza is that you can choose your favourite toppings.

Just having a piece of chicken to try out the taste. MmmMMmmm....good... now i'll have a piece of pineapple...mmmMMmmmMmm...good.... what about the carrots? MmmmmmmmMMM good....and some of that cheese....MmmmmMMMmmm good.....oh oh oh, don't forget the mushrooms....MMmmmmMmm good....and....and....

Lastly, top the pizza....spread out everything as evenly as you can...

It's completed...now i'll just have it brought to the oven... ahh, i can't wait for the feast...

How does it look? Better than Pizza Hut's , i bet.... It should taste really good as well. Come on everyone...come and enjoy Chef Lele's home-made pizza.

I'll just have a slice...must stay slim. Now, where's my brother Kaikai? I'll save some for him...and QQ as well. I'm sure they'll like this.

Agent LL's Pizzeria Part I

Hi guys ! Today i'm the pizza boy, and i'll let you in on my secret recipe. Here you see me boiling fresh tomatoes with ketchup and herbs. This will be the base sauce for my pizza.

Let me flex my manly muscles, helping my grandma open a can of mushrooms, followed by tinned pineapples. There's my grandma in the background, preparing to make the pizza dough .

Big yummy succulent mushrooms....we'll have to boil them in a pot first.

Here's my grandma, adding olive oil to the dough mixture. It's much healthier than normal oil.

Here i am, trying to get salt to be added to the dough as well. I'll add less salt, also better for my well-being...hehe... as an Agent, i must start eating healthy from young.

Next step : Adding flour... careful now, don't spill them all over the kitchen counter.

Finally, add yeast...According to my grandma, yeast is a living micro-organism but i think she's just kidding? They look like brown sugar to me....hmmmm....

Star shape? Love shape? Moon shape? Doggie shape? .....Decisions....Decisions.... (to be con't.....)

Day 7 - Mount Titlis and Lucerne

Once again, we got up early as we had planned this day carefully. After a simple but unbelievably delicious breakfast by Hotel Rothaus, we embarked on our day-trip to Mount Titlis. We took a train to the town of Engelberg, a relatively humble village that sits in a quiet, idyllic valley surrounded by green lush.
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From Engelberg Train Station, it's about a 10-minute walk to the Titlis Rotair Station. From there, it is a 4-stage cable car journey. The cable cars came painted with the flags of the world. This cable car we took ascended to Gerschnialp (1300m). In the same cable car, we proceeded to Trubsee (1800m), gliding over cow pastures. After that, we transferred to a large gondola, headed to Stand (2450m). From Stand, we boarded the rotair, the first rotating gondola in the world, for the passage over the dazzling Titlis Glacier.

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From the Titlis Station (3020m), we headed outdoors. We were blessed with good and clear weather that day, and hence photo-taking was great! We were able to see snow-capped mountains from miles and miles away. We even took the Ice Flyer (ski lift), an unforgettable experience with your feet dangling in the air over the snow. I suppose no trip to Switzerland is complete without a trip to a snow mountain. I had a friend who was in Switzerland 2 weeks prior to my trip, and she visited Mount Pilatus in Lucerne, but it's altitude was not high enough for snow outside winter, but it was her personal preference but she did see some interesting mountain goats perched on the rocky mountain though haha.

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After about an hour or so, it was almost lunch time, so we headed down ( through the long 4-stage journey again). We missed our train in Engelberg in the nick of time, and so we bought lunch in Migros in Engelberg and walked around the town. I did buy some souvenirs for my mother and sisters in Engelberg, so i guess the walk was not wasted.

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After getting back to Lucerne and taking off our winter gears in the hotel, we visited the Jesuitenkirche (Jesus Church) near our hotel. Built sometime between 1666-1669, it is the largest baroque building in Switzerland and boasts a breath-taking interior with stucco decoration as well.

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Later we went back to the bus station and took a 5-minute trolley bus journey to Lowendenkmal ( Lion Monument). This monument was carved in 1821, to commemorate the Swiss Guards who fell protecting the French King Louis XVI during the storming of the Tuileries in 1792. Even though it was just a huge stone carving, this place evoked the most emotion in me throughout the journey. You actually feel the passion and sadness being in that place, i couldn't really put the emotion into words, but to put it briefly, i actually felt a lump in the throat looking at it.

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Just right next door is the Gletschergarten (Glacier Garden) , an excavation site of geological and paleontological interest with fossils and glaciers. There was a very impressive Hall of Mirrors within, and we had fun getting through the maze. We were alone in the maze, and at times were worried we might see something we shouldn't in the mirrors, i guess watching too many horror flicks is getting to me. There were some very cute funny mirrors outside, and we tried those as well!

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On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped by in Hofkirche, the site of Lucerne's first monastery. It is actually a part Romanesque, part Renaissance church....but nothing special, really...at least not for me.

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We also went into a chocolate shop and bought a chunk of chocolate to be enjoyed as supper back in the hotel. Just near our hotel, we went to have dinner in Restaurant Cheung, a Chinese restaurant run by a Hong Kong couple. The Chinese food there was actually better than i imagined, so i was elated to be tasting my first bowl of Chinese noodle soup in a week ( i'm such a sucker for Chinese soups). With our bellies filled, we hurried back to rest after a long day out.

Xiao Zhu & Xiao Gui

It's no secret that i really love Xiao Zhu. I faithfully watch every episode of 娛樂百分百, either shown on TV or by streaming online. This is a tribute video made by a fan, for the two hilarious hosts of the show. They will just do about anything to get a laugh out of the audience. Hope they'll stay funny and chase my blues away constantly! They are dumb, but just so irresistibly cute too! I love how they're always up to no good haha

Dragon Boy Meets Dragon Fruit

Agent LL is out and about again. Now, where is this place he's at? Let's check it out...

Agent LL : Wow, what is this place? Looks like mini coconut trees, but how come these trees look kinda odd? They look like a cross between a cactus and a caterpillar! Did the aliens plant them here?


Agent LL : OMG, look at this! Aliens!

Agent LL : Hmmmph! Now i get it. These are dragon fruits. They are like my cousins, since i am the Dragon Boy, being born in the year of the Dragon. Look, they are big, strong, sturdy and pink like me...

Agent LL : Uncle lets me have 2 of these....hehe....One for myself and one to share with KaiKai, errr...i mean Agent KK.

Agent LL : Dump them into the car-boot...hehe...what a good day. More food to eat...let's go now!

Lele's Doggin' Magic Trick

Pics taken from Donavon's blog :

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LeLe : Hey QQ! Look here....

QQ : ???

LeLe : Abracadabra! The bear...it is gone!

QQ : ???

LeLe : Don't worry, here it is....

QQ : Woof Woof Woof ! (Translation :Humans! They think they're sooooo smart....bah!)