Travel System in Switzerland

anodynes are the answer! . I will tell you a bit about the Swiss travel system which is tuned to the needs of needs of tourists.

What is the Swiss Travel System? It is a combination of several Swiss public transport companies which provides a unified access to the use public transport systems ( trains, buses, boats, postal buses etc with an all-encompassing offer. This is very useful to a tourist who avoids the hassle of standing in queues and locating ticket counters and hence save on the time available for touring.
The most popular transport ticket is the Swiss Pass, which gives travelers access to the entire network of Swiss trains, buses, boats and urban transport systems. It is managed by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in Bern.

Swiss Half Fare Card:The Swiss Half Fare Card gets you a 50% discount on trains, buses, boats and most mountain trains and cable-cars for one month also called Demi tariff card available for a validity period of 1/ 3/ 12 months. One can use a pack of Day Passes which is an add-on to the half fare card( each pack contains 6 day passes at the cost of 5 approx 280 CHF)). With the half fare card one can buy a Junior card of price 20 CHF this allows the child over 6 yrs to travel free with an accompanying parent with a valid travel document.

Swiss Pass:The Swiss Pass allows unlimited travel on the Swiss Travel System’s public transport on either 4, 8, 15, 22 days or 1 month. It also 50% discount on most mountain-top trains and cable cars.

Swiss Flexi Pass: The Swiss Flexi Pass allows the added advantage of chiose of the travelling days. One can travel on the Swiss Travel System network for 3, 4, 5, 6 or 8 non-consecutive days within a month. During the above period the pass allows 50% discount on most mountain-top trains and cable cars.

Swiss Youth Pass:25% discount for youths under age of 26 yrs. Same advantages as the swiss pass.

Swiss Transfer Ticket:A free round trip to anywhere in Switzerland starting at either the Swiss border or at any Swiss airport.

Swiss Card: Swiss Transfer Ticket + 50% discount on all trips effected by train, boat, (postal) bus and most mountain trains and cable cars between the transfer days. valid for a month.

Swiss Travel System Family Card: Ask for the Family card as it entitles your children up to 16 years of age to free travel, as long as minimally one parent accompanies them with a valid travel document.

The Glacier Express

The Route consists of a train trip in Panoramic Cars with catering facities from St.Moritz to Zermatt and vice versa . The Glacier express is marketed as the fastest slow train and is a 7 1/2 hour railway journey across 291 bridges, through 91 tunnels and across the Oberalp Pass at 2’033 metres in altitude through the mountaneous heartland of Switzerland.

The Glacier Express travels a beautiful route between the sights of the Graubünden holiday region, the sunny Valais region with its glacier landscape, and the beautiful regions of the South. Travel in comfort through the unspoilt natural beauty of a landscape rich in ancient, fragrant moun- tain forests, peaceful Alpine meadows, rushing mountain streams and mountain valleys, soaked in tradition and centuries-old culture.

The actual fares on the Glacier express can be exorbitant on the face but there are methods to bring the cost down. If you are tourist to switzerland with an intention to see more than just the Glacier express then get hold of a Half fare card for 90Swiss francs.

This assures you half fare on the entire swiss travel system ( Bus, railways including scienic railways, amd boats on the numerous lakes of Switzerland), then buy a set of day passes ( 6 day pass in each set) costing 280 Swiss francs for the set i.e 47 CHF.

You have to pay a Surcharge to travel in the Glacier express and this varies depending on the time of the year and on the Train type ( 30 CHF to 10 CHF).

The Railways in Jungfrau region

It is an UNESCO world Heriatge site, situated at 3454 m above sea level. The Jungfraujoch is arguably the highest train station in all of Europe. Snow and ice are guaranteed all year round. The Sphinx Terrace with its fantastic view onto the Aletsch Glacier, the Ice Palace and the Walking Plateau for walks in eternal snow are attractions that are open year round.

The Route: You can try the round trip.Interlaken Ost - Lauterbrunnen - Kleine Scheidegg - Jungfraujoch - Grindelwald - Interlaken Ost.Check the timetables.

The Discounts :The Good Morning Ticket includes a reduction for the Kleine Scheidegg - Jungfraujoch section.

You pay the normal fares to Kleine Scheidegg. Holders of Half-fare Cards, Swiss Cards and Eurail, Swiss & Flexi Passes already enjoy a better reduction than the Good Morning Ticket and don't have to travel on the first two trains. Click for Fares for the Jungfrau region.

This trip by cogwheel railway takes us first to Kleine Scheidegg, altitude 2061 metres, at the foot of the Eiger North Wall. Then the trip continues through the Eiger tunnel to the stations at Eigerwand and Eismeer, with a five minute halt at each. If the weather is fine spectacular views from the large observation windows made in the solid Alpine rock.
On arrival at the Jungfraujoch, in the heart of a glacier one can proceed to see the superb views extending as far as the Vosges Mountains in France and the Black Forest in Germany. The Great Aletsch Glacier, at 22 km the longest ice-stream in the Alps, begins on the Jungfraujoch-Top of Europe.

The Trip To MatterHorn

We caught an early morning train for Zermatt from Geneva via Brig (you can come through visp if you do not take a Cisalpino train as the same does not stop at Visp). At Brig we changed over to the train operated by Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn,a narrow gauge train operating from a differant station a few minuteswalk away.

Zermatt is a small car free village at the foot of Matterhorn. Electric-cars and horse-drawn sleighs are the only allowed modes of transport .

The Matterhorn glacier paradise: (3,883 metres above sea level) is the highest point in Europe which is accessible by cableway.

How to reach: The yellow-green electric bus leaves the entrance of Zermatt railway station, takes us to the bottom station of Matterhorn glacier paradise (the cable car station which transports skiers nad tourists) or you could just walk down on seeing the signboard of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise enter and take the lift that takes you to the ticket counters. Buy the tickets from the Counter for the cable ride.

Fares: The Half fare to the top was around 42.5 Swiss Frans. Check the actual fare by clicking here (if you have the Half-Fare card/Swiss card/ Swiss Pass). With Junior card the children from 9-16 years are free when accompanied by one of the Parents. See the Swiss Travel System page for Details. The 8-seater Matterhorn-Express cable railway takes you up to the Furi station. From here the cableway takes you further up to Trockener Steg, where there is a restaurant. The highest cableway in Europe transports visitors up past giant crevasses to the Matterhorn glacier paradise and into a breathtaking mountain landscape of glaciers and permanent snow. The exciting tour from Zermatt to the Matterhorn glacier paradise takes about 40 minutes. It is one of the largest summer skiing areas with 365 days of ice. You get a different view of the MatterHorn ( than the more famous on ) when you are at the top than what you see from the bottom. We took the lift built into the rock to the sightseeing platform claimed to be the highest in Europe, it does offer a 360° panoramic view of the Swiss, Italian and French Alps with a total 38 four-thousand-metre peaks.

Low budget Paris in Three days

Paris has so much to offer to tourists . We we low on budget and time so had to do a lot of homework and planning .We already had a base to work on and were in fact building on the chronicled experiences of Indian people who had worked at CERN. Swamy is a notable name who had come up with a document, to which a lot of people had added relevent informations as it passed down to us. Arindam's expenditure sheet was also a lot of help. First we booked the train tickets at the SNCF office at St Genis Pouilly, and were lucky to get the lowest fare tickets each costing 22 Euro/ ticket. The hotel had alredy been identified as the Etaph hotel at Porte d'Orleans, that's what i mean by 'hotel' in my subsequent paragraphs. The rates are very competitive and rooms okay ( 55 Euro / Twin bedded room, there was a bunk bed for children). Follwing are the few necessary steps in that sequence for a trip to Paris when you have to cover most within 2-3 days stay.

1. First start by getting your Train / flight tickets to Paris you can get very cheap tickets from SNCF counters if you plan to travel during midweek around wednesdays, and come back on Sunday. Give sufficient time between tickets purchase and your travel date. Tickets are olso available on the SBB site at a cheaper rate ( hyperlink to SBB : http://www.sbb.ch/en/).
2. Once the ticket purchase is in place book the hotel. We boooked at Etaph hotel at Porte de orleans as most of pur indian friends stayed there. Spartan hotel but clean and very cheap. You can get access to a microwave oven to heat up your food ( ask at the reception of the hotel)

http://www.etaphotel.com/:

• At the Gare du lyon Buy the Museum Pass, it is value for money at the Tourist information Counter.

The Following Itinerary tries to cover the following must see sights:

• Louvre
• Chateau De Versailles
• Eiffel Tower
• Hotel Des Invalides.
• Arc De Triomphe
• Cathedral Notre Dam
• The Seine River Cruise
• Concorde

The other sights can be planned as per the time available and the interest of the person visiting Paris.

Itinerary for Day 1
From	To	Metro/RER	Direction	Remarks
Gare de Lyon	La Chatellet	M1	La Defence	4th Stop
La Chatellet	Porte d'Orleans	M4	Porte d'Orleans	Hotel
Porte d’Orleans	La Chatellet	M4	Porte de Clignancourt	To catch M1/M7
La Chatellet	Palais Royal	M1 / M7	Louvre	it was wednesday
Musee d'orsay	Tour Eiffel	RER C	Eiffel Tower/ river Cruise	Take the Night Cruise
Tour Eiffel	Bir Hakiem	-	Walk down	To catch M6
Bir Hakiem	Denfret Rochereau	M2	Nations	catch M4 to Porte d'Orleans

Itinerary for Day 2
From	To	Metro/RER	Direction	Remarks
Porte d’Orleans	St Michel	M4	Porte de Clignancourt	Visit Notre dame
Notre dame	Pantheon	walk	300 metre	Visit Le Pantheon
St Michel	Invalides	RER C	Versailles Rive St Quientin	Visit hotel des invalides
Invalides	Concorde	walk	cross the river	Visit Concorde
Concorde	Charles de Gaulle Etoile	M1	La Defence	Arc De Triomphe
Charles de Gaulle Etoile	Chatelet/ Porte d’Orleans	M1 /M4	Chateau de Vincennes /Porte d’Orleans	To hotel

If you have to catch a train the same day you can drop the luggage at Gare De lyon station luggage locker but it is a bit expensive for a day ( the rates are for 72 hrs).

Itinerary of Day 3
From	To	Metro/Rer no	Direction	Remarks
Porte d’Orleans	Gare Montparnasse/ Invalides	M4/M13	Chatelet/ St Denis- Univ	To catch RER for Versailles
Invalides	Versailles River gauche	RER c5	Versailles River gauche	Reach Versailles
Versailles River gauche	Invalides/Gare Montparnasse	RER c5/ M13	Nations	-
Gare Montparnasse	Porte d’Orleans	M4	Porte d’Orleans	Reach hotel

Entry Fees: Quick Reference tables
Place	Timings	Entry fee in Euro	Remarks
Opera Garnier	10:00 to 17:00	Free	View Structure
Hotel Des Invalides	10.00 to 17:45	8 -18yrs	Musee de Armee and Napoleons tomb
Eiffel Tower	9.30 to 22:00	7.8/ 11.5	View from the top
Musée du Louvre	09:00 to 18:00hrs till 21:45 hrs on Wed/ fri	8.5/6 18yrs	Of of the must see sights of Paris
Notre Dame de Paris	09:30 to 18:00hrs	5.5 / 4.5	See cathedral
Le Panthéon	10:00 to 17:30	7.5/ 4.8	Visit
Arc de Triomphe	9:30 to 2300	8 /5 €	nice View from the top
Château de Versailles	09:00 to 18:00	20 / 25 €	Visit the kings palace.

The Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is one of the most visited monuments in France . Beginning in 1664, the construction of the chateau lasted virtually until Louis XIV's death in 1715. the Palace of Versailles was never meant to be a home as kings were not homely people. Second only to God and the head of a powerful state, Louis XIV was an institution. His activities were minutely regulated and encased in ceremony, attendance at each ceremony was an honour much sought after by courtiers. Versailles was the headquarters of every arm of the state.

Louis XIV built this chateau to escape the busy life in Paris and to keep the nobility under his control. He set up home here and installed the government. Louis Le Vau was commissioned to renovate and extend an old hunting lodge, Le Notre created the gardens from swamp land, and Mansart masterminded the hydraulic display of the fountains.

The Layout of the Chateau and the gardens :

After the death of Louis XlV, the chateau was abandoned for a few years. Then Louis XV moved in in 1722. It remained the residence of the royal family until the Revolution of 1789, and at this time the furniture was sold and the pictures dispatched to the Louvre. Thereafter it fell into ruin and was nearly demolished by Louis Philippe. And in 1871, during the Paris Commune, it became the seat of the nationalist government, and the French parliament continued to meet in Louis XV's opera building until 1879. The restoration only began between the two world wars.
The many buildings attached to the chateau form a small town. The whole complex is a magnificent monument. The garden facade is 575 meters long with various annexes . The park is several kilometers in both length and breadth. The park shows the skill of Le Notre in making good use of the natural resources on the site.

The Chateau proposes two itineraries either a guided tour or not. Apart from the state apartments of the king and queen and the Galerie des Glaces (the Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War I), which one can visit on his own, most of the palace can only be viewed in guided groups, and whose times are much more restricted. Long queues are common. Unfortunately, only a small part of the palace can be visited : the State Apartments of the King and Queen, and the Hall of Mirrors.

The worst time to visit the Chateau is on Sunday when the entrance fee is reduced and the queues are equivalently long. A guided tour for an extra twenty-four francs takes you in the King's Private Bedroom, the Royal Opera, and the rooms occupied by Madame du Barry. And, for a little more you can visit the pavilions of the Grand and Petit Trianons. Don't set out to see all the palace in one day - it's not possible. Quite apart from the size, tours of both Mme du Barry's apartments and of the Dauphin and Dauphine's apartments take place at 2 pm. If you just feel like taking a stroll, the park is free (Sunday 20 FF) and the scenery is better the further you go from the palace. There are even informal groups of trees near the lesser outcrops of royal mania : the Italianate Grand Trianon, designed by Hardouin-Mansart in 1687 as a "country retreat" for Louis XIV, and the more modest Greek Petit Trianon, built by Gabriel in the 1760s.More charming and rustic than either of these is Le hameau de Marie-Antoinette, a play-village and farm built in 1783 for Louis XVI's queen to indulge the fashionable Rousseau-inspired fantasy of returning to the natural life.

The park is extremely large which is difficult to manage by foot, a small train shuttles between the terrace in front of the château and the Trianons. More charming and rustic than either of these is Le hameau de Marie-Antoinette, a play-village and farm built in 1783 for Louis XVI's queen to indulge the fashionable Rousseau-inspired fantasy of returning to the natural life. There are also bicycles for rent by the Grand Canal

The GoldenPass Line

Route : It connects Central Switzerland and Lake Geneva with an attractive train ride, the is as follows and vice versa: (Zurich –) Lucerne – Brünig Pass – Interlaken – Zweisimmen – Montreux (– Geneva). The best part being from Interlaken to Montreux.

Zürich to Luzern: Standard trains, run by Swiss Rail (2/hr, 1 hr). Luzern to Interlaken Ost: Narrow-gauge panoramic trains run by Brünig Railway (5/day, 2 hrs); also standard trains by Swiss Rail (hourly, 2 hrs).
Interlaken Ost to Zweisimmen: Direct panoramic trains run by Golden Pass (2/day, 1 hr); also standard trains run by Swiss Rail (at least hrly, 1.25 hrs, requires change in Spiez).
Zweisimmen to Montreux: Direct, narrow-gauge panoramic trains run by Golden Pass (5/day, 2 hrs); also standard trains run by Swiss Rail (9/day, 2 hrs).
Montreux to Geneva: Standard trains, run by Swiss Rail (hourly, 1 hr).

Planning Your Time:

As the trip has so much to offer in terms of main Swiss destinations (Zürich, Luzern, Interlaken, and Lake Geneva) the Golden Pass should be spliced cleverly to suit individual needs. Try to focus on the best stretch connecting Lake Geneva and Interlaken (3 hrs total, including the best segment between Montreux and Zweisimmen ).
However check schedules along the way and plan your layovers strategically to maximize time on the panoramic cars. For example, if traveling from Luzern to Lake Geneva, consider taking the 8:55 panoramic train from Luzern to Interlaken Ost (arriving 10:45), then wander in Interlaken and have lunch before catching the 13:25 panoramic train to Montreux (change trains in Zweisimmen at 14:23, arrive Montreux at 16:13).

Montbovon is the place to change trains if you’re going to Bulle or Gruyères. After the first tunnel, an inscription on the barn to the right welcomes the traveler in the Gruyère region: La Gruyère vous salue.

Montreux has the only train station in Europe with three different rail gauges: regular, narrow (which you’re on), and very skinny (for the Rochers de Naye train

Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triomphe a birds Eye View

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe stands at the end of the avenue des Champs Elysées at place Étoile - the huge roundabout where 12 tree-lined avenues converge. Napoléon commissioned the arch in 1806, 30 years later it was finished and ready for tourists to gawk at. The best access is from the underground passage on the northern side of avenue des Champs Elysées. You get a pretty good view from the top. You can get a very good view of the Eiffel tower and Basilique du Sacre-CoeurMontmartre
Admission to top: €6.45, under 26 €4 . Included in the Museum Pass
Timings : from April 1 - September 30: 10 a.m.-11 p.m. from October 1 to March 31: 10 a.m.-10:30 p.m.

Closed on January 1, May 1,May 8 (morning) July 14 (morning), November 11 (morning) Dec 25.
Métro/RER:Lines 1, 2 and 6, station Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile
RER: line A, station Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile

Eiffel Tower:

Originally built for the 1889 World Fair, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world until1930. Don't mind waiting in line for ages to get the lift you will be able to get a great a great view of the city from the top of Paris's most famous landmark. A cheaper option (without the queues) involved taking the stairs to the 1st or 2nd level.

Opening Hour:

The Eiffel Tower is open every day all year long, - from 9:30am to 11:00pm, January 1 to June 14 and September 2 to December 31, 2007- from 9:00am to midnight, June 15 to September 1, 2007

Métro: Bir Hakeim RER: Ligne-C Champs de Mars-Tour Eiffel;

Tips to Swiss Trips

Some of the most aggressively marketed Switzerland trips are definitely the Scenic train trips. Switzerland has one of the world’s best rail networks and many of its tracks run through some very scenic routes. Any train ride in Switzerland is photogenic but the following are the most aggressively marketed.

• The Golden Pass
• William Tell Express
• Bernina Express .
• Glacier Express.

But the Centovalli Express and The Mont Blanc express going to Chamonix is equally good. The best way of touring Switzerland is to take a Day Pass which comes in a lot ( carnet) 6 passes as an add on to the Half Fare Card. The half fare card entitles any person to travel Swiss travel System ( there is an unified travel system consisting of the Trains, boats, city buses and the Postal buses- the yellow coloured ones). With the day pass you can travel unhindered in the Swiss travel without bothering about the ques.

There is a 50% reduction on the mountain railways with half fare card, like the Jungfraubhan etc.

Checklist of items for Indian's Visiting CERN

The Personnel from the various DAE units, TIFR, ECIL Hyderabad may go through thefollowing checklist as a ready reckoner for items required to be carried, before coming to work for periods ranging from 3 to 12 months at CERN. This is basically a list of things that needs to be carried as some of them are not available or lot of efforts need to be taken to acquire them. This has also items required to tide over the initial settling period.

Items required at CERN , GENEVA
Clothes	Pants/Shirts	1 Jeans Preffered
	T shirts	Expensive here
	Shorts	Carry a few
	Socks/Undergarments/hankerchiefs	As per requirement
Wollens	Pure Wollen Sweaters	At least 2
	Jackets With Hood	Bring good quality one
	Woollen/ Leather gloves	One each
	Woollen Socks	2 pairs
	Pure Wollen Inner Wear	2 pairs
Shoes	Shoes for rain / Snow	Woodland Preferable
	Slippers	V imp, bring one
	Sandals	As per wish
Kitchen items	Pressure cooker(pressure pan) ,saucepan, non stick frying pan	-
	Glass, Spoons, spatula	-
	Roti Belan	-
	Plates( 2/3 of differant sizes)	-
	utensil to store food	-
	Rice / dal/Sugar/ maggi /salt	For first few days
	Haldi/Jeera/Mirchi/rai/Dhania/Garam masala	To last your stay
Sundry items	Toothbrush/ Toothpaste/ razor/ soap/ blades/nail cutter/Comb/duster	-
	Soapcase/Mug/Clothbrushing brush	-
	Passport/camera/waist pouch	-
	Needle/thread/spare buttons/hangers	-
	Shoe polish/laces	-
	Music CD's/Disc man/pliers/scissors/ screwdriver	-

To book a hotel in Paris

If you are on tight budget book your train/ flight in advance preferably two months for best rates. Travel on weekdays preferably Wednesday and come back on Sunday.
Do the hotel booking in advance if your schedule is perfect. In Paris living in the center is not a priority due to the superb Metro network.
Try to locate hotel booking portals/ sites which do not charge for booking, hence there will be no cancellation charges if you change your plans.

Try the following sites,

• Etaph hotels belonging to Accor group, the hotels are cheap, no frill hotels/child friendly/no cancellation charges/no curfew(limit on entry and exit times).
• Venere's site also gives some good offers.
• Hostelbookers is another site which has some good offers.
• Hostelworld is also a good site and has a price promise on its web page of offering the lowest Internet rates.

Geneva Parade

Had Heard a lot about the Geneva parade so went to geneva lakeside to have a first hand view. Lot of floaters with loud music and dancing people in fancy dresses( which they will other wise not wear). I think this is an oppurtunity for the people to vent their energies which is normally held in side the straight jacketed European Culture. The Orient has lots of such events in their culture in form of the various ritualistic festivals , like the various Poojas and Deepavali in India. The weather was good and the crowd was enormous by geneva standards.

The Louvre:

This huge (about a third of a kilometre long) art museum is home to some of the most important pieces of art in the western world including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The Louvre has recently received a billion dollar face-lift which has included the construction of a new entrance through a glass pyramid in the courtyard leading to an underground shopping mall and food court. During weekends and school holidays it can get very busy with very long queues, usually the easiest way to avoid some of the queues is by entering through the Carrousel du Louvre (shopping mall) - on rare occasions when there are queues in the Carrousel du Louvre you can try to jump the queue by telling the guard that you just want to get to the post office which is located near the entrance.

Tips : Try to cover louvre on Wednesdays and Fridays when it is open till 09:45pm.

Have a proper plan before getting into Louvre.

Admission:
€8.50, €6 (6pm to 0945 pm) and all day Sun,
Free admission for visitors

Official Web site: http://www.louvre.fr/. Rue du Rivoli, 75001 Paris.
Métro stop: Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre;
Bus : 21,24, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 81 & 95.

The layout of Louvre: