Travel Adventures~ Switzerland, Basel & Neuchatel

What's up people! I am back. How's everything been going on so far? I'm sorry it took so long for me to update my blog. Just checked the last update and it was on New Years Eve. Cray...
Anyway, Spring break is here. Finally got the time to share my experience travelling to Switzerland and just some usual rants to the Cyber universe. If anyone of you is interested continue reading on! If not, I don't hate you! HA! Peace and love. So lets get to it....

First off , this trip wasn't part of my plan. It all happened when a friend couldn't make it for the trip and so I filled her in. It all happened pretty quick not knowing much about the whole plan. It was just a short 3 days 2 nights as Switzerland is quite an expensive country to travel to. We (two other friends) left for Basel, Switzerland on the 15th of March. It was a short flight from Manchester airport; upon arriving we had to go through the usual immigration counter and for some reason I always have issues with immigration I don't know why?! So I guess not many Malaysians travel to Switzerland because the officer asked whether I had a visa to enter. I was like, NO? I'm Malaysian I don't need one. Then something went wrong with the scanner while they were trying to scan the electronic chip in my passport. Pretty much stood there for quite a while. Anyway, I was cleared after that and thus begins our journey to find our accommodation.

We stayed at a pretty spacious apartment about 30 minutes walk from the city centre. The first day we pretty much spent walking around getting out bearings of the place. Ate some traditional (I think) Swiss food and headed back to the apartment to plan for the next day. It was quite a challenge to plan our journey as there weren't much helpful information to help us decide on how to get to where we wanted to go. It was of just pin pointing a spot on the map and looking up images of the place. Fun experience!

So we decided to go to a place called Neuchatel which was about an hour and a half by train away from Basel. Sunday morning we got our tickets about (80 Swiss Franc) can't really remember how much but it was about that amount. The train ride was enjoyable, beautiful scenery. The weather was pretty gloomy at the time but as we arrived at Neuchatel the sky was blue and the sun was out. Perfect weather! Pretty bummed out for not packing my shades. Probably not one of the smartest decision to travel on a Sunday because everything was pretty much closed. Even the Information Centre was closed! So we couldn't really get help getting around. We sat at a cafe for lunch, I had some sort of wrap can't remember the name (it was a really good lunch ) Again the maps were out and the tough job of figuring out how to get from one point to the other. Luckily enough we managed to figure out how to get to the top of a scenic mountain ridge called Chaumont via tram. It was a picturesque location where we could climb up a tower where you are basically perched to get a glimpse of a panoramic view of the Alps and the three lakes ie. Lakes Biel, Murten and Lac de Neuchâtel. The entrance for the tower only cost 1SF. The place was quite famous for mountain biking enthusiasts as well. Young and old took on the many trails throughout the area. We explored the city and walked along the lake while soaking in the sun. A really chilled Sunday evening. Soon the sun began to set in the horizon. The sky was painted with hues of orange and yellow mirrored back by the still calm lake below. The Alps in the distance added a magical touch to the whole scene in front of our eyes. We just sat quietly gazing into the beauty set before us. As soon as the sun set the moon rose from the other side of the lake slowly gradually out of its hiding. What more could we ask for?! It was a moment I'll definitely remember.

Arriving back at our apartment,we finally met the owner of the apartment who happens to be a young handsome guy in his twenties. *wiggle eyebrows* I had to add this in. Although it's not much of an importance. The next and final day we decided to explore more of Basel city and visited a few café's before heading back to pack up. The weather was amazing that monday when we had to leave, the sun rays penetrated through the windows into our room and it was a warm 20c which made it harder to leave knowing that back in Leeds it was gloomy, cold and rainy. But life goes on.

All in all it was a really good trip bonding with friends and just getting away from the busy Uni life. Definitely will travel to Switzerland again one day; too much to see too much to do!

Here are some photo's I took.

Camera credits to a good friend who kindly lent me his camera because I had no camera! =(