Thursday, October 18, 2007

Glimpses: Medieval Europe




Some glimpses from the older part of Switzerland. The first one is from inside Chateua de Chillon at Montreux - a french castle in the southern part of the country (adjoining France). The castle itself was good but not all that impressive - perhaps having seen monuments of great architectural grandeur constructed by the Mughals in India, I was expecting more. But the views from inside the castle were breathtaking. The castle opened out to a lake on 3 sides, and the alps can be seen in the backdrop.

The rest of the images are from the old part of Zurich. While most of the old houses in the area have been converted into restaurants and cafes (pic 2), there were still some residential homes in the area. And who can take a walk in old Europe without feeling awed by the medieval churches. The good thing about Zurich is the co-existence of the old and the new. The extremely cosmopolitan area near the main train station with all the banks and the malls etc., is just a stone's throw away from the oldest part of the town. They haven't allowed the history to rot in some forgotten section of the town. And that's something that we could take a lesson from in India :)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Jung Frau Joch



Some pics from the highest peak in Europe. It's been a fun weekend, and though I promised I would write a lot more, I'm just going to sign-off with those pictures, and atleast keep my promise of having written here at all!

BTW, that trek was awesome - around 4 hours of breathtaking views. If you go there, make sure you walk some part of the distance - the train goes to the very top!