I visited Suzanne in the late Spring of 1992. Having not seen her for months, she was a picture of happiness when we met. In the first couple of days, with her as guide, we took time to explore all the nooks and corners of Geneva, visiting places like the Geneva Convention Hall where international issues were discussed and decided, and the renown Rolex watch showroom where high-end Rolex watches were offered for sale at factory prices. We also walked hand-in-hand along the bank of the Geneva lake with the snow-capped Alps in the backdrop and the cool Alps mountain breeze blowing softly against our faces, her hair fluttering tenderly brushing against my face, rendering a scenario quite reminiscent of a hindi-film love scene. It was such a moment of ecstasy for the both of us.
During the next few days we explored the greater part of Switzerland. Armed with an Olympus camera and an assortment of tour maps, we toured almost all the bold-fonted towns displayed in the maps, staying at least overnight in each destination. We visited more than half a dozen towns like Lausanne, Lucerne, Basel, Bern, Brig, Zurich, Lugano, Zermat etc basking in the beauty of the awesome and panoramic views of those places and wallowing on the architectural splendour of both modern and antiquated buildings. At Zermat, we had a close range view of the majestic Matterhorn mountain, one made famous back home by a cigarette brand by the same name. We sighed as we beheld its sheer majesty, my hands lightly tucked on her shoulders.
This was my first visit to Europe, and I must admit that I was much awestruck by all the panoramic splendor of the countryside and the ultra modern facilities available in that part of the world. The whole cacophony of things both natural and man-made were awesome and overwhelming which somewhat added to the magic of our adventure together.
My next visit was in the Fall about 5 months later. Suzanne's vacation was acommodative of a week travel, so we decided to take a tour of Austria. We took a train in Geneva and proceeded to Zurich during which we had a good sampling of the rural scenes of Switzerland. Awesome! We put up a night at Zurich before proceeding to Salzburg in Austria the next day. At Salzburg we made a tour of the city, visiting famous places like the Bethoven house, where a century or so ago Bethoven composed the song now made very famous world over: the 'Silent Night', and the house where some scenes of the musical, 'Sound of Music' was shot. Not far from there was a view of an almost endless fields of growing wheat invoking some nostalgia of an era when padi was still grown in my kampung. I couldn't help noticing the twinkle in Suzanne's eyes for she too must have been overwhelmed by the sheer majesty of the panorama before us.
From Salzburg we proceeded to Linz where we had a quick lunch before doing a round of sight-seeing around town. It was mid afternoon when we boarded the next train to Vienna, where we spent the night savoring Deutch cuisines in candle light at Berring street and sampling some quite expensive night spots in downtown Vienna. As we arrived quite late the previous day, it was only on the next day that the majestic splendor of the city impacted fully upon us. We took a cab, and as usual, Suzanne navigated while I searched the streets, savoring the uniqueness of the many structures we passed by. At lunch time, we stopped by a restaurant perched on the plateau of a low mount overlooking the whole city where we could see the Danube meandering across the city, and identify some famous landmarks, such as the 40,000-bed hospital of Vienna. While there, we pondered. We pondered on about a lot of things among them being the viability of our future together.
We planned to fly back to Geneva that evening, but finding the trip too expensive we opted for the train instead. We took a cabin in which we slept through our journey home, with Susan lying snugly beside me perhaps still pondering on the question about the viability of our future together.
During the next few days we explored the greater part of Switzerland. Armed with an Olympus camera and an assortment of tour maps, we toured almost all the bold-fonted towns displayed in the maps, staying at least overnight in each destination. We visited more than half a dozen towns like Lausanne, Lucerne, Basel, Bern, Brig, Zurich, Lugano, Zermat etc basking in the beauty of the awesome and panoramic views of those places and wallowing on the architectural splendour of both modern and antiquated buildings. At Zermat, we had a close range view of the majestic Matterhorn mountain, one made famous back home by a cigarette brand by the same name. We sighed as we beheld its sheer majesty, my hands lightly tucked on her shoulders.
This was my first visit to Europe, and I must admit that I was much awestruck by all the panoramic splendor of the countryside and the ultra modern facilities available in that part of the world. The whole cacophony of things both natural and man-made were awesome and overwhelming which somewhat added to the magic of our adventure together.
My next visit was in the Fall about 5 months later. Suzanne's vacation was acommodative of a week travel, so we decided to take a tour of Austria. We took a train in Geneva and proceeded to Zurich during which we had a good sampling of the rural scenes of Switzerland. Awesome! We put up a night at Zurich before proceeding to Salzburg in Austria the next day. At Salzburg we made a tour of the city, visiting famous places like the Bethoven house, where a century or so ago Bethoven composed the song now made very famous world over: the 'Silent Night', and the house where some scenes of the musical, 'Sound of Music' was shot. Not far from there was a view of an almost endless fields of growing wheat invoking some nostalgia of an era when padi was still grown in my kampung. I couldn't help noticing the twinkle in Suzanne's eyes for she too must have been overwhelmed by the sheer majesty of the panorama before us.
From Salzburg we proceeded to Linz where we had a quick lunch before doing a round of sight-seeing around town. It was mid afternoon when we boarded the next train to Vienna, where we spent the night savoring Deutch cuisines in candle light at Berring street and sampling some quite expensive night spots in downtown Vienna. As we arrived quite late the previous day, it was only on the next day that the majestic splendor of the city impacted fully upon us. We took a cab, and as usual, Suzanne navigated while I searched the streets, savoring the uniqueness of the many structures we passed by. At lunch time, we stopped by a restaurant perched on the plateau of a low mount overlooking the whole city where we could see the Danube meandering across the city, and identify some famous landmarks, such as the 40,000-bed hospital of Vienna. While there, we pondered. We pondered on about a lot of things among them being the viability of our future together.
We planned to fly back to Geneva that evening, but finding the trip too expensive we opted for the train instead. We took a cabin in which we slept through our journey home, with Susan lying snugly beside me perhaps still pondering on the question about the viability of our future together.
