Little Things: Self-drive Adventure to Schwyz

I always wanted Uncle Tan to try self-drive here as it's convenient and I don't have to stress over the no. hours in the train. Well, it turns out that self-drive in Switzerland ain't that easy and isn't as cheap. You also have to get adjusted to left-hand driving and keep a lookout the signboards. Well, perhaps partly because of the well-connected public transport network, I guess self-drive is not as popular here. And I suppose most Swiss prefer biking and hiking to driving.

Our first official self-drive (thou Uncle Tan isn't the one driving, but he was stressed enough to be appointed as the Asst Navigator haha ;p)

We booked a car from a car-sharing company (similar to NTUC's Co-op) instead of a car rental company. It's a much cheaper option which costs around Sf 130+ for a 12-hr rental, inclusive of petrol.

As it was rather a last minute booking, we were left with a small 1.3-litre manual vehicle. The men had to spend quite some time figuring out the car operations. Eunice's hubby had to struggle with the pedals due to the space constraints of the car.

The seats aren't as comfy and the space is quite limited.

This shot looks machiam like a sports car in action huh hehe ;p

It's not advisable to speed in Switzerland for Uncle Tan's colleague had a friend who was fined Sf 4,000 and had his license suspended for a year. So we were very law-abiding and followed the speed limited as indicated.

Some of the views you wouldn't be able to see from the trains.

The Muota valley is a green, drawn-out and mountain-encircled Schwyz mountain valley, extending across 172 sq km. It is Switzerland’s 10 largest communes in respect of area, and is nearly as large as the entire canton of Zug.

According to what I've read, the secluded geographical location has helped the people in the valley retain their down-to-earth character and their staid sense of calmness. Also known, is their dry sense of humour, where they have the ‘humour walking trail’ and also their folk music. The Muota valley weathermen (“Wetterschmöcker” in Swiss German) are much celebrated where twice yearly, these prophets present annual weather forecasts with much humour where the forecasts are based on outdoor observations.

Stopping halfway to take some photos and toilet breaks.

香车美人s
hehe ;p

The red sexy car

Here we are, at the old town of Schwyz, where this is the Town Hall.

It was almost lunch time when we reach here after some miss-turns and asking around. We headed off to the nearest restaurant to fill our tummies.

We went back to the confectionery where we bought our cold sandwiches the last time as they have a restaurant as well. Eunice had bought a cake there earlier and before we could even reach the Tourist Info office to get some info (which was just a few steps away from the bakery), the cake was gone...

The food here is yummy :d``

Uncle Tan ordered the fish salat. The fish was a tad too salty. Eunice's hubby ordered the popular rosti as recommended by the waitress and it was the best tasting dish among the ones we ordered.

I ordered the Swinefleisch (pork) cos I've a craving for fries and Eunice ordered the beef version that comes with pasta. My pork seemed to be soaked in salt but fortunately it didn't have too much 'porky taste' as compared to the one we ate at another restaurant. It was a satisfying meal.

After lunch, we made out way to Victorinox to get some stuff before heading off to the Hölloch cave at Muota Valley.

We made a stop at the 'emerald lake' where we saw on our last trip here on the bus. We parked at a shed which had quite a number of lamas looking at these 4 strange looking people, busy snapping pictures of them.

And only to realise that it was the moss and algae that gave the lake its emerald colour......

We stopped again when we saw a waterfall next to a green field.

As it was a weekday, we could see farmers at work, unlike on a Sat where we practically saw no one.

Seems to be owned by a family with the kids in their teens helping out in the fields. When Uncle Tan and I saw the young, good looking son in the fields, we immediately thought of Ms Wong ;p

Walking towards the waterfall, along the stretch of firewoods.

Eunice's hubby in action.

We tried to find a suitable place to soak out feet but most of the puddles had algae in them.

"I'm the King of the mountain!"

Back at the famous Muotathal Cherry Cake confectionery and we bought 2 cakes for tea later.

How to resist not taking pictures with such beautiful flowers :)

This is what I call "人美花艳" (keke...BYB ;D)

Ms Sui demonstrating eating an illegally-plucked apple-lookalike fruit from a tree that didn't seem to be owned by anyone. We were too far away to be able to take photo of her in action.