My Day of Love in Switzerland
Valentine's Day is a celebration of love observed on February 14
each year. It is a day where people exhibit love in different ways. Every year,
irrespective of my relationship status :P, I start the day by wishing my dad and
mom, expressing my undying love for them and telling them how important
they are for me and our family.
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| The Zurich Lake |
I spent my Valentine’s Day in
Zurich. Zurich is a beautiful and the largest city of Switzerland, the first
city of Switzerland I know, my love for Switzerland started with Zurich, so I
chose Zurich for this delightful day. After almost 3 hrs of our train journey,
we reached Zurich around 11:00AM, the weather was perfect, the sun was up, we
chose the water transport for the city tour, well firstly because we hadn’t
done that earlier, secondly I wanted to fight my fear of water and thirdly the
weather was perfect, it was warm, lovely and romantic. It was my first water trip.
The places were full of
love birds so gracefully dressed, from teenagers to couples in their 60s, each
carrying roses and bouquets, expressing their love openly, all laughter and
smile, hugs and kisses, holding hands. I noticed, many wore RED – The colour of
love and passion. The Zurich Lake was as beautiful as the Geneva Lake. The
major attractions when cruising
were the fascinating Fraumünster Church
and many other small churches and temples, the Swiss national museum, the East,
West, North and South of the Zurich city, the ports. I had an
amazing time discovering the great maritime experience in such an exquisite
city.
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| Fraumünster Church |
My favourite couple of the day
was an elderly couple who looked like they were in their 60s, perhaps because i knew something about their love story.:)
A lot of people
queued up when it was our time for boarding, when we got in the ship, the seats
were almost all occupied. My friend and I were the last ones to get the seats
together. As soon as we were seated, an elderly couple came in, we could tell
from the lady’s face that she was tired and a hand on her knees said that her
knees hurt too. The lady had a rose in her hand. I stood up and my friend
followed to offer our seats to the couple. There was a bright smile on the
couple’s face, with a lots of Merci Beaucoups (Thank you very much), they
finally sat down. We went outside to sit on the uncovered part of the vessel,
even with the sun, it was cold but the cold was tolerable. From the door, we
could see the couple seated inside, we saw the attendant offer a bottle of red
wine and some snacks. My friend and I looked at each other and smiled, we
realised we had done a good deed and helped the couple with their romantic
plan. It was an amazing feeling to see such love.
After a while, the man stood up,
kissed his lady on her forehead and came towards us. We were scared if he had
come to tell us not to stare, well we couldn’t help staring, they were just too
adorable. Fortunately, the man had come out for a smoke; he took out his cigar
and lighted it gracefully. He smiled and waved as he saw us. After he was done, he came towards us, before I could say hi, he said Thank you
again. I couldn’t help asking, did you bring your lady love out for the
Valentine’s date? He laughed the big man’s laugh Hahaha and said, yes else she
would be furious at me and not talk to me for days. He added, on their second
year of marriage, he had to go out of the town for business and Valentine’s Day
ran out of his mind; his wife had not talked to him for a month. Since then, he
had promised to be with her for all the Valentine’s Day they are going to have
together. I asked out of curiosity how long they have been married. I was told
they are married for 35 years and they have a son and a daughter. The thought
of the man fulfilling his promise for 33 years took me back to my thoughts
again, if every men fulfilled his promise this way, every day would be a
Valentine’s Day and there would be more peace and love in the world.
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| The City Hall, Basel |
As he left us, we left for our
next destination too. The valentine’s fever still continued in Basel, a lovely
city smaller than Zurich. Love birds were everywhere, in the city, walking on
the streets holding hands, in the shops buying gifts, in the restaurant feeding
each other, all with flowers and everyone smelled very pleasant. ;) We did
the city tour by bus, went to the Basel City Hall, took a lot of pictures, we
also visited the Dollhouse
Museum which is the largest museum of its kind in Europe.
When we came back, the
Valentine’s Day was almost over, it was over in my country though. I was very
happy about the visit, yet a feeling of emptiness swept over me, when I
realised what was missing, I ran into the station shop, bought myself some
chocolates and flowers. And Happiness ran through my veins again.
