23-Apr-2011 "Some Good Things Never Last"

We were at Milan quite early, but the train ticket that Mon got would only leave around lunch time.  Had to wait for more or less 3 hours.  We're running out of things to do.  I have a phone number of a relative... 'thought maybe it's a good time to catch up.... tried to call him a few times but couldn't reach him.

We found a bench in the station... Justin was playing, Mon was sleeping, I just walked around the station. I still have less than a hundred Euros to spend before leaving Italy.  Justin was sooo happy with iphone Ferrari case that I bought.   I woke up Mon telling him about some of the shirts and cardigans I saw at Zara... Just want to get his opinion whether I should buy them or not.  Comparing the price in Melbourne, I thought they're cheaper.    I ended up buying 4.. 2 ladies shirts and 2 cardigans... It was only just a few minutes before our departure... I didn't have a chance to try some of them as I was rushing.   The guard at the store reminded me to close my bag before I walked out.  It's like a premonition/warning of the unforunate events ahead of me.

We travelled from Milan to Brig, intending to go back to Geneva before going to Zurich.  

Justin while waiting for his cheese burger at Brig

The train stopped at Brig a quarter past one.  

Gosh! Gosh!  Silly me!!! I checked all the luggage before getting off but missed to take my shopping bag with me.  Hu Hu Hu ;-(  I shopped for nothing.  I felt bad but what can I do.  So I just decided to move on and didn't let this incident ruin my day.

We went out the station...  Nice view, also a good place to stay for a night.   We bought 3 'take-away' cheese burgers for lunch and back to the train platform, heading to Geneva.  As mentioned in my previous blog re:Geneva, we went there to visit the Palais des Nations.

We're pretty much in the train the whole day today.  After visiting Palais des Nations, we went to back to Geneva Central Station to take a train to Zurich airport.

At Zurich airport, we collected our luggage, those we had deposited from St Moritz a few days ago before going to Italy.  At the foodcourt in the airport, we asked Justin to look at our luggage while me-withdrawing some cash at the ATM and Mon-buying dinner.

While eating dinner, I checked my iPhone in the bag.   IT'S NOT THERE!!!  Waaaah!  We're already about to go home... "This can't be happening!"  We all looked everywhere... every pockets of all the luggage... pockets of all our coats... but we couldn't find a trace of my Iphone.  

We started to recollect..
   - The last time I saw it or at least remembered holding it was at the platform at Geneva Station while waiting for the train to Zurich airport.  I was looking for my credit card which I used at Zara... I checked if it's in my Iphone case.  I thought I lost it but I did find it later.
   - The train to Zurich arrived shortly.  I couldn't remember if I returned the iPhone back in the bag or if I put it in my coat's pocket.

Our theories:
   -  Had I dropped it accidentally at Geneva station and could somebody had picked it up?
   -  Was it snatched without me knowing by a robber at Geneva? 
   -  I put my coat at the 'open' overhead compartment in the train above our seat.  Could it be inside the coat and was dropped accidentally at the compartment when I put my coat there?
  -  Was it stolen while Justin was attending the luggage and playing PSP at the same time when I went away for a few minutes to withdraw some cash?
  -  With hesitation, Justin uttered,  "I don't really want to say it, Mum.. but the lady next to us on the same table.  She's acting weird. Could it be...?  Sorry, Mum, she's just acting weird while we were busy looking for the Iphone."  I must admit, it did  occur in my head, as I noticed it myself.  She was acting weird.  I saw that expression before, the way she smiled was similar to what I saw from the  snatcher, sitting next to me before he committed the crime, when I was in a bus a few years ago in Manila.  But I said to Justin, it's not good thinking bad about other people.  He agreed.  He himself was hesistant when he said about his suspicion to us.

 With our experience in Switzerland, highly unlikely for my phone to be in a place with poor reception, even if it's accidentally dropped at the overhead compartment.  I tried to call my number.. but nope, i had not heard a single ring... only heard a voice mail.  It was a sign - telling me that the chance to recover my iPhone would be very, very low.  Whether it was stolen or accidentally found by a stranger... seemed that it had been switched off/disconnected in just of a short period of time.

Tried to send SMS but no response, rang it a few times... all failed.

Twentyt-third of April -  the day when I parted with my dear iPhone ;( .  With it was the Michael Kors case given to me by Mon on my birthday this year.  She's been a great help to me... in tracking Justin's activities, appointments, emails, etc... and I must admit I did miss her.   I had some notes in there that I failed to back-up, history and ugly photos of my medical check up when I was being monitored for a year, photos of my pamangkins, and many more...    When you lose something like your phone or laptop where you store some of your personal infos, we couldn't help but think of the security threat and possible invasion of privacy that this incident might bring.  My phone had a pin... but that should be easy to decode, I guess.   

We checked in at Holiday Inn Express near Zurich airport.  First thing we did was to change our accounts' password - emails, facebook, etc.  I reported at SBB all the items I lost in one day in the train... hoping a person with a good heart might return those.

As what I always say to myself  --- nothing is permanent  --- and as above title "Some Good Things Never Last".   Think of all the material things around you as not yours.   They are all borrowed from your Creator.   When you lose any of them, just think... they're not yours... it's not with you anymore for the owner took it back.  In this way, you won't feel so bad losing them.

This way of thinking normally works for me...  We still had a day to spend at  Switzerland before flying back to Melbourne.  We should not spoil the day.

Additional Notes: 29-May
A few days after we arrived back to Melbourne, I had received a job offer from Germany.  I haven't been updating my CV in the job sites for few years now... hence me and Mon were discussing, could it be related to my lost phone?

I recently discovered a way to see locations of people viewing my blogs and what traffic/operating systems they used... I could tell that some of them could be my friends overseas and some could be visitors who just found me at google.  But I was wonderin, it seemed I have regular follower(s) from Germany. I could see 1 to 3 views everytime I posted a new blog... And just last weekend or so, it was viewed for more or less 25 times in one day.  Is this a coincidence or somehow related to my lost iPhone?  What do you think?

I am not hoping anymore, but if by chance the person who found my phone can read this... you may return it at SBB office if you still want to return it.
 

17-Apr-2011 Geneva, Switzerland

15-Apr.  We rang the hotel at Geneva to inquire if we could cancel the second day of our booking.  We were told that they can't, as we booked it through an agent (via hotelclub.net) and we had to cancel it through them.  We contacted the customer support of hotelclub.net but told us that it's non-refundable.  So no choice - we'll just use it then.

16-Apr.  Arrived Geneva just before dark.  I'd say, we're not so pleased with the Hotel that we booked.  It's old, near a busy highway, room is not comfortable and didn't look like what was shown in the photo, didn't feel secured to leave things in the room.... but the guy at the reception was quite accommodating and helpful.  So, I guess, it's not too bad after all.  He even offered us to open the breakfast earlier (as in 4:00ish a.m.) for us, when I told him that we need to take the first train in the morning going to Zermatt.

Had dinner at the Italian restaurant next to the entrance of the hotel.  The waiter didn't know how to speak  in English...I guess he could speak French and Italian....  But he was such a nice a guy… We managed to order what we want without too much difficulty and complemented with a really yummy dessert. Great dinner!   'Merci Merci'- the only word I remembered from him.

We were supposed to go out and have a night stroll at the city centre.  However, we were still worried if it would really be a good idea to stay at Geneva for another night.  We need to probably leave before 5am  to make sure we can be at Geneva station in time to catch the first train in the morning.  We would only have less than an hour to transfer to Glacier Express tour upon arrival at Zermatt. Very tight schedule, eh.

Finally, t'was already midnight when we made a decision to just book a hotel at Zermatt, and let go the second night at Geneva.  This way, we won't have to rush and wake up very early.  And we could make sure as well that we could catch Glacier Express early without any hassles.

 

17-Apr. Our plan was to get around Geneva first before taking a train to Zermatt.

Plan A: We left the hotel (we haven’t check out yet)  to drop our bags at Geneve. We had to make it before 9am, so we can just pick it up at Zermatt later in the evening once we arrive there.  But due to difficulties in finding a space to park the car, we’re not able to make it at 9am. 

Plan B: We went back to the hotel and took our luggage back to our room.  We drove to Geneva airport afterwards to return the car that we rented from Zurich a few days ago.   From the airport, we took the train going to Geneva main station.  We’ll be using our Swiss Pass for the first time. 

We took the tram but without a map, we’re not sure where was the tram heading to.  So we got off after the first stop and just walked instead.  We asked a middle-aged lady on the street on how to get to the Temple de Saint-Pierre… She could only speak French but managed to show us the way.  She told us to go straight and turn left from the Notre Dame Cathedral.   I told her,  'Merci! Merci! :-)

It was a really quick trip.  Hotel Bellevue at Zermatt sent me an email saying that we could ring him, once we arrived at the station. 

  



Temple de Saint-Pierre

(St Peter's Cathedral)

and its underground museum

showing the original temple

and tombs underground,

thousand of years ago.



Jet d'Eau (Water Jet Fountain)

One of the crowning symbols of Geneva,
a fountain of water
pumped 140m into the air.



Landmine Monument
- in memory of the victims
of landmines. It is said
that a statue of a human
with leg missing was
considered but was
found to be unsuitable.









Highlights:

Place du Bourg-de-Four
- the oldest city square
in the old town of Geneva

 

Brunswick Monument - a mausoleum at

Quai du Mont Blanc
modelled on the Scaliger
tombs in Verona (Italy),
was built for

Duke Karl II of Brunswick (1804-73)

who left his money to Geneva.

Palais des Nations

(... visited this place

a few days later, on 23/Apr)

.

 





.

  





After walking for a few hours, we took a taxi to the hotel… checked out and picked up our luggage.  We took the taxi again back to Geneve station and took the next available trip to Zermatt.  Hey, Taxi was not cheap, huh!!! 

P.S. Mon tried to assist the taxi driver in taking the luggage off the car boot... Funny how the driver kept on insisting to do it himself for the obvious reason that Mon might scratch his Mercedes Benz.  Mon was laughing recalling how careless he was, taking the luggage in and out of our rented Mercedes Benz. 

More Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1933836058506.111687.1020438581





16-Apr-2011 Jungfraojoch "Top of Europe", The Swiss Mountain Experience

We had breakfast , checked out from Beau-site Hotel, then, drove to Grindelwald again.  For just CHF6.00, got a parking next to the station, that was good for 24 hours.  We bought a ticket to go to Jungfraojoch or what they called as 'Top of Europe'.  Were we really on top of Europe???

Highlights:

The train stopped at Kleine Scheidegg (2061m/6760 ft).   The place is at the foot of the Eiger North Wall.     It was a pity, we're running out of time.  Otherwise, we would have spent more time at Kleine Scheidegg to play and have fun.  Then, we transferred to another platform and took the train going up to Jungfraojoch. 

The train stopped on the following stations, giving passengers a time to get off and for around 5 minutes each time - to view the glaciers from the enclosed viewing platforms.

Eigergletscher (2320m/7612ft),

Eigerwand (2865m/9400 ft),

Esimeer (3160m/10368ft)

The last stop ..... JUNGFRAOJOCH "Top of Europe" (3454m/11333ft).  We had underestimated the height… We felt slight difficulty in breathing after getting off the train.   Felt like our oxygen level had dropped a bit at the top… Temperature was around -7^oC... Not too bad.  Good that we came here when winter is almost over.

Mon had to sit down for a minute feeling dizzy but was able to regain his energy after drinking some water.  Justin was also not feeling well, and kept on asking if we could already take the train back.  I felt a bit of dizziness but not for long.  My big problem was my stomach... I had indigestion... had to run to the loo and boom! (Oops pardon me!) ... I shouldn't really have said it, should I?  Lucky I have a medicine with me.  Then Mon said, my fault, "I gave you coffee in the morning."  

Anyway, we managed to get over all these hassles as usual. 

We went to Ice Palace... entered a room carved with Ice… the walls, the floors, the ceiling, the hallways... feelin' like you're entering through an ice cave.  Well, i could say, it  was a cave... Later on, you'll see a collection of ice sculptures.  I could slide with my running shoes even without wheels.  Really cool! 

We went further up to the  Sphynx Terrace (3571 m).    I read a brochure later on saying that  we can see breathtaking views of France, Germany, and Italy from the Spyhnx... Hmmm, I should have paid attention.  

I saw in the TV inside the train, an area with lots of activities - snow disc and snow tube... also another one similar to flying fox ... and many more...  We missed this one... There's always next time...in other place maybe.  I promised Justin that Spyhnx would be the last one as he was really dying to come back...    

 It was worth a visit even for just a few hours.  Took the train down, enjoyed the views of the alpine mountains and back to the car.

The time had come where we had to say goodbye to Interlaken… we’ll surely miss this place.  We stopped over at McDonalds at Thun and headed to Geneva.


More Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1930837303539.111545.1020438581