Switzerland and French Riviera

Mount Titlis and Engelberg perhaps had the second highest concentration of Indians on earth (number/sq. metre) after a Mumbai local. The usual mother and sister references heard on Indian streets weren't far either. Hindi might not be officially recognized national language in India, but it seemed to be so on the streets, sorry cable cars of Mount Titlis. After the unnecessary window-shopping outside the Swiss watch showroom at the Titlis top, we moved towards beaches. We were anyway at the French Riviera before coming to Switzerland. 

About the French Riviera, it is generally said, that the glamour and the fashion of the area is unmatched in the world. Such alluring promises have attracted hordes of white retirees. They have occupied every conceivable inch of public beaches. In the two days that I spent at Cannes, Monaco and Marseilles, I must have had more than my fair share of topless white bodies. The red carpet in Cannes looked all worn out with all the Chinese tourists trampling over it. They are another interesting bunch. They move around in a size of a platoon. They have a flag-bearing leader who instructs the entire group around. The platoon then guns down the entire area with their point-and-shoot and DSLRs. We were still shameless enough to ask them “zara side hatiye” (deliberately in Hindi so that we don’t have to strike up a polite conversation in English) and click pictures on the red carpet. I was wearing the same black t-shirt that I had worn for past 4 days. Perhaps it was the sweat that drove them away. Anyway, though we looked like beggars, we had pictures on the red carpet.

We headed out to Barcelona after Switzerland. We walked down the market of La Rambla, where Spanish shopkeepers were selling Indian spices & herbs and the Gujju shopkeepers selling choicest Spanish chocolates. We bought a few and savored them in the restaurant outside FC Barcelona.