“Hello, Didi is that you? Can you hear me clearly? Am I audible? Is it snowing out there? Did you make a snowman?” I had more questions before my elder sister could ever open her mouth. This was in the year 1998 and my sister was studying in Switzerland. Those were the days of ISD telephone calls which were very expensive and top of it all was pretty complicated with delayed voice and often disconnections. She would, later on, tell me stories about Zurich, Bern, Bossey etc.
I was fascinated about Switzerland and forever dreamed of feeling the soft snow kissing my face as they fall from the heavens above on a cold wintery night with a snowman winking at me.
Fast forwarding it to 2016 when I was invited by Swissotel Kolkata for spending a day, specifically Sunday with them to have a private tour of their property in the city along with tasting some of the finest cuisines I was at once taken a back to the same feeling that I had nearly two decades back.
Sunday thankfully being a low traffic day was helpful for me as I had to drive all the way from Ballygunge to Rajarhat near the airport where Swissotel is located. It took around thirty minutes but the drive was very pleasant with bright blue skies and puffy white clouds.
Swissotel Kolkata had invited some bloggers and social media influencers to their hotel to experience hospitality the “Swiss” style. After the arrival of all the guests, we were taken to their board room and was introduced to Pawaninder Sondhi who is the digital marketing manager for Swissotel Kolkata. He gave us a brief about the hotel and its unique Swiss Luxury style.
This 147 room hotel located in a very close proximity to the airport. In fact from the roof top Razor’s Edge Swimming Pool you can see the airport and planes taking off. Do not worry about the sound of the jets as the position of this hotel is such that it’s not in the line of take-off and landing space thus the sound is minimum.
If you are just here to relax then also you have options at one of their four food and beverage outlets. If you like outdoors then do check out Splash which is an eighty seat Al Fresco Sky Lounge or if you like good DJ music to accompany you then do check out Maya which is a twenty seat lounge and bar.
For eating out you have Café Swiss which is a 24/7 all day dining restaurant serving mouth-watering international and local delicacies. Or if you like the full course Indian menu then you have Durbari a fine dining restaurant.
Taking about the food we were in for a treat as we were served a special lunch at Dubari and the taste still lingers on. The mouth-watering bakes fish just simply melts in your mouth, the Pudina Gost Sheekh Kebabs were soft and juicy making it just perfect. These, by the way, were just the starters and what was followed was equally good especially the Cheese Naan Bread and Paan Ice Cream.
Post lunch we were taken across the property taking us through the various types of Classic, Executive and Suite. The uniqueness about these rooms is its headboard above the beds which is basically a painting and every room has its own unique headboard.
The day ended with an equally sumptuous evening snacks with apples being the theme for the evening. There was Apple Juice, Tuna Sliders, Apple Upside Down, Apple Pie, etc. I am a foodie but even I do have my limitations, these looked yummy but I did not have a bit of space left in my tummy to stuff even the tiniest bit of the pie.
However, the day was not yet over the best part was yet to come when I won the photo contest and the sweet part was that all the photos posted for the contest were exclusively shot on a mobile phone camera. But the even sweetest part was the gift that I got from Swissotel, the hamper had a Swiss Chocolate Cake, Fresh Baked Bread, Cookies, and Chocolates. Alas, now I had enough stock for the day’s dinner also. I have never been to Switzerland but managed to taste a bit of it here in Kolkata at Swissotel Kolkata.
This initiative was organised in association with Calcutta Instagrammers and hosted wonderfully by Swissotel Kolkata.
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