are doing a brief trip to Norway: Oslo, Balestrand and Bergen, Venice, three of the Italian lakes Garda, Como and Maggiore and southern Switzerland to Zermatt, Lugano, Interlaken und Zurich. We will be away from 24th August to 19th September.
To see photos and read witty insightful travel observations look at the Travel Blog.
The Final chapter:Interlaken and Zurich Arrived in Interlaken by train. Interlaken is located between Lake Brienz to the east and Lake Thun to the west in the area called Bödeli , hence the name of the town. Our landlady suggested that we take a ride on the The Schynige Platte Railway which rises 1987m. It is a rack railway and travels at an average speed of 12km/h, but rewards visually were great on the way up and at the top. It overlooks many mountains, the 3 best known being The Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. We went for a hike (to work off 20 days of carbs and ice cream) for a couple of hours the trigger button on the camera was glowing red hot. We climbed to the top of the ridge through an alpine ... read more
Lake Maggiore and Zermatt A note to to those people who wrote in saying the photos don't match the text beside them. Unfortunately that is the way the TravelBlog site works you load your text and pictures in separately and their computer decides where the photos go (We do pick the order) The people that you meet L met a girl 5 foot high carrying a backpack the same height. She was searching for the meaning of life. This young german had already been to India and worked on a goat farm, employed by a family who lived like slobs and didn't pay her, but she was returning to work for them after visiting her parents in Germany, because she thought it would help her find her way! Our first day was great weather and we ... read more
Lake Como and Lake Lugano An apology to grammar fanatics. You will have noticed changes from present to past tense a few times, we write this in sections nightly, so we ask for forgiveness from those who care Lake Como Today we travelled from Desenzano by train via Brescia and Milan to Varenna on Lake Como. The train kept to the lake edge from Lecco up to Varenna- very pretty trip. We spent 90 mins here .Varenna was a lovely village with a tiny cove harbour, very narrow winding laneways up to a piazza and out to two villas up high above lake Como (only their gardens are open) , L escaped to take photos while D looked after the bags and met the locals (ha ha), we made the boat with 5 min to ... read more
Blog 4: The Italian Lakes: Lake Garda Buongiorno to blogees who have survived our blogs to this point, thanks for sticking with it. Someone asked when we get the time to do this. Well because the netbook is portable we can use it in airports, on trains, at stations and after we return from dinner in the evening. It is an excellent distraction at these places. Day 1 Short train trip from Verona to Desenzana at the base of Lake Garda. we leaped onto a ferry to Malcesine up near the top of the lake. The ferry criss crossed the lake and pulled in at the most delightful looking little villages. At Malcesine we ascended to the top of Mt Baldo (named after my head) in a cable car which held about 50 people max ... read more
Blog3: Venice It would be worth remarking at this stage about our photographer who hangs out of ferry windows, steps to the edge of mossy embankments and orders all humans out of the way. L likes to have no people, just the building in the shot which is a little difficult in Venice with 1000s of people everywhere, she waits for the moment or gives them the Julie Bishop stare, meanwhile the bag carrier is waiting patiently on his designated spot, knowing he may be rewarded with an ice cream. Weather is great, low to mid 20s, blue skies and all of our accommodation so far has been very good. In Venice we are in a side street 2 mins walk from vaporetto (ferry) stop and 3 mins from the main railway station.Our hotel room ... read more
Blog 2: More Norway: Flam, Balestrand, the Fjords and Bergen A Statistic: Lorraine has taken 1400 photos in 5 days, at 30s per photo (including checking) that works out at about 12 hours-Guess who holds the camera bag We have found the advantage of being old, fat,bald and wrinkled. Several people have offered Dan senior discounts on travel and entry to museums, which of course he never rejects. Saving kronor is important when Pepper steak is $36 in Bjorn Average's cafe. Got up at sparrows, took filled rolls from brekkie into our backpacks and headed off to Oslo Sentral Stasjon (I kid you not) for an epic 6 hr train journey to Flam via Myrdal Lorraine clicked the very picturesque countryside along the way We saw spruce clad mountains vertical waterfalls rushing rivers and snowy ravines. ... read more
Blog 1: Oslo It took 34 hours from our door at Copa to the front desk at the Perminalen Hotel, there were no hassles just 3 airports , 3 flights and little drug induced zedding. We had 6 hours on middle leg Dag 1 (bit of Norwegian Oslo is a delightful small city of about 460 000 (pop of Norway=Sydney). We spent the day walking around and discovering it. It is also possibly the most expensive city in the world,a coffee or icecream $8, beer $12 and a large pizza $50. The locals love visiting other countries because everything is so cheap for them. Our hotel was excellent in a great location a couple of minutes walk from the fortress, small boat harbour and main stretch with all the sights.Its the right time to visit not ... read more
