Yesterday we ventured over to Interlaken once again, this time to take the Jungfraubahn up to Jungfrau mountain, the highest peak in Europe. Jungfrau is part of the three sister mountains - Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger. The peaks are known as the "Bernese Oberland" and were among the first high-altitude mountains in the Swiss Alps upon which man ever set foot. Monch is the highest of the peaks ... 13,475 feet above sea level. Up on the mountain is the Sphinx, 11,760 feet above sea level, where you can send the highest postcard in the world (unless you find a place [View Full Entry]

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Today I actually had to work (for an hour)! We had a bbq with the winter staff here at Leysin and then went on a hike. We planned on hiking part-way to Bernuse but found signs to "Prafunduz", the trail that we backed off of the other day because of the swarming bugs. This way, however, was pretty open paths so we decided to try again. Although it was a fairly steep climb up the mountain, we were surprised to find a restaurant and a bbq area overlooking Lake Lioson. We also found a great place to boulder! After rock climbing [View Full Entry]

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More Lake Neuchatel [View Full Entry]

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Today I started having mountain fever and decided to go on my own adventure. I got in my little manual car and headed down to Lake Neuchatel. I needed some time at the beach, swimming in real water, not hot springs. Lake Neuchatel is the only lake in Switzerland that is completely in Switzerland. I ended up in the medieval village of Estavayer-le-lac ... knicknamed "City of the Rose". The beach and the lake were incredible ... I was surrounded by murmuring french and spent the afternoon watching children trampolining into the water. I wandered around Estavayer, which was completely charm [View Full Entry]

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After we departed Vienna we headed to Salzburg ... the location of the Sound of Music. As this is one of my favorite movies, I was more than excited to go on a 4 hour tour of the highlights of the scenes. I saw the Gazebo, the palaces used in the film, where the children hung in the trees, the bridge they ran across and the lovely little village of Monsee, where the wedding took place. Here we met "Nik" ... a Malaysian guy who worked in Nottingham (oddly, since I was just there). We spent some time in Monsee with [View Full Entry]

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I went on my first hike this afternoon. It was not quite as intense as last year, when I had to get rescued off Mt. Bernuse. This was a steep rocky trail that led over to an amazing view of Lake Geneva. We attempted to hike Prafunda as well and ended up turning back after 10 minutes since the bugs were bascially swarming around us. As I have spent the last 3 days tanning on the rooftop of our hotel, bathing in hot springs, swimming in Lake Geneva, and hiking up a mountain, it is finally time for me to teach [View Full Entry]

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We decided to spend a day in Liechtenstein, a country of 35,000 people (which is less than the college I went to!) We had our hotel booked ahead of time ... the Martha Buehler in Triesenburg, Liechtenstein. Upon arrival we were greeted by Giovanni, a lovely little Italian man who ended up cooking us dinner. Before we knew it we were friends with a German named Rolph and various other locals were drinking with us on the terrace overlooking all of Switzerland below. Giovanni brought out the "Grappa" ... an Italian liquor ... and we all did shots of this slightly [View Full Entry]

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After TASIS I moved on to Vienna. At the airport my only choice was to rent a manual car. Not a problem, I can drive manual ... but on the Autobahn and up in the Alps, I was a bit distressed. We managed to get to the Imperial Riding School in Venice ... an amazing hotel with a bed like a cloud! We went around the city and saw it's many palaces and beautiful buildings. As I speak zero German, this became quite an interesting event. I only realized that I ate veal for dinner (and I despise veal ... or [View Full Entry]

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My fifth summer at TASIS finally came to a conclusion about 5 days ago. All went as planned - I pulled off getting 285 people onto two riverboats at Westminster Pier and actually got them all home. It was definitely the hardest "job" I have ever done. The kids all got off to their respective countries safely and I spent the day relaxing in the sun in my garden. We had our final faculty party and I left early in the morning without a lot of teary goodbyes. And then on to our Autobahn Adventure! [View Full Entry]

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As I normally find myself this time of the summer, I become awe struck at the entire process. We come here, take over, make our mark, pack up, and return home. I spent today cleaning out many years of "activities" materials. For the last couple of years I get some guys to move big boxes marked "Activities Office" into my office and have never had a real chance to sit down and look at it all. I found a box of rubber snakes, a letter dated 1982, a box of plaster of paris, a few blow up beach balls, a bunch [View Full Entry]

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