Blogs from North-East, Switzerland, Europe - page 4

We packed up, had our normal hostel breakfast, and hit the road again, this time heading to Zurich, Switzerland. This time not only did we not have many tunnels, and no long ones, but about half the trip we beside the beautiful Lake Zurich. My wife was trying to take photos every few minutes! As usual, the roads were good and there was little traffic, so we arrived in Zurich by a little after 10am. Unlike the last two times, we had no problems with the route the car's navigation system came up with, but this time the hostel was on a back street with no apparent parking nearby. We ended up going back across the bridge to a place we'd passed with metered parking and a few open spots. We pulled into one, put 3 ... read more

After some discussion last night on possibilities for today, we decided to visit Bad Ragaz and the Tamina Gorge. What a great choice it was. Bad Ragaz is a town in St Gallen Canton near the border of the eastern Graubünden Canton. It is a Spa and Resort with supposedly restorative waters from a spring from up the Tamina Gorge. A bus takes you up into the gorge to a large building and chapel and we walked from there into the gorge. What a revelation this was after the Gorge we visited the other day in GaPa. This gorge is narrow too, but has huge, straight up soaring rock walls for 100s of meters. Above you can see where the water has eaten away at the limestone to form a crevasse to the daylight. Way below, ... read more

After a day of travelling yesterday, today is catchup and 'get into the time zone' day. It is fabulous having warm, sunny days again and here it has cooled down to a nice 24 degrees, which after our winter actually feels very warm. However, never say goodbye to rain, because the next few days look as if we will have showers. So much for escaping Taranaki rain! After taking 'No More Jetlag' tablets every few hours for a day, we seem to have adjusted to the new time zone really well. Whether these things really work or it's all in our heads, who would know? What we do know is that we rarely have a problem with travelling long distances across time zones. It certainly helps too, to have a niece and her family living here ... read more

Letzten Freitag ist auch die 10. Woche in Bern erfolgreich zu Ende gegangen. An dem Tag habe ich auch mein Auto von der Werkstatt geholt und die Probleme sind danach nicht mehr aufgetreten. Am Samstag bin ich dann zum ersten Mal in die Spezialitätenabteilung eines Berner Kaufhauses und habe dort eingekauft. Dort gibt es eine grosse Auswahl an verschiedenen Leckereien. Nachmittags war dann auch das erste Pokalspiel des FC Bayern in der neuen Saison. Am Sonntag habe ich mir den Ausflug zum Rheinfall nach Schaffhausen vorgenommen. Dort war ich anscheinend schon mal als Kind und 2002 während eines Kurzeinsatzes in der Schweiz habe ich schon einmal darüber nachgedacht, dort nochmals vorbei zu sehen. Also die Fahrt verlief diesmal problemlos und von der Schnellstrasse waren es nur wenige Meter zum Parkplatz an der Südseite des Rheinfalls. Allerdings ... read more

Fantastic. The weather has settled to a bright blue gorgeousness and we are in the best possible location to enjoy it. The backdrop to campsite is the beautiful Mount Rigi and today is the day to get up and there enjoy its offerings. No Kisbee needed as it was only a step down to the lakeside where we jumped aboard the red train on the cog railway to take us to the top of the mountain. Great timing, arrived at the station just a couple of minutes before the train, which runs hourly, departed and got prime window seats in a open sided carriage. Stunning views of the lake and surroundings as we climbed higher and higher up Mount Rigi. Nearer the top there are three or four station stopping points. One is the changeover for ... read more