Blogs from South-East, Switzerland, Europe

Woke up to more rain. The clouds lift and descend around the mountains, teasing us with scenery, then taking it away. We had a wonderful breakfast, again, more food than you can eat. This hotel is incredible. It’s been completely remodeled, and apparently was done by an artisan. Upon checking out, we found the room was only $43 Eu each and that feast we had for dinner was $25 EU each. Unbelievable. I set the GPS for Arosa. There are numerous ways to get there from here, so I figured the GPS would send us the quickest way. Off we went, and within minutes we were climbing and switchbacking on the most scenic road I’ve ever seen. This was the heart of the Alps, and the mountains were incredible. Between the heavy rain and the clouds, ... read more

I entered Switzerland last Thursday after following Veloroute 15 along the German side of the Rhine for about fifteen kilometres after crossing from France to Neuenburg am Rhein. It was a lovely path with a gravel surface. The Rhine was flowing fast over rapids and around little stoney, forested islands. Cormorants flew up and down along it. Now I want to cycle along the Rhine. Then in the space of one kilometre or so I crossed the Rhine from Weil am Rhine (Germany) to Saint Louis (France) and then into Basel (Switzerland). It was late in the day so I pressed on to the campsite rather than explore Basel. Tadhg notes in his diary of the Flight "...and numerous boats afford a means of leaving it and getting to it (Basel) from Flanders and the country ... read more

My mum and I had booked a journey on panoramic trains in Switzerland. We had arrived in Basel a day before the actual journey would start and had spent an afternoon and a morning doing sightseeing in the city. At around noon on the 26thof August, the actual trip was going to start. We met the group we were going to be on the train journey with at Basel SBB station. The meeting point was on one of the platforms (platform 9, reminded me of Harry Potter, but of course we were in the wrong place, no platform 9 ¾; and the platform would have been invisible for muggles anyway…). There were 29 of us on the trip. Our friendly and knowledgeable tour guide was born and lives in the canton of Graubünden, where our journey ... read more

So forget planes, trains and automobiles- today has been a story of an executive car at 05:15 😮then a ✈️to Milan ; a bus to Milano Centrale train station to board a train and sit in it for over an hour with no air con in 34 degree heat before being told to get off; bought 2 more tickets for the next train to then be told the original one was leaving 2 hours late! Boarded train again and managed to get over the border into 🇨🇭where a bizarre customs check took place ( we didn’t even show our passports) and then a TrenItalia employee told us there was a fault with the train and we needed to get off 😉 Thankfully we only waited 10 minutes before a new train arrived and the conductor told ... read more

Nachdem ich die ganze Woche auf ntv, CNN und anderen Kanälen die Berichterstattung zum World Economic Forum in Davos mitbekommen habe, kam ich zu dem Entschluss, dieses Wochenende dorthin zu fahren. Da ich u.a. Politologie, Volkswirtschaftslehre und Betriebswirtschaftslehre studiert hatte und teilweise entsprechender Journalist werden wollte, ist diese Stadt und die dortige Veranstaltung sehr interessant für mich. Eigentlich könnten Uni oder Gymnasien Studienreisen dazu anbieten. Ursprünglich wollte ich an dem Tag zu meinem Bundeswehr-Standort Bad Reichenhall fahren, aber dort war auch stärkerer Schneefall angekündigt und deswegen werde ich dies um ein paar Wochen verschieben. Bei solchen Wetterverhältnissen kann es auf der Autobahn dorthin leicht zu Unfällen und Staus kommen. Während des Forums sind in dem Schweizer Skiort die Hotelpreise jenseits von gut und böse, aber von Samsta... read more