Blogs from South-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 13

Decided today to go to Lauterbrunnen and from there to Murren, which are jumping off points to the Swiss Alps and, in summer, to dozens of walking and biking tracks. Old friends, Diane and Lindsay Toole of Nelson, have been coming to this area for years and have walked the mountains for 100's of kilometres in that time. They had given us some pointers for stuff we could do in a short time hence the visit to Lauterbrunnen etc. It was a train from Interlaken to Wilderswil then a change to another train to Zweilutschinen then another change up to Lauterbrunnen with another change to a mountain railway train to Murren where the height ramps up a bit to 1645 metres or 5,400 feet. This was still not very high by Alps standards but an interesting ... read more

182147SEP2015 Hallo meine Freunde! I am wiped, but I did say I need to stay on top of this blog. And stay on top of it I will! Today was my first full, and only day, in Switzerland! What a day it was...both expensive, and breathtaking! I slept in without apology today. After the long day the day prior, I was okay with that! Waking around 8 AM, I pulled out the map the hotel desk man gave me the night prior, and planned my day. I really dialed into one particular thing. Seeing as I came to Switzerland to see the Alps, and in particular the Matterhorn, I decided on taking the train up to the summit of Gornergrat. The Gornergrat Railway is the highest open-air railway in Europe. The line opened in 1898, and ... read more

182009SEP2015 Bonjour and Hallo! I am a day late on this post. By the time I got to my hotel room last night I was extremely wiped. It was a long drive! I left Champigny-Sur-Marine around 7 AM, with everything packed and my GPS raring to go! I wish the GPS would have routed me around the Parisian suburbs, as it was rush hour time, and it had me going through like 3 different towns! I was in bumper to bumper for nearly 2 hours, not reaching the French motorway til nearly 9 AM. That was a little frustrating!!!! Top that with the fact it was raining cats and dogs...the WHOLE DRIVE! Ugh! It kind of put a damper on my plans (no pun intended). I had planned on cruising with the top down and my ... read more

On the British schooling system, the kids and I had 7 weeks holiday (the kids actually have 8 weeks), so we spent 6 weeks in Europe, as Murray was working from the Geneva office. This meant Murray got up at his regular time and went to work Monday-Friday, and came home approximately 6pm every evening. Just to clarify, Murray was not on holiday, but we made the most of the summer evenings and weekends. The kids and I enjoyed our apartment, till we were told off for being too loud, more on that later. We saw a bit of Geneva and explored a little around the Ferney area which is on the French side of the border where we were staying. Mostly we just slept in, rested and swam. I underestimated how tired I was from ... read more

If you have ever felt daunted by the idea of taking a road trip in a foreign land, such as Switzerland, you are not alone. At first, I didn't know what we were getting ourselves into! There weren't that many useful resources explaining step by step how to take a road trip around the Swiss mountain range. Most message boards warned against the idea of driving here, especially in the winter when the roads are covered in snow, so we really didn't know what to expect. I'm glad we listened to our intuition and did it anyway, because we got to experience the most magical land with unbelievable landscapes, guided by an innovative route system that is very driver-friendly. We even got a chance to jump off a mountain paragliding! The surprising fact about Switzerland is ... read more

With only a few hours to spend in Geneva we were keen to get started. We went to catch the bus and had the fun of trying to buy tickets from a machine that wasn't working. We got one ticket just before we had to get off and had paid for the other but didn't receive it. Chris had told us about the museum of the International Red Cross so we left the bus just outside the UN building and walked up the hill. Outside the museum was a set of statues called "The Petrified" which were really moving. They showed human figures wrapped in shrouds standing huddled together. Visitors were encouraged to interact with the statues and doing so was a strangely humanising experience. We went into the museum not sure what to expect. Getting ... read more