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Hello again from Swissyland!
Hope everyone reading this is well and happy…
Please can I just ask that you let me know if you enjoy the blogs (and if you don’t…). If you do enjoy them please tell your friends and family – I really would like to get as many ‘hits’ as possible, and any feedback is always welcome. Well that’s the begging over with.
There’s been a lot going on but I was going to attempt to keep this blog brief-ish… the last two have been huge and I know not everyone has the time to spare… Basically though it’s not gonna happen - sorry.
Interlaken held its second annual Fire Fighter festival, they have displays where the fire fighters do all sorts of fire fighter type things and then they have a big parade through the town… Fire Fighters come from all over the world to take part – The Yanks and Italians are generally hot and the Brits are noticeably absent (or maybe not invited…?) and the best part about the parade is one of the old fire engines dispenses BEER instead of water – it’s great, a nice smile can
Jungfraujoch
see the bit right in the cloud... that's where we were headed! easily get you two pints! Despite lousy weather the parade appeared bigger and better than last year... And I’m absolutely positive that the attraction is the vast array of different fire engines as opposed to the talent… Some of which is decidedly questionable…
Steven (my colleague) and I have been criss-crossing Switzerland, mostly in the name of resort orientation… but a fab trip to St Moritz had a dual purpose – we went to see our buddy Rachael for lunch! She took the Bernina Express up from Italy and by all accounts it’s a stunning trip, Steven and I endured a total of over 12 hours on 12 different trains but you know what – this is Switzerland the trains are clean, comfortable, quiet and they run on time…? So it was worth it! We too had amazing scenery and best of all we got to spend a couple of hours in St Moritz with Rachael. How cool is it to say ‘oh, just popping to St Moritz for lunch…’. Next stop Lago di Como to visit her – cannot wait!
Steven and I have also made some new friends on our travels… I was pretty much adopted/kidnapped
Montreux
Statue of the late great Freddie Mercury by a couple of crazy American women – Pat and Margot hope you reach Amsterdam safely and enjoy your grand European adventure! And Steven’s Aussie friends were great – we went up the Jungfraujoch with them – not intentionally that’s just how it worked out! Don’t you just love meeting up with random peeps with whom you have a common interest… namely to see the world!
Let me tell you a little about the Jungfraujoch – it’s promoted as the ‘Top of Europe’ and at 3454metres above sea level, is pretty high… the number of visitors it attracts annually is astounding and the percentage of the different nationalities is surprising… As is the amount of peeps who flake out at that altitude… You reach the Jungfraujoch on a series of mountain trains, changing at various points en-route, including Kleine Scheidegg, where those of you old enough to know who Clint Eastwood is, may or may not know, is where the movie The Eiger Sanction was filmed… Anyway, the final 45 minutes of the journey to the Top of Europe is inside the mountains and someone has kindly put windows into the north face of the Eiger so there are a couple of stops for amazing photo opportunities. Once you reach the Jungfraujoch there is a high speed elevator to take you to the Sphinx viewing platform, from this point you can see the longest glacier in Europe (on a clear day… in fact on a clear day you can as far as Italy and Germany – yesterday was not a clear day…) there’s also the ice palace which is beautiful with loads of ice sculptures and then… you go out to play in the snow! Or we would have if it hadn’t been a total white out with winds of 70kmph and -7c! Freezing just isn’t a big enough word to describe how cold it was but on a sunny day it’s fantastic! The trains run every half an hour and although it gets crowded there’s room for everyone, the gift shops and restaurants are similar prices to the rest of Switzerland so pretty expensive but at least you know you’re not getting exceptionally ripped off in a tourist trap!
We’ve also visited Kandersteg and had another sneaky trip to Montreux – I take back everything I’ve said about Montreux having better weather – it was chilly and overcast the day we went… but still lovely and it was great to see Freddie (Mercury - in statue form you understand...). Did I tell you that we went to the chocolate show in Schuh… if I did I apologise now because I’m going to tell you about it again – in shorthand… A nice little man tells you how to make chocolate and then he lets you eat it! The end. That’s all you need to know really – you get to eat chocolate…
Finally… The other summer reps are back – YAY – good to have you all back even though I haven’t seen much of you all – hope to see you all soon in the Tells for a catch up. This Thursday I think is a date…?
So as I write this in Wengen, where, if you remember, I am living for the ‘summer’, it is pelting it down with snow - big snow!! Please think of me trying to get up heart-attack hill later tonight after watching the World Ice Hockey Finals in Interlaken and after a couple of drinks… Obviously we’re cheering on Switzerland!! They whooped the USA last night so tonight we’re hoping they’re gonna beat Sweden…
Take care everyone – thanks for reading – stay safe and happy travelling
Love Tallulah x
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rosemarymonteith
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Sound like you had brilliant time Barbara, love reading your Blogs even if do not comment all the time