Blogs from Switzerland, Europe - page 249

So I am in Switzerland, nestled at the base of the Alps. We can see the Matterhorn just outside of our hostel. So yeah, it's pretty freaking awesome! We've done some hiking, nothing too extreme because I have been a little under the weather and the high altitude isn't being nice to my lungs. But the views have been spectacular! There are mountains everywhere. And I must say that I like the weather here a lot more than Rome, it is like fall here but flowers are still in bloom! Today I did something I never thought I would do: I went paragliding! It was possibly the most amazing thing ever! Our jump point was about 1000 feet above the town. I could see for miles and miles, there wasn't a way I could look that ... read more

These are the only photos you'll ever see of me in such close proximity to a beer tap - you better treasure the memory of them! I hope I've earnt extra brownie points for representing NZ on this side of the globe - I've had a few "oh you're from NZ" along with the odd "what are the all blacks?"......to which I obviously replied "Only the best rugby team in the world".....and once somebody even responded with: "What's rugby?" First time to the City in 3 monthsAfter one day in Bern (the capital of Switzerland) following a 3 month stint in the mountains I was left dazed by all of the superficial advertising, the numerous "click clicks" of high heels pounding the pavement and the general hecticness of modern city life. Now I can understand why ... read more

After cruising through the Netherlands, with brief stops in Amsterdam and Maastrict, we landed in the warm arms of friends in Switzerland, and had an amazing hiking experience as well. Dave's childhood friend Camia is an architect who lives in Basel, and hooked us up with the required hiking equipment for our 3 day journey through the Jungfrau region. Leaving our luggage and instruments behind, we headed off to our starting point in the small mountain town of Lauterbrunnen(796 m). We proceeded up up and away through Wengen, Wengernalp, and finally to our first night sleeping hut in Eigergletscher (2320 m). The scenery was no less than spectacular at any given moment...there's nothing like a good strong mountain to put things in perspective for you. Day one took about 7 hours on foot. We stopped here ... read more

The best gifts are ones of no material, they are of surprise, they are from above, and they intend to make the heart filled with the riches that don´t fit inside a box with decorative wrapping papper. I experienced and discovered many riches as I found myself in the Switzerland Alps climbing up the side of a mountain and as my feet took me higher into this masterpeice the more my gift was unfolding. It just so happened that the staff from the school were taking a trip together in the Alps to discuss the upcoming year, which coincidentally happened to be my birthday and invited Josh and I to come along, cost free. So around 40 us piled into vehicles and one and a half hours later our feet were standing on a different countries ... read more

After Austria we had a quick stop over in Lichtenstein before making our way into Switzerland. We spent some time in Lucern where we wandered around town, checked out swiss army knives and had an awesome gelato by the river before we headed to Lauterbrunnen. We spent a whole day on Jungfrau mountain which was one of my favourite days of tour. We caught the cog railway to the top of the mountain, and were all feeling the cold because we all neglected to bring anything warmer than a light jumper on tour. There were amazing views from the top and after wandering through some ice passages and checking out ice sculptures we had a picnic lunch and hot chocolate. We spent the rest of the day out in the snow and i ended up just ... read more

Over past weekend I embarked on a 3 day, 3 night tour of a little piece of paradise in Europe. My planned itinerary included Zurich, Luzern, Interlaken, and Bern. I arrived in Zurich's main station at about 1 p.m. on Friday and so it began. Zurich at first struck me as a really busy business city, which it is to an extent, but the right spots are also very peaceful. The city is built around a river flowing out of lake Zurich, and I spent a lot of the time I was there within view of the river. There are multiple clocktowers and a larger church with two towers that are convenient landmarks in walking around. The older part of town close to the banks of the river had many old alleys which led to hidden ... read more