Blogs from Switzerland, Europe - page 257

The past two days we have truly felt like legitimate backpackers. This is mostly because we unwittingly took a train ride and then a bus ride towards the middle of south Switzerland nowhere. We started to get a bit nervous when the bus continued to unload passengers at stops that still weren´t ours.....a gang of tan teenage boys in oversized sunglasses and white tees hopped off, followed by women with brown paper grocery bags overflowing with leafy vegetables and long loaves of bread and still, we sat and waited for our stop until we were the only ones left save a lone woman in a floral housecoat. Finally, we were there, wherever there was, neither of us knew. We hiked in the wrong direction through a random subdivision where women glanced up from there gardening ... read more

Hi all, Here are some more pictures for you. The first is of Annecy in France, super cute town. The next is of our lunch while watching the Tour de France go by in Le Grand Bornand. The third is of Chamonix, a little town in the Alps at the foot of Mont Blanc where we stayed yesterday. Today we completed the first part of our hike through Switzerland, crossing the border with France at the top of Col de Baume. It was a long one, but well worth it. We saw beautiful fields of flowers, snow capped mountains, and glaciers. We are staying in a tiny village called Trient, Switzerland at a hostel(picture included). Its kind of fun since its all hikers from the trail, plus they are feeding us fondue tonight for dinner ... read more

KanderstegI've had a fantastic first few weeks in Kandersteg so far. For those of you who don't know anything about it... It's a little village at 1200m up in the mountains in Switzerland, about 45min by train from Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It's a popular tourist destination for hiking & mountain climbing in the summertime. I'm proud to say that there is no Mc Donalds, KFC, Starbucks or any other disgusting American food chain! There are 350km of walking trails around the village, so there's plenty to do - unless you're a couch potato, then you couldn't pick a more boring place! The population is about 1500, but there are 25 hotels and there's an international scout centre. This year is the scout centres 100 year anniversary so it's busier than usual. At the start ... read more

Mountains and Chocolate and a place to finally relax! The drive from Florence to Lucerne was long, but beautiful once we got into Switzerland. I think I counted at least 9 waterfalls- and that was when I was looking for them for about an hour. One word to describe Switzerland- AMAZING! It was so beautiful! It was so nice to be in Lucerne, after 6 crazy long days in Itlay. Lucerne is a relatively small city on Lake Lucerne and it surrounded by the Swiss Alps. You couldn't ask for better scenery and the weather was gorgeous while we were there, but very hot! That night we arrived we just walked into town and had a relaxing drink at this cute bar. (I had a diet coke, or coke light, as they call it here, ... read more

Bonjour! I returned from Geneva, Switzerland, today after a really nice and relaxing picturesque weekend. Katie and I arrived in Geneva after a very strange, confusing, and sweltering hot ride to Geneva (It is too depressing to recount here) on Friday afternoon and headed first to the United Nations, where we saw a really big wooden chair with a missing leg. We later learned that it symbolizes land mines. Anyways, we toured the UN, picked up some goodies in the gift shop, and then headed back to the hotel. We later went walking around Lake Geneva and went in search for some affordable food that was not panninis (we are sick of panninis!). We couldn't find any place affordable, so we decided to say screw it and we headed for the Woodrow Wilson Hotel, the ... read more