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Published: April 17th 2006
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Pitstop
The glorious view that we were stuck with for 2 hours from our train window Well, as I am writing this, we are safely off the continent, we arrived in Japan a few hours ago, but need to fill you all in on the fabulous last few days that we had in Europe.
We left Lyon around midday to travel (away from France... and the French) through Switzerland, and up to my brother Warren in Bavaria, Germany.
But the French had other ideas, chosing instead to stop our train in the sticks beside a pleasant mountan stream, a little less than one hour out of Lyon. From there we simply did not move for around 2 hours. Although they did not tell us what was happening, it seemed at the time as though some kind of accident had happened up track from where we were - when we passed the incident scene there were sheets of metal and wire everywhere...
Anyhoo, so we ended up at a very remote Swiss train station, where they changed us onto another train (first class on the TGV - not all bad I guess) using a series of seemingly complicated grunts and snorts. Then they finally got us to Geneva 2 hours late for our connecting train.
Snow at night
I love this camera! this was taken at 1 in the morning, with a 20 second shutter speed Thankfully, they also made doubly sure not to tell anybody anything, which added an element of great uncertainty, that saw us waking up Kristy's Mum, and my Mum... just so we could get a hold of Warren. We did have a few fun games on the train with Daniel though - so that was cool.
Luckilly the Swiss are not such a cruel race, and they directed us to the next train to St Gallen.
Anyway, long story short (although it seems a bit late for that) we got to St Gallen - where there was snow scattered all around, we then caught a transport to St Margaretten (on the Swiss border) and we got picked up by Warren in his pimp mobile and we met his girlfriend Christina!
Christina, by the way, is lovely - really really lovely! and Kristy thinks she's a spunk! (Hi Christina!)
By this stage it was close to midnight, and we had been travelling since midday, so we were pretty buggered. We had a few beers with Warren and Christina when we got to Oberstaufen (a trip which took us through the alps, from Switzerland, through a chunk or
Snow at not night
Same view the next morning - good bye snow! Austria, and then into Germany) and we called my mum for her birthday (hi mum!)
I mucked around with the SLR, and took some outstanding shots (I think) of the view from the Meyer's (Christina's parents) porch. Which was lucky, coz in the morning, most of the snow had gone.
It was just so good to go to sleep! and the house was so beautiful, and the drive was beautiful, and it was so great to see Warren and meet Christina! We all slept very well untill...
We had to get up. It was bad. I had to borrow some toothpicks so I could prise my eyes open 😊 All this changed though when we had some coffee, and pretzels, and we met Doris and Hugo (also lovely). There was lots of talking in german over breakfast, and I surprised myself by being able to understand most of it (well, the jist anyway) and after breakfast we headed off for a tour around Oberstaufen.
Okay... now with all the background out of the way... it was the BEST day! There was snow everywhere! Warren said that there had been snow since he got there at Christmas.
Meyers
Christina, Hugo, Doris, Warren and Susan & Kristy The day that we were there was like the change day, and it was all melting finally. There were massive banks of old icy snow all around the streets where the plow had piled the snow up all winter, and it was grubby but so cool!
We drove down towards the alps, and took so many photos out the window, we just couldn't believe what we were seeing, it was like a painting! Like, I had seen pictures of landscapes like this, but I dont think I ever comprehended that they were really real.
Oberstaufen and the area around it, is a skiing mecca, so there were lifts and cablecars everywhere. We had heaps of snow ball fights! It is also a mecca for nordic walking (see www.nordicwalking.com) basically walking, but with 'fitness poles' and you have to stretch often... popular with older people of an orange complexion. So that was funny to see.
Warren and Christina drove us all the way down to castle Neuschwanstein, built by a crazy king. It is the most photographed castle in the world, and it is the inspiration for the Disneyland castle. We did a bit a a wander up
Slippery when white...
The 2 sad acts that were wearing no grip skate shoes behind the castle, past this saw mill thing, but the trach was closed. I was very cool though, walking through snow 1.5 foot high, and exciting too, as I had only skate shoes with minimal grippage!
We finished the tour with a look around Oberstaufen, and a beer, a big beer, the kind of beer that is responsible for big beer bellies in germany because it has so much yeast in it.
So in an exraordinary 36 hours, we managed to cross the borders of France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.. we got stuck for hours in the middle of nowhereat least once.. we saw some of the most beautiful, amazing mountains that you will ever ever see anywhere - I am certain.. we threw at least fourty snowballs.. we ate German breakfast.. we drank German Beer.. we priced Nordic Walking sticks (at 150 Euro each I suggest you make sure you are serious about this challenging sport, before buying..) we took some of the best photos so far.. we slept.. we met the lovely Christine and her wonderful family.. we got back on other trains that led to Paris that evening (as I will tell you about in
the next blog) we did not stop! Notice the rings under our eyes!!!! Zzzz
We really should have taken the berocca with us because we were all absolutely exhausted at the end of the experience but it was absolutely, 100% worth all the drama.. it was amazing.
You all have to go to Southern Germany and see what we saw. You sereiously won't believe it until you see it.
Peace out chicks.
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Bek
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WOW
Love the photot's guys!!! Say hi to Meg for me and continue having a great time (don't bring home bird flu!!!!! ha ha ha hee hee)