Blogs from North-East, Switzerland, Europe - page 3

You know what's a weird little travel thing I love? Sitting on the train platform when the high speed trains go by - I love the gust of wind, I love the sound (whistle mixed with a slight clickity-clack). Anyway, short one today. I didn't "plan" today I simply went into the city to wander around for a bit. I overheard some people talking about the "Festival" yesterday so I'm like k cool, day planned lol. I got off at the main station and just wandered down towards the waterfront and sure enough - Festival! Turns out it's a big deal - like it only happens once every 3 years for 2 days kind of big deal. Basically the entire core is shut down with rides, food stalls, music stages, and games. There were also dragon ... read more

We get up and walk to the station. We’re going to visit Zurich, which is 10 miles to the north. I purchase 3 return tickets which are so expensive I wonder briefly if I’ve accidentally bought the train. The nice lady in the ticket office explains that she’s giving us tickets to Uetliberg because they’re the same price as Zurich and Uetliberg is a nice place to visit in the mountains. We spend the morning in Zurich, walking along the river to the Fraumünster and over the bridge to the Grossmünster churches then visit the Kunsthaus. It’s a really good art gallery with lots of works by artists the old man has heard of. The rest of my family are philistines; while I wander round enjoying the art, they sit on a bench checking their social ... read more

Renata and I left Thursday night on our way to South Africa. We had an 11 hour stopover in Zurich before we had to continue onto our flight to Durban, South Africa. So we thought why not explore Zurich in the meantime. Getting from the airport to Zurich was easy. We just had to take the train from the Airport station Zurich Flughafen to the main station Zurich Hauptbahnhof. Bahnhofstrasse Street After we arrived in downtown Zurich, we walked down the famous Bahnhofstrasse street. Bahnhofstrasse is Zurich's main downtown streets known for being one of the world's most expensive and exclusive shopping areas. At the end of the street you hit Burliplatz where there is a weekly market on Friday from 5-11am. It was interesting to check out the European market and see the flowers and ... read more

Once again we have another lovely sunny and calm day although we expect it to change for tomorrow. This is therefore our last chance to experience the mountains around here before heading home. There is a lake called Klontal in a valley near Glarus and it looks lovely in the pictures so it would be a shame to leave this valley without a visit. We could get the train and then bus up there but since it is a Sunday, Marc could take us up in the car and we could walk along the lake track. We packed a picnic and set off with the backpack for Sophia and packs for us. It was a good theory but fell down in that Sophia was having nothing to do with the backpack and let the entire lake ... read more

Winter is coming. The mornings here start at 3 degrees until the sun arrives and it gets warm. Since it was going to be another gloriously clear and sunny day we wanted to stay in the mountains and enjoy them while we could. Near here is the valley to a small town called Elm where we had stayed during our across Switzerland hike from the Foo Pass. Irvy took us by car up the Sernf valley which is another long and narrow glacial valley with picturesque farms dotting the landscape until you reach Elm at the head. While she took a day off from us to spend time at home, we got the cable way to high up on the mountain to 2300m where the land is more sloping but still steepish. This level throughout Switzerland ... read more