Advertisement
Published: December 15th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Another early start, we made the most of the hostel's free breakfast and pilfered a stack of food for the trip. The bus was the fullest we'd seen it and we worked out from the sign-up sheet that all on board were Aussies except us. We didn't hold it against them, especially when a group of them told us they loved Flight of the Concords, that show is huge, travellers all through Europe were singing its praises and rightly so. Can't wait for the second series.
With the Euro 08 football championship being played in Switzerland we experienced strict border control. Apparently they hardly ever stop people but I don't think it helped that our bus driver looked like Ozzy Osbourne. Anyway they must have thought we were drug smuggling because they got sniffer dogs on the bus and took all our passports. Finally we got the all clear and headed off.
Ok time for a recollection of Swiss stories. Back in the day the Romans and various other nationalities mounted attacks on Switzerland. The Swiss tribes bonded together and defended the alps. It was soon realised that it was a difficult place to attack so was basically left
alone. They therefore became very independent not needing help from outside countries. Switzerland is known for its banks and banking system, this is primarily why Switzerland has not joined the EU and so still have their own currency - Swiss Francs. Other well known preconceptions are correct; they sell stack loads of watches, Swiss army knives and chocolate. Perhaps for this last reason cows are held highly in the eyes of the Swiss. The countryside was just as I imagined, lush green fields, impressive mountain ranges and picturesque waterfalls. It is rather strange that with such a strong sense of cultural pride that Swiss don't have their own language. There's is a slight derivative of German. One thing I hadn't heard before is that they have a two hour siesta from 12 til 2. So the Swiss are healthy, wealthy and wise.
The best story we heard was about William Tell. I guess they only tell you the abridged child’s-only version of the story in NZ. What really happened is: The Austrians had taken control of the Swiss city of Altdorf where Tell was residing. An Austrian ruler named Hermann Gessler raised a pole in the village's square with
his hat on top and demanded that people bow before it. Tell walked passed and didn't bow, so was arrested. His punishment was execution, or he would be let off if he shot an apple off his son's head. As we all know he hit the apple, but what happened next is Gessler asked why Tell had another arrow in his quiver, Tell replied that if he had have missed his first shot and killed his son then he would have killed Gessler too. Gessler was super pissed off by this and had Tell imprisoned on an island on Lake Lucerne. A while later during a storm Tell escaped and later killed Gessler, this sparked a rebellion and lead to the formation of the Swiss confederation.
As we rolled into Bern we encountered a strange and funny moment. Holland was due to play Italy the next day in Bern as part of the Euro 08 football championship. Our bus happened to be painted orange and blue (the national colours of both teams) and had tainted windows. So naturally the crazed fans thought we were their countries football team. So there were hordes of fans screaming and cheering at our
bus taking photos and videos. We were all laughing our arses off in the bus. We pulled up in a secluded area as to not get mobbed by fans and dropped a few people off, we stupidly hadn't realised we'd be in Switzerland when the football was on so had accommodation booked in Lauterbrunnen in the alps.
Lauterbrunnen is in a glacier cut valley in the alps and has 72 waterfalls. It is truly stunning. We stayed at Camping Jungfrau, a campsite which was packed with Contiki and Busabout people so had a good atmosphere.
We chucked our gear in our cabin and went for a stroll. The local houses were all randomly perched on the hillside and like most houses in Switzerland are equipped with a bunker. We came across some mammoth slugs, I think they may have been eating toxic slime or something because they looked like they could eat a small dog.
For dinner we found a little pub and made sure we didn't sit at the round tables which in Swiss bars are reserved for locals. We had a few pints with our dinner and watched the football. At one stage Jez came
back from the toilet with a smile on his face, I wondered what he was so cheery for, he told me to go look for myself. I was intrigued so made a visit. In the urinal they had a goal with a little ball on it so you could pee the ball into the goal. That's the most Jez scored on the trip.
The bunker at the camping ground has been converted into a bar and that's where we spent our evening and Francs, mostly hanging out with an Aussie guy Mick and his sister who were on Busabout. The bunker door was about a foot thick, it'd be a good place to be if a war broke out. You'd have the two essentials - food and water, even if the food is chocolate and the water is a bar full of alcohol.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.179s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 27; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0894s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb