Blogs from South-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 6

Despite the church bells ringing every 15 minutes outside our window, we managed to have a good nights sleep. We were both up early to catch the sunrise over the mountain range, and to see Mont Blanc, which had been shrouded by clouds. It was very beautiful, and well worth the loss of a little sleep. Breakfast was interesting. There was a machine that prepared hard boiled eggs. Ray seemed to be the only one that could get it right. John had 1/2 an egg by the time he finished peeling it, Diane could drink hers, and mine was just passable. We did however manage to fill our tummies with all the remaining great offerings. After gassing up in the next town, at about $7.00 per gallon, we headed off towards Chamonix, France. The roadway Is ... read more

After turning my back on the Thunersee (Friday 6thJuly) for what I assumed would be the last time, I took a train south to Kandersteg and immediately checked into the Hotel des Alpes near the centre of town. My reasons for choosing the Hotel des Alpes over the International Scout Centre (where I had stayed when I passed through Kandersteg twoyears ago) were three-fold: 1) I wouldn't have to walk for twenty minutes out of town to reach my accommodation, 2) I wouldn't have to share the breakfast buffet with a couple of hundred obnoxious teenagers each morning, and 3) I would have a guaranteed venue in which to watch all four World Cup quarter-finals, without even having to go outside... which, with the rain still bucketing down upon my arrival in Kandersteg, would have probably ... read more

Yes time for us to change countries - Switzerland here we come. The only stop today is in Geneva where we planned to picnic on the waters edge. Geneva is a welcome relief with a lot less smoking and a clean atmosphere, we found a park on the waterfront and parked in the underground car park. After lunch we decided to have a walk, Clarke went shopping, and Rose and I walked along the waterfront, looked at all the fancy cars coming and going at the Four Seasons, stopped and had an ice cream at Movenpicks, as big a rip off as Australia. After Geneva we headed to Etoy our home for the next 2 nights. A nice little town with friendly locals at the local pub and a nice apartment. Dinner tonight is the real ... read more

Ein neuer und hoffentlich langer und schöner Lebensabschnitt hat begonnen. Am Freitag habe ich mich von München nach Bern in der Schweiz begeben, wo ich morgen mein nächstes Projekt beginnen werde. Da habe ich auch gleich mein kleines aber schönes Apartment in der Altstadt bezogen. Dazu habe ich einen Stellplatz etwa 500m davon entfernt gemietet, da im Zentrum die Parkplätze rar sind. Ich glaube aber, dass ich mein Auto nur einmal pro Woche brauche. Gestern bin ich zum Bahnhof und habe für die täglichen Fahrten zum Kunden einen Swiss Pass beantragt und dafür meine erste Monatskarte gekauft. In einem Starbucks in der Passage habe ich auch nochmals einen Kaffee getrunken. Ich bin danach auch zu meinem Kunden gefahren, um den Standort schon mal kennen zu lernen. Danach bin ich wieder zurück und habe einen zweiten Supermarkt ... read more

Today we've got our eagerly awaited trip up to the Jungfraujoch. It's overcast but not cold. Our tour bus picks us up near the station outside the ubiquitous McDonald's, which somehow seems a bit incongruous in clean, green, culturally sophisticated Switzerland. Our guide introduces himself as Kid, and he's from Burma, so maybe it's going to be an incongruous day. His accent makes him a bit hard to understand, but he seems to be very well organised, and Issy says that he's got rave reviews on TripAdvisor. We head towards the town of Interlaken. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of tunnels along the route, including one five kilometre long monster. It seems, perhaps unsurprisingly, that Switzerland's very big on tunnels. We're told that the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which was opened in 2016, is the ... read more