Blogs from Switzerland, Europe - page 308

Dag 1 dag na aankomst Adres: Hotel Val Sinestra CH-7554 Sent Zwitserland 0041-818663105 Poeh hé, vandaag zijn we van het hotel naar Zuort gelopen (dorp - 2 huizen). Hier hebben even iets gedronken. Hierna hebben we de ravage gezien die een lawine kan aanrichten in het lawinedorp. Door de regenval en overstromingen van de afgelopen dagen zijn grote delen van de paden verwoest. Dus lopen we in de bedding van de rivier, waar nu bijna geen water in staat? Nadat we heel veel koeien hebben gezien, jaja mama-koe en papa-stier (hé luc). Zijn we verder gelopen naar Vná, daar hebben we weer iets gedronken. Maar nu lijkt het een kleine tocht, maar we hebben van 0940u tot 1615u gelopen, hierbij hebben we twee maal 300 m gestegen en gedaald. ’s Avonds stuk vlees en aardappels, van ... read more

Today we took the Glacier Express from Zermatt to....Chur. Thought I was going to say St. Moritz, didn't you? Well, we bought the GE add on to our Swiss rail pass for a hefty additional fee and our understanding was that it wouldn't require us to use 1 of our 5 rail pass days. The GE ticket we had said Zermatt to Disentis which I questioned from the start, but the Europe Rail folks said it would get us all the way to St. Moritz. When the train stopped in Disentis (about halfway along the 8.5 hour route), a new crew took over representing a different rail company. The conductor came through to check tickets again and requested our ticket to St. Moritz. We showed him what we had and he said - you guessed it ... read more

Today we conquered the Matterhorn! Well, we didn't summit it per se, but did take the cable car up to the ski area for fantastic views of the peaks and Zermatt in the valley below. The pictures really do tell the tale better than I can. Words like magestic and awesome spring to mind... We were up at about 9000 feet so it was very cold and windy up there. Cheryl and I immediately got altitude headaches but the guys seemed to be fine. Another example of our finely tuned female senses. We decided to walk the second stage back down to the village via a field of sheep and a forest of changing leaves. I tried my hand at yodeling...didn't get quite the echo effect I was going for but fun nevertheless! ... read more

The weather has been getting colder with clouds every day for the past week. im starting to think about buying a scarf but i think i can hold out for a bit longer. Last night i met Sam at the train station at around 8 o'clock. he's the first friend to have visited me so i was pretty excited to see him. he was just travelling through with his Aunt so he was only here for the night and half the day this morning but it was still fun to hang out with a familiar face. i had to show them around and realized that i dont know exactly where everything is yet, but i did manage to find a store that sold him a switchblade and a colothing retailer for some other essentials. After he ... read more

Firstly as we left Austria we entered into one of the smallest countries in the world, Lichtenstein. It is only 6km from west to east, so it was only going to be a short stop, as we dropped into the capital city of Vaduz. It proved to be an expensive lunch as we sat in the town directly below Schloss Vaduz, before some of us got our passports stamped and stocked up on some supermarket supplies. On the bus once more, charged with Swiss francs (which I would say is the best looking money I have come across along with our own Aussie dollars) we travelled onwards through Switzerland on our way to Lucerne. We stopped in and made our way to purchase some Swiss paraphenalia, mainly Swiss Army knives and Swiss watches, which I ... read more