Beautiful Switzerland and Reasonably Warm London

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Hello everyone!

I'm finally down to my last two countries. I can't believe how quickly these 12 weeks have gone; it has been incredible!

My next stop after Rome was Switzerland, and it was THE BEST! My favourite place so far, I really loved it. The only problem was that you had to sell a kidney in order to buy food, it was that expensive. On the plus side, Lindt chocolate was actually cheaper than at home, so guess what Kelly and I stocked up on!

We spent 4 days in Geneva, which I have wanted to visit for years, and it did not disappoint. On the first day, we took a train to the Nestle Calliers factory where we went on a tour and spent quite a lot of time in their free chocolate tasting room. Unfortunatley, we went a bit too hard too fast, so we didn't fit in quite as much free chocolate as we would have liked (Kelly nearly made herself sick) but it was reeeelly nice. The next day we went to the United Nations and went on a tour- it was fabulous, a bit like being back in school, but being the little nerdlet that I am, I loved it! Did everyone know that every single nation is represented in the UN, except for Vatican City and Palestine? There's your useless fact for the day!

We also visited the Red Cross Museum, and saw the huge Jet d'eau water fountain and the flower clock (though the time was wrong- not quite sure which time it was set to), then the next day went on a cruise on Lake Geneva and climbed St Pierre Cathedral for nice views of Geneva. Overall, Geneva was wonderful; it was so clean and pretty and surrounded by huge mountains on every side. The people were really nice, and it was very multi-cultural with many different languages being spoken.

The next stop after Geneva was Interlaken, which is a small town 3 hours from Geneva by train that is known for its adventure sports. On the first night that we were there, Kelly went Zorbing, which is where you're strapped into a big inflatable ball and you get rolled down a hill. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it was hilarious to watch! Kelly had a great time; she said the second roll was much better than the first, and was "only a little bit terrifying".

The next day, I was determined to find a fun extreme sport too, cos we were planning to go white-water rafting but the white waters weren't running very well. So instead, we went... para-gliding!! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I wasn't even nervous, which was the most amazing thing! It was tandem (of course) and we had in-flight photos taken, so i have photographic proof that I soared over Interlaken at 800m. Later in the day, we visited Jungfraujoch, which is the highest peak in Europe that you can actually visit (3500m above sea level). Having just spent 4 weeks in summer, though, I didn't have very many warm clothes, so I froze, especially when we went outside on the glacier and on the outdoor observation deck. We also visited the Ice Palace, which was made entirely of ice and was very cool with lots of ice statues.

Our last stop has been London. We're staying in Kelly's auntie's apartment while she is in Australia, and it is in a fabulous location in Kensignton just a few minutes walk from Gloucester Road Tube station. It's been really good to have a bit more space after so long in hostels. We've been having a really nice and relaxing time so far, as we've both been here before and did most of the major sight-seeing last time. We've caught up on the essentials though- Starbuck's Brownies, Boots Meal Deals, Thornton's fudge, Harrods, Camden Road markets (including the CyberDog shop), and Portobello Road Market. And they have Krispy Kreme doughnuts here, who knew?! That was a nice surprise!

Last Friday was the anniversary of Diana's death, so we were on our way to visit the Diana Memorial Fountain (which wasn't built last time we were here) when we passed the Gaurd Chapel were Diana's memorial service was being held. We hung around for a while, and a huge crowd built up as it got closer to noon, then all these famous people started arriving, and finally... the Royal Family! William and Harry were the first ones, and I got a lovely photo of the back of Harry's head and one of William's eye! I also got a great one of the back of Charles' head, Anne's head, Edward's bald spot, Beatrice and Eugenie's hats, and... Queenie from the front! I finally worked out how to time the photo to get their face thru the bars of the massive fence. We didn't stay for the service, but the people that we were standing with were shown on TV heaps. If only we stayed, we could have been TV stars! Oh well.

So now it's two days before I leave to go home. It is a bit sad that my holiday is all over, but 12 weeks is quite long enough for a holiday and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. Unfortunately, I won't be able to catch up with most of you, cos I leave three days after I get back to go to Port Lincoln for 6 weeks of General Surgery. I'm sure you will all be disappointed to hear, but I won't be keeping up my blog while I'm in Port Lincoln, though I'm sure my time there will be just as enthralling as Europe! Hope this Blog Experience hasn't been too tedious for you all, thank you for all you emails and messages, and I'll see you when I'm back from Lincoln!

Bye til then!
Love from Rikki

PS A Big Happy Birthday to the latest members of the Birthday Club, Karina and David! Hope you guys had nice days! And Happy Father's Day Dad!

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