Switzerland and into germany

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Back to visit Claud again. She must have really been getting sick of us by now. We spent the next couple of days swimming in their cool clear lake and making yum swiss food and eating it. Had such a great time. Sibyl got home from england so we got to catch up with her as well.

And then we were off again. The plan was to go to Leuk because I had found some cool walks we could do from there, but when we arrived the place was so dead (because it was sunday) and the campground so far to walk with all our gear that we went back to Brig. The train ride to Brig was awesome, we were so high up on this mountain and you could look all the way down into the valley. Well the campsite here took a bit of finding as well and frustrating after we finally made it but were on the wrong side of the river and the nearest bridge was way back where we had come from. Then we ended up on the wrong side of a big fence looking longingly over the top so we had to back track again. Very cool campsite. We had the whole end bit to ourselves. In typical swiss fashion the river next to us was neatly walled in and controlled and overhead, two magnificent feats of enginering were bridges for cars and rail. The hill above us was covered in green grass and cows with bells and on the edges of the campsite were stands of trees. Our plans for walking were interupted when Steven got a bee sting and (because he is allergic) we had to spend all evening in the emergency hospital in Brig. Well Steven just went to sleep with all sorts of needles and tubes coming out of him and I had to run backwards and forwards to the campsite to sort out the insurance stuff.

Brig is a pretty cool town, with a castle and cobbled streets full of cafes. It even has traffic barrier posts on the end of the pedestrian street that dissapear into the ground when a bus comes.

After a few days of rest the swelling went down and we did get to go for a walk in the mountains. We splashed out and bought a gondola ticket up to BettmerAlp. Very cool, this is a perfect little swiss village halfway up the mountain, we cheated a bit and caught another smaller gondola up even higher to Bettmerhorn. We climbed for a pretty steep 10 minutes from the restarant where we had left the gondola and were at the top. From here the views were awesome, and we looked down onto the Aletsch glacier. We then spent all afternoon wandering around the tops and then walking back to Bettmeralp. It was so wierd to be right out there in the elements, (we were pretty high and should have been miles from anywhere) but know that there are restaurants and civilazation all over the mountain.

From Brig we went to Murten and got caught for the first time on the right train but on the wrong carrage but with a litle bit of back tracking we made it. The campground was packed and we were looking forward to swimming in the lake but the weather must be too good down here because the lake was full of green sludge. We took a cool boat trip across three lakes which are all joined by channels, and spent a day in Neuchatel. There was a group on the boat yodeling, which was very cultural, but after a while induced Steven to subtely put his head phones on and listen to Shihad. Oh yeah and Murten is famous for a type of cream cake which we had to try ofcourse. Very rich but yum.


On the way to Germany we stopped in Bern again. This time It was hot enough for Steven to brave swimming in the river so we got to float down together. So much fun. We left Bern heading for the Schwartz walder, the Black forest. It had been so hard to get Information on where to camp but we had a town name and followed our nose and instructions of some helpfull train attendents and ended up at Titisee, a beautfull (though touristy) lake town in the black forest. Actually my spanish came in usefull again on the way. When we asked for directions starting with the usual, "spachen sie english?",( do you speak english) the train officaIl we were asking said no, french, german, Italian or spanish. I think he was surprised that I answered in spanish and he put in a lot more effort than usual walking us right around the train station to find the right ticket office.

At Titisee we got lost and asked an old lady for directions. She gave us an evil stare and we were feeling like we shouldnt be here but the guy at the campground was so nice it made up for it. The campground was 45mins walk from the town and up a steep hill. The next day we bought huge bag of black cherries and a piece of black forest cake and headed up into the forest to go for a walk. We climbed for ages through the trees (some kind of conifer) felt a bit like walking around hamner forest but we had to keep reminding ourselves that it wasnt a plantation but a natural native forest. When we got back we discovered that there was no real supermarket in this town so decided to catch the train to the neighboring town to get some tea. There we ended up walking half way back to where we had come from to find the supermarket and had to decide if we would be better to carry on to the campground on foot or walk back in the opposite direction to the train. Gettting lost didn't sound very good this late in the afternoon so we walked back to the train and then another 45 mins to the campground. A long day.
It was in the black forest that we discovered delicious german baking. My favorite was bread, baked with custard on it and apple and rhubard covered in sweet crumble. We also found a shop that sold blueberrys, 500 grams for about 3 dollars.

Our last stop in germany was to visit a friend we had met in San Pedro Chile. With his intructions we negociated the busy Frankfurt station and arrived in Mainz- Kastel. The helpfull guys at the kebab shop at the train station told us where we could find a bank, an ice cream shop and how to catch a bus. Rene wasnt going to be home for ages so we had a german beer and a kebab there as well. Over the next few days we spend quite a lot of time in our friendly kebab shop. Was really cool to see Rene again, and he took us to the beach (of the river) for a drink. We rode bikes there, was so much fun. It was like a bar set up on the beach, great atmostphere and we had Radlers in tall glasses then tried to bike home.

The next day Rene had to work so we caught the train to Frankfurt Main station, but when we got off the train, the check in gates, pictures of planes and air hostesses made it seem a bit like an Airport. It was. We had got off at the wrong stop but took the oportunity to confirm our flights and find out where we would have to go. It was worth it just to catch the cool sky rail accross to the other side of the airport.
We took the train again to Frankfurt and asked for directions to a supermarket. Ended up walking through the red light district which just went on for miles with one dodgy supermarket in the middle. We finaly got out into a green park where steven cooked up lunch (while I paniked that some one would see the huge fireball around our cooker caused by cheap fuel.) It was so hot and humid that we found our selves hiding in every airconditioned shop that we could but when we came out of one shop it was absolutely pouring down. We joined the crowds of people that were hiding under the eaves of every shop and watched the sheets of rain and hail. Every now and again someone would do a mad dash agross the street or people would arrive soaking wet trying to fit into the shelter, holding bags over their heads or newspapers over pushchairs. We drank a lot of warm coke while we waited because there just happend to be a coke promo van sheltering under the same bit of roof as us. I whished it was iced tea. When the rain stopped an hour or so later there was knee deep water in the streets. As we splashed down the street we heard shouting and running as people ran for cover just down the street then it hit us. We got soaked that time. After the rain it got unbearably hot again and we headed for our kebab shop, where steven helped them wrestle their umbrellas in as another storm hit and almost blew their tables onto the train tracks. Steven got drenched but we got a free arabic tea out of it! That night it was fine again and Rene took us for a biking tour of Mainz. Definetly the best way to see a town of old cobbled streets and cathedrals.

It was great to be staying with locals there, it just made the expeience. Before we left we made the most of german bakery, though at times it was hard to find wasp free food. Apparently the wasp problem was due to the extra hot season and is not always that bad, but it made it impossible to eat out side if you didnt want a mouthfull of wasps. Then the day came that we were flying out. By this time I was getting a bit homesick so was pretty excited. You wouldn't believe it but this time we were headed to the Airport but managed to get off in the Main Frankfurt train station. It wasn't untill after we had got lost there that we realized and luckly could catch a train back to the airport. Not too many hitches with checking in and then we were flying off to Cairns to meet mum and dad.

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