The last four days have been amazing. I went on a tour of Switzerland and finished things off with a swim in the Aare. Here's the breakdown.
Luzern: A place where a bunch of rich old Americans and Brits go on boat tours around the lake. Luzern was my first stop of my little three day tour. A really nice city placed on one of the northern points of Lake Luzern. I spent a few hours walking around the city before heading to Zurich. The last picture is of Mount Pilatus. In medieval times, it was believed that dragons with healing powers lived in the rugged clefts and crevices of the mountain.
Zurich: Where every man must wear a suit. I walked around the city for about 6 hours. University of Zurich was cool along with a museum I found nearby. Other than some other neat looking buildings, I didn't think Zurich was anything to write home about (wait...). It's probably because I appreciate cities like Luzern that are more about nature than business and society. A short story about my time in the train station- I was looking real cool sitting on a bench with my sunglasses on. Took a drink of water and somehow got water all down the front of my shirt. Two girls saw me and couldn't stop from laughing. Swiss girls 1 - American boy 0.
awesome
There was a festival starting on the weekend so that explains the Ferris wheel.
This big guy was in the zoology museum I happened to come across. Everything was in German, but I think it's a giant sloth.
Scuol: an ideal place to have a summer home (maybe in my future...actually saw a house for sale for 1.5 million franks...probably not in my future). I stayed at Patric and Vera's flat that they had rented for the week for the two nights I was there. They said it was old like a grandma's house, but I thought it was nice and cozy. I had my own room and when I walked in, I noticed a jar of peanut butter on the pillow of the bed- a welcoming present from Vera.
Friday
Friday was the absolute perfect Swiss day. Hiking, Swiss food, more hiking, water tasting, run, Swiss dinner which included Rösti, cheese tasting, and a glass of wine. A long day, but wow. Life at its finest.
At an elevation of ~2400m.
Down in a valley on the way back.
Restaurant where we stopped for frappes.
One of the weirdest things. In the old town of Scuol there are different types of drinking fountains. As you can see from the color, the two faucets on this fountain do not pour out the same water. The far one is normal, fresh water from the mountains. The other is water that has a higher concentration of iron AND it's carbonated. Carbonated straight from the spring! It was still perfectly clear and didn't taste too bad.
Saturday
Hit a bit of a speed bump. More like a roadblock on my train ride to Zermatt. Turns out I was lied to by the Zurich ticket office. A lady I spoke with there said it would be free to travel from Scuol to Zermatt with my Eurail pass. The ticket checker on the train thought otherwise, and after conversing with her it came down to her saying, "You need to either pay or get off at the next stop." I was going to have to pay a lot so I got off at the next stop. I still had to pay 9 franks to get back to the train station where I have free travel again. My train ride started at 5:27am. It was now quarter to 10 and I didn't want to just go back to Bern. I made a spontaneous decision to head to Geneva where I would spend an hour checking out the city and then head to Montreux until the latest train would get me back to Bern by midnight. And I did just that.
Geneva: windy weather = no Jet d'Eau (one of the largest fountains in the world). It was disappointing but the Coop Beach Tour was happening so at least I got to watch some beach volleyball. The city definitely had a French feel to it. Way different than Bern.
Where the fountain is suppose to be.
Got a free Coop hat! Coop is a grocery store. There's Coop banks too.
Montreux: The most hippy place in Switzerland. The Montreux Jazz Festival was going on so there were shops, street musicians, and a lot of people all along the lake shore. I walked down to some rocks and ate dinner, then headed to the Castle. The entire path to the Castle was beautiful. The sun was setting which enhanced the scenery to a whole nother level. A band started playing after sunset. They had an earthy tone that I really liked. I would have loved to stay all night but my train left at 10:18pm to get me back to Bern at 11:56pm. Montreux is definitely one of my favorite cities.
Chillon Castle
Sunday
Back in Bern. Planned to use the day to recover from all of the traveling from my Swiss tour, but ended up going to the Aare River with Joel. It was about 80 degrees here today. On the way to the river we walked pass the Clock Tower so I could see it for the first time. It was built in the 13th century. Pretty cool. We dropped off our stuff at the public pools then walked down to Eichholz (a park on the river). We jumped into the river and floated back to the public pools (about a mile downstream). The water was a frigid 62 degrees. Once your arms and legs went numb, it was nice. Floating down a river that is as fast as the Aare is an experience of its own. We hung out at the public pools for awhile to catch some rays and then headed back to Bumpliz. Capped off a weekend to remember.
Called Zytglogge
The park where the public pools are with the capital building in the background.
No comments:
Post a Comment