Into Interlaken

View of the mountains from Interlaken

After being granted another long weekend last week thanks to the graciousness of my supervisor at IOM and seeing how I had one day left to use on my Swiss Rail Student Pass, I decided to go explore Interlaken this past weekend. Initially the plan was to go with some friends, but unfortunately no one else could get last Friday off of work; side note: last Thursday was Eid-al-Fitr, the last day of Ramadan, which is an official UN holiday, and while IOM is not part of the UN, we still honor the day off! So, as the trip shaped up, I wound up doing some solo traveling, which was fine with me.

I left Geneva on Thursday around noon and after switching trains in Bern, I arrived in Interlaken shortly after 3 pm. The weather did not look that promising for the rest of the day, however I was determined to accomplish something more than just checking in to the hostel and finding a place for dinner. After dropping off my bags at the hostel I made my way to the funicular train for the ride up to Harder Kulm, the closest mountain to the town of Interlaken. As it turns out, I was joined by a large Muslim extended family who were out celebrating Eid and it made for a very crammed ride up but we all made do. Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the station at the top, the fog and cloud cover had already begun to roll in, so the view was obscured. This did make for some artsy photography time, which I tried to take full advantage of. I wandered around for about 30 minutes before the rain really began to fall and I decided that it was probably time to head back down to town and find a place for dinner. I ended up at a traditional Swiss restaurant in town, Les Alpes, and ended up sitting next to a nicer Australian couple that were on a tour of central Europe (remind you of anyone we might know?). I could picture Bubba and Zaida sitting next to me, being extremely nice and friendly to this solo traveler. I opted for a rosti for dinner and tried out the local brew, Rugen Brau, then headed back to the hostel to call it a night early since I had a full few days ahead of me.

View of Interlaken from Harder Kulm

The fog comes rolling in....

Unfortunately the weather hadn't lifted when I left the hostel on Friday morning but the good news is there is still plenty to see and do even if the weather isn't the best. Loosely following my parents itinerary for their few days in Interlaken, I took the train to Lauterbrunnen and from there a bus to the Trummelbach Falls, which are a series of waterfalls that are situated inside the mountain side and to explore them you weave your way in and out of the mountain. Very cool spot! After the Falls, I took the train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen which is another town a little higher up in the mountains. In Wengen I took the cable car up to a meadow land 2000 meters up in the mountains called Maanlichen. The cloud cover started to take over by the time I reached the top but I was still able to hike around for about 45 minutes and saw some huge heifers in the field! At one point I thought I was losing sight of the path I was on and decided that was as good an indication as any that I should head back down, which I did. I arrived back at the hostel, took a warm shower, and found a nice Thai joint for dinner, chicken satay and green curry with chicken, yum!

Inside Trummelbach Falls

The cows of Maanlichen

Saturday the weather finally cleared up and I had already marked the day for my trip to Jungfrau, which is the highest peak accessible by train in Europe. The ride there took close to 3 hours and involved multiple trains but the views were spectacular! As can be expected, Jungfrau was jam packed with tourists as far as the eye could see, but I still managed to make my way around and spent almost 2 hours up there. In the afternoon I chose to take the train back down to Kleine Scheidegg and then over to Grindelwald, which is on the other side of Interlaken. I took the gondola from the town of Grindelwald up to First, which is another peak area 2,700 meters in the mountains where I did some hiking for a few hours and even got chased by some mountain goats! Needless to say, hiking at that altitude wore me out and I was more than happy to take the gondola back down and then the train from Grindelwald back to Interlaken where I ended up at an Irish pub run by three Germans where I caught some of the U.S. Open (golf) action.

Hanging out at Jungfrau

View of the Eiger on the way down to Kleine Scheidegg

The First, straight out of Game of Thrones

Ram on!

On Sunday I finally had the opportunity to use up my last free day of travel with my Swiss Pass and enjoyed the comforts of Swiss Rail 1st class on my way back to Geneva. All in all I'm quite glad I chose to go explore Interlaken for a few days and I felt that I could have spent a month or more there, but that's for another trip.

It's hard for me to believe that I only have two more days of work and that I will be back in Minneapolis on Sunday. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies when you are busy and enjoying your weekends and your work! I am quite appreciative of the opportunity to explore Switzerland, a country which I had little exposure to prior to this summer and a country that is quite diverse. I'm already thinking about when I can come back to visit in the future (or work, I'm not picky).

What I'm listening to:

"Ziggy Stardust" by Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8sdsW93ThQ

"Cowgirl In The Sand" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pzeYdkSr8s

Bounding in Basel and Zig-Zagging Zurich

Looking out on the Grossmunster and the mountains in Zurich

I realize I've been a little delayed in my postings but I was out of town this past weekend and given that I am leaving Geneva in less than a week, things have been a little hectic as work as well as I try to wrap up my projects and tie up all loose ends. That being said, I have been able to see a good amount of Switzerland, including a whirlwind trip to Basel and Zurich with the Maxwell program two Fridays ago (August 2nd). I believe I mentioned that August 1st was Swiss National Day and with the Friday trip and this past weekend's travels I was somehow able to get two long weekends in a row.

We left for Basel early in the morning and arrived only to be greeted by the baking sun (the temperature reached 39 C, around 98 F) immediately upon setting foot outside the train station. Our first point of interest in Basel was the Munster cathedral, which was originally built on Roman foundations and has some incredible stained glass windows as well as a massive pipe organ.

Just a side note: any time I see a huge pipe organ in a cathedral I think of this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO7ZWfvCjBE&hd=1), how could you not?

The pipe organ in the Munster Cathedral

Anyways back to the Munster. The cathedral is situated on a hill above the Rhine river that flows through the city. Given the heat, there were hoards of people floating down the river with the current, using dry bags packed with their belongings as their flotation devices. The tombs of some Hapsburg royalty from the 15th century are housed here as well.

The Munster Cathedral in Basel

Stained glass in the Munster Cathedral

After the cathedral we wandered down some cobblestone streets in the old town of Basel down through a market to the city and canton hall, which is a beautiful building that has been amazingly restored. Murals adorn the walls of the building and it is also famous for a quote from the 16th century on the value of good governance.

Basel Canton and City Hall

Famous quote from 1501 on good governance

One of the many murals on the walls of the Basel City Hall

From the city hall most of us grabbed a quick bite at the market before making our way down to the Rhine to take a boat across and then hurry back to the train station to catch our train for Zurich, which is about 1 1/2 hours away.

Chet in his yellow jalopy

Upon arrival in Zurich, we took the tram to the Rathaus (city hall) which is situated right on the Limmat River. We proceeded to walk to the Grossmunster cathedral, where Ulrich Zwingli, another famous Reformationist, preached. Compared to the Munster in Basel, the Grossmunster was quite basic and you couldn't take pictures inside! Anyways, after visiting the cathedral we walked back down to the river and crossed over to the other bank and up to an area with spectacular views of the city and the mountains in the background. Given the weather and our desire for shade we decided to have an early dinner and we ended up at a traditional German/Swiss beer hall that was excellent. I had wienerschnitzel with authentic German potato salad (none of that mayo crap, it's mixed with mustard and vinegar) and a nice dunkle beer to wash it down. After dinner we ambled back to the train station to get our train back to Geneva.

View of the Grossmunster Cathedral from across the Limmat River

Zurich's Rathaus

The rest of the weekend was rather uneventful, although a few of us went to see V for Vendetta at the free outdoor cinema on Sunday night. For those that haven't seen the movie, here's a little clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQyqx1K495U&hd=1.

That's about all from here for now, Interlaken blog post coming soon!

What I'm listening to: I've made it to the middle of the letter R in my quest to listen to all the albums on my iPod in alphabetical order.

"Dr. Robert" by The Beatles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQK2ikupQB8&hd=1

"St. Peter's Day Festival" by Ra Ra Riot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDLbfh1IuFQ&hd=1

Montreux Musings, Bric-a-Broc, Gruyers Galavanting

Chateau de Chillon

Today is the Swiss National Day, which means that I don't have work today, so I thought what better way to spend my time then filling in my dedicated readers on the goings-on in my life over the past week. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was looking forward to meeting up with my parents in Montreux, which I was able to do this past weekend. I was fortunate enough to take off last Friday from work (and the two following Fridays!) to meet up with Mom and Dad in Montreux. However, the trip got off to a rather eventful start. After boarding the train at the airport in Geneva, we arrived at the main train station in Geneva, Gare Cornavin, where we were promptly stopped for 15 minutes without any explanation before it was announced that the train we were currently on would not be continuing on due to an accident further up along the same rail line. What happened next was ripped straight out of a classic comedy sketch. The conductors on the platform would tell us to go to one platform to wait for the inter-regional train to Lausanne, which was being re-routed due to the accident on the line that we were originally scheduled to go on. However, when verifying the information with the Information desk in the station, I was told to go back to my original platform, which didn't seem to make much sense to me. Eventually we were redirected to a third platform and finally after about an hour of confusion, I was finally able to board the train for Lausanne, where I had to transfer trains again before finally arriving in Montreux about 2 hours later than expected.

However, upon arrival, the day turned around. I met up with Mom and Dad at the hotel and after dropping my things off, we made our way via bus to Chateau de Chillon, a 13th century chateau that was built right on the edge of Lac Leman. The chateau was pretty impressive and is much larger than it appears as you are walking up. I decided to get a little artsy with my photography as you'll see in some of the photos below and after spending a few hours at the chateau, we decided to take the lake walk back to Montreux, even though the temperature outside was hovering around 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). I'm glad we opted for the lake walk however since the lake and the surrounding area is incredibly scenic and there was a really bizarre technology sculpture exhibit set up along the path. Of course, once we arrived back along Montreux's shoreline I had to take my obligatory picture with the Freddie Mercury statue. For those that are unaware, Queen had a recording studio in Montreux and the city was essentially Freddie's "home away from home." Given the heat outside, we retreated back to our hotel to clean up for dinner, which we ate at the foot of the old town in Montreux.

Closing in on Chateau de Chillon

Medieval bathroom graffiti, the author was on to something...

Trying to be artsy

A window look onto Lac Leman from the Chateau

We Are The Champions!

On Saturday, we enjoyed a nice breakfast on the hotel's terrace looking out on Lac Leman. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the train station to take the Golden Pass train through the mountains up to Broc, where the Cailler factory is located. We took the very touristy tour of the history of Cailler, which came complete with chocolate scented rooms. Of course the best part of the tour was the tasting room at the end. From Broc we took the train to Gruyeres, where we had lunch and then explored the town and the Chateau, which had some phenomenal views of the Swiss countryside. After finishing our tour around Gruyeres, we took the train back to Montreux, picked up our bags, and hopped back on the train back to Geneva, where we had dinner and I said my goodbyes to Mom and Dad.

Wait, how'd he get in there?

MMM...milk chocolate and hazelnut goodness!

The chocolates, all of them!

Chateau de Gruyeres

As far as the week ahead, this week was a shortened week due to today being Swiss National Day and since I was able to get tomorrow off, I have a long weekend, my first of two to start off August. It's hard to believe but I only have 8 days at work left! Tomorrow our group is going on our second whirlwind trip, this time to Basel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwYPCFfbhZM&hd=1) and Zurich. Look for a new post at the beginning of next week with my brief write up of those two cities.

That's about all from here.

What I'm listening to: The quite ironic tune "Alcohol" by the Kinks, Ray's pretty loaded on this track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuLzmupBTMs&hd=1