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

Parents Arrive and Ambling Around Annecy

Welcome back faithful readers of the blog (especially my wonderful girlfriend Brittany!). As many of you probably know, my parents arrived in Geneva last Friday and it has definitely been nice to see them and eat some pretty great food as well! On Saturday we went on a nice walking tour around Geneva including the area where I work and around the UN and then across the lake to Vielle Ville and the Parc des Eaux Vives before taking a mouette ride back across the lake. The weather was quite hot this past weekend so there were plenty of breaks in the shade along the way.

The Broken Chair sculpture across the street from the Palais des Nations

While we missed the Tour de France stage in Annecy on Saturday, we were still able to make it for a nice day trip on Sunday and I'm glad we chose to go. Annecy is very picturesque, especially the area around Lake Annecy, with the French Alps set in the background. We arrived just in time to partake in the traditional Sunday market for a while before sitting down for a delicious lunch of crêpes. After lunch we walked up to the medieval château of Annecy and then back down to the lake and back into town. It was quite a nice visit, even if the temperature was hovering around 35 Celsius for most of the day. Needless to say a gelato stop was in order before we left.

Sunday Market in Annecy

View of the Alps and Lac Annecy from the Chateau d'Annecy

The Palais de l'Isle

Lac Annecy

I am back at work for most of the week while Mom and Dad take a little tour around Switzerland and then I will meet up with them again this coming weekend in Montreux and from there we will go to Gruyères and possibly Broc as well for some cheese and chocolate before heading back to Geneva for their last night. It's hard for me to believe that I have less than a month left before I come home so I will try to get the most of my Swiss travel in over the next few weeks. The good news is that there are a few work holidays coming up which will be more accommodating for travel.

That's all for now.

What I'm listening to:
"Something In The Way" by Nirvana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNVu55ZyC-Y

Bern, Lucerne, and the Swiss Alps

Before I dive into the past two weeks of adventures I need to begin with what has been going on in Geneva lately. Now that we've hit the dog days of summer it is festival season in Geneva and there is plenty going on. One of the biggest festival attractions is the Ciné Transat, which is a film festival where the films shown are voted on by Geneva's residents and the winners are shown every Thursday - Sunday night outdoors at Parc de la Perle. It is actually really nice and scenic, especially if there is a cool breeze blowing in off the lake. I went to the opening night of the festival to see an old favorite of mine, The Goonies. For those who have not had the pleasure of seeing the movie, here is a little clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45_Xg3lto_I

And here they are today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOUXa5RERPQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oyc5tAhOGU

Overall just a great movie and a nice way to the spend the evening relaxing after work.

Two weekends ago my whole group went on a full day excursion with our Geneva program coordinator to Bern, Luzern, and then through the Swiss Alps. It was a whirlwind day that began bright and early at 7 am at Gare Cornavin, where we met up and caught the train to Bern. I should mention that we were all quite fortunate that our coordinator here is good friends with the former director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose son now works for the Swiss Tourism Board and was able to gift us student passes for the Swiss Rail entirely gratis. This was really a big deal since these passes are usually CHF 412 so we were quite lucky that this worked out. The only catch is that you have to travel on non-consecutive days, which is one reason why we crammed so many things into one day. Anyways, back to Bern...we arrived around 9 am and had a few hours to explore the city and see the administrative buildings where the Swiss National Council meets and then see parts of the old town and even the bears of Bern! You definitely get the sense that you are in the German speaking part of Switzerland and no longer in the French speaking part, mostly due to the architecture. Bern is also situated on the River Aare, which is crystal clear since it originates in the Bernese Alps and it makes for a very scenic setting for the city. Since we only had a few hours to sight see, we did not see too much, but it was nice to explore for a little bit.

The Swiss Confederation National Assembly building in Bern

Panorama view of Bern with the River Aare and the Bernese Alps in the distance

From Bern we got back on the train to go to Lucerne, which is about an hour east of Bern. Lucerne was also really nice and we had about an hour and a half to walk around the Chapel Bridge and the old town of Lucerne before we boarded a boat to cruise around Lake Lucerne. The lake is pristine and I wish I could have gone swimming, even if the water was frigid, since the temperature outside was quite hot. The origins of the Swiss Confederation are found on Lake Lucerne as it borders the three original cantons of Switzerland, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The town of Rütli is the traditional site of the founding of the Swiss Confederation and also borders the lake. Once we arrived on the other side of the lake, in a town called Flüelen we got back on a train, albeit one with a panoramic car this time, to head up to Göschenen, where we transferred onto the Matterhorn Gotthardbahn line for a ride through the Swiss Alps down to Brig. The Alps were pretty breathtaking from inside the train and I can only imagine what it is like outside the train. In Brig we caught a train back to Geneva and we arrived back a little after 11 pm, exhausted and worn out from a long day of touring.

The Chapel Bridge in Lucerne

View from the boat ride on Lake Lucerne

Another view of the Alps from Lake Lucerne

The insignia of the three original cantons of the Swiss Confederation in Rutli

View of the Alps from the Matterhorn Gotthardbahn train

A little trailer camp in the foothills of the Alps

Here's a rough map of our trip:
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Gen%C3%A8ve+Gare+Cornavin,+Rue+du+Mont-Blanc+30,+Gen%C3%A8ve,+Switzerland&daddr=Berne,+Switzerland+to:Lucerne+Railway+Station,+Lucerne,+Switzerland+to:Fl%C3%BCelen,+Switzerland+to:G%C3%B6schenen,+Switzerland+to:Brig,+Switzerland+to:Gen%C3%A8ve+Gare+Cornavin,+Rue+du+Mont-Blanc+30,+Gen%C3%A8ve,+Switzerland&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sll=46.209454,6.143167&sspn=0.00155,0.002411&geocode=FcoawQId1rddACFEFW1RBneLrynBWEVoJ2WMRzFEFW1RBneLrw%3BFVJezAIdgJhxACl3GzrUwDmORzGaZVcE_l9Vyw%3BFYztzQIdG85-ACHSb2j-p6ekkinJbsuHmPuPRzHSb2j-p6ekkg%3BFZ-jywIdC5eDACk5QRa5kESFRzGDMIClbRamWQ%3BFYgbyAId-v-CACmZfKrQOm6FRzEcnm6mfdiA2Q%3BFQSzwgIdC955ACmtMu-iLWmPRzF0v34tz53wfw%3BFcoawQId1rddACFEFW1RBneLrynBWEVoJ2WMRzFEFW1RBneLrw&oq=ge&mra=ltm&t=m&z=8

That's all from that weekend but you can be sure that another post will be up from this past weekend soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

What I'm listening to: "The Promise" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrhOBKXRU4Y

Une Weekend a Paris

La Republique statue commemorating the French Revolution

Don't worry blogosphere, I'm back online after a week of trying times with the John Knox Centre's Internet connection. The good news is I have the day off since our group is being briefed at the American mission this afternoon so I can take advantage of the decent connection this morning. So as most of you have probably discerned from the photos uploaded to Facebook, I was in Paris last weekend, for the first time, and it was a very nice weekend. I was able to take a long weekend which made it even nicer but even with the extra day I still did not get around to as many places as I'm sure many of you who have been there before were hoping, but rest assured this won't be my one and only time in Paris.

After work on Thursday I raced back to my room to grab my travel backpack, change, and head down to Gare Cornavin to catch the TGV to Paris. As it turns out I ended up sitting across from a man and his niece who were both American, from Oregon and Washington, and we had a nice conversation. He works for Barclay's Bank in their anti-money laundering department, which made me a little skeptical since I feel like Barclay's would be a bank that might be heavily involved in money laundering, but he was a friendly guy and it helped pass the time on the train. The train ride from Geneva to Paris is quite scenic and the French countryside was beautiful in the setting sun. I arrived in Paris at Gare de Lyon and after making my way to Gare du Nord, I was able to settle in at my hostel, St. Christopher's Inn...or not; unfortunately when I arrived the front desk staff kept on assigning me to beds that didn't exist in the rooms (to be fair there was some extensive remodeling happening, but still I just wanted to set my stuff down and take a quick shower) but finally they found a match and I took a load off, quickly showered and went out to meet up with the Gross boys. We hung out for an hour or so and then I raced back so I could make the last Metro train back to Gare du Nord.

On Friday Josh and I met up for cappuccinos in the 3rd arrondissement, where the Gross brothers' apartment was, and did some mid-morning people watching. After taking in the sights and sounds of the Rue de Bretagne for a little while we walked around and ended up back on the Rue de Bretagne at the Marche des Enfants Rouge (not sure about any Communist Party associations) for lunch. The market was bustling and had quite the variety of options to choose from. We settled on an Italian place (I know, I know...how could we eat Italian in France? It was quite good though.) and I had a nice plate of fried calamari and prawns and it was even better because they were lightly fried, like tempura redux. After lunch Josh and I went for a nice leisurely stroll along the canals with Josh stopping to sketch while I jotted down travel notes in my little flip notebook. It was an absolutely perfect day and we ended up walking from the 3rd arrondissement up to the 19th arrondissement to Parc de la Villette. Here's a view of the canals opening up:

Since we had spent all afternoon walking in the sun we decided to grab some shade at the park before exploring a little more. For those that don't know, Parc de la Villette is a fairly modern park in northeast Paris and there are all sorts of unique sculptures and other interesting areas within the park, including a recovered U-boat from WWII, a geo-sphere, and the Museum of Science and Industry. We were both pretty fatigued afterwards so we opted to take the Metro back. Later in the evening we met up for dinner back in the 3rd arrondissement at a seafood tapas bar. We split a dozen oysters, prawns, and sea snails and all were pretty fantastic. Following dinner we met up with some of Ben's friends from his time in Paris last summer and we went down to see Notre Dame at sunset and hung out along the Seine on the Ile de St. Louis (unfortunately I didn't bring my camera). After sharing a late night platter of fromage we went our separate ways for the night.

On Saturday I met up with the Gross boys at the same cafe in the 3rd arrondissement for un petit dejenuner although I have to say they really emphasized the "petit" aspect. From breakfast we headed towards the Louvre to the Museum of Modern Design to see an interior design exhibit of the Bouroulec brothers work where we rendez-voued with Ben's friends. The exhibit was really interesting and definitely something that Papa Jack would have truly enjoyed, below are some pictures.

After spending a few hours at the exhibit we made our way back to the Marche des Enfants Rouge for some lunch and Saturday's choice was sashimi which we took to go to have a picnic at a nearby park. Post-lunch we ended up walking around back towards the Seine around the Hotel de Ville neighborhood and continued to enjoy the glorious weather. It was another enjoyable afternoon but the evening was even better. Since it was the Gross brothers' last night and mine as well, we decided to have a nicer meal for dinner. We ended up at Cafe de Musee where we split an order of escargots to start and then I had a Bubba staple for my main course, hand cut beef tartare with thick cut fries. Dessert was even more spectacular; I had absinthe ice cream on top of a rhubarb compote served with walnut brittle on top. This dessert definitely had the most unique mix of flavors I think I've ever encountered in all my years of eating. Our post-dinner activities consisted of lounging along the canal taking in the sights and sounds of a lovely Saturday evening in Paris.

Since the Gross boys had a very early flight to catch on Sunday morning I was on my own, but that was just fine. After checking out I made my way up to Montmartre, which was absolutely lovely aside from the multitudes of tourist shops along the way. I walked up to the Cathedrale de St. Pierre and took the tour inside and I got the bonus perk of seeing services in action. Here's a photo of the cathedral:

And here's a view of Paris from the top of the steps:

From the cathedral I ended up wandering around Montmartre for a few more hours, eventually stopping at a cafe for lunch which was a starter of escargots, canard a l'ancien which was basically like a duck confit with potatoes and tomatoes (and was excellent) and some more fromage francaise for dessert. I made my way back to the hostel after lunch to pick up my bag and then head back to Gare de Lyon to get on the TGV back to Geneva.

All in all Paris was wonderful and while I didn't see the Eiffel Tower up close, make it into the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, or the Musee Pompedou, or stroll down the Champs Elysees, I know that I will be back again to go see all those sights and I definitely appreciated the side of Paris that I experienced over the weekend.

That's all for now, just waiting for my laundry to finish so I can have some clean clothes to wear to the U.S. mission.

What I'm listening to: 

"Song of A Baker" - The Small Faces

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jYgctXpajs

"Long Tall Sally" - Little Richard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxNSvFMkag