Well, here I am sitting at the departure lounge at Heathrow Airport - my time in Europe is basically over.
It was really really horrible to say bye to Daniel and Andrew (and Sarah) - my nephews. We had a coffee and Andrew was just lying in my arms yabbering away saying baby stuff and Daniel was being a 2 2/3 year old full of energy! They are most cool.
Actually, the worstest thing about holidays is the saying bye bye to people knowing that I won't be able to pop in for a cuppa next week, or to just do stuff like sitting on a bus and a train with my nephew. It was very cool yesterday when we went to Bluewater - a big shopping complex (like really big - it went on and on and on and on) and on the way back Daniel and I caught a bus, then a train - and it was just pretty cool. He's a very cool little kid.
What else did I get up to? Can't remember if I wrote about Scotland - and I guess I shouldn't be so lazy and should really go back and look at earlier entries of blogs but lets say:
Helen and Mark are really cool. Fantastic hosts - my friends really are the bestest. Their daughter Nicole is just an absolute honey!!
We did lots - like shopping, the Falkirk Wheel, Stirling Castle (which is much more important than Edinburgh Castle - Stirling was at a river - can't remember the name - that had one crossing right below the castle and it split the Scottish lowlands from the highlands - and whoever controlled the castle controled Scotland. Edinburgh just sits on a hill full of tourists, the Tussochs (national park), a cruise on Lake Katrine on a real steam boat - which is going to stop using coal next year so it's possibly the last time I will ever actually be able to go on a working coal fired steam boat, Loch Lomond, more food, Glasgow, kilt shops, very most excellent curry shops (NZ curry maybe isn't as good - but it's not that bad!), recipes for paneer and lots of coffees and hanging out with my friends.
Scottish people are very cool and very friendly! Not sure though if they understand my accent!! He he!
Then it was time to say bye - again - it's not fun - and on the train to Glasgow and then down to London. Virgin trains are ok, the service is great - but really the French and Swiss trains just rock - the French cause they're so fast as so smooth, the Swiss because the views are just out there!!
London was most excellent - playing with nephews, having dinner with Marcus (yah for the gin and the indian food carrier things - the name of which has slipped my mind) and Nick and Deb (Deb - come back home!! - and say hi to Caro!) in Brick Lane - good curry (well I thought so - although apparently it's difficult to know where in Brick Lane does good stuff) but a run down area, some drugged out guy giving me grief but fab fab. It's so cool how, having not seen people for years, we just fall back into a patter of catching up - yah, I'm telling you, my friends rock!
Then the last day here yesterday, getting slowly out of bed (Lee - ta so much for your hospitality - actually, ta to everyone for their hospitality!), getting picked up by Sarah and Daniel, then over to Bluewater - train rides both ways - and then dinner and packing - with a slight hiccup as I forgot I had domestic internal flights in Thailand so not sure what to do with the extra luggage I was going to bring back for my other new nephew due to be born in August. Something will work out.
Then this morning it was up and journeys to Heathrow - passing a smash up on the M25 - ouch. And then coffee, cuddles and bye byes to my nephews and sister.
And now here, waiting for my plane to Helsinki and then more waits and then another flight to Bangkok and then another flight to Phuket - it's actually, let me think - from check in to arrival at Phuket is about 24 hours to Phuket. From home London to hotel Patong Beach though adds another 3 hours - so about 27 hours in total. OMG - will I sleep at all!! Eeek!
Anyway, I think I'll go find the loo (too much info but there you go), a quick bite and then off to my flight.
Bye London. Bye Scotland. Bye Europe....
Friday, 27 July 2007
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Almost time to go...
A very quick update.
Yep, I forgot things in Berlin.
Yep, I had a stunning time in Glasgow - the weirdest thing is that I'm not going to be able to pop around to Helen and Mark's next week to say hi and have a cuppa.
London is great - food, friends, hanging with my nephews (who are just so so cool), baggage questions - don't ask.
Tomorrow though, it's over and Thailand here I come....
:) and :( - I'll miss my nephews - they are very very cool!!
Yep, I forgot things in Berlin.
Yep, I had a stunning time in Glasgow - the weirdest thing is that I'm not going to be able to pop around to Helen and Mark's next week to say hi and have a cuppa.
London is great - food, friends, hanging with my nephews (who are just so so cool), baggage questions - don't ask.
Tomorrow though, it's over and Thailand here I come....
:) and :( - I'll miss my nephews - they are very very cool!!
Saturday, 21 July 2007
The high road...
I've taken the high road and am now happily esconsced in Glasgow in Scotland - having sadly left Germany and Ji behind....
Berlin - what a fantastically brilliant city in so many ways.
One of the things I am discovering about this blog is that, after a couple of days have passed, it's hard to remember all the things which have happened - because so much happens. It's kind've amazing how much you can pack into a day!!
Berlin was hot - in so many many ways... But temperature wise it was hot. Yah - some serious heat at last (although there was some on earlier parts of the trip I guess!!) - and this seemed to make the days, the people and the place more relaxed and langued - except my sister who didn't like the heat at all...
I did all kinds of things in Berlin - and as a suggestion for anyone who is going there - do one of the walking tours first - it'll give you a brilliant overview and insight into the city and where things are. Also, stay in Mitte - the historical part seems to mostly be in the old East Berlin.
The walking tour showed me all kinds of interesting things: where Berlin started (did you know that in Germany they pick the starting date of a city by the oldest document/reference that has been found to the city - so in Berlin it's something like 1239 - even if it's been around longer than that), one of the last beach bars, how to tell old East Berlin from West Berlin (generally the trams, the pre-fab buildings and pedestrian crossing lights (although they are now been used in West Berlin), the museum island, the monument to war (with a very powerful sculpture in it of a mother holding her dead son), Humboldt University where Marx studied, Einstein taught and 29 Noble Prize winners have come from, the prettiest square in Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie (where the guard post is not the original and a fence had to be put up to stop the woman who owns the Checkpoint Charlie museum from putting up crosses - she's been voted the most embarrassing Berliner for a few years running apparently), the SS torture prison - which I went back to, Hitler's bunker where he died (it's now marked by a sign which was totally unexpected when it went up), the Wall (there's not much left now), the Holocaust memorial (which is very very must go see), the Brandenburg Gate, the hotel where the gloved one dangled his baby, the Reichstag (the dome of which was closed for cleaning). Woven into the tour was a stunningly informative commentary - so very worth it.
One of the things that struck me about Berlin is that it's really easy to forget that not only is there the whole history of East/West Berlin but there was the Nazis before hand.
What else do I do in Berlin? Well, visited the gay museum (which was ok'ish - mostly gay history about Berlin, although it did have Maplethorpes's photo of William Burroughs standing in a William Tell pose (which is how Burroughs, out of it on LSD, had previously tried with his wife - unfortunately, he missed the apple). Had currywurst - I came, I currywursted, I left. More food. The DDR museum (on the history of East Berlin) - interesting but didn't really play up how the DDR was the most perfect police state to date, it did mention how things weren't available, but how there was employment, everyone had what they needed (do you really need a plasma screen?). It didn't, however, explore the psychology of what it must have been like to have been in East Berlin seeing the west and freedom but not being able to get there.
Which reminds me of the holocaust memorial - it is amazing - huge blocks on uneven ground that you walk through and it gives a sense of disorientation. But, controversial as it's only to the jews - what about the gays, the gypsies, the others murdered? So Berlin has agreed to two more memorials - one for the gays and the other for the gypsies. This has got Berliners asking - when is enough enough? The other controversy is that the anti-graffiti coating on the blocks is made by some company that has some connection to IG Farben - which made zyklon b which was the gas used to gas the victims of the holocaust. I also thought it ironic that the memorial is diagonally across the road from Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide.
Anyway, the history of East/West Berlin is fascinating - you've got to wonder at the psyche of people who have to wall in people so that they can't leave. You've also got to wonder about the wall in Berlin - and how that's what the jews are doing in Israel to the Palestinians. Yet the jews don't seem to get that they are creating a ghetto - which is what they were put in 60 years ago...
There was more food in Berlin, the Altes Museum seeing things which were thousands of years old (Greek and Roman), Nephretiti (or however that's spelt), amazing old papyrus, chocolate, cakes, meandering, wandering, looking, checking out, caiprihinias (which are great when it's hot - addicted to the brown sugar I think) and then it was leaving....
So on Friday it was a last wander around and then out to Berlin Tegel airport to catch the plane to Stansted and then to Glasgow. Sweet. Checked in sweet. Had a last chat to Ji. Sweet. Said goodbye to Ji. Sad. Passed through security. Searched. Again. But sweet. Then waited. And waited. And waited. And waited for Air Berlin to fly the spare part needed from Munich to Berlin to fix the plane. And waited. And three hours late left Berlin. Arrived in London. Told that we were booked on Easy Jet the next day and had a hotel for the night. Opps. Didn't they tell us in Berlin? Opps. No trains or other planes, Heathrow had been shut, the weather had been abysmal earlier in the day. No real problems for us (it was the Hilton) but meant I couldn't see Helen and Mark, and meet Nicole, until the next day (today) and for the people travelling to weddings in Glasgow it was a major bummer. The weather though in the UK has been abysmal and the mechanical fault in Berlin was just life...
So a hotel for the night where I got reminded how expensive things are in pounds. Sure, 7 dollars for a glass of wine in a restaurant in NZ is cheap - 7 pounds though convered to about $20 dollars is like ouch. Or 3 pounds for a cup of coffee (about $9NZ) in the restaurant.. Double ouch.
So be it though.
This morning is was EasyJet to Glagow - interesting, most cramped seats ever, a scramble to get on the plane (no allocated seating) - but we got here safely. To be met by Mark. Who told us how two weeks ago there was a terrorist attack at Glasgow airport! Go figure.
And finally I got to see my friend Helen and meet her beautiful daugher Nicole! Yah!
I've just been called for food - so better go!!
Yah!
ps. Just a thought - the pedestrian lights here in Glasgow have a seconds countdown so you know how long before they turn green and you can cross the road. Most excellent... :)
Berlin - what a fantastically brilliant city in so many ways.
One of the things I am discovering about this blog is that, after a couple of days have passed, it's hard to remember all the things which have happened - because so much happens. It's kind've amazing how much you can pack into a day!!
Berlin was hot - in so many many ways... But temperature wise it was hot. Yah - some serious heat at last (although there was some on earlier parts of the trip I guess!!) - and this seemed to make the days, the people and the place more relaxed and langued - except my sister who didn't like the heat at all...
I did all kinds of things in Berlin - and as a suggestion for anyone who is going there - do one of the walking tours first - it'll give you a brilliant overview and insight into the city and where things are. Also, stay in Mitte - the historical part seems to mostly be in the old East Berlin.
The walking tour showed me all kinds of interesting things: where Berlin started (did you know that in Germany they pick the starting date of a city by the oldest document/reference that has been found to the city - so in Berlin it's something like 1239 - even if it's been around longer than that), one of the last beach bars, how to tell old East Berlin from West Berlin (generally the trams, the pre-fab buildings and pedestrian crossing lights (although they are now been used in West Berlin), the museum island, the monument to war (with a very powerful sculpture in it of a mother holding her dead son), Humboldt University where Marx studied, Einstein taught and 29 Noble Prize winners have come from, the prettiest square in Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie (where the guard post is not the original and a fence had to be put up to stop the woman who owns the Checkpoint Charlie museum from putting up crosses - she's been voted the most embarrassing Berliner for a few years running apparently), the SS torture prison - which I went back to, Hitler's bunker where he died (it's now marked by a sign which was totally unexpected when it went up), the Wall (there's not much left now), the Holocaust memorial (which is very very must go see), the Brandenburg Gate, the hotel where the gloved one dangled his baby, the Reichstag (the dome of which was closed for cleaning). Woven into the tour was a stunningly informative commentary - so very worth it.
One of the things that struck me about Berlin is that it's really easy to forget that not only is there the whole history of East/West Berlin but there was the Nazis before hand.
What else do I do in Berlin? Well, visited the gay museum (which was ok'ish - mostly gay history about Berlin, although it did have Maplethorpes's photo of William Burroughs standing in a William Tell pose (which is how Burroughs, out of it on LSD, had previously tried with his wife - unfortunately, he missed the apple). Had currywurst - I came, I currywursted, I left. More food. The DDR museum (on the history of East Berlin) - interesting but didn't really play up how the DDR was the most perfect police state to date, it did mention how things weren't available, but how there was employment, everyone had what they needed (do you really need a plasma screen?). It didn't, however, explore the psychology of what it must have been like to have been in East Berlin seeing the west and freedom but not being able to get there.
Which reminds me of the holocaust memorial - it is amazing - huge blocks on uneven ground that you walk through and it gives a sense of disorientation. But, controversial as it's only to the jews - what about the gays, the gypsies, the others murdered? So Berlin has agreed to two more memorials - one for the gays and the other for the gypsies. This has got Berliners asking - when is enough enough? The other controversy is that the anti-graffiti coating on the blocks is made by some company that has some connection to IG Farben - which made zyklon b which was the gas used to gas the victims of the holocaust. I also thought it ironic that the memorial is diagonally across the road from Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide.
Anyway, the history of East/West Berlin is fascinating - you've got to wonder at the psyche of people who have to wall in people so that they can't leave. You've also got to wonder about the wall in Berlin - and how that's what the jews are doing in Israel to the Palestinians. Yet the jews don't seem to get that they are creating a ghetto - which is what they were put in 60 years ago...
There was more food in Berlin, the Altes Museum seeing things which were thousands of years old (Greek and Roman), Nephretiti (or however that's spelt), amazing old papyrus, chocolate, cakes, meandering, wandering, looking, checking out, caiprihinias (which are great when it's hot - addicted to the brown sugar I think) and then it was leaving....
So on Friday it was a last wander around and then out to Berlin Tegel airport to catch the plane to Stansted and then to Glasgow. Sweet. Checked in sweet. Had a last chat to Ji. Sweet. Said goodbye to Ji. Sad. Passed through security. Searched. Again. But sweet. Then waited. And waited. And waited. And waited for Air Berlin to fly the spare part needed from Munich to Berlin to fix the plane. And waited. And three hours late left Berlin. Arrived in London. Told that we were booked on Easy Jet the next day and had a hotel for the night. Opps. Didn't they tell us in Berlin? Opps. No trains or other planes, Heathrow had been shut, the weather had been abysmal earlier in the day. No real problems for us (it was the Hilton) but meant I couldn't see Helen and Mark, and meet Nicole, until the next day (today) and for the people travelling to weddings in Glasgow it was a major bummer. The weather though in the UK has been abysmal and the mechanical fault in Berlin was just life...
So a hotel for the night where I got reminded how expensive things are in pounds. Sure, 7 dollars for a glass of wine in a restaurant in NZ is cheap - 7 pounds though convered to about $20 dollars is like ouch. Or 3 pounds for a cup of coffee (about $9NZ) in the restaurant.. Double ouch.
So be it though.
This morning is was EasyJet to Glagow - interesting, most cramped seats ever, a scramble to get on the plane (no allocated seating) - but we got here safely. To be met by Mark. Who told us how two weeks ago there was a terrorist attack at Glasgow airport! Go figure.
And finally I got to see my friend Helen and meet her beautiful daugher Nicole! Yah!
I've just been called for food - so better go!!
Yah!
ps. Just a thought - the pedestrian lights here in Glasgow have a seconds countdown so you know how long before they turn green and you can cross the road. Most excellent... :)
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Berlin...
A quick note as it's very late here, about 1.38am, I've just been to dinner, it's as hot as, the keyboard is a german keyboard but has been set to an english keyboard so it's hard to type on and yes....
With super sadness it was bye bye to Craig and Marcel in Switzerland - what amazing hosts, what an amazing country and what an amazing time.
Then, just to be quick and as much for my memory as anything:
Zurich airport is big, getting through security a major, got patted down by a very nice Swiss but had to remove my shoes.
Flight and then in Berlin. Yah.
Off the plane and on to a bus to drive us - and I kid you not - two bus lengths to the door to where we collected our bags. It was bizarre. Then into Berlin - with Ji waiting for us at the airport.
To the hotel - which doesn't like giving out towels and, unfortunately doesn't have airconditioning in 37 degree heat but it's a huge double room suite for a hotel which was an apartment for a family in an older East German style apartment block in the old East Berlin. It's true that the East architecture was very different from the West.
A walk around, found the info centre, the Brandenburg Gate, buses, trains, dinner at a fab restaurant (with the summer mossies which are out in force here), the trams, Hagen Daaz, sleep, a thunder/lightening storm, breakfast, trains, shopping (some stuff is really cheap - a 1gig SD memory card is 10 euro, about $19NZ - and that's a Panasonic branded one, coffee by the nude statutes (you have to see them - it seems to me that Germans are much more comfortable with their bodies, the Tiergarten (which was lovely, particularly the nude mens part), the Helmut Newtown museum (which was brilliant), the new Sony Centre and finding the lego exhibition (which at about $27 NZ entrance I passed on), my sister who took a major trip and is now blue with bruises, lunch at the same place as the day before but this time at 5.30pm (we lost our sense of time), dinner with Ji and her friends at an Austrian restaurant (which was great!!) and now home.
Oh, and Ji got me a prepay card so I could txt her (my NZ vodafone number wont txt her - go figure) but it wouldn't work, and then we took it back to get it working, but now I can't txt america and in Germany you need show your passport and sign a contract to get a prepay card (and I think Ji also said you need to be a resident) - none of this walking in, handing over cash and getting a card.
Berlin is a great city though, it's just amazing to see what's happening here and to see the difference between the old East and West. I was also lucky enough that one of Ji's friends was an Easter Berliner - he was about 11 when they pulled the wall down so he was really interesting to speak to. Particularly as his dad was a major in the East German army.
I've also learned to say a bottle of water in German - useless trivia but there you.
Later as sleep calls and more to do tomorrow. Yah!
ps I don't miss the bad weather there but I miss you all!!
With super sadness it was bye bye to Craig and Marcel in Switzerland - what amazing hosts, what an amazing country and what an amazing time.
Then, just to be quick and as much for my memory as anything:
Zurich airport is big, getting through security a major, got patted down by a very nice Swiss but had to remove my shoes.
Flight and then in Berlin. Yah.
Off the plane and on to a bus to drive us - and I kid you not - two bus lengths to the door to where we collected our bags. It was bizarre. Then into Berlin - with Ji waiting for us at the airport.
To the hotel - which doesn't like giving out towels and, unfortunately doesn't have airconditioning in 37 degree heat but it's a huge double room suite for a hotel which was an apartment for a family in an older East German style apartment block in the old East Berlin. It's true that the East architecture was very different from the West.
A walk around, found the info centre, the Brandenburg Gate, buses, trains, dinner at a fab restaurant (with the summer mossies which are out in force here), the trams, Hagen Daaz, sleep, a thunder/lightening storm, breakfast, trains, shopping (some stuff is really cheap - a 1gig SD memory card is 10 euro, about $19NZ - and that's a Panasonic branded one, coffee by the nude statutes (you have to see them - it seems to me that Germans are much more comfortable with their bodies, the Tiergarten (which was lovely, particularly the nude mens part), the Helmut Newtown museum (which was brilliant), the new Sony Centre and finding the lego exhibition (which at about $27 NZ entrance I passed on), my sister who took a major trip and is now blue with bruises, lunch at the same place as the day before but this time at 5.30pm (we lost our sense of time), dinner with Ji and her friends at an Austrian restaurant (which was great!!) and now home.
Oh, and Ji got me a prepay card so I could txt her (my NZ vodafone number wont txt her - go figure) but it wouldn't work, and then we took it back to get it working, but now I can't txt america and in Germany you need show your passport and sign a contract to get a prepay card (and I think Ji also said you need to be a resident) - none of this walking in, handing over cash and getting a card.
Berlin is a great city though, it's just amazing to see what's happening here and to see the difference between the old East and West. I was also lucky enough that one of Ji's friends was an Easter Berliner - he was about 11 when they pulled the wall down so he was really interesting to speak to. Particularly as his dad was a major in the East German army.
I've also learned to say a bottle of water in German - useless trivia but there you.
Later as sleep calls and more to do tomorrow. Yah!
ps I don't miss the bad weather there but I miss you all!!
Sunday, 15 July 2007
Almost time to go...
Maye I'm just getting a little lazy - funny, what's new - but it seems easier to direct you to a website than to carry on waxing lyrically about what I've been up to!!
Jungfraujoch from Friday - wow.
Yesterday was up Mt Pilatus. Wow. Have a look at:
http://www.pilatus.ch/default-n7-sE.html
It started with far too much food - again. Craig and Marcel are truly fantastic hosts.
Then a wander down to the jetty where we caught the boat to Alpnachstad, where we arrived with 10 minutes to spare but with uncharacteristic Swiss inefficiency thee was only one person selling tickets so all the trains left but they didn't tell us so herded us into a pen to wait for the next train in a half hour. They didn't tell us this, nor could we get out of the pen, nor buy any water. Not good. Then on the train up (which is the steepest clog railway in the world) they let some guy stand up at the front so block the view looking up. But it's an icredibly impressive ride up and the view from the top astounding. No snow like on Jungfraujoch but just wow.
Hung out there for a bit, wandered around and then caught the cablecar down (they put gondolas and cablecars here in places that you would've thought a mountain goat couldn't go, let alone human beings!!) to where we met Craig, Marcel, Pascal and Antoine for a barbee on the mountain side. Most very very cool. The birds on the adventure course gave a nice distraction, particularly the blackbird (an in joke - you had to be there) and the go-kart ride was just fantastic - a total hoot with very nice guys helping you in before you skeltered down the mountain (about 1.3km I think - trying not to kill yourself!!
Then it was more cablecars down the mountain until we reached the bottom, a bus back into town (Lucerne, Mt Pilatus sits above Lucerne) and a bus back into Lucerne. From there we jumped on a train, decided we weren't sure that the train went to Stansstad, jumped off the train, Nic went to the loo, I went to the Coop (to buy soap - being clean is a good thing!!) where I stood in the queue for ages and then the train back to Craig and Marcel's.
That evening (ie yesterday) Craig, Marcel and I went for a walk along Lake Lucerne, on a road cut into the hill, which was fake as it used to house a military base (the rock face looks real but it's actually fake) until we came to a very cool hotel which had a bar on the waterfront where we sat drinking beer (Craig was drinking milk serum - dodgy) and watched fireworks whilst having a fab goss.
Today it was another scrumptious brunch followed by the boys going into Lucerne, walking along the waterfront, completely bathed in sunlight with beautiful people just meandering around enjoying the day, surrounded of course by moutains and water.... We had an ice-coffee on a boat moored on the water's edge. There was an upstairs and a downstairs deck on the boat. Downstairs was the restaurant. Upstairs was the bar. We sat in the bar (open air) and I ordered a coffee with milk. Slight laugh from the waitress. Craig then spoke in German, a coffee with milk - a latté. Waitress then said sorry, couldn't do that, only in the restaurant. Go figure, so I ordered a diet coke (known as Coke Light) here. Then another waitress came over with the drinks. Craig asked her what was what. It transpires that I could have got a black coffee upstairs but not a white coffee, that had to be gotten downstairs. Apparently they couldn't take my order, get someone downstairs at the coffee machine to make the coffee and bring it upstairs. Go figure. And, remember, over here they have machines where you press a button and the coffee comes out - they don't espress it like in Wellington. So, all it meant was someone pressing a button on a machine and bringing the cup upstairs - but nope, couldn't be done. In fairness though to the bar, it was warm, it was sunny, the view was to die for and the iced-coffee really nice!!
Then a walk through the old town, a look at the lion monument (to commemorate the swiss who died and/or were guillotined in France with King Louise XVI during the revolution.
Coming back, Craig and Marcel drove me around the other way (ie completely around Lake Lucerne), through sweet little towns, past the Rigi, through the town where Willaim Tell killed the Austrian guy and then through a 9km tunnel back home. In Switzerland, when there is a moutain in the way, they either go up it in trains/gondolas or through it with tunnels. NZ is seriously an underresourced country.
A snooze, a muck about on the net, more food and my time in Switzerland is nearly over....
What a stunning country though - pick me for living here!!
ps. If anyone from the Glamazons is reading this, we've started talking about bringing a show over here and showing the Swiss what it's all about!!
Jungfraujoch from Friday - wow.
Yesterday was up Mt Pilatus. Wow. Have a look at:
http://www.pilatus.ch/default-n7-sE.html
It started with far too much food - again. Craig and Marcel are truly fantastic hosts.
Then a wander down to the jetty where we caught the boat to Alpnachstad, where we arrived with 10 minutes to spare but with uncharacteristic Swiss inefficiency thee was only one person selling tickets so all the trains left but they didn't tell us so herded us into a pen to wait for the next train in a half hour. They didn't tell us this, nor could we get out of the pen, nor buy any water. Not good. Then on the train up (which is the steepest clog railway in the world) they let some guy stand up at the front so block the view looking up. But it's an icredibly impressive ride up and the view from the top astounding. No snow like on Jungfraujoch but just wow.
Hung out there for a bit, wandered around and then caught the cablecar down (they put gondolas and cablecars here in places that you would've thought a mountain goat couldn't go, let alone human beings!!) to where we met Craig, Marcel, Pascal and Antoine for a barbee on the mountain side. Most very very cool. The birds on the adventure course gave a nice distraction, particularly the blackbird (an in joke - you had to be there) and the go-kart ride was just fantastic - a total hoot with very nice guys helping you in before you skeltered down the mountain (about 1.3km I think - trying not to kill yourself!!
Then it was more cablecars down the mountain until we reached the bottom, a bus back into town (Lucerne, Mt Pilatus sits above Lucerne) and a bus back into Lucerne. From there we jumped on a train, decided we weren't sure that the train went to Stansstad, jumped off the train, Nic went to the loo, I went to the Coop (to buy soap - being clean is a good thing!!) where I stood in the queue for ages and then the train back to Craig and Marcel's.
That evening (ie yesterday) Craig, Marcel and I went for a walk along Lake Lucerne, on a road cut into the hill, which was fake as it used to house a military base (the rock face looks real but it's actually fake) until we came to a very cool hotel which had a bar on the waterfront where we sat drinking beer (Craig was drinking milk serum - dodgy) and watched fireworks whilst having a fab goss.
Today it was another scrumptious brunch followed by the boys going into Lucerne, walking along the waterfront, completely bathed in sunlight with beautiful people just meandering around enjoying the day, surrounded of course by moutains and water.... We had an ice-coffee on a boat moored on the water's edge. There was an upstairs and a downstairs deck on the boat. Downstairs was the restaurant. Upstairs was the bar. We sat in the bar (open air) and I ordered a coffee with milk. Slight laugh from the waitress. Craig then spoke in German, a coffee with milk - a latté. Waitress then said sorry, couldn't do that, only in the restaurant. Go figure, so I ordered a diet coke (known as Coke Light) here. Then another waitress came over with the drinks. Craig asked her what was what. It transpires that I could have got a black coffee upstairs but not a white coffee, that had to be gotten downstairs. Apparently they couldn't take my order, get someone downstairs at the coffee machine to make the coffee and bring it upstairs. Go figure. And, remember, over here they have machines where you press a button and the coffee comes out - they don't espress it like in Wellington. So, all it meant was someone pressing a button on a machine and bringing the cup upstairs - but nope, couldn't be done. In fairness though to the bar, it was warm, it was sunny, the view was to die for and the iced-coffee really nice!!
Then a walk through the old town, a look at the lion monument (to commemorate the swiss who died and/or were guillotined in France with King Louise XVI during the revolution.
Coming back, Craig and Marcel drove me around the other way (ie completely around Lake Lucerne), through sweet little towns, past the Rigi, through the town where Willaim Tell killed the Austrian guy and then through a 9km tunnel back home. In Switzerland, when there is a moutain in the way, they either go up it in trains/gondolas or through it with tunnels. NZ is seriously an underresourced country.
A snooze, a muck about on the net, more food and my time in Switzerland is nearly over....
What a stunning country though - pick me for living here!!
ps. If anyone from the Glamazons is reading this, we've started talking about bringing a show over here and showing the Swiss what it's all about!!
Saturday, 14 July 2007
You just wouldn't believe....
It's very early in the morning in Switzerland, I'm trying to type quietly and I probably should be sleeping (lol - 9am early I mean).
Yesterday I went to one of the most incredible places on the planet - it is just amazing, surreal, astounding, every other adjective that you can think of.
http://www.jungfraubahn.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-8//183_read-808
Go have a look.
Jungfraujoch is simply just incredible.
8 1/2 hours on trains to get there and back though - although bizarrely enough it didn't seem that long - rail travel here is just great. I think though, due to the lack of sleep, there were tears last night - but not on my part.
The other fascinating thing I saw yesterday were the wood piles - you wouldn't believe how perfect they are - it's almost as those the wood is carefully selected, stacked and then chainsawed to be the same length. I also saw a guy, on a country road, not in a town, weedeating the edge of a paddock by the road - I presume to make it look good. So, everything can be picture postcard perfect but it just takes a lot of work.
There were houses on mountain sides that had no visible means of getting there, gondolas that just climbed moutains, railways that went places that seemed impossible, lakes that were still, people that were friendly, a guy in military service on the local commuter train with his gun going home for the weekend, fab food and just views for Africa. Or is that Switzerland???
And there is also Craig and Marcel who, apart from being stars, it's just great to catch up with!! Yah!!
At some stage, as well, I'll have a think about philosophy and deep and meaningful thoughts for the blog - but I have surprising little time to think. Or write postcards! I've bought a pile, just not sent them yet (or written them!!).
Duh!
Yesterday I went to one of the most incredible places on the planet - it is just amazing, surreal, astounding, every other adjective that you can think of.
http://www.jungfraubahn.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-8//183_read-808
Go have a look.
Jungfraujoch is simply just incredible.
8 1/2 hours on trains to get there and back though - although bizarrely enough it didn't seem that long - rail travel here is just great. I think though, due to the lack of sleep, there were tears last night - but not on my part.
The other fascinating thing I saw yesterday were the wood piles - you wouldn't believe how perfect they are - it's almost as those the wood is carefully selected, stacked and then chainsawed to be the same length. I also saw a guy, on a country road, not in a town, weedeating the edge of a paddock by the road - I presume to make it look good. So, everything can be picture postcard perfect but it just takes a lot of work.
There were houses on mountain sides that had no visible means of getting there, gondolas that just climbed moutains, railways that went places that seemed impossible, lakes that were still, people that were friendly, a guy in military service on the local commuter train with his gun going home for the weekend, fab food and just views for Africa. Or is that Switzerland???
And there is also Craig and Marcel who, apart from being stars, it's just great to catch up with!! Yah!!
At some stage, as well, I'll have a think about philosophy and deep and meaningful thoughts for the blog - but I have surprising little time to think. Or write postcards! I've bought a pile, just not sent them yet (or written them!!).
Duh!
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