Picking up where I left off....
I spent the last week of my leave scrapbooking. By the end, I really wished I had started earlier, but I didn't and that's that.
I returned to work on September 8th and worked for about 2 1/2 weeks before Joe and I set our for our biggest adventure of the year. Here's my travel journal from our adventure to Switzerland!!
09/18/2014 - "I forgot how bad coach class sucks!"
My whole life (or at least as long as I can remember), I have wanted to go to Switzerland. So, late last year, I decided that to celebrate my half-century mark, I would book tickets. 2 years ago, we spent $30,000 on our BA card and got a buy one, get one free miles ticket, so I cashed that in on 2 tickets from DFW - Zurich. We still had to pay the fuel surcharge (which wasn't insubstantial, but still cheaper than buying a ticket outright), but we have confirmed seats and as I always say...that eliminates a lot of stress associated with traveling.
A couple of things before we get started - after I purchased our tickets, I realized that I had made a mistake and booked us back through London City Airport. This was not good. First of all, I have no idea how to get to Heathrow from London City and I was worried that we wouldn't make the connection (even though it was a legal connection per BA). After I realized it, I decided to suck up the change fee and change the tickets. I asked if we could return from Geneva, but that was not available. However, for the bargain-basement price of $124(ish), I was able to change our tickets to fly through Heathrow. Whew!!! I figured we would have paid $124 in transit from one airport to the other, not to mention saving on the stress. Of course, if I would have booked it correctly in the first place, this wouldn't be a problem at all.
Second...these tickets did not allow for an upgrade - with miles OR cash. That was really unfortunate. Sadly, we have become accustomed to traveling "over the water" in first or business class, where it is MUCH more comfortable. I don't even care about all the food and stuff like that. I just like being able to sleep a little and feel comfortable when flying for several hours.
Finally, since I talked about the Maui "Bible" when we were in Hawaii last year, I should say that anytime I talk about the guidebook on this trip, I'm referring to Rick Steves Switzerland. Rick Steves is the quintessential expert on all things Europe and we now routinely rely on his guidebooks to show us the best of the countries we visit there.
So, I left work at 4:30 and met Joe at the airport to hop our flight. We ended up in the middle section, although with seats together, since we didn't want to pay for seats. It was just as comfortable as I expected and rather warm, too. The guy sitting beside me kept laying his arm on the remote control for my screen and turning the volume either up or down. It was very irritating. AND, I think he had a cold, which does NOT make me happy. I decided that I am the only flyer in the entire world that cares about personal space. I have yet to sit beside someone who didn't think the shared armrest belonged to them. Oh well....I'M GOING TO SWITZERLAND!!!!
09/19/2014 - "Through to Zurich"
London:
We arrived at Heathrow about 9:30AM. We were able to transit this time since we're real passengers (another advantage to skipping the non-reving). It wasn't too bad, except that we got a bit confused because we had the option for B gates, C gates, or Other Terminals. In an effort to try to find our way, I accidentally pointed us down an escalator that forced us to walk the length of the terminal as opposed to getting on the train. Not that I can't use the exercise, but after only a couple of short cat-naps on the plane, we have been awake for close to 24 hours. At any rate, when we finally made it to "Other Terminals" there was a board (the first one we saw with flights listed) and we realized that we did NOT, in fact, have to change terminals. We did, however, have to go back through security (which we always do in London). And, we were sweating. London always feels hot to me, even though it's chilly. I'm sure this is thanks to the humidity.
We found a seat and parked ourselves for about an hour and a half. I blogged and checked e-mail and waited patiently for the second leg of our journey.
Zurich:
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| Final Approach - Zurich!!! |
We arrived in Zurich!!! Our flight arrived a bit late, but we were fine with that. We were both so tired we could barely keep our eyes open on the flight - which was practically empty! I feel asleep during the safety demonstration and also during our taxi out to the runway. But, I was awake for the landing in Zurich and I must say, it didn't look anything like I thought it would. As soon as we stepped off the plane, I thought the same thing I always think when returning to Europe, "I forgot how much they smoke here!!!" But, it is still a beautiful country and one with many more sites to see. Maybe someday they, too, will have a surgeon general that convinces them to quit smoking.
We easily found the TI and bought our ZurichCard, which would give us access to the public transportation and entrance to the Swiss National Museum. We headed across the street to the train station. And then almost as easily found our train in to town (although I almost had us get on a train that was not going to Zurich - fortunately Joe is smarter than me when it comes to these things!). The train was pretty packed and almost everyone was going to Zurich's main station!
We got a bit turned around leaving the train station and it took us a bit to find our hotel - the Hotel Walhalla. But, we finally made it. Our room was very nice - and larger than most European rooms. Toni at the front desk was great and very helpful. There was no A/C, but there was a fan. It was a bit warm in the room, but with the window open at night and the fan, we were comfortable.
After relaxing a bit, we decided to take the Uetliberg train up to the scenic viewpoint. I had written down that the train was on Track 2, but it turned out it was on Track 22 (verified in the guidebook that Rick had said Track 2, but the book is 2 years old, so...). At any rate, we found it and made our way. The guidebook also said to take the footpath up a steep hill for beautiful views of Zurich. We didn't have any trouble finding the trail, but I didn't pay enough attention to the guidebook and some other notes I had written and we ended up at the wrong restaurant. We decided to go ahead and eat there, but it's a decision that both Joe and I wish we could have back. We had the fondue (which was what we had planned on having for dinner). There was no English menu and our waitress didn't speak English. However, we managed to convey what we wanted. I guess I had imagined "The Melting Pot" when I heard about Swiss fondue, but it was not. It was stinky - in fact, it smelled like dirty feet. I could barely get it past my nose! But, as I told Joe - "when in Rome." Now we've tried it and I think that will be that.
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| Uetliberg Train Station |
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| View of Zurich |
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| Stinky Dinner!!! |
We made it back to the train station and our hotel about 9:30 or so. Joe was asleep before I even got in bed.
09/20/2014 - "A Day in Zurich"
In spite of being in bed by 10:00, we got up pretty late and had to rush to make it down to breakfast. Breakfast was the usual that we have had in Europe - cold cuts and cheeses, breads, cereals. They also had sunny-side up eggs and scrambled eggs, which we rarely see at these European breakfasts. It was fine, though. They had a very fancy coffee machine, but I passed.
After breakfast, we packed up and stored our bags and set out for Zurich. We started out by following Rick Steves' walking tour, which took us past a dozen or so sites in the city. We walked through the train station and saw the "Blue Angel" and then we headed out to the city. Points along the way included the main shopping district, Bahnhofstrasse, the oldest bridge in Zurich, one of the largest clock faces in Europe (at St. Peter's Church), and the
Hall of Flowers at the police station (although I was afraid to take a picture of that one!).
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| Blue Angel |
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| St. Peter's Church |
We toured a couple of churches - Grossmunster - an iconic site in Zurich, where we climbed 187 steps up to the top of one of the towers for another view over all of Zurich; and then we toured Fraumunster, where Marc Chagall's 5 stained-glass windows are installed.
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| Grossmunster |
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| Postcard of Marc Chagall's Stained-Glass Windows |
After the Fraumunster we walked by a recommended restaurant - Zeughauskeller - and decided to stop for lunch. I had a "must-have" dinner of veal pieces in a creamy mushroom sauce and Joe had the pork cordon bleu. Both of us had "rosti" which is like hash browns. Both of our meals were extremely good (though the rosti are a little salty)!!!
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| YUMMY!!! |
After lunch we finished our walking tour - stopping at Sprungli for their famous macaroons - and ending at Lake Zurich. We contemplated a tour of the lake, but decided to stick to our plan of visiting the Swiss National Museum.
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| Treats! |
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| I LOVE this sign!!! No dogs, but giraffes are okay? |
From the Lake, we took a "water train" up to the museum. These boats are part of the Zurich public transportation service. We only had a couple of hours at the museum, but most of it was in German and French, so we were able to make it through fairly quickly since we couldn't read much. We definitely got the gist - as most of the main rooms did have an English translation and the map had English as well. The museum was organized by theme, and I must say it was one of the most creatively displayed museums I have ever been to. We got a bit of Swiss history, saw how the Swiss have lived throughout the ages, and took in a look through the weapons used by the Swiss Army. We also got some insight into how the Swiss economy developed.
The museum was our last stop for the day. We headed back to the hotel for our bags and then to the train station. Since our Swiss Pass was only good for 8 days, and we had used our ZurichCard for Zurich, we bought tickets from Zurich to Bern. We didn't have any trouble finding the ticket machine and making our purchase. We even managed to find the express train to Bern. Yea us!!!
Our celebration ended there, though, as when we arrived in Bern, we couldn't figure out how to get to our hotel. It looked so easy on Rick Steves map!!! Later we would realize our mistake was leaving the train station immediately, instead of walking through it to the city. We ended up finding our hotel by relying on Joe's map app on his iPhone, which then got him booted off international roaming because of the expense. Apparently, he is booted off his data altogether, but I guess he'll be working on that when we get home.
Our hotel in Bern is the Goldener Schluessel in the old town. The location was fantastic, but Rick warned of street noise, so I had requested a quiet room. Unfortunately, that request was not met. And more unfortunately, I did not consult the book before checking in to ask if we were getting a quiet room. The noise didn't end up bothering me that much because with the window closed and ear plugs, I could barely hear a thing. However, it was quite a fitful night for Joe because he could still hear the noise and having the window closed made him extremely hot. Funny how I keep learning lessons the more and more we travel.
Before our fitful night, we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant. We both had sausages this time. Two different kinds, but we both liked mine a bit more which they called, "Farmer's Sausage" on the menu. All I know is that is was pork. For dessert, we had a chocolate sundae.
09/21/2014 - "A day in Bern"
Today the weather forecast called for thunderstorms. In fact, it said there was 100% chance. We had breakfast at the hotel (included with the room, as most hotels we book in Europe). We decided that we would walk back to the train station and store our bags in a locker there. That way, if it was raining, our bags wouldn't get wet when we were ready to leave. Also, we needed to get our Swiss Passes validated because we would be using them today.
The day started our absolutely glorious. If it was going to rain, it certainly didn't look like it in the morning. I ended up walking more steps in Bern than Zurich, but I would have thought our tour was shorter. This was, again, the walking tour suggested in the guidebook. It took us through the old town of Bern, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site. The streets are lined in bricks and quite quaint, with shops along the streets, and also ones that look like storm cellars. You descend the cellar and there is another store underneath the street-level store. We are not shoppers, so it didn't bother us that most of them were closed on Sunday.
One funny thing about our walking tour in Bern... We kept seeing in the guidebook a "Holy Ghost" church, but we had never seen it. When we started the official walk, we realized that the entire church was covered in scaffolding and draped in plastic. No wonder we didn't realize it was the church!!! At any rate, it took us past two clock towers, the Parliament, and several of the Bern fountains. We stopped to watch the Zytglogge-Turm clock tower and we stopped for a tour of the Einstein House, where he lived for part of his time in Bern. This was a bonus, as we thought the house was closed on Sunday.
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| Holy Ghost Church |
At the end of the walk is Bear Park. The bear is the "mascot" of the castalon (like our states) that Bern is in and you see them all over the city. But Bear Park is the home of a couple of real bears. When we were on the terraces behind the Parliament building, I looked over the river and I saw some animals on a hill and I thought they were bears. Joe said they were sheep, so I took him to be right (because he usually is). Later when we were approaching Bear Park, I saw the same animals and proclaimed once again - "See? Those are the Bears!!!" To which Joe responded, "No, I'm pretty sure those are sheep." Well, he was right. There are only 2 Bears at Bear Park and they are much closer to the Nydegg Bridge. So now our running joke, every time we see a sheep, is "oh, look...more bears!"
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| Bear |
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| Bear |
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| Bear |
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| Bear |
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| NOT Bear |
After our walk, we went back over the Nydegg Bridge and settled on lunch at a pizza place. It wasn't a Rick recommendation, but my feet were killing me, so I didn't care. The pizza was good and we sat outside and enjoyed the day, which was still beautiful.
After lunch we decided to head across another bridge - the Kirchenfeld - and visit the Einstein Museum. Einstein lived in Bern when he wrote his Theory of Relativity. He was actually German born, but would at some point in his life give up his German citizenship to become a Swiss citizen. In the end, he had dual citizenship in the United States and Switzerland. We learned about his life - at the house and the museum - his wives, his passions, and his children. He was Jewish, although not particularly religious and very opposed to war. In the US, during World War II the FBI investigated him because he was suspected of serving as a double agent. He warned the US of the atom bomb, and was quite surprised and distressed when the US used that against the Japanese. However, he lived out his life in the US, teaching and living in Princeton, New Jersey. He died of an aneurism and his ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location.
During our visit to the Einstein Museum, the thunderstorms rolled in. We could hear the thunder and then the rain while we were inside. Fortunately, by the time we left (at closing time), it had stopped raining. So, we hurried from there back to the train station to catch our ride to our next stop, Murten. We had a TON of trouble finding the train to Murten. We thought we had a plan, but then we weren't sure and finally ended up going to the information desk. Turns out that the train was closed between Bern's central station and Bern's westside station and so we had to exit the train station and take a tram to the westside station to get to the train to take us to Murten. I will say, at least we felt a little better about our train riding abilities after that. We had no idea of the construction.
We arrived in Murten rather late, but in time for dinner at the hotel. We had pike for dinner, which is fished out of the lake just outside our hotel. It was quite good. And then we went to bed... Or rather, I read for a bit and Joe had to do some work. :-(
09/22/2014 - "The 3-Lakes Region"
Today we got up at 8:00 so that we could catch a boat for a cruise of the 3-Lakes Region. Before heading down, we had our breakfast. There is a main room where we sat for breakfast today, not realizing that there is also a "downstairs" area, which probably would have been more peaceful. There was a group of German tourists at breakfast - mostly over 70 (I'm guessing) and all women (actually, I saw 2 men but one of them was the tour guide). Joe had this odd look on his face the whole time and I thought he didn't feel well. Turns out that he was traumatized by the "hens" talking incessantly all around him. Haha!!!
After 2 days in my tennis shoes, I opted for my hiking boots because my feet had been KILLING me. The boat cruise was a good opportunity for me to rest my weary feet and for us to relax a bit. We headed out of the hotel and down to the boats (which we almost missed the turn for). It was beautiful and relaxing and something that Joe particularly enjoys. The boat was almost like the train - stopping in various villages along 3 lakes, which are connected by long canals. It is a great way to do some hiking in the area, as some stops seemed to serve just hikers.
When we reached the end of the cruise - 4 hours later - we were in the town of Biel. Rather than take the boat back, we got off and walked to the train station and hopped the train back to Murten. Then, it was time for another Rick Steves walk. This one was pretty short as Murten's old town is quite compact. But, we saw the hero of Murten, Adrian von Bubenberg and 2 churches. We were able to tour the German church, but the French church was closed. We also walked along the ramparts (the city wall), which was really interesting.
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| From the Ramparts, Murten |
At the end of our walk, we decided to have dinner and we had one hell of a time trying to decide where. One restaurant that was recommended in the guidebook made what we thought was a joke about horse meat, but we decided to see if they had an English menu because the menu was described as "fun." Turns out, they didn't start serving dinner until 6:00 and we were there about 5:15. We decided to have a beer and then about 30 minutes later the waitress brought us a menu. Turns out, they really did have horse on the menu, which was quite traumatic for a horse lover like Joe (and I wasn't too thrilled either). We weren't so sure what was "fun" about the menu, but as we typically do, we were too chicken to say no, so we settled on pork - Joe had regular cutlets and I had cordon bleu. The food was fine and we returned to our room afterward. Joe finished his work and I read some more. This time, we had lights out at 9:30.
09/23/2014 - "Making our way to the Mountains"
The building across the street from our hotel - which was otherwise very quiet and lovely - was being painted, so the workers were up and at it pretty early. Still, we managed to doze off and on until 8:30. We got ready, re-organized our suitcases, and went down for breakfast. Our hotel - the Murtenhof and Krone - has a beautiful view of Lake Murten. We didn't get to see the view at dinner because it was dark, but today we sat "downstairs" for a beautiful view.
We weren't in a particular hurry to get to our next destination, so we decided to go back and photograph a sight I had missed yesterday. Even after round 2, we're not sure we got the right building because the guidebook called it something in particular - Web Husli - but we didn't find a sign to that effect. I took a picture of the building of what I assumed it to be and we'll call it that!!! We also tried to go in to the French Church again, but it was still closed. The guidebook said it's only open sporadically, so I didn't really expect to be able to tour it. I just figured it was worth a try.
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| Web Husli?? I mean - WEB HUSLI!!! |
After checking out of the hotel, we were on the 11:17 train back to Bern. At Bern, we decided to wait until the next train to Interlaken in order to make reservations on the Glacier Express for Saturday. We kind of figured we had a better chance of English-speaking help at the train office in Bern. Plus, we were familiar with that train station and knew exactly where to go (the same place where we got our Swiss Pass validated). From Bern, we made our way to Interlaken Ost and then to Lauterbrunnen.
We decided to take the cable car to the train to Murren because our hotel was close to the train station. It worked out perfectly because the cable car station we needed in Lauterbrunnen was right across from the train station. But, I have to admit that when I looked up and saw how steep the cable car climb was, it made my heart jump in my throat. I'm not a huge fan of the cable car to begin with and this was pretty dramatic (in terms of steep) ride! Once in Grutschalp, the change to the train was pretty self-explanatory.
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| Our first view of the beautiful mountains!!! |
Our hotel in Murren is the Hotel Eiger. When we arrived, they couldn't find our reservation. Although they said it was no problem because they had rooms, they still upgraded us to a suite for our trouble. What trouble that was, I wasn't sure, but I'm grateful for the upgrade - the room is amazing!!! I had reserved a room with a view of the mountains and it is just beautiful.
Because we were experiencing an absolutely beautiful day, we decided to make our way up the Schilthorn. From there, you have a 360-degree view of the surrounding area. We could see down to Lake Thun and we could see Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, which is actually in Italy. There is still a lot of snow there - presumably from last year - although when we returned to the room to check the weather, there is a chance of snow tomorrow night!! There is a restaurant there - the Piz Gloria - the location of the 1968 James Bond move,
On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The studio actually funded the completion of the restaurant and in turn the restaurant highly touts James Bond. There was a whole section on the filming of the movie and how they filmed certain scenes. Also included were some interactive games. It was actually quite fun!! We ate at the restaurant, but because it was late, the menu was limited. We ended up splitting a "James Bond" hamburger and fries; and a Ruggli. That is bread with ham and cheese baked on top. The best part, though, was the 007 toasted to the top of the hamburger bun.
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| Mont Blanc |
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| Piz Gloria with the Monch, the Eiger, and the Jungfrau |
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| 007 Burger |
We boarded the last cable car from the top. When we got to Birg, the second cable car was full, so we had to wait 10 minutes to kill. We walked around and took some more pictures and explored the Skyline Walk. It's a platform that has a steep drop below it and the platform is see-through. Some of it is via grates and some is plexi-glass. It was a little unnerving for me, but Joe didn't seem to mind.
By the time we arrived back in Murren it seemed the town was closed. It was so peaceful! We made our way back to our beautiful room and sat on the patio until the sun set. Then we started planning for tomorrow.
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| I guess we aren't the only ones that rely on Rick! |
to be continued...
