Sunday, September 21, 2014

Day 15 - The End of Europe 2014

I knew today was going to be a long day, but when we got to Zurich airport we heard that our flight to Philly was delayed, which intern would make us miss our flight to Orlando. We checked at the US Airways desk and they gave us a Philly to Miami to Orlando flight that will put us in somewhere around 10:30pm instead of the original 6:30pm. That's assuming we get through customs in time to catch our flight to Miami.

 (Now home) we were up 27 hours with no sleep. Getting through customs wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, we had plenty of time since the next flight didn't leave for about 3 hours. Of course, this was rush hour at the airport and we took off a light late. We knew we had a very tight connection to make in Miami and not only did we arrive a little late, the gate we had to get to was far, far away. We came in to gate E something and had to go to gate D3 which they said was just around the corner. D3 was at the end of the terminal gate. We actually had to get on a tram to take us 2 stops to get there, and that was after a whole lot of fast walking just to get to the right terminal. The flight attendant told us there were 19 people who were trying to make this connection, and thought they might hold the plane for us. Out of breath, we made it to the plane. The flight only lasted 35 minutes. 

I think every time we travel we learn more. We thought we were traveling as light as possible, yet it could have made it lighter. Non-stop is the only way to go. Get to whatever the non-stop location is, stay in that city a night or two, then take the trains which are always on time. I never want to be at the mercy of the airlines again. 

Day 14 - Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

This morning we checked out of our hotel and took the 9:30 train to Interlaken. All along I have used the DB train app to plan our trips because it allows me to save it in my calendar for when I don't have wifi. This has been the first time it was wrong. It said we were supposed to catch the train to Bern on platform 5, but when we got their the sign for the train said "do not board". That should have been a clue that we were on the wrong platform, considering the time between trains was only about 6 min. Sure enough, our train was on the next platform pulling away as we got there. Thankfully we have all day.

I had to take some final pictures of those amazing snow capped peaks.




We made it on to the next train to Zurich. This was a double decker train. The upper deck was pretty nice. Besides regular seats, it had a lounge type of seating. Which something to note, you really have to look at the cars to see which is first class. In some case the whole car is first class. In others,only the upper deck may be. 


We took the train all the way to the Zurich airport to check it out, and to get a ride to our hotel which was close. Zurich is very confusing. They have three different check-in areas all spread out. We were just trying to figure out where we needed to go I the morning. 

Caught the hotel shuttle to the Ibis hotel. We wanted to have lunch at the hotel, but they were done serving lunch, which is an important point to make. In Europe, restaurants and shops typically close their doors from 2:30 - 5pm. We're so used to our hotel restaurants never closing. We were able to order a bowl of penne pasta and meat sauce from the bar on their "snack" menu. After that, we decided to take it easy. The area we were in was more like the industrial area of Zurich north of the main city. 

Around dinner time we went down to the restaurant only to find out they were serving a buffet because a large group of about 100, all wearing white T-shirts saying Brasil Tourismo, had decided to eat in the restaurant, and the hotel was not interested in serving individual meals. Guess what the main course was...penne pasta. So we went for a little walk and found a pizzeria.  

Travel Tip:
Get to the train station early enough so you can get a print out of your connections. Having the train schedule on my phone is helpful, but it is not always right. And you don't get a lot of time to read the schedules posted on the platforms.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Day 13 - Ballenberg, Switzerland

What a day. We took the train down to Interlaken, then over to Brienz to catch a bus to the Ballenberg Open-Air museum. It has 163 acres of more than a hundred traditional and historical buildings brought from all over Switzerland. The walk was still challenging (after all, were in the Swiss alps). It was a very nice, cloudy, cool, serene day...and then the silence was broken by F-18 fighter jets screaming off into the sky from a nearby airport, echoing throughout the valley. That's ok, I don't mind an airshow while I look at farmhouses.









I had thought of taking the boat either gong to or coming back from the museum on Lake Brienz. But another lesson, no matter how much you plan, there are always complications. The schedule I was looking at for the boat times was a little confusing. I ended up reading it wrong and we would have had to wait about 2 hours to catch the boat in the morning. We found out when we asked the train conductor, who carries a mini computer. And we did want to be rushed to catch a boat coming back. But I got some good pictures of it.



We stopped back in Interlaken to eat and then walked around some of the shops. 








We saw about a dozen paragliders coming over the mountain and landing in a field in town.


They obviously have Segway tours.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Day 12 - Schilthorn-Murren, Switzerland

We've really lucked out with the weather. I thought for sure that the recent rain and clouds would make going up on the mountain a wasted trip. But the weather was great. We caught a bus to Stechelberg where we started our journey to the Schilthorn. The route consisted of taking 4 different cable cars, but it was very fast. On the top of the Schilthorn is the Piz Gloria. A panoramic 360-degree rotating restaurant, viewing deck and museum. It was also the principle location of the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" staring George Lazenby as James Bond and and Telly "who loves ya baby" Savalas. The museum is not all that impressive, but the views topside are excellent.






Here is the Eiger on the left, the middle is the Monch, the the highest peak in Europe is the Jungfrau named for the Monk protecting the young maiden from the ogre. 

Coming back down the mountain, we stopped at the town of Murren. It was right around noon and a lot of the shop owners shut down for lunch. Perhaps on their lunch break they go paragliding because we saw one after another taking of down and gliding down the mountain side. 



This is the Eiger. 








On the way back to town we stopped at Trummelbach Falls where you can see 10 glacier-waterfalls inside the mountain made accessible by a tunnel lift, or you can walk up all the steps. We took the lift. It says the falls drain 20,000 liters a second, and carries 20,200 tons of detritus (organic matter) per year.





It's hard for you to tell what is in these pictures, but there is a neat cave, very cool and breezy.

Another note about the hotel. I never thought to see if the hotels I booked had elevators. Typically these older hotels do not. This time were on the 3rd floor. Even our bathroom has 2 steps. And then you have to step up in the shower/bath tub. Now, I don't consider myself tall, but with the narrow tub base, I have to assume the downhill snowboarder position to get my head under the shower head.

As a side note, the gas station here has petrol for 1.73CHF. Now the Swiss frac (CHF) is pretty close to our dollar. Approx $1 = .90CHF. However, fuel is bought by the liter. So it's more like $6.55 per gallon. 

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Day 11 - Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Today was a long day. We got up early and had a taxi take us to the train station. It costed twice as much as the bus would have costed, but it's nice to have peace of mind and not have to cart heavy luggage during the morning rush hour.

The route took us from Salzburg to Zurich, then Berne, then Interlaken and finally Lauterbrunnen. One thing we learned is that the train up into the mountains, whether heading to Lauterbrunnen or Grindenwald is not covered on the Eurail. It costed 11.20 CHF (Swiss francs) but I used the last of my paper Euros which the conversion was 10€. 

The train rides were very scenic. Our train took us along the edge of Lake Zurich which is huge. I had to look it up after and it is 706sq.mi. Then the train to Interlaken took us right along the edge of Lake Thun. The water is a beautiful aqua color as the water is fed from the mountains.  









They must have extreme mountain biking.

Just down the street is one of many waterfalls in this area.



Our hotel is right across from the train station and a cable car. 













We did not walk around too much. After a long travel day we had dinner and called it a day.