I really didn't need to use my German to get to the train station, but it was nice to have a vague idea of what other people were saying. Quite different than being surrounded by Setswana and being absolutely clueless. I made it to Zurich with a friendly face waiting for me. It was so great to be back with someone from home, and Wayne (and his giant backpack) enjoyed being reunited with an American English conversationalist. We grabbed a quick lunch at Burger King (very Swiss) since everything in Switzerland is super expensive, and headed for Interlaken.
Interlaken was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was so picturesque (even more so than the German countryside). Small towns on the mountainside, the green-blue river, mountain tops slicing through the clouds. So pretty. After finding our hostel (Balmer's which is apparently famous), we took a walking tour with Viktor, who is Mark Pinter's doppelganger. I had a hard time listening to him, because I was expecting Mark's voice and kept hearing Viktor's German accent. The tour took a short hike up one of the mountains which allowed for a better view of the town.
After arriving back at the hostel, we watched a bit of the football game. Now that there have been so many the last few days, I couldn't even tell you which game it was. I checked out early while Wayne competed in a the Limbo competition trying to win 2 for 1 tickets for sky diving. O yea, Interlaken is a great place for hiking, boat rides, and extreme sports. You could go sky diving, paragliding, hang-gliding, rafting, canyoning, zip lining. All for very high prices.
The next day, Wayne and I took a train over to Grindelwald in hopes of having a good hike. We thought of renting bikes to get part way up the mountain, but then decided on walking up, and taking a cable car down. We started off and turned around pretty quickly when the signage was not adequate and we were more or less walking up people's front yards. As we rode the cable car up the mountain (this one named First), we realized how foolish we were even thinking about walking up. It would have 1km vertical with a zigzg path which was quite steep. We had lunch on top of First (2166m) and then walked over to Baschlapsee (2265m). The See was so pretty with the reflection of the mountains and since we were so far up, there was still a lot of patches of snow. Naturally I decided to make a snow angel. We wanted to take a different route down the mountain and chose a path less traveled. There may be good reason for this as snow was over some routes and there was quite a bit of mud, but it was nice to be away from people for a while. The hike down was long. Very long. But sitting on the ride back from Grindelwald to Interlaken, felt amazing. On the way down we also had a run in with a few bulls. They were definitely not happy to see us. Also cow eyes are huge.
Today, we took a boat trip on our way out of Interlaken to the town of Spiez. There were a lot of middle school aged children on the tour. Children and senior citizens. Wayne and I were a little out of place. From Spiez, we walked up a giant hill. I've had it with hills this week. But really, the train station in Spiez was up a large hill relative to its port. We then took a very crowded train directly to Milan, Italy. Now I know I've lied to some of you these last few days. You thought I was going to spend some time in Zurich, but there was an avalanche that closed the trails between Zurich and Venice, so this was the only option. Good thing we spoke with the rail information people, otherwise we would not have had a seat on the train, and would have wasted a lot of time traveling to Zurich.
The architecture has clearly changed between Switzerland and Italy--definitely the Mediterranean feel. Other differences, I again don't know the language. But good news, back to the Euro (as opposed to CHF or Swiss Franks) and Milan is cheaper than Switzerland. Didn't have to spend 15 Euro on lunch!
Wayne and I are staying in Zebra Hostel. Maybe we picked it to remind me of bedazzling Botswana. Or that we only had 30 min of internet and just went for it. Anyways, off to bed as we have lots of adventures ahead of us tomorrow.
Here are some pictures from the last few days in Gaborone and the beginning of Europe.
Water balloon fight on final trip to Main Mall
Lurking in the shadows.
ZEBRAS!
Purple leaves?? Botswana plants are something else.
Food eating party turned into dance party.
This is Kam livin life.
Good spot to put the laptop.
Signing Brian's yearbook
Letting the hairdown.
Asian smile!
Throwing up some BWs
Mustache face
Patrick teaching us how to dance
Kev being a Diva.
Hair back on top.
Piling on the couch
Trying to remember all of the amazing moments during our last day as we sat at the airports (yes plural)
Last view of Botswana
J--burg has really intimidating dogs checking luggage... nope they're just adorable.
6 cooling towers for nuclear power plants. This maybe why Botswana imports power from them.
Random window shopping at Jo-burg before I could check in
Coolest coke machine! A little movie played. The World of Coke has brainwashed me and I'm ok with it.
Second airprt, eating at NewsCafe!
Here's my number, so call me maybe.
My giant plane to Frankfurt. 2 huge engines on each side?? Crazy.
Good morning Venice, I'll see you in a few days.
Beautiful weather by my standards.
Waiting for my train
GREEN!!!!
WAYNE!
RAIN!
Our tour guide, Viktor
Monestary, Castle, government building. This has been through a lot of hands.
The bear found all over this area of Switzerland.
The creepy monk who stalked a girl up until she jumped off a mountain for fear of him. He was banished to stay on the mountain and now he still looks over the town as a rock formation in the side of the mountain. (this isn't the rock)
Mountain goats... they're hiding from the rain.
DOUBLE RAINBOW!
In the town of Untersee, next door to Interlaken
All of the fountains have clean drinking water
All of the towns around here pretty much have mountain goats
Fountains like in Bern (so I'm told)
Little music square
Swiss army knifes are sold just about everywhere in Switzerland
Attempting to hike up the mountain.
SOLAR PANELS!
Using the cable car instead
Just grabbing some lunch on a mountain.
Good cliff to para-glide off of
Signs were not always helpful
Wayne definitely not sliding down the side of a mountain
Cows we bonded with
Bulls we did not
Jazz band playing on the music square
The key at the hostel
The color is from the minerals in the water since it is basically melted water from the glaciers and snow caps
Wayne being his tourist self again.
A garage for your boat, ok!
Sunglasses are a must
Making it to Milan and scouring over maps to find a good hostel
Until next time (which I can't guarantee is very soon),
M.e.
For the record, those fountains == a perfect match, only smaller. :P
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