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Location: Blogs Simon and Melody's Blog |
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| Posted by: supersi |
Monday, April 17, 2006 |
When one thinks of Switzerland they usually think of chocolate and watches, and all the advertisements in the airport do nothing to dispel that notion. Well add to that a rail system that runs like clockwork! On Friday morning we went from Geneva to Interlaken, and learned first-hand the accuracy of Swiss trains. We got on the wrong one because it was two minutes earlier than the one we were supposed to get on from the same platform. Thankfully we were able to change at Lausanne and get back on track. From Interlaken we took another train up to the Jungfrau region. This 2.5 hour journey takes you to a height of 3600m and is known as "The Top of Europe". The incline at which the cog trains can go is quite amazing. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the view was spectacular. You can walk outside at the summit and the wind almost blew us straight off the mountain! Ah, memories of a Canadian winter :)
We spent that night in Brig at a somewhat sketchy little hotel. I locked my camera in the in-room safe, which turned out to be more secure than the vault of a Swiss bank. Seems I broke the turning mechanism when I tried to open it, so they had to call in a repair guy to crack the silly thing open. I had visions of me lugging this 50 pound safe with us for the rest of our journey.
After the "safe" incident, we took the Glacier Express train further east towards St. Moritz, then north to Zurich and stayed there Saturday night. On Sunday morning we were able to find the assembly (church), and of course since the north is German-speaking, we were not able to understand much. It was really nice to be there though, and we met a girl from Canada named Viva. She's from Ontario and is there learning German and French. Turns out we even knew a few people in common. Small world, eh?
Being Easter weekend, most of Zurich was closed, so after the meeting we took a train to the beautiful city of Lucerne. We spent many hours walking around the Old Town, taking in the view from the city walls and also enjoying a cruise on the river (included with the rail pass). Now we're on our way to Basel, a city located on the tri-border of Switzerland, Germany and France. From here it's EasyJet back to jolly old England!
PS. A happy Easter to all :) |
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Re: Switzerland on a Rail Pass |
By Anonymous on
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 |
Sounds like you're having a fun weekend.
Viva's brother Nathan and his wife Melanie are my parents' neighbours! We had our Easter dinner last night and they stopped by to say hello.
Happy Easter Simon and Melody :) |
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Re: Switzerland on a Rail Pass |
By Anonymous on
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 |
| Oops -- didn't mean to be anonymous. The last comment was from me, Amy Fuller. |
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