Hotel Bellevue Spiez

... br>Deze hebben we eerder tervergeefs getracht te beklimmen in 2004 én 2007. <br>Helaas ook deze keer zijn we op de helft gestrand... <br>We hadden reeds 4uur omhoog geklommen van 1620 naar 2050 meter hoogte! Volgens de bordjes zouden we hier echter 2uur over moeten doen; Door de sneeuw was dit voor ons niet mogelijk.<br>Eerst was de sneeuw nog leuk maar na dat hij tot de schenen en vervolgens tot de knieen was het bijna niet meer te doen ...

... wipers and everything was cold and damp. Even Claire was heard to say "I'd rather be at work". So it was with some degree of gratitude and relief that I suddenly got a call from Stephen and Ingrid who live in Spiez, just south of Bern, inviting us to come and stay for a few days! Since then life has been fab, and we've been dried out, cleaned up and very well looked after. We spent Saturday with the whole family, taking a trip along the lake to Interlaken on a ...

... just to get drunk with them, see girls dressed up in "nice" costumes, and party out asses off. I must say that I am really bummed. Oh, and Julian had his birthday yesterday, he turned 21. The kid can officially drink now, he no longer needs to use my brother's ID. Happy birthday champ. I can't believe he is 21, time flies by, its insane. Back in Switzerland, hanging out with family. Mirjam came down from Paris for an ...

... yesterday in Bern. I asked him to show me the cool places to go out in Bern, so he invited me over for dinner. I know Greg, Todd's brother, fairly well now, but I never got to know Todd since he didn't live in Austin. So while Todd cooked up an awesome storm, we basically got to know each other. Todd is quite an interesting person and has traveled and lived in many places in the world. Music is his passion, but unfortunately it doesn't pay the bills ...

... and check out the night life in Bern. My little cousin has his birthday tomorrow, so I'm gonna go help out with that. Not sure what I am gonna get him yet. On saturday I will probably help my aunt and uncle cut some wood. They heat their house all winter with wood only, so in the fall they do some serious amounts of wood cutting, saturday is their big day.

... could admire the sandy beaches of both England and France. Within 10 mins, I could trace the busy city of Paris from my window as all memories of our last visit came back. Although I could not locate the Eiffel Tower, I could distinctly see the Seine river bending across the city and other monuments I recognised. The Easyjet flight from Stansted reached Basel airport at 14:30. Basel international airport is at the north western most tip of Switzerland, combining 3 ...

... and Martin (my ozzie exchange contact who is good value). IFYE people don`t seem to sink much **** like Rural Youth people back home so i think they all thought we were a bit feral whereas we thought we were highly amusing and very merry folk. the next morning, not so amusing and merry were the terrible twosome. did activities, games, made shirts (mine looks like it was done by a 6 yr old but by the end i could not give a fiddlers **** as i was so over painting in my ...

We got through the paranoid Swiss border and drove into the beautiful countryside of Switzerland, where all the land is green and all the sky is blue, the snow capped mountains go off into the distance for miles and birds sing and waterfalls trickle, it's so much like a postcard it could almost make you sick. But it was way to lovely for that. We ...

... really possible. After the art museum I went to the Swiss Landmuseum. It focused on the history of Switzerland and Zurich. I thought that it was really well done. There was even a section on prehistory which was well done but still boring. The medieval section was great, almost overwhelming. The part I liked best was on the clothes. They had all sorts, from the people living in the mountains to those living at ...

... was all brush and looked somewhat dangerous, it was the quickest way to the top and by that point, it was 4:00 and I just needed to get there. I had to stop every 10-15 steps just because it was so steep and my legs were killing me. I just couldn't hack it, my mind was going, self-doubt began to kick in. No. I was too close and too stubborn. I must succeed. Cutting back through the forest, I finally came out from the woods to the open clearing, and it took me a minute or two to ...