Hotel Les Vieux Toits Hauterive

... l'ai pas prévu de prendre le jour entier, mais j'ai dépensé toute la journée au Château de Neuchâtel et alors faisant les courses tout près. La visite et la tournée étaient libres, donc j'ai obtenu pour voir le château alors entier. Il a été incorporé le 15e siècle ! Après plusieurs heures d'exploration de château, j'étais prêt pour une coupure, donc j'ai fait des achats. Je ne planifiais pas sur l'achat n'importe quoi, mais j'ai cassé enfin quand j'ai trouvé Wodey-Suchard ...

... again you could hardly see anything and it was practically snowing. We went to the terrace level, which is like a deck out on the top of the roof of the building, and at 3571m or 11702ft, I did almost feel like we were on the top of Europe! It was crazy to think that when I was in New Zealand they were sky diving from 11000ft, and here I was above that, but standing! On a mountain!!! Incredible. On the way back down I think the altitude hit me and I fell asleep, but it was a good ...

all the train beers
-scenery: vineyards, Alps, water
arrived to immejate chaos in Bern (where France was playing Holland in Euro 2008)
-orange everywhere
-soccer balls being dropkicked by everyone; dude next to us breaks a window, utterly disappointed in himself)
-free wardrobes for all from Dutch marching band: troll hat, Smead's new raincoat
-old soccer ball acquired ...

... quite fun. The mountain itself is pretty impressive, there was a fair amount of snow on the top but some has melted as its spring, it wasn't very cold either. The next day we went to Bern, which is a bit bigger than Lucern, but very similar. On the way to the hostel we found a small fernicular train that takes you up and down the steep hill, good ol Switzerland. The reason we stayed in Bern was to go to the Jungfraubahn, the highest train station in europe, on one of the ...

... a person. For cheese and bread. Then again that's what some coffee and a muffin at Starbucks costs as well J ) The fondue was fun and delicious, very different from what I've had in the US because you can REALLY taste the sherry in it! After dinner it was back to the station to grab out bags and catch our overnight train. Overall Bern was very beautiful and not overrun with tourism- if you can afford Switzerland I would recommend it!

... botswana ending at famous victoria falls. then straight down to cape town. most fantastic thing at the moment is, first of all of course to be sure now to be there in 3 months, being joined by my beloved friend anne. after those 3 months of language school we'll see what's the plan...just we wanna see as much as possible! Read more from this soon - only 90 days for any helpful ideas i'm always open! don't hesitate!

I've heard stories about it ... horrific stories. It lurks everywhere when you travel in hostels. It's all around ... you can't escape it ... it hides in dark corners .... in shadows ... in bathrooms .... sometimes it's even right next to you while you sleep. You can try to avoid it, but eventually somehow, someway .... it finds you. I'm talking about .... hostel sex!!! I was awoken in the middle of the night by people stumbling into the room. "Drunk ...

... reason, to meet him appointment with us at the middle Rhine bridge. Knowing that he'd booked a room for us in Strasbourg, we hit up a train, gave up on the Billster for now, and got ourselves to Strasbourg where fingers crossed we'd hopefully meet up with him later. Sharing the same name of my favourite sandwich meat, Strasbourg was another location that had seized my imagination when i was a wee lad. Frankfurt was another one, but i hear Frankfurt is a ...

... to cart weary travelers to their destination. We realized there was not a bus going where we needed it to or we had missed it. No one seemed to be able to give any clear directions aside from the guy with the bull horn. It was mass chaos. We brainstormed a few ideas - expensive cab ride? Call a friend? Wait it out? - we opted to hop on one of the buses going to a nearby valley. We thought at least if we could get just a smidgeon closer it would help out with any other ...

... about 10 minutes, I checked the cake...hahahaha. Turns out the pan was slanted in the oven so all the water went to one end of the pan (PERFECT). So I tilted the pan the other way, trying to encourage the water to the dry end of the pan, and I stirred the cake a little more (yes I am very aware that usually when baking a cake, once its in the oven, you normally just let it cook, however, this cake needed help). Ok, so I put it back in the oven (knowing deep down, this cake needed a lot ...