Seepark Hotel Thun

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 ...

... the hot line (it was warm that day) was totally worth seeing it though! Accademia has a few other rooms of paintings and sculptures, but overall, is very small compared to the other art galleries I've been to lately. David was beautiful. I really respect sculptures as an art more after seeing him in real life. Michelangelo did an amazing job. You could see the veins in his hands, and his toes looked so real and detailed. It was crazy. You aren't supposed to take pictures of ...

... with a moo-moo cow, don't ask!) July 31, 2006 I felt EXTREMELY Heidi-esque today as we ventured into the Swiss Alps to Mt. Pilatus. The air was so purifying as we took our trek to the summit although the stone steps were exhausting! The views were seriously breathtaking with the clouds dipped behind the mountain peaks, which were dotted with rows of alpine trees. This place was seriously so peaceful and the air really detoxed me. Nothing like a good old mountain hike!

So, I spent my first full non-jet lagged day putzing around Switzerland. We spent the morning sleeping and just chilling in Spiez. (The view is incredible..I'll try and upload a pic.) The entire day, I just kept on commenting on how cute things were - in the grocery store, in the department store, the little houses, the children, etc. Chuck and I decided it might be funny if I had a word to describe each place I go to - we'll see. He's also trying to come up with a new nickname for me ...

... past our city...it just didn't stop there. SOOO, we got off on the next stop, hopped back on ANOTHER train, and finally made it to Vevey. The next day we took a bus to a castle, where we ran into a boy's choir (why not?)who was doing a tour and decided to sing in all of the rooms, which definately added some charm to the castle. We decided to walk back to our hostel all along the lake, which was ...

... year. It was like a class/school reunion, i caught up with most of the people from my class and surprised a few! A cool funk band played as well as a band that played music from the middle ages, with funny singing, drums and old bagpipe things. I then learnt the funniest word I've heard in German so far, the word for bagpipe is.... DUDELSACK!!!! It was interesting trying to explain what a 'doodle sack' is in Australia, but i think they understood enough to know not to make that mistake.

... concrete is known about Luzern until 1178, when an abbot established a lay order at the Kapellkirche (now St Peter's Chapel), indicating that quite a substantial settlement must have existed in the area. Around 1220, the opening of the Gotthard pass further south created new impetus for growth, with merchants and travellers setting sail from Luzern for the long trans-Alpine journey (the first lakeside road was built only in 1865). Eyeing the prosperity flowing ...

... e führende Position in d** Entwicklung nur ein momentan**, ein vorüb**gehend** Zustand in einem dynamischen Prozess ist. So viel zum Stand uns**** geistigen und technischen Entwicklung. Ein and**** Aspekt, d** in uns**** sogenannt zivilisi**ten Welt g**ne v**gessen wird, ist d**jenige d** Menschlichkeit. Es mag zwar zutreffen, dass in uns**** Kultur die Rechte des Menschen geschützt sind und v**teidigt w**den. V**brechen gegen die Humanität finden nur noch in den sogenannt ...

... Wetter hat sich dank Nordföhn wieder gebessert, und nur ein heftiger Gegenwind lässt mich die Anstrengungen der letzten Tage noch doppelt spüren. Ich lege seit über zehn Tagen oder seit meinem Aufenthalt in Bozen täglich zwischen 70 und 130 km zurück und besonders die vergangenen Tage im Regen sind jeweils lange und zäh gewesen. Doch dies ist schnell vergessen als ich den Lago Maggiore erreiche. Bei traumhaftem Wetter sitze ich in einem Gartencafé, schlürfe Espresso ...

... that..." which I take to mean "mom, mom, why can't this guy say anything that makes any sense." She then looks at me and grins a funny 9 year old crooked grin and then laughs hysterically. Ah, pride, I think it's over rated. Today, I walked around and familiarized myself with this lovely "little" town. I started out at 9:30am and returned to the house around 8:00 pm. I think I stopped to sit for about an hour. I read at the shore of Lake Geneva until it started to rain ...