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Switzerland
Entry 8 of 24 | show all | print this entry |
Sorry for the delay between entries. This has been one hectic week and we haven't gotten to an internet cafe in a while. So I'll start with this entry, then add some more for map points, then more.
After the soccer game on Saturday night, we took a 1:45 train out of Kaiserslautern, switched in Mannheim, Germany, and arrived in Basel, Switzerland around 6 am. Now, you have to know that Europe SUCKS on Sunday. Everything is closed, except some museums, but all the shops, restaurants and other attactions are closed. Granted it was 6 am, but we walked around a deserted Basel. It seemed like a nice little town, but we have no idea. We caught a 10 am train to Bern, the capital, where we were staying for that night, and since we hadn't slept all night, we passed out for 7 hours. Considering it was Sunday, we didn't miss much. After the nap, we walked around Bern, another quaint Swiss town, checking out an old Cathedral, a clock tower, small streets etc. Bern is known for the 3 bears which are kept in an enclosed area at the end of the main street, and we watched then Monday morning before heading to the Rose Garden atop a hill with a majestic view of the city.
Then in true backpacker fashion, instead of heading straight to Interlaken, we decided to hop the next train to Zurich, where I was pleasantly surprised. I expected a huge, modern city of business, but it's an old pleasant city, with great chocolate at Sprungli and businessmen in 3 piece suits. The main street has the train station at one end, and a huge lake at the other. A very nice town, highly recommended, for a few hours at least. We only spent 3 hours there before heading to Interlaken.
Interlaken is a very beautiful, but boring town. The town is small, the food isn't anything special (we actually ate dinner at Hooter's), but you go there for outdoors activities. We stayed at the Balmers Herberge which has NO amenities (no sheets, no locks on the doors, a crappy little breakfast, etc.) but it's the fun place to stay where everyone wants to have a good time. People went skydiving, bungee jumping, paragliding, whitewater rafting, etc. This could be one of those entries where I say 'MOM, I went skydiving, and I'm just telling you', but you all know that I'm too much of a whimp for that. I have no reason to jump out of a perfectly sturdy airplane with only some nylon on my back.
We did go canyoning though, in a river surrounded by high granite walls. We wore wetsuits, life jackets and helmets, and slid down waterfalls, repelled down 30 foot cliffs, jumped over waterfalls, walked through the river and ziplined. It was a lot of fun, and 5 girls from U of I were in our group, 2 AEPhis to boot, figures. That was a really fun time, and we then caught the late train to Milan so that we could fly to Athens the next morning. I told you it was a busy week. I'll tell you about Greece next.
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