Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:39:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 1 honda accord, 2 planes, 13 trains, 1 hotel shuttlevan, 4 days, lots of chocolate, 10 hours sleep, 2 people, "wildlife" that rivals Vancouver, 440 pictures (or 441 or 932 depending on what you feel like counting), and more mountain peaks and lakes than anyone can count! (so far)
Dear everybody,
Guten abend or tag.
Its been one helluva trip so far, and its not over yet -- I still have one more night left :). I've given the synopsis in the subject line. This is probably going to be one LONG email, so if you dont want to read any further you can hit the delete button now :) ... otherwise, well otherwise you're just STUCK READING THIS THING! So NO COMPLAINTS!
Ok I'm trying to remember back... waaaay back to Thursday night. Hmmmm.. lets see, my brother and his kids dropped me off at SFO on Thursday night, and remarkably, my redeye flight to JFK was not only on time but EARLY! No adventures like on my birthday trip to Cancun. Of course I wouldn't have cared much if it was late -- I had an 11 hour layover in JFK. Didn't go to the city, basically spent the whole day (Friday I think -- its all very blurry now) at the airport. Thanks have to go out to everyone who kept me company and made the day seem much shorter than it was! :)
Overnight Friday into Satudrday morning = 51st crossing of that big blue thing in between North America and Europe. Pretty uneventful. Dinner. Movie. Another movie. Another movie. Two episodes of "Two and a Half Men". Breakfast. A game of Tetris.
Thats right -- I didn't sleep.
The whole flight.
Mistake.
I knew I needed it, so as soon as I got out of Customs (which by the way was FANTASTIC this time, the guy even asked me the standard questions but in the end he just said something like "oh ok" when I told him I'm here for 2 days, and then let me go -- that has never happened before when they ask me THAT question!) hmmm where was I? Customs... After customs.... Bought a big can of Red Bull, freshened up the fastest I have ever done so at Zurich airport, checked the weather on my iphone, and decided "Luzern, Interlaken, Jungfrau. Today. NOW."
The weather forecast called for sunny and warm on Sunday (no, wait -- that was Saturday, sorry)... and rain on Sunday (today... yeah ok I got it now). So I FINALLY went to one of the two places my brother has been nagging me about ever since my second trip to Europe -- Jungfraujoch.
First was a stopover at Luzern to check into the hotel. No time for a shower though -- I literally dropped my roller bag in the room and walked back out to the train station to catch the train to Interlaken.
Had I read Rick Steve's book on Switzerland, I would have sat on the right side of the train. I sat on the left side, which I quickly found out was the "bad side". All the scenery is on the right! No problem.... there are no seat assignments on the train!
The journey is very scenic -- provided you're sitting on the right/correct side of the train. First there are mountains. And lakes. Then some more mountains. Then another lake. Then some really tall mountains which are covered with ice. Then another BIG lake, with views of even more mountains! I took about 90 pictures on that 2-hour train ride (41 of which have somehow made it to the website). From Interlaken I had to catch another train to the town of Grindelwald, leaving in under 10 minutes. No problem there. But this train was packed with people, even in 1st class! Basically I was lucky to find a seat...
At Grindelwald, there's another change of train to Klein Scheidegg and finally the last train straight up through tunnels in Eiger up to Jungfrau. I think among this email's recipient list, whoever has been to Switzerland has been to Jungfrau. So I wont get into too many details (practically none). You guys can skip the next paragraph!
Big brother was right. Honestly I'm surprised it took me this long to see Jungfrau! Well, not that I didn't try before... it just so happened that this was my first trip! Its a wonderful mountain, reminded me of Molas Pass in Colorado -- the rocky edges look exactly like that. But this one had ice all over it! And its a lot more touristy -- even an Indian restaurant on the top of the mountain! No I didn't eat there. I'm not going to Switzerland to eat Indian food. (ahem). As for the scenery, I'll let the pictures do the talking!
I couldn't stay up there very long because it was 2 1/2 hours by train to Interlaken and then another 2 hours back to Luzern. I hadn't had any sleep since about 5 AM Eastern time on Friday morning. It was now about 5PM Europe Time Saturday afternoon!
The day wasn't over yet though -- Klein Scheidegg has a great ice cream cart. oh yeah, and a hot dog stand but that wasn't as good. From Interlaken to Luzern I sat on the right (correct) side of the train, but it was getting dark anyway so didn't see too much.
Well, a sane person would have taken a shower and gone to bed after reaching Luzern. But I was hungry. Not for food, just hungry in my own way :)
I texted one of you on Saturday evening saying Luzern has now become my favorite city in Switzerland. The night views are SUPERB! There's a lake next to the train station, with what appears to be a river (I say its part of the lake, others may disagree) and a lot of bridges over both. The combination of these, with the surrounding buildings, all lit up at night, along with the boats, the swans, and the taste of a couple of pastries and a fruit sorbet cocktail concoction something-or-other all made for a great night out on the town!!! Not even the graffiti that said "Tourists go home!" could dampen my mood! This was fantastic. I was out till well past midnight -- I know that because thats when I realized all the restaurants are closed and I'm not eating dinner tonight.
So I came back to the motel and did the sane person thing.
Day 2 to be continued in next email........ I'm not going to proofread this email ... its midnight and I have a lot to say about Day #2, so forgive me for any typos above :)
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| Aug 29 | Contents | Aug 31 |