Day 17 - Genève

This is how I charge my phone in Switzerland, with an adapter for Europe and one for Switzerland. Not sure why they couldn't use the same plugs as the rest of Europe, but my argument takes me back to the idea that for some reason the Swiss must do things diferently.

Switzerland is very expensive. Period. But at least tourists checking into hotels get a free pass for public transit, which comes in very handy when otherwise a ticket valid for one hour is 3CHF in Geneva. 

We started the day swimming in Lake Lèman (aka Lake Geneva to the world), which is quite clean and warm. Entrance to the "beach" is 3CHF, and on the same beach you can also eat fish among other young people tired of seeing only banks and watch boutiques.  Horologeries.  

We met my friend Nicole who came from Paris to see us, and then went together to the United Nations.  

This was my favorite room, with a ceiling created by a Spanish artist who was inspired by the ocean waves as symbol of unity for all peoples.  

I didn't realize, but UN uses a world projection from the North Pole, so there is no argument about whether to split the Earth map across the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans. 

The tour was interesting, yet I appreciated the most the plaza in front of the UN, and the symbol of the wobbling three-legged chair is telling for the world affairs I believe. 

After more coffee, raspberry with creme Gruyere, Läderach Swiss chocolate, and a stroll in the Old Town, we waved adieu to Nicole and returned to the hotel to pack the luggage. 

We wanted to eat again those amazing berries but the main grocery store, Coop, was closed at 7:45PM.  This reminded me of the convenience we have at home, so I think I'm ready to return. We had a fantastic vacation, but now look forward to a safe return. 

I hope everyone enjoyed traveling with us!

Day 16 - Bonjour, Genève!

I was sad to leave Bern, but happy to go to Geneva.  It's the travel moods. La vieille ville is tucked in the heart of the town-starting at Bel Air, and is similar to the old Bern. Lots of hustle-bustle is concentrated on the Lake Lèman's shore, from the high end fashion and watch stores to restaurants and banks.  

This is the Rhône river rushing from the Alps and going into the lake. 

But the attraction is the Jet D'Eau.  

We played with it a bit at night...

I've seen more Arab/Muslim families here than anywhere else, on the streets, boutiques, Rolls Royces and restaurants.  Everything from water and coffee to Swiss watches is nauseatingly expensive.  

We had a true fondue traditional from the Valais region (see the interesting lights in this restaurant, which have a hand made handkerchief with embroidery covering the actual lightbulb), with a very tasty tomato salad.  This could not be complete without "framboise au crème Gruyère". Delicious to die for! Fresh and loaded with sweetness and flavor, although I had so much cheese and cream, my veins are thick...  I also had a white wine, but we had such a great time, I can't recall its name. 

We also had a "show" for dinner. French and Swiss people from surrounding tables got me into conversations and flirting and we witnessed even high tension moments. One French man ex legionnaire stirred up everyone like in a French movie, and we even talked about the old dictatorship in Romania!

Chloe couldn't enjoy these, but I thought it was a rich night

Final notes: 

1. Have you ever seen an automatic shoe polishing machine in the US? 

2. With so many bikes and pedestrian and bike areas, this is what many traffic lights look like

3. Geneva is a very friendly and humane city, and one way to facilitate it is to gather a bunch of chaise-longs under a wifi hotspot!

Tomorrow is our last day in Europe. We're already getting very nostalgic... 

Day 15 - Bern

I am so utterly upset that we came all the way here to the heart of the Alps and did not get to see the mighty Matterhorn! This morning I stared for a while in the direction where its peak should have materialized from the clouds but no chance... All I saw were clouds and more clouds. White, whitish, grey and greysh... We stayed in Täsch, about 1800 meter altitude, but Matterhorn, which is the highest mountain placed entirely in Switzerland, is over 4000 meters. Quite a beast, a national symbol and an obsession. Even if I didn't see it, I saw his picture on posters, ads, napkins and calendars, it was painted on walls, towels, and train tickets... Ad nauseam! 

Oh, at least the scenery was breathtaking, temperature was reasonable, and Swiss pastries soothed our guts.

We also had a second disappointment today. The Swiss! I got ripped off at the train station in Zermatt, where I paid for first class tickets to Visp (on the way to Bern) but I was handed 2nd class tickets (half price) and I didn't notice. The train conductor did! Although I was confident  that speaking English or Italian will make me less of a prey to such rip-offs, even the Swiss are thieves. Seriously! 

But the best part of the day was actually visiting Bern.  The old town has rows of houses with pointy roofs in different shades of rusty reds and with a gorrest of attic windows and chimneys. Again, flower posts (petunias and geraniums) hanging from windows somehow make up for the lack of trees.

Below these columns in some places are more stores, which are located in the basement and therefore are accessed by stepping down below the side walk.  These are their entrances locked of course, because on Sunday there is NO store open in Bern! 

Also, very often street lights hang in the middle of the street with wires, since there are no lampposts on these mostly pedestrian streets with an occasional tram or trolley bus.

The Aare river meanders through beautifully. 

One can hear a bell sound of some kind - either from a town clock or a church- every hour and half hour. 

We passed by the Einstein House, next to which was a place I had to laugh at - definitely not to be associated with genius!

We wandered around the old town Bern and found the Münster Platform overlooking the Aare. Saw some incredible gardens there by the river.

We then stopped to eat a snack of perfect simplicity and taste in a park by the river.

Traditional Swiss bread, mouth watering cheese, and an offendingly delicious ice cream... Excuse me, Starbucks, all you see in this picture was €18, whereas a small cappuccino and a grande refresher at Starbucks were €13! 

Final impressions of the day: 

1. We saw so many Chinese tourists, it often felt like we were back home in Arcadia, 

2. I find Swiss people cold and stiff. They don't smile and chat like Italians or other warmer blooded Europeans.  Or maybe that's because I don't speak in German to them. 

3. Traditional Swiss food from this area is heavy.  Examples: raclette, fondue and capun, as well as many entrecôte kinds... But I forgive them because the berries are to die for. 😄

Day 14 - Glacier Express

To everyone sweating in Southern California, sorry, we wore down jackets today and wandered vertically between about 1600 feet in Chur to over 6000 feet in the Oberal Pass.  We started the day overcast in St Moritz, when we boarded the Glacier Express 

and got off after 8 h in Zermatt, with rain and same temperature.  Thus the down jackets...

Note: I wish I could use a computer to blog and hyperlink to all the places I mention, but with limited Internet access and time to write, it's impossible to do it on the phone.  I'll do this at home, upon arrival. 

The Glacier Express goes through three cantons and hundreds of villages, viaducts and tunnels.  The Alps dominate the landscape so the sky is always smaller than an eye watching over you.  But the panorama train allows everyone to get a perfect view.

I tried to take in everything, because I felt overwhelmed by beauty and emotions.  There were cows, sheep and goats grazing undisturbed, pretty villages with a handful of houses--all embellished with flowers--waterfalls, the Rhine, grass of all shades of green. Cable cars crisscrossed above us, and fog or low clouds reminded us that not much can be hoped meteorologicaly at that altitude.

We admired the chalets made of larchwood with tall granite base to prevent mice from climbing in.  The wood was darkened by sun, but the overall air of order and neatness was reinforced with white window sills and pots of geranium hanging from most windows.

Best things about this train itself were the lack of wifi and the fact that it is powered with green hydro energy.  The worst thing was the outrageous prices for food and drinks!  Beer was cheaper than water ( prices in Swiss Francs, so the water bottle was about $6.5 for half a quart):

In the same time, the water bottle I carried with me on the trip saved my savings account. I filled it with crisp tap water and so when we could, we didn't have to buy the bottled water.  Tap water in Switzerland seems to come straight from a melting glacier!

Unfortunately, the rain prevented me from taking pictures and the same guilty clouds prevented us from seeing THE mighty Mattehorn once arrived in Zermatt. Maybe we get a glimpse of the beast tomorrow, but at least this small ski town that is car-free like Venice is enchanting! Below is a picture of just the train station!

The mini cabs are the only ones allowed in the town. 

Otherwise, we can't have enough berries, which are packed with flavor!

And I discovered this cake that is absolutely divine and I will pay a translator from the Egadine valley to give me the recipe in English!

Final notes for today:

- as much as this country is extremely clean, extremely organized and extremely beautiful (sorry, ran out of adjectives), it's also terribly expensive (a bowl of soup and a chicken tikka masala for $45! Without even water or coffee or other "luxuries! Or $20 at McDonalds for a chicken nuggets and chicken sandwich, again no drinks or extras!)

- "What are you, Swiss?" Resonates with me -something Italians often say. I see their point. The electric plugs are different, the currency is different, their interaction with tourists is different.

- Still, for some reason the Swiss, in their perfect world, haven't figured out how to eliminate the flies. Or maybe in this cheese and milk country, they are simply ignored. As a foreigner though, I fought them on the train, in the nice stores in St Moritz and even in the nicest bakeries... 

But I forgive them! We're having a blast and must recommend the Glacier Express to everyone. And the Alps and... Travel... 

Day 13 - The Bernina Pass

The beauty of a train ride is that you can glue your nose to the window and take in everything like when you read a good book and you immerse yourself so much in it that you forget about everything else.  This is what happened to me today. We left Innsbruck and went by train to St Moritz via Chur, through the Bernina Pass.  The path is ranked by UNESCO as the third most beautiful in the world said the train conductor, and I can only agree that is one of the most beautiful. Period. The best I've ever seen so far, although the competition given by the Anchorage-Fairbanks scenic route was no less significant. 

Similar to Austria, the mountain villages in Switzerland also have the houses spread apart, but clustered around streets, which allows a lot of green space among them. Hay shacks made of dark wood and hay stacks rolled in shiny white plastic to protect from rain look like huge candy pieces spread over green lawns.

Very often, there are alternating corn and hay lots, with a house farm in the back.  Always the tall tower of a church dominates the sky the middle of the community.

The Filisur to Bergün is the best and highest part of the ride, and I recommend this trip from the bottom of my heart.  

Once arrived in St Moritz, the adventures started! First, we figured that the travel agent didn't book a hotel as promised. We managed to get one room in a not very very expensive decent hotel that had a nail salon next door. 

We tried to get a manicure since we've been for a while on the road and desperately needed some grooming. However, we discovered that the salon was operated by one grouchy old lady only who told us she could do our manicure next week 😄.  I said that if we afforded such a long stay, we'd go to a posh spa! 

We meant to buy fruit and snacks for tomorrow on the Glacier Express, but got so inspired by the supermarkt food, had a scrumptious dinner in the room! Tired of potatoes and fried food, we got sushi, two cornetti con crema di vagnilia and the best tasting trio of berries ever! Incredible quality food, great taste, and not a lot more expensive than in our supermarket. 

Go Alps!!!

This was after we took the funicular to go up to Corviglia -a 5 min ride worth 50CHF!  The view of the city and the Alps was stunning though.  

Funny how the euros are accepted but the rest is given in CHF.  However, I cannot use euro coins, only bills. 

We get around everywhere speaking Italian although I expected people to speak mostly French and German (or Romansh). This is because we are so close to Italy. 

Finally, yes, I did get dark chocolate from a boutique and it was ... Ah, so good!

Day 12 - Hot Salzburg and Innsbruck

Hot, hot, hot: 91F today. 

Hot also as in attractive beauty! Both in Salzburg and Innsbruck, the ski capital of Austria. And water is not free here. We probably spent 20€ today only on still water to stay hydrated in the heat... Need to find a supermarket before going bankrupt! 

The fast intercity train (230 km/h or 150 mph) took us from Vienna to Salzburg in time to view at least the Thursday market, which left us with watering mouths at the strawberries, blueberries, red and black currant as well as raspberries on sale. But I kept thinking about how such a train would save Californians tons of time if the billet train were to be built between San Diego and San Francisco. It would also reduce the carbon emissions. Austrians allowed it in a country much smaller than California, but some Californians oppose it without thinking of its benefits. 

Today's impressions:

1. Viennese people speak English and are nicer and friendlier than the rest of the Austrians. 

2. Austrian food is all about meat and potatoes, but we found some great restaurants, such as this one in Innsbruck in an old church.

3. Best view of Salzburg and area is from the fortress above, Hohensalzburg.  Too bad it rained with tourists today and it was hard to get a good picture. I can only imagine the crowds in Paris and London... 

4. Salzburg Cathedral had free wifi. Where people prayed, we checked email, a sacrilege, and admired the magnificent interior. Not sure this was where Maria got married to Captain Von Trapp 😀

5. The train ride from Salzburg toInnsbruck is superb and besides the deer, mountains and lush green cultivated terrain, I loved the log cabins or houses with red geraniums cascading from under their windows and logs already prepared for the winter in their huge yards...

6. And back to Salzburg, we finally tried the sachertorte and found it delicious. Especially when eaten under (again!) the quirky street signs, below the fortress...

Day 11 - Butterflies, Belvedere Castle, and more

We started the day at the Butterfly House, in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, after running through some serious sprinklers.  It was only 11AM but already hot!

We also met Mozart (his statue actually) at the entrance, putting us in a cheerful mood. 

Luckily his statue, unlike many many others, is not covered in a mesh to be protected from birds/pigeons.  

On the opposite side from the "Mozart entrance" was Cafe Landtmann, apparently a Viennese institution famous for the coffee and apfelstrudel.  Indeed, a balance of sweet, spicy and soft but textured food flooded our palates. Iced cappuccino a glorious failure though...

Here are my daily impressions:

1. Many Austrians and Europeans in general smoke! Especially at restaurants, outside. All restaurant tables have ashtrays, but not water. Not my idea of healthy. 

2. Vienna is clean, not too crowded with cars and people like Rome and Paris, and more civilized. No cars are parked on sidewalks, streets are clean, and blind people are helped by lines smartly imprinted in the sidewalks. The bike and pedestrian lanes are beautifully marked, too. 

 3. Everyone speaks English! Seriously! 

4. The Hollywood current is influencing even Vienna, otherwise I can't explain these stars...

(I love my shoes, so I wanted to acknowledge that by keeping them in the picture)

5.  Old street signs for stores and trades are adorable! This is in English, but most are in German. 

6. Vienna has the most adorable traffic lights I've ever seen! Do you agree?

7. The view of the city from the Belvedere Castle is  stunning. 

Day 10 - Mazes, Schnitzel, and St. Stephens Cathedral...

... and so much more! Vienna is such a nice surprise to me! It has everything that's so overrated about Paris and Rome, I.e., art, history, music, great food, and character, without the big fanfare.  And it has even more: the Torture Museum and the Collection of Anatomical Pathology!  No time for those though...

We started the day with a to-die-for breakfast (yes, pastries!), then got a Vienna card and started the adventure.  Kids up to 14 years travel free on the metro, buses and trams, and the card also gives discounts to several museums, stores and restaurants.  

We visited the Schönbrunn Palace Gardens for half of a sizzling day, including the maze, which was so well done we couldn't get to the tree at the end. We chilled at a kiosk that had the biggest pretzels 

and then read about labyrinths.

These are actually finger labyrinths and they were much easier than the life sized one. 

We hopped back on the metro and spent the rest of the day around Stefansplatz, in the most popular, touristically dense area of Vienna from St Stephen's Cathedral 

to the famous opera we all love to see every January 1!  I didn't get to admire the interior of it, but for 0.70€ I did visit the Opera Toilet.

Here is a brief list of favorites: wandering around streets in Innere Stadt,

And the boutiques (wishing for this little LV trunk!),

eating finger food sandwiches at Trzesniewski, a perfect schnitzel with cucumber salad at Figlmüller and a Chocolate of Austria ice cream (or coffee) at Zanoni & Zanoni, 

admiring the Swarovski crystals at home, and of course enjoying the Starbucks wifi in a location of unique beauty (check out the wall paper pattern behind me!)

Time to go to bed now!

We're happily exhausted, caring for our blisters and preparing for more of everything tomorrow! I love Vienna!