Day 11 & 12: Our Last Days in Switzerland

I’m writing this on the train to from Lucerne, Switzerland to Salzburg, Austria. It’s about a 4 hour ride and thankfully the standard of trains in Europe is much higher than in the United States. We got the Eurail pass which is a four day pass that you have to use within a month that lets you travel across Europe to 25 different countries.

Basically you go to the website, put in where you are starting and where you want to end up and it tells you what train to take, the connections and all the times. It’s pretty impressive that they have coordinated this many trains across so many countries and is definitely the way to go if you are traveling in Europe.

Yesterday we explored Lucerne some more. We went to this Glacier Museum that didn’t really seem like it would be that entertaining but it ended up being a blast.

We rode some animals:

Looked at some really big holes:

And conquered the mirror maze that had 90 mirrors.

More like walked around with our arms outstretched, which kind of seemed like cheating, but we really didn’t feel like walking in mirrors.

Later in the day my uncle took us around town and we went to this high-priced watch store. This store is mainly for Asian tourist. Tour busses park right in front of this place and the tour groups go straight into the shop. Most of the people working their to my surprise spoke multiple Asian languages. It felt like I was in a China-Town

In the past three days it feels like I’ve spent more time with my uncle’s family than I have in my entire life. When I was younger (like twenty years) ago I visited this part of my family and we did have two family reunions in Alaska and Taiwan.  I have some memories of these trips but they don’t carry very much meaning.

They did come to America for my wedding a couple years ago, which was fantastic. However if you’ve been through a wedding you know that these events don’t get you very much time to spend with individuals.  Even though we haven’t spent that much time together, my aunt, uncle and cousin were very warm and welcoming and as I entered their apartment it started to make sense why.

Around the apartment were some of the same family pictures that are up in my parent’s house. My uncle had many of the same books my mom had including a cookbook she gave my uncle as a wedding present. These connections were material but represented something much deeper that came out as we started talking.

I learned about how my two uncles, aunt and my mom lived together as teenagers in Taipai away from my grandparents.  He told me about one of the times he met my father barging into my mom’s room pulling an older brother move wondering why there were some many people in her room.  We looked through old family pictures I had never seen before with pictures of my mom when she a young teen and my grandparents as young adults. And as my aunt pointed out, I look surprisingly like my uncle did when he was my age.

While I can’t quantify why learning about my history was important, I can tell you that it felt significant. I believe that it’s in our history that we find ourselves and as I felt closer to my Swiss relatives I felt prouder of my own family and my heritage.  I leave Switzerland with stories of the past but also with new shared experiences that we can reflect on in the future.

Lucerne

Day 9 & 10: Waterfalls & My Swiss Relatives

On our last morning in the mountains we decided to check out this amazing waterfall that was right outside our hotel.

After about a 15 minute hike we ended up behind the waterfall about 1/3 the way up the mountain. 

The view was pretty amazing and the spray of water mixed with the drops of water coming off the rocks sparkled in the sunlight.

On the way down there was a drinking fountain that leads into a pool and a dog decided to take a dip when his owner led him to the fountain.

 

He was very satisfied with himself.  By the way, this is an Australian Shepherd Dog (Aussie for short).  One thing we've noticed is that all of them here have their full tales.  In America they cut-off the tails when they are babies.  This messes with their balance which is probably why the Swiss Aussie's hold their heads higher than American ones.  It's illegal in Switzerland to cut-off dog's tails and we've seen multiple Aussie's here waving about their beautiful tales.  Any arguments you hear for "docking" dog's tails is complete garbage . . . back to Switzerland. 

After seeing this cute dog we got on the train and headed toward Lucerne.  My mother's older brother left from Taiwan to Switzerland for college.  When he was there he fell in love with a Swiss girl, got married and settled down in Switzerland.  In addition to a Swiss aunt, I have a half-Swiss cousin who is completing his Master's degree in Zurich, which is about 45 minutes away from Lucerne. 

We've had some great times catching up with my relatives.  We've explored Lucerne and Zurich and really enjoyed both cities.  While it is nice to explore a new city and enjoy getting lost, it's nice to have locals that you trust show you around. 

My favorite moment in Lucerne so far has been spending time with my to my uncle, aunt and cousin. about.  While we haven't spent that much time together because they live across the world there's an amazing connection we share.  It's awakened a feeling inside of me somewhere between the comfort of home and the warmth of family.

Day 7 & 8: Making Good Choices

Today we explored the Jungfrau region from the bottom, exploring the valley near Interlaken. We took a horse ride in the area, saw some beautiful scenery and our horse took a dip in the beautiful Thuner Sea (the something-lake).

And then about 15 minutes later I fell off the horse. We were galloping and as my horse turned my saddle started falling to the right and as he made another turn I feel off. Luckily I landed square on my butt. Yeah . . . we did a slow walk for the reminder of the ride but the trotting and galloping was fun while it lasted.

Mom, relax, I’m really fine. As horse falls go this was the best way to do it.

Later I’ll write about my experiences with horses, a place called Rancho and the insane, freeing, terrifying and utterly exhilarating feeling of riding on a horse that is running.

Onto another day of making great choices.  

Watch as Diana goes on the unbeaten path and hopefully not fall off the mountain.

On the way to this lake:

Here's Diana explaining where we are:



Then there's Diana deciding to go down the mountain in the most logical way.

OMG, the cameras have taken over!!!

An awesome way to end our last full day in Lauterbrunnen.

Days 5 & 6: Lauterbrunnen, Finding Our Way

We successfully mastered the European transportation system by getting from Evian, France to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

It really was kind of simple:

1. Take a boat from Evian to Lausanne
2. Get on the subway from the shore to the train station in Lausanne
3. Take the Lausanne train to Bern
4. Miss the connection to Interlaken because apparently Swiss-German public bathroom require you to pay so we had to . . .
5. Hit the ATM
6. Get some food from McDonalds (mainly to get change), 
7. FINALLY manage to get the bathroom to work for us, use the ticket office computer to find the next train AND then . . .
8. Take the train from Bern to Interlaken
9. Take the train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen
10. Ask for directions to our hotel twice because when people point and tell you in meters how far the hotel is, I have NO idea how much walking that actually entails.

And . . . we . . . are. . . here.

No, this area does not look exactly like Rivendell. It looks better.  As Miley Cyrus would say it, this place is beautiful like “yeah.”  Actually more like what Joey Lawrence used to say in Blossom, this place is gorgeous like “woah.”

The day after we got here we hiked and it was pretty amazing.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking. 

Diana + big mountain valley = happiness

That's Diana on top to provide a little perspective.

A tree somehow finding a way on the side of a rock face.

Diana adding to the stone sculpture garden we found.

And I hope all of you have a good "fahrt" too.  heehee

Days 3 and 4: Geneva, Evian, Lausanne, Thonon - Make a Mistake With Me

So right now we are in France—about a week and a half ahead of time.

At least the day started out as planned . . .

We had a great time exploring the historical side of Geneva. We checked out St. Pierre’s Cathedral, which had an amazingly cool archeological site underneath showing church runs. We also checked out the Reformation museum, which sounds lame but was really interesting. The best part of that was a small room that had music scores from the time of John Calvin and buttons you could hear to play recordings of the music.

We played one of those games of chess on huge chessboards (each square was about a foot and a half square). This Albanian guy was watching and helping Diana, making sounds whenever Diana was about to make a bad move. His English wasn’t very good, which made it all the more hilarious. Diana won, she claims because of her skill; I think it was because of the Albanian.

While Geneva is awesome it’s expensive, like a bottle of Coke is $4.50 expensive. So we stayed at a Holiday Inn outside of downtown and decided that we could find a cheaper place outside of Geneva.

I found a place that seemed awesome, at a great price. On hotel.com it claimed to be 7 miles outside of Geneva. Yeah, after a confusing and then boring two-hour cab ride (good thing our cabbie spoke English) we ended up in Evian, which by the way is in FRANCE, not Switzerland.

This hotel is 3/4 price of the Holiday Inn and they have complimentary Evian water. The hotel is SO much nicer. Nothing describes it better than the view outside the windows.

Holiday Inn Express, Geneva

barbed wire?!? Let’s get a close up.

La Verniaz, Evian:

oh yeah . . .

So we are not going to head back to Geneva another day. Instead we are going to explore northern France and Lausanne, Switzerland. During the cab ride I was beating myself up for making such a big mistake. When we got to the hotel Diana assured me it wasn’t a big deal and after an amazing evening and a great dinner, I’m glad Diana made a mistake with me.



The next day we hit Lausanne, which is across Lake Geneva back in Switzerland. We found a huge Swiss toy, which totally would not meet American safety regulations:

Also, the best train stop name EVER. And yes it’s pronounced exactly how it looks.

We hit Thonon (by accident—got on the wrong boat back), which sported a great view of Lake Geneva.

And we found what looked like a Gap knock-off. I decided not to buy the shirt that said "VERY SEXY" in bright red. Might not be appropriate for school.

I think the models are trying to eat each other. (Once we got inside, we found that the owners of this story have very little command of English, although the advertisement for "Fun Price!" seemed to be accurate.)

Tomorrow we are off to Lauterbrunnen, the area that inspired Tolkien’s Elf city, Rivendale from The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.

It better look exactly like I did in the movie, or else I’m going to have to write someone a letter.

Days 1 and 2: Geneva

There's something strangely familiar about Geneva. Maybe it's because it's a city on a lake, with a river winding through it. Maybe it's the Starbucks, the crepes, and the designer labels—not too far off what you find in any other European city. But I feel like I've been here before.

Geneva feels like France, but slightly off-kilter and prettier. Even the accents are a bit different. I think it's surprisingly like Chicago.

I had to snap the postcard view, and I'll probably take more pictures of it tomorrow. The sunset was very pretty tonight. The famous Geneva water spout didn't show up on my camera because it was so close in color and texture to the clouds, but I saw a rainbow on Lake Geneva as we descended in the plane.

Lots of swans glide around Lake Geneva. There were at least eight or nine preening themselves (basically, scratching their butts with their long necks). That posture wasn't befitting a swan, so here's a picture that is. Also, I like the creative way the Swiss tell you not to feed the swans.

 Kingsley invaded the postcard...

Since we're staying at the Holiday Inn tonight we wandered into two swanky hotels to people-watch. I ordered consomme at one and it was delicious. This flower arrangement is at the Four Seasons; I thought the textures were really cool. Evidently Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in Europe as far as hotels go; that's why we're going to be staying outside of the city tomorrow night.

-- Diana

Summer Break!

While I am really proud of the fact that for more than two and half years I have never missed a blog post (413 posts!), I think it might be a good time for me to take some time off.

So here's the deal, for the next month I'm taking a break from regularly posting on this blog.  I'm doing some traveling and while I may post my adventures, I don't want to be on vacation thinking about my next blog post. 

I'll be back in July with regular posts about music, teaching, Buffy and bananas.

Thanks for following the Purple Reaction.
-Kings