Switzerland is Pretty and Spain is Super!
Hey all,
Well the good news is that we have found a good, fast, hightech internet cafe where we can update our blogs...the bad news is that for some odd and underterminable reason photos just will not load onto my blog today. Don´t know why not...and it´s making me cranky....computers! Blah! If only they would do what I want them to do, and not what I tell them to do.
Humph.
Oh well. In the meantime you get to read while I blab on about how beautiful Switzerland is and about what a lovely time we had in Spain.
So, for the record: Switzerland is beautiful. For now, due to the whole lack of functioning computer situation, you will just have to take my word for it. (Or look at the photos on Brad´s blog...). Based upon the advice of some lovely folks we met in Romania, we went to Murren, Switzerland, which is near Interlocken. The truly wonderful thing about Murren is that there are only two ways to get to this picturesque town: By foot or by cable car. No trains, no planes, no cars or trucks! Nothing. It is high up in the mountains (great for hiking in summer and skiing in winter) and the cable car ride was about 1200 metres strait up the side of a cliff. It was sooooooo neat.
Another great thing about Murren is the food. Now, I know that the French are known for indulging in rich cheese dishes, but man! the French have nothing on the Swiss! One dish I ate while here was ´raclete´which is literally a plate of melted cheese that you eat with two or three baby potatoes! Another meal was fried potatoes covered with, yup you guessed it, masses and masses of cheese... The only reason that I did´nt gain 16 pounds during the 2 days in Murren is because Brad and I (shock and awe) got lost on a hike that was supposed to be a leisurely 2 or so hours across alpine fields, froliking with happy goats and milk-maids and such...Anway, as I say we got lost and walked for hours upon hours strait up a very, very, very steep mountain. A good (and necessary) work out, even if it was unintended...
After Switzerland, we headed south for Italy where we walked and climbed with Olga and Andreas, as outlined in a different entry. Then we went to Cannes, France for about a day and a half, which wasn´t nearly all it was cracked up to be. Expect for the ever so lovely beach, where we spend a highly enjoyable if decidedly lazy day.
After Cannes our travels took us futher West to Spain. While here, we´ve been to Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo and now we are in Granada. (Tommorrow we are going to see the Alhambra, about which I am very excited). Barcelona was fun; there were lots of neat buskers entertaining the hoards and crowds along Las Ramblas. But the highlight of Barcelona for most visitors, ourselves included was the Gaudi Architectural sites. Antonio Gaudi was an architect who worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and he was a genius. He was a great fan of dear old mother nature, and tried to incorporate natural designs into his own work. Three of his most famous works are: the Sagrada Famila (The Holy Family) which is an as yet unfinished Church, Park Gurell, and the Predrera which is an apartment building. When I am able to load the pictures, you will understand just how awesome this guy´s work really is.
After Barcelona, we had plans to go to Madrid by train where we would spend a few days with our friend Margarita and her boyfriend Alfonso. We picked which train we wanted to take, we emailed Margarita to let her know when we´d be arriving into Madrid and off we went to the train station, only to find out that, due to a National Holiday, all the trains to Madrid were totally full and there was no way we could get there!!! Ahhh!!! Stuck in Barcelona! With Margui expecting us in Madrid in a few hours!! What a nightmare. We ended up dashing all over town, trying to find out about other trains, car rentals, and even flights, but in the end we managed to get bus tickets, but even that was a really close call as Brad just managed to buy the last two seats on the last bus of the day to Madrid. Whew! So, I sent an urgent message, typing with my fingers crossed, to Margarita that we were no longer taking the train, but rather taking the bus, and down we sat for about 8 hours. Poor Margui did not recieve my urgent email until after wandering around the Madrid train station looking for us...but much to our relief, she and Alfonso were there at the bus station at 1:00am to meet us when we finally did arrive!
Despite the inauspicious beginning to our Madrid visit, we had an absolutely wonderful time. Margui and Alfonso were excellent hosts; they bought us tofu and fake meat, which I´m sure is not an easy task at all in Spain where even the desserts are meat based (just joking); they took us to all the cool sites in and around Madrid, including Toledo!!! I´ve been to Toledo! How cool is that?!?! They even took us out to a fantastic vegetarian restaurant with a bunch of their very nice friends and then we went out to a bunch of really cool Madrid bars. So much fun was had.
That´s it for tonight. Hopefully photos will successful tommorrow.
TK
Well the good news is that we have found a good, fast, hightech internet cafe where we can update our blogs...the bad news is that for some odd and underterminable reason photos just will not load onto my blog today. Don´t know why not...and it´s making me cranky....computers! Blah! If only they would do what I want them to do, and not what I tell them to do.
Humph.
Oh well. In the meantime you get to read while I blab on about how beautiful Switzerland is and about what a lovely time we had in Spain.
So, for the record: Switzerland is beautiful. For now, due to the whole lack of functioning computer situation, you will just have to take my word for it. (Or look at the photos on Brad´s blog...). Based upon the advice of some lovely folks we met in Romania, we went to Murren, Switzerland, which is near Interlocken. The truly wonderful thing about Murren is that there are only two ways to get to this picturesque town: By foot or by cable car. No trains, no planes, no cars or trucks! Nothing. It is high up in the mountains (great for hiking in summer and skiing in winter) and the cable car ride was about 1200 metres strait up the side of a cliff. It was sooooooo neat.
Another great thing about Murren is the food. Now, I know that the French are known for indulging in rich cheese dishes, but man! the French have nothing on the Swiss! One dish I ate while here was ´raclete´which is literally a plate of melted cheese that you eat with two or three baby potatoes! Another meal was fried potatoes covered with, yup you guessed it, masses and masses of cheese... The only reason that I did´nt gain 16 pounds during the 2 days in Murren is because Brad and I (shock and awe) got lost on a hike that was supposed to be a leisurely 2 or so hours across alpine fields, froliking with happy goats and milk-maids and such...Anway, as I say we got lost and walked for hours upon hours strait up a very, very, very steep mountain. A good (and necessary) work out, even if it was unintended...
After Switzerland, we headed south for Italy where we walked and climbed with Olga and Andreas, as outlined in a different entry. Then we went to Cannes, France for about a day and a half, which wasn´t nearly all it was cracked up to be. Expect for the ever so lovely beach, where we spend a highly enjoyable if decidedly lazy day.
After Cannes our travels took us futher West to Spain. While here, we´ve been to Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo and now we are in Granada. (Tommorrow we are going to see the Alhambra, about which I am very excited). Barcelona was fun; there were lots of neat buskers entertaining the hoards and crowds along Las Ramblas. But the highlight of Barcelona for most visitors, ourselves included was the Gaudi Architectural sites. Antonio Gaudi was an architect who worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and he was a genius. He was a great fan of dear old mother nature, and tried to incorporate natural designs into his own work. Three of his most famous works are: the Sagrada Famila (The Holy Family) which is an as yet unfinished Church, Park Gurell, and the Predrera which is an apartment building. When I am able to load the pictures, you will understand just how awesome this guy´s work really is.
After Barcelona, we had plans to go to Madrid by train where we would spend a few days with our friend Margarita and her boyfriend Alfonso. We picked which train we wanted to take, we emailed Margarita to let her know when we´d be arriving into Madrid and off we went to the train station, only to find out that, due to a National Holiday, all the trains to Madrid were totally full and there was no way we could get there!!! Ahhh!!! Stuck in Barcelona! With Margui expecting us in Madrid in a few hours!! What a nightmare. We ended up dashing all over town, trying to find out about other trains, car rentals, and even flights, but in the end we managed to get bus tickets, but even that was a really close call as Brad just managed to buy the last two seats on the last bus of the day to Madrid. Whew! So, I sent an urgent message, typing with my fingers crossed, to Margarita that we were no longer taking the train, but rather taking the bus, and down we sat for about 8 hours. Poor Margui did not recieve my urgent email until after wandering around the Madrid train station looking for us...but much to our relief, she and Alfonso were there at the bus station at 1:00am to meet us when we finally did arrive!
Despite the inauspicious beginning to our Madrid visit, we had an absolutely wonderful time. Margui and Alfonso were excellent hosts; they bought us tofu and fake meat, which I´m sure is not an easy task at all in Spain where even the desserts are meat based (just joking); they took us to all the cool sites in and around Madrid, including Toledo!!! I´ve been to Toledo! How cool is that?!?! They even took us out to a fantastic vegetarian restaurant with a bunch of their very nice friends and then we went out to a bunch of really cool Madrid bars. So much fun was had.
That´s it for tonight. Hopefully photos will successful tommorrow.
TK
posted by TK at 11:50 AM
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