6/24/08 Tuesday ~ Travel Journal

Interlaken, Switzerland

10am

We are leaving Interlaken. Such a sad day! This area is so beautiful and the best camping we've stayed in so far...Although all of them have had different good qualities.

We really enjoyed paragliding and rafting and although I am sure we'll see awesome things in Austria and Germany, I am really sad to leave Switzerland. By this afternoon sometime we should be in Halstatt, Austria - which looked gorgeous in pictures. I am excited to go but like any new place, a little apprehensive about what we'll find. Also I would like to explore Salzburg a little. I didn't realize this before, but a fellow camper mentioned it's the town where the sound of music happened.

12:53pm

We have just kind of realized that today is going to be a travel day. Our path was Interlaken to Bern to Zurich and now from Zurich to Salzburg to Halstatt. Our train leaves at 1:40pm and gets to Salzburg at around 7:30pm. Then it's another hour or so to Halstatt. Fun.

9:28pm
Well, we are really veering from the schedule now. We've been traveling since 10am and will have been traveling since 10am and will have been on the train for 12 hours total. We met George who sat in our coachette. He got off in Innsbruck, Austria. Then we had some boys sit with us. They didn't speak English. Then a mother and daughter came to sit with us and now we are going to stay the night with them in Vienna, Austria! Ingrid is the mother and Merriam is the daughter. Ingrid invited us to come visit and since we were already on the way there, we just stayed on the train! Kinda crazy...Earlier we were discussing American schools because Merriam wants to go for a semester to a U.S school when she is sixteen. She's not sure where, but she s only 13. She has a few years to decide. Ingrid is completing her masters degree in event planning and will be done in two months. Is it strange that we're staying with complete strangers?! I mean obviously Ingrid feels comfortable enough to invite us so we're good with it. I'm not sure how long we'll stay. We'll see what happens.

Earlier when George was chatting with us, he brought up the fact that he is wanting to convert to Judaism. he had brought some kosher meat back from Zurich and anyways we got into a conversation with him about what we believe. I think it was really good. I ended up falling asleep, but Jere was doing most of the talk anyways :) Jere said after George left that he thinks it opened George's eyes a little or just gave him something to think about. He definitely just seemed like he is searching. He was a very nice boy (23 years old) and he just got his teaching certificate for kindergarten teaching. He seemed very excited and full of hope for the possibility of caring for kids at that young age. Jere got his email address so maybe we can contact him sometime. His village only has 1,200 people - very small. he will be moving to Vienna to teach though. All in all, we have met some great people so far and now we're on another adventure. I hope to still visit Halstatt. Maybe on our way from Vienna to Munich we can do that.

11:45pm
I am sitting in Ingrid's apartment and I feel a bit crazy. Are we really here?! In Vienna, Austria where no on knows we're here because even we didn't know we would come here until a couple of hours ago. Mainly we're crazy because we have gone from Venice to Budapest to Zurich/Interlaken to Vienna to Munich. Look at it on a map - we have zig zagged across FIVE different countries! Not good planning...but we are okay with it. Tomorrow we'll explore Vienna and decide what to do next. My first impression of Vienna is that it's a nice city - In the dark at least :) We arrived at the main train station and took a tram straight to their flat. We had to make change to buy the tickets to it took a little longer than normal. We came to a nice looking building with a nice looking entry. We walked up two flights of stairs made in stone and the staircase was curved. We walked into an apartment with high ceilings, light oak furniture and windows that look into the garden. I love their chair covers for their dining room (brown) and the table cloth is a simple one with a shimmering sheer fabric on top. Every thing seems understated, yet bold. Their living room walls are a light orange and the bedroom we're in is a light mustard yellow. Tastefully done, not tacky. The house feels nice and lived in and I feel privileged to peek into their lives.

6/23/08 Monday ~ Travel Journal

Interlaken, Switzerland

3:45pm

Today I went rafting for the time. It was great! I wish there had been more rapids but it was a lot of fun. We bought the pictures and there's a really good shot of Jere putting on his helmet.

See that couple in the foreground, left hand side?? We realized later that it's us making out...

This crazy guy was from New Zealand and is demonstrating how to pull someone back into the raft. His voice was hoarse from yelling over the rapids all the time and he was hilarious. He had quite a few missing teeth (presumably from crazy rafting) and an interesting hair style. He pulled it off well though.

Our guide was Todd-from New Zealand. He's been here for three years rafting for two years. We have had a blast here in Interlaken and I am SO GLAD we decided to come here!! I am going to suggest it to everyone. I really think Jodie would enjoy working here with all the outdoor activities - He would definately fit in somewhere. We talked about canyoning tomorrow but we still have two more countries and cities to visit before we leave to go home this upcoming Sunday. We'll probably leave in the morning. Tonight we might grill at the camp with Sam and Courtney. That sounds really nice to me. :)


5pm

I was laying down and woke up to a splash and people screaming......so I got out of the tent and came out to the common area. People are jumping into the canal and swimming down a ways! I think they're German. Whatever they are, they are definately crazy for sure. That water is miserably cold! It's glacial ice melt!

6/22/08 Sunday ~ Travel Journal

Interlaken, Switzerland

4:55pm

We went paragliding today!! It was awesome. We ended up buying the pictures, but this is kinda once in a lifetime! This morning Jere walked into town and paid for our paragliding and our rafting for tomorrow. We left at 1:45pm and just got back a little bit ago. This morning I did laundry and played cards until Jere got back. We ate lunch, played cards and finished laundry and left for paragliding. Just a normal day - right? No, it was awesome.

After we got back we've been playing cards and hanging out. We'll probably go to the square in town to watch the game tonight. Italy and Spain are playing so it should be good :) We've been hanging out with Darby, Jennifer, Elena, Jason and Brett.

We also met Sam and Courtney today and I think they're going with us to watch the game. Sam and Courtney are from Vancouver and the other five are from everywhere but live in Germany. They work for the Army (contracting) doing technology stuff.

That night we got back from watching the game in town with Sam and Courtney and played more cards with the other group. We went to bed around 1am.

6/21/08 Saturday ~ Travel Journal

Zurich, Switzerland

6:20am

Man, is today really Saturday??!! I'm sitting in the train station in Zurich. I am very excited to be here! It wasn't in our original plans to be here at all but we get to experience another culture. The conductor woke us up around 6am and gave us croissants with juice and coffee! I was shocked. it was very good service. Last night he also gave us bottled water. I slept well but Jere and Shawn woke up through out the night. it was still way better than sitting in the "reclining seats". It would be awesome to see him again someday. His girlfriend is from Zurich - a banker and they're getting married sometime this year. They both want to home school their kids, buy a boat and chopper and travel the world. he has already traveled so much, I could totally see him following through with it. He is 43 years old and has been around the world six times! he told us about this plane trip that you can pay around $3000 for and it'll take you to as many cities as you want - around the globe. That would be awesome to do! After talking to him last night and him saying he wished he could have had kids earlier, I feel like I should just jump into it. (He's never been married - he was close once but he told us that his fiance's sister died giving birth and she went crazy after that.) Hearing it form an older man gives me another perspective. There will always be excuses to not have kids. I know it and everyone has said it. I don't know why hearing it from him was just different.



7am

We just jumped onto a train to Bern, Switzerland. We're heading to Interlaken.



10:40am

I am sitting in our tent at a camping in Interlaken. It is majestic here. Being in the mountains with our tent pitched next to a walking trail and canal with green water is indescribable. The camping costs 30 FR total and right now the US dollar is worth more than the Frank. We might stay in Switzerland an extra day. At least that's out thought as we walked through town to the camping. Taking the trains this morning was probably the easiest time we've had this whole trip. We literally just went from train to train seamlessly and now we're here! We stopped by the tourist office on the way so we have several maps and guides. Very exciting. Jere just got back from checking in and we have FREE bus passes! Sweet.



12:34pm

We're sitting down to lunch at a little pub in town called "Buddy's". They have homemade Chili Con Carne...The bar keep is so friendly and so far everyone we've met has been SO awesome! I can't describe the feeling I have of being here. I just feel happy.



2:26pm

After lunch, we looked at shops on the way back to our camping. We are sitting in lawn chairs watching the canal and staring at the mountains and the blue sky with wispy clouds. We bought gifts for our brothers. We have Jodie left and then we're done Christmas shopping. I really want to buy a call cap with the Swiss cross on it and I think Jere wants one too. We'll be cool looking together. This is starting to get super random so I'll stop writing.



8:15pm

We just had dinner at a place called Bebbies. WE had cheese fondue with bread and also wienerschnitzel. The meals came with salads. We also ended up ordering chocolate fondue. On our way to dinner, we stopped at a booth for information about para sailing and rafting. There is a package we can buy for both that costs 255 FR which is basically like $250 per person. I think we're going to do it! We're only here right now and who knows, we may never come back here. So total it would be around $500 for the experience of a lifetime - because we're in Switzerland. The only problem Jere just realized was that we mailed his tennis shoes home. I'm sure we can figure something out though. Right now we are in a huge square where people have gathered to watch Holland play soccer. The game is Russia V. Holland, so naturally people here would vote for Holland. There is a huge screen and the game will start any minute.



11:13pm

We left the game early and came back to shower. We wanted to get laundry done but it's getting late and we are tired! We bought some chocolate on the way back and the one I picked is really good. White chocolate with strawberry pieces :)



Good Night.

Yesterday

Click here if video doesn't work

Interlaken, Switzerland

Right now we are hanging out in a small town called Interlaken. This town is right in the middle of the alps.

It has been a while since we have posted, and we have done a lot of things. Since our last post we have spent two days in Florence, one day in Venice, two days in Budapest and we just arrived in Interlaken this morning. We are about to walk around the small town and find something to eat.

Our new camera can take videos, so I made one about our campsite today.

Greetings from Switzerland!

Edit: Hopefully this link works. The video is also on our flickr account.

http://flickr.com/photos/jereandreagan/2597536960/