I'm starting with what happened most recently, because it was really cool. Aimee and Chris came to visit me on May 17 for a week. We didn't really have any concrete plans until Tuesday before they came so it was going to be quite an adventure.
17 May - I raced into to the airport, as always, and meet them outside customs with lots of hugs. We come back to my apartment which is approved of. After lunch, Aimee and Chris take a short nap. Around 4pm we left to catch the train to Lucerne. The weather was horrible, cold and rainy, and even worse in Lucerne. We arrived around 8pm and checked into our hotel, which was used as a jail until 1998!!
www.jailhotel.ch After a quick change, we meandered back through town to find a traditional Swiss restaurant. We decided it would be better for the three of us to all share 3 entrees than to eat our own. We had fondue, beef stronganoff and bratwurst with rosti. Mmmm! Well Chris hated the fondue, and the stroganoff had nothing on Aimee's version, but it was still good. After dinner, we headed back to jail and went to the bar there, which was playing really loud dance music. Although we were all tired, we decided it would still be a good idea to drink a few beers and take Jager shots! yay! When we got up to the room, there was a problem. Chris had lost the room key (which had a password on it that was punched into a keypad to open). We remembered the password, but the problem was the room key had our room number on it, so anyone who found it could just come right in. As punishment Chris had to go look for it with no success. I went back with him and miraculously we found it at the unmanned reception desk, snuck away and went back to our "cell." I slept in the top bunk, which was about 3 meters off the ground, and there was no bar. So to prevent me from falling out, Aimee and Chris strapped me in by tying 2 belts together around my bed and then I slipped in underneath. Strapped in just like a real prisoner!!
May 18 - We woke up and wanted to go to the top of Mt. Pilatus, but it was too cloudy. The woman at the TI suggested we go check out the street artists fair, but we had a better idea. We took a boat cruise around Lake Lucerne. The clouds cleared while we were on the boat and it turned into a nice sunny day! We stopped in a little town called Weggis for lunch and shared again. Aimee and Chris tried their first Filets de Perches and enjoyed it! Weggis was pretty sleepy, so we got back on the next boat we could at 2:30 to take us back to Lucerne. We then walked to the famous Lion monument. It is very pretty and cool to see, and the area was filled with tourists. Nearby this was the Glacergarten or Glacier Museum. This place was so random. Apparently it is built over a huge rock that was left there by a glacier. That was kind of cool to see. Then there were some other exhibits about glacier formations. But there was also some random furniture and utensils and things around to see, as well as a big pond full of goldfish and some bunnies. We went to the top of the lookout tower and then saved the best, the hall of mirrors, for last. I had a difficult time and kept walking into the mirrors which made all of us crack up. We left after feeling kind of dizzy and nauseated, but it was pretty fun.
That night we went to this really good brewery on the river for dinner. The beer was delicious and you could only get it there, so we drank a liter each. We also had the best pretzel ever and Alpenmacaroni, which is macaroni and cheese Swiss style, which is outstanding. After waiting for our check for about 45 minutes, we headed to the casino! I taught Chris a little bit about blackjack and soon we were each up about 200 CHF. It was really fun because we were playing at our own table. But then in a flash, things turned, and I left down 100, Chris even. Later I tried to redeem myself at the 10franc table but could never win more than like 30 francs, so I gave up and we went home. We had plenty to drink at the casino, so we went straight to bed.
May 19 - The next morning I forced Aimee and Chris to get out of bed early, which they were not happy about. But it was fortunate that we did as the day was gorgeous and we were headed to Mt. Pilatus! The mountain is supposedly named for Pontius Pilate whose ghost is said to haunt it; however Rick Steeves dimissed this and said it comes from the Latin word for "cloudy." It is also supposedly enchanted with dragons. Apparently the legal absinthe over here has quite an effect on the Swiss imagination. We barely caught the train to Alpenschad, which is where the cogwheel train leaves from. Once we arrived, we got in a really long queue but were fortunate enough to catch the 12:10 ascent. The train goes at a very steep grade, 48% in some places, and is the steepest in the world. The ascent took about 40 minutes and was very scenic. Once at the top, the views were breathtaking. There was not a cloud in the sky, and it felt like you could see the entire world below you. We had brats and beers for lunch and enjoyed the views. After lunch we hiked a short way up to Eiger which is the highest viewing point at Mt. Pilatus. Just the pure magnitude as Chris said, was unbelievable.
We took a gondola down and at the first stop, Chris encouraged us to try the "Seilpark" - a ropes course. These things scare the crap out of me and Aimee wasn't too keen either, but all that Alpine air and seeing people skydive and paraglide everywhere raises your adventure spirit a little bit. So we tried it! There were 7 small courses, each more difficult than the next. After 2, Aimee and I watched Chris do an extra hard one where he zip lined about 50 meters with a view of the Alps in the background. We then did a hard one together which was really hard and scary! But I was glad he made us do it.
After we got back, we boarded the train for Interlaken. As you near Interlaken, you come around the side of Lake Thun, which is absolutely stunning. The train looks like it is riding right over the lake, which is smooth as glass. Once we arrived and checked into Balmer's, we headed out for a late dinner and then came back to the Metrobar. Balmer's is a hostel basically like a fraternity house and this bar was no different. Everyone was pretty well behaved though and they played good music. By the end of the night, we paid witness to an international dance off that happened in the middle of the bar!
May 20 - We woke up hungover and an hour late for checkout, so we had to scramble to get out of the room. We stumbled down to the train station to try and decide what to do. Aimee suggested we head to Grindelwald and take a gondola up to First, which had a hike you could do to a beautiful lake. With 3 minutes until the train left, we hurried and bought our tickets and hopped on. Switzerland has a lot of these smaller open air trains where you can open the windows and really enjoy the air and sunshine. The gondola ride up was about 30 minutes, and we had drinks at the top to enjoy the view. We decided to try to hike to the lake, which was supposedly 1 hour 40 minutes roundtrip. We didn't have hiking clothes though, or boots, and of course we trudged through a lot of mud and SNOW!! We arrived finally at Lake Balchalp (we think), but to our dismay, it was frozen. We still took some nice photos anyway and then headed back. We enjoyed some beers on the gondola ride down and hopped on the train back to Interlaken. There we had dinner at a delicious Italian place and then just as we boarded the train for Bern, it started thundering and pouring. Perfect timing!!
May 21 - After the long weekend, work was pretty difficult for me to do. That day Aimee and Chris slept late and then wandered around Geneva. We took it easy at night, making a random dinner at home of chicken, salad and raclette, and had a beer at Pasha's.
May 22 - Aimee and Chris went to the Chateau de Chillion in Montreux. That night we had dinner with my friends Karen and Christophe at their apartment in Lausanne and met their new kittens! The kittens were born only over the weekend so they were sooooo cute and tiny. They didn't even have their eyes open yet.
May 23 - Aimee and Chris went to Gruyeres. We met up at the Alibi for a few drinks and then went to Pickwicks to watch the AC Milan/Liverpool championship. Very exciting, even though Liverpool lost. Got a little drunk and ate some really good hamburgers and took a loooot of pictures as you will see...
May 24 - Aimee and Chris hung out in Geneva. I met them for lunch at a really good Italian place by my apartment. We met up again around 6 at Balexert, did a little shopping, went to the Alibi again to meet Dave for drinks and then we went to Ingvill and Laurent's for dinner and had tacos! We had a really nice time and were there until about midnight. Instead of going downtown to see the lake, we decided to go home, but took a detour and ended up at Pasha's. We talked with him for a long time and had beers and ice cream, and Chris tried a kebab.
May 25 - Aimee and Chris left. waaahhh. It was so much fun because it was really our first vacation just the three of us, and we definitely got to do a ton of stuff.
Dreissypalooza part two will be in December 2007!
Links to photos:
Lucerne and Interlaken:
Rest of the week:
