Left Interlaken at a pretty reasonable 9am, heading to Geneva (Genev as they write it) for lunch before crossing the french border and heading for Annecy.

We only spent a few hours in Geneva, so didn’t see too much of it, mostly just sitting in the park eating lunch.

The afternoon was spent browsing Annecy, a medieval/gothic village.

Howdy Guys,

I’ve been all over the place… got a few detailed posts written on my PDA, but I don’t have wireless internet access at the moment, so it’ll be a while until they get posted, and probably even longer until I get photos posted.

In summary, the tour group I’m with are great … there’s 46-ish people in total on the tour, and all bar three of them are either Aussie or Kiwi (even split), the others are one Londoner, and a Welsh couple.

Spent two nights in Paris, France, and currently on the second day in Interlaken, Switzerland…
Went up the main mountain here … uhm, Mount Jorgenfrausomething… (yeah, it’s only 5:30, and I’ve already forgotten the name of it) … it’s the tallest mountain in Europe, Jungfraujoch covered in snow, has an Ice Palace, and all sorts of other interesting stuff… Went on the Cog Railway to get up there, which took us through some very nice places.

Tomorrow we get back on the bus and head to Annecy, France(?), with lunch in Geneva (sounds fancy, eh?).

Anyhow, off to do other stuff, some postcards should be on their way shortly (I need to find somewhere to get stamps, forgot to do that when I bought them… in Paris), just a few people, sorry — it took me over an hour last night to write them (yeah, I prefer tapping on my PDA to writing, much neater, and gets to lots more people quicker too, sorry).

It’s all very busy, even though we have lots of “free” time, we end up going to various different places (too many to name right now… wait for the detailed posts)

Hope everyone’s good.

Bye!

Caught the Cog Railway up Jungfraujoch apparently the tallest mountain in Europe, with the highest railway station in europe, at about 3,454M.

Wonderfully clear and bright day, and not that cold outside in the snow lots of great skiing to be had if you’ve got the gear, even if it is coming into summer.

The only real cold places are in the Ice Palace, or the tunnels leading outside (the wind blows down them and really chills you fast)

It’s pretty expensive to get all the way up, but well worth it. 138 Swiss Francs (Approx 150AUD) with a group booking, or 170 CHF (Approx 180 AUD) on your own. Despite the price, I’d love to see it again in winter.
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It’s probably not something people would normally talk about much, except to complain… But the water from the tap here tastes so much better than anywhere else, and definitely much better than all the bottled water you can buy (even locally bottled stuff)

Other interesting things about Switzerland is:
- All males between 20 and 40 must be in the army or reserves. And are required to keep a gun at home.

- They’ve got atleast one years food and water supplies in bunkers in the hills. (the bunkers are everywhere)

- They can mobilise their army in under 24hrs, and completely seal their borders against almost any possible land invasion force.

So, the moral of the story is… if you’re thinking of dating a local girl, make sure the father is ok with it… He’s bound to have a gun, and know a few blokes with access to a bunch of old tunnels or bunkers.

Left the hotel in Paris very early and spent most of the day driving, arriving in Interlaken at about 6pm.

The first night in any city always includes a group dinner, this night we went to a place called “Moo Cow” (iirc)…

All the waiters and waitress’ were wearing Cow-patterned lederhausen/pants.

If that wasn’t bizarre enough for you, they do these dances when bringing out the various dishes.

‘Course, since we’re in Switzerland, there was the obligatory cheese fondue. Not really my thing.
The chief waiter guy (Hans, in his cow lederhausen) brings around a glass of “Glacier Water” just before the fondue is finished and encourages some people at each table to try soaking their bread in that first before dipping it in fondue…. Ofcourse it’s some very stomg alcohol of some sort (metho, according to some), and the volunteer/victim ends up with their eyes bugging out when they bite into this concoction.

Before dessert they get the various parts of the restaurant to compete for a few jugs of beer, by shouting along to some song.

Dessert is ofcourse, chocolate fondue, with some fruits to dip in. Much better than the normal fondue… But it stays hotter much longer… And you can easily burn the roof of your mouth, as I did.

So, thats my first night in Interlaken…

BIG Day… after breakfast and the initial ‘orientation’ tour at 9:15 was over at 11, I joined up with the same group as yesterday (Margaret, Jo, Jodie, Mark and Richard).

Went to the Louvre initially.

Saw a bunch of sculptures (great), and paintings (ho-hum compared to the national collection in london), saw the obvious tourist-y things like the mona lisa (I dont see what all the fuss is about, tbh… It’s rather drab). Overall definitely worth seeing though.

For lunch we went to the latin quarter.
The street we walked down were lined with small restaurants, each having a maitre’d (i think) trying to convince you to go inside. Think Kings Cross’s stripclub fronts, and you’e got the general idea… Except add about 10 or so languages to the mix, the most likely being tried on you in turn.

Our waiter was great, very friendly, helping us learn a little french. Good food too, and reasonable prices (10 euros for a 3 course meal)

After lunch, headed off to Notre Dame Cathederal (it’d started raining by this time) and queued to go up the top… Climbing it is slightly better than st p_____ in london. Also walked around inside the actual cathedral too, amazing stained glass windows and other architecture.

Tried getting into the museum D’Orsay, but it was already shut (5:30pm, even though our info said open until 6pm). Took a train up to the Arc De Triumph, saw an accident on the round about around it.

Speaking of that roundabout, it’s a complete free-for-all… And legally you’re not insured while you’re on it. Theres an accident every 8 mins on average… Anyone stupid enough to try walking across the roundabout will most assureadly be eligible for a darwin award.

Finally, we went to a Caberat show at Nouvellex Eve (near the Moulin Rouge, cheaper too)

The there was a female acrobat doing all sorts of amazing things on a trapeize bar… Eg hanging by the back of her neck, and holding on with one hand to a rope and being spun around very fast.

The other between dance performances were great too— one guy who go an audience member involved to help with a few balancing tricks…

Anyway, yet more photos. I swear I have atleast 4GB of photos to upload.

Early morning, all day driving to Interlaken, Switzerland.

BIG Day… after breakfast and the initial ‘orientation’ tour at 9:15 was over at 11, I joined up with the same group as yesterday (Margaret, Jo, Jodie, Mark and Richard).

Went to the Louvre initially.

Saw a bunch of sculptures (great), and paintings (ho-hum compared to the national collection in london), saw the obvious tourist-y things like the mona lisa (I dont see what all the fuss is about, tbh… It’s rather drab). Overall definitely worth seeing though.

For lunch we went to the latin quarter.
The street we walked down were lined with small restaurants, each having a maitre’d (i think) trying to convince you to go inside. Think Kings Cross’s stripclub fronts, and you’e got the general idea… Except add about 10 or so languages to the mix, the most likely being tried on you in turn.

Our waiter was great, very friendly, helping us learn a little french. Good food too, and reasonable prices (10 euros for a 3 course meal)

After lunch, headed off to Notre Dame Cathederal (it’d started raining by this time) and queued to go up the top… Climbing it is slightly better than st p_____ in london. Also walked around inside the actual cathedral too, amazing stained glass windows and other architecture.

Tried getting into the museum D’Orsay, but it was already shut (5:30pm, even though our info said open until 6pm). Took a train up to the Arc De Triumph, saw an accident on the round about around it.

Speaking of that roundabout, it’s a complete free-for-all… And legally you’re not insured while you’re on it. Theres an accident every 8 mins on average… Anyone stupid enough to try walking across the roundabout will most assureadly be eligible for a darwin award.

Finally, we went to a Caberat show at Nouvellex Eve (near the Moulin Rouge, cheaper too)

The there was a female acrobat doing all sorts of amazing things on a trapeize bar… Eg hanging by the back of her neck, and holding on with one hand to a rope and being spun around very fast.

The other between dance performances were great too— one guy who go an audience member involved to help with a few balancing tricks…

Anyway, yet more photos. I swear I have atleast 4GB of photos to upload.

Early morning, all day driving to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Bonjour from Paris,
Had a late night on thursday… Blame Ian, Luke Smolenski, and Andrew Verral… All ex-Telstra guys. Good night though, even if I didn’t get to sleep ’till about 1am.

Getting up at 5:23 (should have been *gone* by 5:30) wasn’t fun. Managed to make my way to the meeting point near hyde park well before the specified meeting time though…
The eurostar is… Okay, less legroom than an aircraft… And for the slightly claustrophobic, the total time in the tunnel is less than 30mins… They hit speeds something like 150 mph (rough estimate … We were whipping past cars and trucks doing 70-80mph on the freeway.)

The group I’m with seems to be a fairly good bunch… 46 people total, about 20 are aussies, about the same kiwis, the rest are (iirc) from various parts of the UK. Decent age range too — 20’s to late 30’s is the vast bulk.

Also, Kumuka mix up the tour groups… Some of us on the 10 day tour, some 18, some 24ish, and even a few doing the full 44 day trip.

After arriving at the hotel, A group of us went off to the Eiffle Tower, and went up it… before going off to a group dinner, and cruise. Plenty of photos, but wont be online ’till sometime later.

Aurevouir

Not much to report for the last few days.

Tuesday night/wednesday morning we went out around Westminster and all sorts of other parts of London, taking a bunch of photos. Everything between Westminster Abbey, Big Ben (well, the tower it´s in anyway), and Millenium Bridge. Got back around 2am Wednesday Morning.

Re-Packed my bags again, leaving out a few tech bits which I havn´t used — a few KG less to carry. I´ll pick them back up when I come back.

Thanks to everyone for the emails, SMSs and comments on the blog.

I did try calling a bunch of people today (Thursday, around 5PM Sydney Time) but noone was answering, oh well. If people are looking at their CallerIDs and seeing ¨Unknown Number¨ then that could be me (since CallerID isn´t presente d for most international calls).
Also, please don´t call me on my mobile unless it´s urgent — it costs me a packet to recieve calls on it while overseas (Yes, I pay when you call me). SMS is OK though.

From now, until I get back to Ians (Early June) - posting on the blog will probably be limited and spotty, depending upon availability of internet access at hotels/hostels.

Anyway, gotta go - going out tonight.

Scoped out the early morning bus situation to get me to the tour starting point early Friday morning. Looks like I’ll have to be out of here not long after 5:30am to make sure I have plenty of time to get to the meeting point.

Visited the National Collection on tuesday. The first painting I saw upon wandering in was “Sunflowers” by Picasso. However, the most memorable for me would have to be “The execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Paul Delarouche.

It is a little morbid, but still it captures the scene wonderfully.

“Lady Jane Grrey reigned as Queen for nine days Im 1553 until deposed by supporters of Catholic Queen Mary.
She was beheaded at Tower Hill early the following year, aged 17″

One of the good things about London is that most of the galleries and museums are free for the general exhibitions, donations are strongly encouraged though.

Further wandering laneded me in Covent Gardens. For any fan of “Spooks”, this is home to the masonic hall that plays home to the fictitious MI5 HQ.
Didn’t have my camera with me, but I’ll definitely be heading back again.

What’s news in Oz?
It’s great not hearing about what “mullet mouth” (thanks Robyn for that one) is doing every day.

Stonehenge is “pretty boring, actually… I mean it’s just a pile of old rocks”, as I overheard one person saying.

Really, it’s not that much… A small gift shop, cafe/food stand, and that’s about it — oh, and Stone Henge itself.
But a big song and dance wouldn’t exactly be appropriate, in my opinion.

This is one heck of an impressive structure, considering it was built well before most modern civilizations were around.

The tour group we (me and Ian) were with ended up leaving two “saffas” (South Africans - in the same vein as Aussies/Kiwis) there, because they hadn’t turned up 10+ mins after we were supposed to have left (we did have 1hr to walk around)

Afterward we went on to wander around at Devisers. Found a castle that the TM didn’t know about… but it was on private property.

Finally we spent a few hours at Averbury, walking around the standing stones there.

Took a bunch of photos, and the weather managed to hold off for the most part.
I’ll put them up sometime soon.

RE the email situation, it looks like people arent getting them properly, and/or can’t respond. So… I won’t be emailing people directly from my pda (which is where I do most of my posting from.).

Also, Since it takes a while to tap out these posts on my pda, it might be a little while between posts (2-3 days maybe), depending on what else is happening.

Best Wishes to everyone.