Goodbye Switzerland!

I have to be honest here, being a CO resident I of course love our mountains but Switzerland!!!! This place continues to amaze. From Grindewald (the canyon south of gimmelwald)I hiked the Eiger Trail up to the base of the Eiger Glacier to get a closer look at the famous Eiger North Face climbing routes. Unfortunately the fog didn't cooperate and it was pretty socked in. I did get some good views of the adjacent monch and jungfrau peaks. While there I learned that the Eiger Glacier is receding at an alarming rate of around 30m per year and will pretty much be gone by the end of the century. If that is not proof positive of global warming I don't know what is...

From there i headed east and south out of Interlaken and hopped a train over to Engelberg. It is a small town sandwiched between two ski resorts at the base of Mt Titlis. Note to self, come back in the winter! Again the weather did not cooperate, but I did manage to catch a break and get some shots from a high alpine lake.

Earlier this afternoon I traveled north out of Engleberg to Lucerne. It is a pretty city of 60k situated right on Lake Lucern. It has a good bit of history to it with a lot dating back to the 13-14th century. I spent some time exploring and then hit the weekend town market and then a cheese festival. Who would have thought of that in Switzerland;) On the road again tomorrow as I travel to Italy and the Cinque Terre Nat'l Park. I am stoked! I will post tons of pics as soon as I can get my hands on a computer. Take care all!

Wandern Around Switzerland

Hello all. I have spent the last two days in Interlacken, Switzerland. This town is the adrenaline sports hotspot. From my hostel you can book skydiving, canyoning, paragliding, white water trips, mountain biking etc.. If you are into any of those and have tons of money (ranging from 150 - 350 US$ each), summer would be the liveliest time to be here. Since it is now pushing into Fall, and they are catching some snow up in the mountains, alot of those activities are not happening. So it has been very quiet and relaxing with minimal tourists. Switzerland has a huge network of well marked trails for wandern (swiss word for hiking) in the mountains to and between the surrounding towns. To save money I caught a train up through Lauterbrunnen and then a cable car to a town called Gimmelwald which is at 4600' and has a population of around 140. It was pretty amazing! From there I hiked up another 2900' or so. Here are pics of the day:

Interlaken

Views of mountains outside of Interlaken

View from the train station at Lauterbrunnen

Town of Gimmelwald

Great trail marking system leaving Gimmelwald

Houses in Gimmelwald

This cow probably has the best view ever

More cows on the hiking path, they all had bells on their necks so they couldn't sneak up on me:)

Laurna, cow I win!

Yep a farmer lives here.

The cable system is how they get supplies

The peaks where catching some crazy clouds

View of Gimmelwald from above; almost back down

Dinner at a restaurant in Gimmelwald

Sunset in Interlaken

Bonus Belgium Pics

I said goodbye to Craig on Sunday afternoon and caught a train south to Brussels. I only had a few hours to check it out, but saw some good sights. I had beers at the Delerium Cafe; highly recommend this place! They had over a hundred Belgian Beers on tap and over 2000 if you count the bottles. The alcohol percentages ranged from 7 to wasted :) Overall Brussels was very similar to Antwerpen just more of everything. More people, cars, trash.... I was up for a change and was missing the mountains. So I hopped a train early this morning and I just checked into a hostel in Interlaken, Switzerland. All I can say is wow!!!! Pictures coming soon! Here are some good ones from Brussels of the Grote Markt or "Grand Place":

Belgium or bust

I know zou (the z and y are switched on this kez board, this is difficult) have all been looking forward to the next update ;) I headed out of Amsterdam on Friday with my friend Craig on a quick trip to Belgium. Antwerp was the first destination. It turned out to be a great foodie city full of excellent places to eat, drink, and some more great architecture and sculptures thrown in. The locals seemed a little friendlier than the residents of Amsterdam. The number of bikers also took a big drop. Over Saturday and Sunday morning we were able to see pretty much everything of significance. Saturday evening we ended up in a jazz place called De Muze; I recommend it not only because it was free but the jazz quartet was pretty decent. Check some pictures:

De Kathedral from de distance.

Picture doesn't do this any justice. Inside of  De Kathedral.

De Kathedral closeup.

Market Square.

Cool sculpture outside of De Kathedral.

Amsterdam Part II

I have been crashing at my friend Craig's house here in Amsterdam. It is located south of the city center between the Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht canals. Though I would call this spot a trendy residential area, it has still given me the opportunity to get a feel for the local scene and see some areas that a traditional tourist would not make it to. On the other hand, I spent Thursday walking the older north end of the city and the red light district. It is crowded and super touristy. Everything that you have heard about Amsterdam is definitely true. I also got the chance to go through the Van Gogh, Rijks, and the Heritage museums. The Van Gogh was wonderful. It felt that you could pinpoint the timeframe he went crazy just looking at his paintings:) Note to anyone who plans to travel to Amsterdam...prepare for rain!!

Red light district.

Nieuwe Kerk in the center with the Royal Palace
under renovation to the left.

National Monument.

In case you were wondering, yes
Michael Jackson still performs there.

Voorburgwal canal with St Nicolaaskerk in the background.

Greetings from Amsterdam!

Hello all. Here are some quick thoughts on Amsterdam. This place is incredibly biketastic! I have not been to a city where the number of bikes on the streets so far outnumber the automobiles. It is great to see. There had to be 1000 bikes parked outside of Amsterdam Central Station when I arrived on the train the morning of 9/8. The city is fairly small with a population around 750k and a system of canals forming almost half circles moving outwards from the oldest area of the city around Amsterdam Central Station and the adjacent red light district. Overall fairly easy to navigate and very pedestrian friendly. The architecture is typically multi level buildings; most were built in the late 1600's. Heres a couple pics through the rain.

View from the museumplein of the Rljksmuseum

House boats on a canal.

Typical Architecture around the city.

Perfect sized door for Laurna into a bar :)

View of the canal locks as the clouds break for a minute.