Archive for October, 2010

I was lucky to enjoy another warm, sunny day in Switzerland. I imagine there aren’t going to be many more nice days here before winter sets in.

View of Zurich from above

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View of Zurich from above

Beautiful, warm day in Bern.

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Bern

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Thun

The good thing about the mountains is the weather changes– fast. I awoke to patches of blue sky attempting to peak through the layers of clouds around Interlaken, and decided to make another attempt to explore some of the areas around here.

Blue skies (sort of) in Interlaken

I took the train up to the town of Lauterbrunnen. Even though it wasn’t raining or snow, it’s still pretty cold here, …

Grindelwald

View from Grindelwald

I took the train up to Grindelwald in the hopes of doing some hiking. It’s a really scenic train route, although a lot of it was obscured by fog. At some point the rain morphed into snow, and I decided that I should probably put the hiking plan to rest. Instead, I spent several hours walking around the town of Grindelwald and drinking coffee, but looking …

I just heard the woman at reception tell someone it might snow tomorrow. Snow! I’m in Interlaken, gateway to the mountains, and it feels more winter than autumn here. Someday I will learn that off-seasons are off for a reason; from monsoons in India to cold, gray, and raining in Europe, sometimes it seems like my timing could use some improvement. In the meantime, I’ll figure out which hiking trails …

I just arrived in Lausanne after two days of city-hopping in Switzerland. The good news is that after several incredibly awkward moments, I seem to have figured out how to use my Eurail pass. The bad news is I am utterly exhausted.

I spent most of today in Geneva. I’m not sure I can begin to describe how strange it was to be in Geneva. I was born in Geneva, …

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Morning in Basel

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a gorgeous city filled with old buildings and picturesque canals. I’ve been spending a lot of of time walking around and taking pictures of canals and bridges.

From Canal

Amsterdam is also one of the most bike friendly cities I have ever been in. But pedestrian beware crossing the bike lanes- they don’t stop! It seems just about everyone here has a bike, and the dedicated bike …

I left the UK yesterday and am now in Amsterdam hanging out on the free wifi in the hostel lobby, waiting for check-in time (another hour or so to go).

Originally I was planning on flying to Amsterdam on one of Europe’s various discount airlines, but in the end I decided to take the ferry across the North Sea. The ferry to Amsterdam leaves from Newcastle, so it ended up …