Switzerland

Heathrow

For some silly reason Peter and I can’t seem to get the first day of our holidays sorted, this time the security measures at Heathrow did not help. Our flight was due to depart at 6:30am so being an international flight we had to be at the airport at 4:30am so we had to leave Oxford at 2:30am even without the Heathrow problems we should have done the math and worked out that we couldn’t get there that easily at that time, but we didn’t. Anyway after we got home from Peter’s gig at a pub that claimed to be able to serve 64 different types of Bangers and Mash (I love England) we decided that we would catch the 1am bus to Heathrow and that should leave plenty of time to get to the airport in time. My great plan of sleeping on the comfy coach was foiled by excited American students heading home for the summer and talking loudly (how else do Americans talk, especially of the female variety!). So we arrived at Heathrow about 3:30am after figuring out how to get to terminal 4 from 1, 2, and 3 and eventually got herded into a not so cosy tent with free tea, coffee, and snacks of the airline kind to wait for our flight to be checked in. Our entertainment was a couple of Scottish families of which we think the two mums were twins and were very entertaining for that time of the morning and their animal impressions were just a little realistic. Eventually we could check in and go through security. I found it amazing that with all the news about the trouble at the airports that people could still turn up and have no clue that they couldn’t take their cell phone on the plane. The next example of exceptional human behaviour was at the security checks where there were plenty of signs saying that shoes, belts, and coats would need to be x-rayed. You could see down the line that people were taking their shoes off yet 50% of people in the queue waited until they were at the front of the queue to take their shoes off or at least get them in a state where they were easy to take off. Anyway once we had done that, and heard our final boarding call we headed off, past the armed police to our plane, walked straight on and took off half an hour after the scheduled departure. Peter then drifted off to sleep and we landed in Geneva two hours later, on almost zero sleep for the night.

Geneva

Day one in Geneva was spent having a quick look round the waterfront and checking out the sights of the Geneva Festival that happened to be on that weekend (timed that one well!) We had a bit of a walk around and found some lunch and by 3pm (when we could get into our hostel room) we were knackered. I was disappointed not to be able to spot the Jet d’eau, but tiredness overwhelmed me and I spent the next 6 hours asleep. We I finally got out of my foggy sleep mode we went back to the waterfront and had a look at the festival. There were far more people there and a large number were lined up by the waterside railing starting at nothing. We figured that they must have been waiting for something (probably fireworks) so we joined the crowd and found somewhere to wait too. Eventually the fireworks did begin and 45mins later they were still going, so we started to head back to the hostel and caught the big finale which made the night look like day and they turned on the Jet d’eau at the last moment. Yippy my holiday had met all expectations!

Day two we made our way to the United Nations offices in Geneva and the Red Cross museum, both totally fascinating and well worth the visit. Also a great thing to do in the rain. After that we had a look round the old town of Geneva and found a big tall church with a great view, and a line that NZ was apparently on if you traced it round the globe, totally random thing to find. After that we went to get a close up view of the Jet d’eau. As soon as I had heard about this ‘fountain’ I was dead keen on seeing it, it was just as amazing as I had imagined. It’s basically a BIG fountain that pumps 500l/s straight up in the air. The fountain reaches a great height of 140m and the water has an exit velocity of 200km/hr at the nozzle, you can understand why it is fenced off from the unsuspecting public. Anyway, Peter ventured out in the spray and we took lots of photos. For those with Google Earth if you enter the following lat and long coordinates you can even see the fountain on there 46.207403, 6.156488.

Grindelwald

After Geneva we spent half a day travelling on the clean reliable easy to use Swiss train system to Grindelwald which is a little town nestled in a valley with vast tall amazing mountains all around. We trekked up to our hostel that was a 15min walk UP from the train station, luckily we could get straight into our room and settled in for a little rest (very unfit and the walk up the hill nearly did us in). That evening we went in search for some dinner and played a crazy game of mini golf with the sun setting on the mountains behind.

After the most amazing selection of breakfast foods you can imagine (except perhaps in the US) we set out for the day to go to the Top of Europe (which is actually just the highest train station in Europe). We were exceptionally lucky with the weather as it was the first clear day in two weeks of rain. The train trip to the top was incredible and an amazing engineering feat for a 90 year old railway. It was built purely for rich English tourists. We also had the added bonus of sitting with the driver in the front of the train so we had an excellent view of the tunnel and tracks. We spent the afternoon walking down to Grindelwald, which, although it sounds easy, even with my walking stick, it killed my legs!

Our final day was spent travelling up a gondola to another mountain and having a bit of a look-see. I was nursing a cold so didn’t have much energy, especially at 3000m above sea level, to do a great deal of walking. Highlight of this trip was seeing the clouds come at you, engulf you and move on. We also saw a marmot which we think may be quite rare.

Zermatt

Next stop on the list was Zermatt, another town in another valley but far more touristy and far more rocky. Our hostel was as good as the reviews and for two nights it felt like we were staying in a cross between jail and the army. On our final night we were awoke to the sound of someone who had drunk far too much! Needless to say it put us off staying in hostels. Apart from the hostel the rest of Zermatt was lovely, we spent one day up in the mountains walking off my cold (which worked very well) and enjoying the panoramic alpine views. We saved a caterpillar from being eaten alive by ants (big ones) and ate some fantastic steak served by a ‘Ma Larkin’ type German woman.

Vevey

After departing Zermatt we headed to Vevey on the Swiss Rivera (on the lake) and our faith in good hostels was restored, almost. We didn’t do much here apart from eat and sleep so not a great deal to report. We did see the outside of the Nestle head quarters but didn’t take any photos as it was raining and I forgot! After this it was back home to Oxford, home at last…