In Which Switzerland Challenges Scotland to a Natural Beauty Contest, And Everyone Wins

Hello there! Mouse is thrilled to be home, where the photos which utterly failed to load from her phone to the blog... load quite easily from her phone to her laptop, and from her laptop to the blog.

Perhaps a little too easily.

But really, Mouse feels that every single one of these forty-or-so photos is utterly necessary to convey the beauty that is Switzerland.

Badger and Mouse had Eurail passes to burn! With no destination for the last day of the pass, Mouse and Badger agreed that the extra day ought to be a scenic trip through the Alps. We see Tigger here examining a map of the GoldenPass route from Luzern to Interlaken. As we are on the train from Luzern to Interlaken. :)

And some of the beauties we saw on the way.

  

The train! The train!

And our descent down the pass into Meiringen. Mouse later discovered that Mark Twain had once traveled this very route, shortly before there was a train, and had much anticipated the descent to Meiringen. He did not have the same gorgeous experience we did. His loss!

Tigger wanted to go see the boats. And he admired the blue water.

Finally, we arrived in Interlaken - the town between two lakes. With three hours until the last convenient train home, Mouse and Badger were determined to get a Swiss hike in. But where?

Do not color correct - the water looked like it might be full of turquoise chalk. Possibly due to the recent torrential storms.

We crossed the water and noted the peak of the Harder Kulm right in front of us. We liked the lovely nature view, and thought it looked promising for a hike. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to climb to the top and catch our train.

But what's this?

 

A funicular train to the top, you say? And one with discounts for Eurail pass holders?

All aboard!

Before climbing from the train station to the top of the trail, Tigger paused to admire the view.

He wasn't the only one.

Though we all admired the lovely flora on the way up as well.

Tigger inspected the guide to find the Jungfrau, the most spectacular peak in the area, covered in permanent glaciers. We didn't have the heart to tell him that she was hidden in the cloud cover.

The restaurant at the top. Sadly, a bit too pricy for Mouse and Badger to afford lunch. Very sadly. Mouse was hoping for Swiss fondue.

We admired the view extensively. Switzerland was definitely in the running to challenge the Highlands of Scotland. Mouse, sentimentally, believes that the Highlands win every time. Mouse, selfishly, does not wish to admit that she is glad that Badger insisted upon the Swiss trip, which Mouse was (at various planning stages) rather eager to ditch.

We discovered that while in Heidelberg, people sail the river on lovely windy days, in Interlaken, people try a slightly higher-stakes sport.

And then it happened.

Tigger spotted a hiking trail away from the restaurant.

A lovely hiking trail that hugged the ridge, had no occupants, and was easy to follow.

He urged us on.

The pattern as we walked tended to be "admire the path, admire the view. Admire the path ..."

"... what the?!"

This was actually the second such enormous slug we encountered, though it was not the last.

"Admire the view."

Tigger tried to steal the food from Mouse's pack; we were all getting pretty hungry at this point. He definitely wasn't hiding in sheer gibbering terror from the idea of getting on a funicular train at an angle which felt like full-window-view plummeting to DOOM. Nope. Tiggers are braver than that!

And alas, time to travel down. The rain came only during the exact time we were in the train; it was quite considerate that way.

In Interlaken, we discovered that Swiss grocery stores actually have prices comparable to the ones at home. So rather than spend 15 francs apiece on a cafeteria dinner, we spent 20 francs together on microwavable meals for dinner and for lunch the next day. And purchased necessary cutlery, too. Take that, Luzern hostel!

And of course the trip back to the hostel was still beautiful.

Back in Luzern, we had to wait a while till the next bus. So we snapped pictures of swans on the river. Such a beautiful town.

The next day, everything changed. The sun came out.

In Which A Great Many Francs Of The Confederatio Helvetica Are Spent

We do not wish to belabor the point, because Switzerland chiefly left us in awe of its natural splendors and in sorrow that we could not stay longer. However, it must be said: Switzerland is expensive. At least we got to see the lovely Swiss francs as we were spending them (at approximately the rate one spends Monopoly money, only with real currency.)

It took some head scratching and some Wikipedia research to figure out why a Swiss franc is abbreviated as CHF. Apparently Latin is to blame. See entry title for a hint.

 We arrived in Luzern in the middle of a chilly, rainy afternoon. Tigger's spirits remained undampened.

 
Mouse was slightly cheered by the nice, hot Starbucks chai latte she purchased to break the bills from the ATM. (Don't judge; it's the first American chain Mouse patronized during the Europe trip, and she pretty much had a choice between that and McDonald's.) Mouse was slightly agog at the fact that the tall chai latte, usually less than $3, cost 5.90 CHF. (And Swiss francs are slightly more than dollars on the exchange.) (And of course Mouse accidentally asked for whipped cream, which added another franc to the bill.) Badger found Mouse's insistence on breaking the bill thus very amusing, possibly churlishly suspecting that Mouse was unable to survive without Starbucks chai lattes for extended periods of time. Eventually, both Tigger and Badger had to drag Mouse out from under the cold, windy shelter to the bus station so that we could all go to the Luzern Youth Hostel. The bus station which, naturally, had automated ticket machines which were so much easier to use with a credit card that the cash didn't need to be used (and the bills had therefore no need to be broken). Ah well.

As she is writing this, Mouse is still quaking from the dire threats Badger made regarding a little joke Mouse made about Badger and her eager anticipation of Swiss chocolate. So the exact joke will not be shared. We will just say that we were served a dessert at the Luzern hostel which clearly contained no actual chocolate, despite trying its best trying somewhat vaguely attempting to achieve the flavor. It was rather disappointing. The pasta, though, was almost worth the 15 CHF we paid apiece for the meal. Almost.

The Luzern hostel was quite nice (although apparently we didn't photograph it as much as we did the Heidelberg hostel). We were finally able to do laundry! Or at least pay the hostel 15 CHF to wash and dry exactly one load of laundry in its laundry service. That first night, this was all we had the chance to register. Once fed, we quickly collapsed in our bunks.

The next day... will have to be an entry to itself. :)

Regarding Itineraries, and the Confusion Thereof

Readers, we warned you at the outset that this blog might be very erratic. But having gotten over halfway through the joint European journey, it seems a pity to allow this to peter out. Therefore, we shall continue! However, Mouse feels that some confusion might arise as to our travel dates and times, so here below is a thorough and comprehensive list of Tigger's travel locations and times.

Weds 12 Jun: Arrive in London early AM. In Which the Journey Continues...; In Which the First Day's Adventures Come To a Swift Close.
Thurs 13 Jun: London. Of Lions and Tiggers and Bears (oh my!).
Fri 14 Jun: Day trip to Oxford. Containing Some Comment on Tiggers in Oxford; On Blogs and the Strangling Thereof; Containing Pictures Without Explanation, Due To Blogger Issues.
Sat 15 Jun - Sun 16 Jun: London. In Which Tigger explores the globe, then explores the suitcase.

Mon 17 Jun - Thurs 20 Jun: Scotland. Blogging difficulties! Being a Large Post Containing but a Small Fraction of the Wonder of Scotland. (Also, we traveled back to London Thursday night to catch our flight to Paris very early Friday. But there is little of Tigger in that. Tigger would rather avoid mentioning the return to London, since it was in London that Badger got her picture taken at Platform 9 3/4 and Tigger did not.)
Fri 21 Jun: Arrive in Paris mid-morning. In Which Tigger exercises his tail.
Sat 22 Jun: Depart Paris mid-morning. Arrive in Köln, Germany (aka Cologne) early afternoon. Depart Köln late afternoon; Rhine train trip. Arrive in Heidelberg, Germany early at night, update blog regarding Scotland. First part Of Cathedrals and Castles.
Sun 23 Jun: Heidelberg. Second part Of Cathedrals and Castles.

Mon 24 Jun: Arrive in Luzern, Switzerland (aka Lucerne) early afternoon. In Which  A Great Many Francs Of The Confederatio Helvetica Are Spent.
Tues 25 Jun: Day trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. SHEER GORGEOUSNESS. In Which Switzerland Challenges Scotland to a Natural Beauty Contest, And Everyone Wins.
Weds 26 Jun: Luzern. In Which Tigger Resolutely Avoids the Camera. Containing Some Mention of Previously Mentioned Secrets.
Thurs 27 Jun: Depart Luzern early AM. Arrive in Venezia, Italy (aka Venice) early afternoon. Depart Venezia late afternoon. Arrive in Firenze, Italy (Florence) early night. In Which Tigger Has Trouble Communicating.
Fri 28 Jun: Firenze.
Sat 29 Jun: Depart Firenze midday. Arrive in Roma, Italy (Rome) midafternoon.
Sun 30 Jun: Vatican City.

Mon 1 Jul: Roma. Badger leaves late afternoon for London. Mouse and Tigger are left behind. In Which We Pause to Commemorate A Journey.
Tues 2 Jul: Badger leaves London for home in early AM. In earlier AM, Mouse and Tigger leave Roma for Paris.
Weds 3 Jul: Paris.
Thurs 4 Jul: Mouse and Tigger arrive in Amsterdam mid-morning and meet up with Mouse's family. Badger writes up Paris.
Fri 5 Jul: Amsterdam.
Sat 6 Jul: Alphen aan den Rijn (near Amsterdam)
Sun 7 Jul: Oegstgeest and Leiden; Mouse's family reunion

Mon 8 Jul: Mouse, Tigger and Puppy (to be introduced!) arrive in London late AM
Tues 9 Jul: Day trip to Oxford; literary day in London. Badger writes up Germany.
Weds 10 Jul: Day trip to Stonehenge
Thurs 11 Jul: London
Fri 12 Jul: Mouse leaves London for home; Puppy and Tigger return to Amsterdam
Sat 13 Jul - Sun 14 Jul: Amsterdam

Mon 15 Jul: Leave Amsterdam for HOME.

Weds 17 Jul: Mouse realizes she is on summer vacation and has no plans or Internet issues interfering with catching up on the blog.

There. All clear? :)

Ha, Tigger. Found the picture of you napping our first day in London. Told you it existed.

Of Cathedrals and Castles

After spending a wonderful day in Paris, Tigger and Co. were off to Germany.  Mouse and Badger headed off to the train station first thing in the morning and caught a train to Cologne, Germany, home of one of the most well-known cathedrals in Europe.

In order to make the most of our Eurail pass, we had decided to spend a few hours visiting the cathedral before traveling to Heidelberg.  (It would have worked too, if France had been a country on our Eurail pass, but with France you have to get the pass for all of Europe or France isn't included.  Oh well, we stuck to the original plan anyway because Badger was proud of her cleverness.)  There was an exhibit showing some of the relics that have survived the ages and our now held at that cathedral.  There were even some medallions that were given to pilgrims journeying to the cathedral in the Middle Ages, which just goes to show that the tourist souvenir business is not exactly a new concept.

We then decided to try to climb the tower and get a look out over the town, since there was no other way we were going to see it.  However, we had limited time to get back to the station to catch our train  out of there, and had to abandon that mission about halfway through.  Mouse and Badger maintain that they definitely could have made it up all the way despite the large number of steps.  Yeah, they just ran out of time. 

So, it was back to the train for picturesque ride down the Rhine River.  The train followed the river for most of he journey, and included quite a few castles on the other side of the bank.  Tigger approved of the view.

We arrived in Heidelberg and found the hostel to be quite close to the train station.  It was probably one of the nicest hostels we stayed at.  The decorations gave made it feel very relaxing.

The next day we set out to explore Heidelberg and storm, I mean see, the castle.  We had to walk a little ways to get there, but the waterfront view made up for that.

The castle was situated on a hill, which meant more walking that felt more like climbing.  Can you tell we were a little tired by this point?

The view, however, was quite worth it.

There was a museum about the history of pharmaceuticals, which appealed to Badger's love of chemistry and history and Mouse's love of seeing Badger look like a kid in a candy shop.  It was quite fun until Badger broke one of the exhibits.  Yes, Badger dropped a jar filled with herbs.  Now, it was meant to be picked up, and wasn't a priceless artifact, so we didn't get run out of the museum.  In fact, the guy who came to clean it up was very nice about it.  That didn't stop Badger's heart from stopping for a couple of beats.  She was saved from excessive hyperventilation by Mouse's cool head.  That aside, it was a cool exhibit and Badger was eventually able to be grateful that, even if her lab at work isn't perfect, at least most of her containers a plastic and less prone to breakage.


After we had seen our fill of castle ruins, we walked back through main street and picked up dinner.  Badger even tried German beer.  Neither of us are big beer drinkers, but it was pretty good and worth trying.

 Tigger relaxes at the hostel

We got back to the hostel fairly early and just took it easy that night, ready to venture into the Swiss Alps the following day.