Lauterbrunnen Switzerland

I have decided to dedicate my life to becoming the mayor of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland...... this was one of the most spectacular towns I have ever had the pleasure to visit. I truly was sad leaving.

Here are shots of our 10 hour hike...... like all the others I have not done any Photoshop yet.

We took a cable car up about 1500 meters and started our hike from there. We hiked up through the valley you see in the distance of this photo.

Travelling companions, fellow boozers and great friends stop to pose for a shot.

Every corner, every ten steps was something new to see and experience. It was an incredible hike.

In our usual style we still managed to find a restaurant and beer despite hiking all day. The area is famous for  skiing and the restaurants stay open for tourists during the summer. What a view!

Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany was a fun stop. The Castle there has a beautiful grounds. It's really more than a castle, more like a palace. The very first structure was built before 1214. 

Here Joey-Lynn overlooks her kingdom from atop the Castle walls.

Now this is a keg fit for me.... every home should have one. It holds over 100,000 litres of hootch...... might do for a saturday night.

Heidelberg pedestrian only promenades  were great to stroll around in and enjoy some beer while people watching. Here a little around the back of all the crowds a church looms.

Heidelberg's 250 year old bridge. We walked across the bridge after consuming a few beers thinking it was a pedestrian only bridge...... it is not!!

Cochem Germany

The Mosel River from one view and the other direction below. The two shots were taken from Cochem Castle. We took a river cruise to Berg Eltz Castle down the river, it was an amazing experience. 

We were witness to a spectacular fireworks to conclude the wine festival. It had to be one of the best set of fireworks I have ever seen. They fired the the rockets from three points, behind us over a hill, over the bridge, and over the castle like here. It was so much fun!!

Cochem Castle

We happened on this procession at a cemetery in  Cochem with the Castle looming in the background and the vineyard rolling through the hill.

Little did we know that there was a wine festival in Cochem. We got our jag on and party like the locals. We had such a great time.

Frankfurt, Germany

These were the kind of drinks I need!!

Frankfurt from a bridge we were crossing. The cloud cover and lighting was amazing.

Frankfurt, Germany

This is a promenade in Frankfurt. It was a fascinating place to start our trip. We walked a lot this day as there was a huge festival on both sides of the river there.

In Germany you will find locks attached to bridges and structures with people's names and dates on it. It symbolizes the couples love locked together.

Flight troubles

Okay so we were able finally get a flight from Berlin to Zurich, Zurich to Montreal, and now waiting to get seats on a plane from Montreal to Halifax. What a day. The 8 hour flight from Zurich was brutal but Swiss Air had a great entertainment system..... Thankfully better then the one we are all familiar with. Can't wait to get home.

Dear God the Curse of Johanne Continues

Well, arrived at the air Port this morning only to find that our flight to Frankfurt is cancelled and everything is completely sold out....... This is our anniversary too ....... Happy anniversary baby....

Luthwansa has completely rebooked our flight. We were supposed to arrive in Halifax at noon now we won't get in until 7:30...... basically by the time we get home we will have been up for nearly 24 hours....... and we all have to work tomorrow...... not good. Instead of 10 hours of travel and air ports we have 18 hours of travel...... instead of two flights we now hav e three........ RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

More biking today.

Got up at 8:00 and walked back ro Fat Tire Bikes and we rented bikes for the day 10Euros. A great way to get around Berlin as it's so flat. We rode through the city like we owned it and covered a termendous amount of ground. We saw an amazing monument of the Berlin Wall outside the touristy area. We got to see the non-tourist side of Berlin and I really enjoyd the ride around the city. I got some great video of Joey-Lynn riding through Check Point Charlie.

We have read and seen alot of the atrocities the Nazi's did, read stories of people being killed trying to escape East Berlin. It has all left me feeling very sick and emotional at times. I think I have had enough. I can't feel sad like this too much longer. There has been more than once I was close to a meltdown on this trip. The hardships people have endured I cannot imagine.

We also climbed the Victory Monument. It was pretty tough as there were over 250 steps to the top but the view was spectacular. Well worth the 3 Euros and the work though.

Riding through the park was cool, Berlin has so many wonderful parks close together.

We ate supper tonight at a restaurant near the Dom on the Canal..... I had Indian Chicken Tikka and Joey-Lynn had Buttered Chicken.... it was so good. It was a great way to end the  trip.

Berlin ended the night with an unbievable thunder and lightening storm.... We had to run home and dodge the rain. It was really something else.

We finished with beers and crib..... we have to get up at 4:00AM for our flight.  The boys skunked the girls and nearly skunked them the second hand.

Fantastic Bike Tour today

We decided to sleep in until 8:00, I got up and showered by 7:30.

Looks like a nicer day today. We plan to do a bicycal tour today through Berlin.

We went on a 5 hour bike tour with Fat Tire Bikes. We had a great guide named Tony who was from Ireland. We basically touched on a little of everything in Berlin. I especially loved seeing the Berlin Wall and Check Point Charlie again. Clarence was sick and had to bail on the tour. We met up with him at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews, which was an interesting place in it's self. We continued with the tour and Clarence went his way exploring.

It really saddens me to think about the huge number of lives lost during the first and second world wars here in this area, war is bad enough but extermination........ There is another loss as well, the amount of art and history that was obliterated from bombings. It's scary to think of the amount damage done by Adolf Hitler...... one man with his cronnies.... sadly such atrocities still occur today..... as stupid humans we haven't learned a thing.

Later we met back up with Clarence at 5:30 at the apartment. We left for a walk and had a bite to eat and of course had some beers. On our way back the Japanese were projecting a "Thank You" on the Brandenburg Gate". It was pretty cool, the main theme was "peace and Thank you". It was set to classical music so it was pretty cool. We have really lucked into some coom sights.

Did I mention I was pick pocketed yesterday and I wish I punched the crap out of the guy........ ask Joey-Lynn, Clarence and Susan, I wasn't a bit pissed off.

Went to bet about 11:30.

I Nearly got pick pocketed....... I should have hurt the guy!!

Got up at 7:00am... it's raining out unfortunately. I can't wait to get rid of the car now, it will be one less worry. We have an amazing apartment with an upstairs and downstairs and full kitchen and living room right around the corner from the Brandenburg Gate. The girls made us breakfast and we are set to leave.

Returned the car and decided to take the bus back. It was absoltutely packed. I started getting a lot of anxiety on the bus like something was wrong. This one guy kept directing me where to stand and was overly helpful and friendly and really in my space, although there was little space. A little space opened up on the bus and I stepped back into the hole. The guy followed me and kept looking behind me but was so close he could almost kiss me. I stepped back so my wallet side was away from him and tried to create distance. He kept invading my space, suddenly I realized my pocket with my wallet the zipper was opened. The guy was trying to pick my pocket. You question yourself in these cases but I wanted to let everyone know so said out loud, "hey someone tried to pick my pocket." then I thought Stop being a chicken and be more direct, "That guy just tried to pick my pocket"..... yes I made a scene on a public bus. I stood back starring him down watching him closely and he saw me watching him hard and hearing me freaking out he put his head down and he turned his back to me. He tapped another guy on the leg who was well dressed..... obviously his partner. I never took my eyes off them and he took off at the next stop with the other guy close behind him. I wanted so badly to punch the shit out of him and hurt him so bad.

We walked to Museum Island and went to the German History Museum and spent a few hours there. It was fasinating. For some reason I was freaked out about seeing Napolean's hat from th battle of Waterloo.

We  went to "Check Point Charlie" only to find a swarm of police and a lot of people. Germany's Chancellor was speaking there. We were fairly close to her as she walked through the crowd.  Check Point Charlie was an exciting visit. We visited history that occured in our life time. We stopped at the Berlin wall and visited the Topography of Terror, which was about the Nazi rise and fall. Again touching the Berlin wall was fasinating to me as well.

The girls were starving so we walked around looking for a place to eat. We ended up in the same restaurant as we were last night. Nice meal just the same. We came home and had more beers and played Cribb..... the boy's ruled.

Did I mention I was nearly pick pocketed and that I am really pissed off!!

The Crazy drive to Berlin

Got up Early today in Dachau and headed out for Berlin. 6 hour drive there abouts. Clarence and I shared the driving. The Auto Bahn is crazy..... here I am cruising at 150KMH drinking a coffee and cars were passing me like I was standing still. There was a fair bit of traffic.

It rained on and off most of the day. We arrived in Berlin just before 5:00 and had supper. The plan is to return the car tomorrow and use public transit, walking and bicycle the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we plan to do a bike tour.

I had baby calf liver for supper and it was good but something is not agreeing with my belly so I opted out of drinking for the first time this whole trip..... maybe it had nothing to do with the meal....

We have had no internet

Our Berlin Apartment said Internet available but it was using a usb stick so no good for the Android. so I am posting what I have written.

Arrived in Dachau, Germany

We arrived yesterday here in Dachua around noon and spend nearly 5 hours at the former concentration camp. It was heart wrentching but not as bad as our visit to Auschwitz a few years ago.

We went up to the palace and castle to sack it but instead had supper and drank way to much. It was a fun night but we are all paying for it now!!!

Today we have a 6 hour drive to Berlin. We will drop off the car and use public transportation there.

Got up at 7:00AM again...... How we want to sleep in!!

I thought vacations were supposed to be relaxing.... not our vacations I guess.

We had a wonderful breakfast from our host, Eva. We packed up and left for Hitlers Eagles Nest and a bunker he had. The drive was just over an hour.... it was spectacular. Driving was crazy through the winding roads and mountains and tunnels. Once there we took a pus to the top of the mountian the Eagles Nest is on and then you take an elevator to the top. The view was beyond belief really. 360 degrees seeing for miles not to mention the steep drop everywhere. Holly crap it was great.

Most of you may have seen the Eagles Nest in "Band of Brother".

Going into the documentation center and into the bunker was emotionally disturbing but very interesting. There is over 4 miles of bunker (obviously we never saw near that), but what we did see was something else.

We got home and decided to cook and stay in and drink and play crib tonight. Tomorrow we head to Dachau.

It was beauful and sunny today about 21 degrees.

Early Morning

Got up at 6:00AM, it's raining outside unfortunately. It's going to be a wet day. We have to be thankful though it is our first day of rain.

We went to Mad King Ludwigs two castles today..... amazing and crazy really. God it poured hard we were soaked. I got some cool shots with the fog. But I'm too hosed and tired to post them. Not to mention too much beer.

We left Liechtenstien and the 2.5 hour drive took 5 hours.... traffic was crazy. We checked into our B&B and man what a great spot. The owner is amazing she is so funny and full of personality we all love her.

We went to a local pub for supper, the smoking laws allow people to smoke in the pub so it was intense.... but when in Rome...... We staggered home and now I write.

The mountains surrounding us is unbelievable, beautiful and ...... well words can not describe it...... I will post pictures but we are on the go so much it's impossible for me upload at this point.

The ran stopped to night hopefully a better day tomorrow.

Sack the Castle

We got up early to sack the Castle in Balzers. Susan and Clarence had gone for a jog and were delayed getting back so we were a bit late for the sacking. We had a great breakfast... one must have a full belly when sacking a castle.

We drove around the castle three times and couldn't find a place to park and parked so far away that by the time we walked to the castle we had to postpone the sacking.

The castle gave an unbelivable 360 degree view of the city. It was spectactular.

We walked down to a church and walked through a graveyard. Fairly resent were the dead. The graves were kept like gardens..... incredible.

I drove today, and we decided to make the GPS pick a southern route with less super highways. It was the most impressive drive. The drive through towns and up and down mountains made for a fun and exciting day but we were too late to sack the Castle outside Fussen. Tomorrow we will conquer it.

We left Liechtenstien, traveled through Switzerland and entered Austria today and are now in a beautiful hotel in Fussen, Germany.

Tomorrow back to Austria.

Saying good bye to Switzerland, hello to Liechtenstien

It was sad leaving Laterbrunen. The beauty there is so inchanting it's hypnotic. It sucks you in and makes you feel so relaxed and calm. I could spent a month there hiking and never touch all the possibilities. We decided that we would leave Laterbrunen and stay in Liechtenstien for the night, so before we left I did some research and found a place in Balzers about 9km outside of Vaduz the capital. Vaduz itself is pretty expensive so this was a great alternative.

We arrived in Balzers traveling for about three hours through some of the most beautiful mountains and scenery.

we dropped our crap off at our hotel which was beautiful and our rooms have balconies that look over the castle. We left and went to Vaduz and toured around and had a really late lunch. When we got back to the hotel we sat on the balcony and had salsa, chips and of course.... beer.

We went for a walk and had supper at a nice restaurant and went to bed eary around 10:00, we were all pretty tired.

Found a place to stay

We found a place in Balzers, Liechtenstien to stay for the night it was expensive but an amazing place. We drove to vadux and tried to sack the castle but it was a huge climb and decided to have lunch instead. after walking a round and exploring we went back to the hotel and had a few drinks.... note our theme here..... and explored. We found a nice little place and had supper. Clarence and I formed a plan to sack this castle tomorrow morning. Beer will do that to you.

The drive here was incredible. Ever turn was something new.

I may finally have a picture up

This is the Castle in Cochem Germany.... amazing spot, amazing town.

Bike ride accident

I forgot to mention that during our bike ride Clarence crashed into a fench and the bike toppled over top of him. Once I realized he wasn't hurt I stopped laughing.....:-) lots of sympathy......... I think he told the girls to walk thier bikes because t was so steep but continued on his own. It was pretty funny because he were going down the steep hill hill rather slowly. A few scrapes and bruises but he was fine. I wish my camera was ready.

Biking like crazy

Today we rented Mountain bikes...... the problem is the hills here go up both ways!!! And they are not hills. We had a great time though, went to a glacier run off that ran some 20,000 liters a minute through a set of caverns inside the mountian. We we actually got to go inside the mountain and watch it. It was crazy loud and very cool. The waterfalls inside the mountain were very extreme. We stayed there for a bit and road around the surrounding communities. We then stopped at Staubachh Falls where the water ran out off the top of a mountian and droppped over 300 feet. We were able to hike up part of the moutain and look out under the falls. The view of the valley was breath taking. My knee started to give me trouble here but I was able to push through it. We are all feeling the effects of yesterdays hike but the bike ride has made us sore in other places now. :-) We called it an early night and decided to BBQ at the Hostel instead of eat out...... we managed to drink to much.... hard to believe I know...., gave up on the BBQ and fried everything. It was still a great meal. Clarence and I cooked for the girls. We have met some great people from all over the world here and have had some great chats for sure.the people here are awesome. Laterbrunen is filled with crazy base jumpers. The sheer rock faces and thermal drafts are perfect for those crazy bastards. It's amazing they are just kids but they go 3 sometimes 6 times a day and party all night. Well I'm the only one left up so I better hit the bed. Seems I missed a night in my planning and we now have no place to stay tomorrow night. This region is booked so we will have to leave..... stay tuned to see if we sleep in the car!!!

Incredible hike today

What an amazing day we just had. Left the room just after 9:00AM (we made breakfast here) and took a Cable Car up about 1500meters. Hiked for several hours. The view of the Jungfrau mountain and all the rest was breath taking. The first hour was tough go straight up hill..... but it leveled off somewhat and we were totally in awe of the cows and their bells going with the mountains dwarfing us.

We took another Cable Car up to 3000 meters to the Schilthorn after walking 5 hours. We were still dwarfed..... it was hard to believe.  The view was amazing. We ventured down of the crest of the mountain off the platform. It was terrifiyingly exhilerating but scary at the same time. The crest was maybe  30 feet wide and a long way down on either side. It looked like we were on mars. The altitude made it hard to breath and you had to take your time.

After coming back down by Cable Car we went Gimmelwald. An amazing little town in the Alps of maybe 50-100 people, impossible to describe.  We had a beer thier and met some Canadians and had a great chat with our waiter.

We took another cable car down to the bottom and landed about 7:00PM and had to walk 5.5KM back to Lauterbrunnen. We were to exhausted for words. Had a very late supper and are now laying bed.

It has to be one of the best days of my life. The scenery was beyond any words I could muster. The experience was unforgetable. I m happy my knees were good but we'll all be soar tomorrow.

We forgot to buy towels for the Hostel so we all showered and dried with T-shirts.  

Posts are Jumbled up

Sorry the posts are jumbled up as I have had an issue with the app. We traveled from Frankfurt to Cochem then to Heidleberg and are now in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland

Welcome to Frankfurt....Get me a Beer!!!

Arrived in Frankfurt at 10:30 tired, but excited. Got our car and was upgraded to a larger Audi, which is a good thing as it just fits our luggage. Clarence drove first I thought it would be better that I play with the GPS and as I haven't driven a manual Transmission in several years and he drives a manual everyday the city was not the place for me to get reaquanted.

We got to the hotel around 1:00. We never had any issue with customs or luggage. Everything just seemed to fall into place. After checking in we were all hungry and started walking to find a place to eat. We found a hip young place (like us) and I ordered an American breakfast..... what a tourist. As we continued to walk we found a huge fair down by the river. It was enormous and was on both sides of the river. We plan to go back to night.

We returned to hotel for a couple of hours sleep and now re-energized are going to head back to the fair. I desperately want some Turkish cuisine as there are tons of Turkish resterants.

Arrived in Switzerland

We have arrived in the Jungfrau Region. Had no internet in Heidleberg so I'll update the blog tonight..... but first..... LETS EXPLORE!!!!

Love Heidleberg

Got up at 8:00 and Clarence stayd at the hotel and thought Breakfast there would be better for him and his Gluten-ness.

Susan, Joey-Lynn and I went into the old city for Breakfast. I ate something with lots of lactose and got pretty sick for most of the morning. Not a good way to travel. The pills didn't help me.

Checked out the bridge again during the day light (and sobber) and met Clarence.

I wasn't feeling very well so he drove out of the city. AFter a couple of hours I took over the wheel. We had our longest drive of the trip today over 5 hours. At times it was pretty hairy bumper to bumper traffic at 130 kph and people passing me like I was standing still.  Going into Switzerland from Germany I expected big mountains but it was rolling hills...... then suddenly bam..... holly crap some of the largest mountains I have ever seen. Absolutely amazing really. It freaked us out.

Entering the Junfrau region was incredible. Huge magestic mountains on either side. unreal. We found our hotel and went for a bite to eat and promtly headed to the nearest pub .... like you would..... It's 12:10 and everyone is a sleep now...... here we share a small room with the 4 of us. But we are smack in the heart of the Jungfrau and able to walk every where.

Tomorrow we take a cable car up the mountai and hike and climb for several hours, taking another cable car up 3000 meters. It should be breath taking. We hike down and will be going to an underground cavern where there is a waterfall in a cave under the mountain....... can't wait, but tomorrow will be our most challenging day really and we all have stiff muscles from the hiking around so far.

so hard to post stuff

It's extremely hard to post stuff. We get up at 7:00AM and go until midnight.  We are reallly tired but having blast

We had explored Heidleberg Castle and strolled the grounds it was amazing.

Had a great supper at a Thai joint. I had a spicy dish that had me sweating. MMMMMMM So good.

Our hotel is great and right on the edge of the old city like I planned it. So far everything has come together perfectly. We strolled around the old city drinking and eating and partying. Having a great time. Crossed the old bridge and back again at night. It was beautiful.

Staggered home about midnight to tired for words. Passed out after 1:00AM.

The weather is great so far today about 19 degrees but cool at night.

Blooging wasn't working

My Blogging wasn't working...... I was typing them into an app and uploading and just realized they were not uploading. It doesn't really matter much though because we have been on the go from 7:00AM until midnight nearly every night. So I will play catch up.