Sore necks and cow bells

So we found oursleves in Lauterbrunnen, we came via Milan, just another city and by this stage we were well and truely over Italian food, to be honest we were over Italy in general, we'd had a good dose of Italian culture. We didn't really do much in Milan other than queue again, this time for a train ticket into Switzerland and boy did we queue.

So we got up early and got on the train out of Italy and as we went along the scenery just kept getting better and better, first mountains, then mountains and lakes and finally mountains with snow on them beside lakes.  The train trip involved two changes, each one to a smaller train.

When we arrived in Lauterbrunnen our collective jaws dropped, it is a very beautiful place. Lauterbrunnen is situated in a valley floor surrounded by shear cliffs, waterfalls so high they kind of turn into mist then back into water falls again and as a back drop to all of this is snow capped mountains with glaciers. After about ten minutes there our necks were getting sore from looking up all the time. On top of these cliffs are other villages, but more about them later.

Our check in time was 4pm and we were there about midday, so we dumped our packs and went for a walk to a water fall that is inside a mountain Trümmelbach. To get up to this there is a lift and then you have to walk some more. Up close the roar of the water is really loud.

The next morning we decided to go for a little walk in the mountains, so we caught a cable car up to Grütschalp, where the walk started. The first thing we noticed was there was a mob of cows with bells around their necks, Leena then asked "Is this for real?"

We had two options and easy walk with not so good views or a harder one with better views, unsurprisingly we chose that later and we rewarded for this. We walked in the forest for a while, then we seemed to climb out of the tree line, well the trees gave way to open fields. It was at this stage we could really apriciate the views, some of Europes tallest mountains were just across the valley. At one stage Craig noticed the eiry lack of noise, he pointed this out to Leena and they both stood there and listened to the lack of noise, then this silence was broken by a faint "dongle dongle" sound. When we walked over the next ridge we discovered where the sound was coming from. There before us was a field full of cattle happily munching away on the summer pasture. Up close the noise is really quiet loud. The other thing that kept breaking the silence were the large crashing sounds coming from the large mountains across the valley, but by the time the sound got to us we couldn't see what was making the sound.

We walked on some more admiring the views, Leena kept breaking into song, yes they were that good, listening to the cows and sheep munch away and generally having a good time. The time was approaching lunchtime and as if on queue a resturant appeared, we sat down and ordered lunch. Craig has what he described as the best ham and chees sandwich he had ever had, he didn't really know what made it so good but it was good. The restaurant was at the top of a cable car, it was at this point we could have taken that down to the valley where Lauterbrunnen is or we could walk, we decided to walk.

Along the was we walked through the small villages of Mürren, Gimmelward and Stechelburg. At this poing I should mention that it seems that Gimmelward and Mürren are only accessable by cable car, they are at the top of the 300m cliffs we malveled at earlier, so there are no cars in these places. Leena was really impressed with Mürren, infact I think she is planning on going back there some day during winter for a spot of skiing.

We made our way back down to the valley floor, then along to Lauterbrunnen. By the time we got back in we had spent about seven hours walking, Craig denfinitely earnt his Rösti that day.

The next moring we decided to catch the train up to Wengen and walk back down to Lauterbrunnen. The train station at Wengen has some spectacular views.  The walk down took about an hour, this also had some good views of the valley below.  After this we thought it would be best to have a rest from walking and we had to do some pack keeping as well, to get ready for our big day of travelling to Münich, more on that next post.  We finished off the day with a drink and some fondue.

We noticed that the Swiss like their cheese, most meals contain it.  The thing about Swiss cheese is its good, really good, infact if you must insist on clogging your arteries then its a good option. Take the best ham and cheese sandwich ever made mentioned earlier, this consisted of a piece of bread, a slice of cheese, a slice of ham, another layer cheese and topped with the final slice of cheese.  Switzerland in general would struggle to get a heart foundation tick, but what a way to go.

Well its off to Münich now.

Ok so we started queuing again

The last week has been a blur of priceless artwork, pizza, panini, gelato and train rides.  For instance we did the Vatican museums, Galleria dell' Accademia and Galleria degli Uffizi over three consecutive days.  In the Roma post we said that we didn't want to spend our holiday lining up, well in Florence that is exactly what we did, three hours to get into Galleria dell' Accademia and two hours to get into Uffizi. This was worth it though, David took our collective breath away, there is a copy of David in the place where it used to stand and its just not the same, Michelangelo could swing a hammer. There is also a collection of priceless musical instruments (eg. Stradivarius violins) as well as more statues.

The collection artwork at Uffizi has to be seen to be believed, there is just so much another overwhelming experience. They are mostly religious. What was of interest to Craig was that the paintings from Medieval times were mainly saints and Jesus but the paintings from the Renaissance seemed to mix Christain saints and Roman gods, sort of a mix between the old and the new.

Whilst we were waiting in these lines we managed to strike up a conversation with fellow queuers. There is a sort of comeradership that comes from waiting so long, so of a collective stubbornness of resisting the guided tour option to short cut the queue.

When we arrived in Venice we both decided enough waiting in line to see priceless treasures, there is only so much culture our brains can take, so we dedided that we would just wonder around and just check the place out. We were lucky enough to be in Venice whilst Eurail.com were offering free gondola rides to pass holders, so happy days.

The alleyways of Venice are very easy to loose yourself in, which is exactly what we needed to do after three intensive days. The place is like a five hundred year old shopping centre, there is a myriad of little shops selling all sorts of stuff. We never really were lost though, Leena's navigational skills are really good, which makes up for Craig's very average navigational skills.

Radioactive women and loud backpackers

After we left Paris we took a fast train (we actually had to buy separate tickets for this train) to Cannes. We thought this might bring a nice change to all those car and bus fumes and we wanted just to breathe in a fresh sea breeze. Also, the weather in Paris wasn't really hot, only warm, and we were looking forward to some Mediterranean heat. We scored right on this one as the heat was truly on! Goodbye jeans and hello shorts and dresses! Cannes seemed to be a true holiday resort where you could almost smell money; five star hotels right on the beach with their private sand patches and bars. Everyone seemed to be completely unaware of the dangers of the sun as they were tanning their bodies and wearing really skimpy clothes. We were slapping on the 30+ sunscreen every time before we stepped outside but still those rays of sun have found their way on our skins too. We found out that Cannes really is a place for young and beautiful people with buck-loads of money. Not our kinds of shrinking violets :) Nevertheless, Cannes was a fun place to stay one night and see all those youngsters to pass by in their bikinis and bathers:

Beaches aside, we were on our way to a city once again. We thought of having a stopover in Monaco but it turned out there weren't any lockers at the train station for our backpacks so the visit was very short, it lasted only 30 minutes. During this time Leena ran outside, took some photos from the principality and ran back to the train station where Craig was waiting with our luggage. These are the photos from that short period we spent in the world's second smallest country:

And hey we were on a train again and this time we crossed Italian border. Unfortunately the train was a regional train which meant there was no 1st class (Eurail pass is for both 1st and 2nd classes) and we "had" to sit with the cattle class. Everything went rather smoothly until later some very loud Italian boys came aboard and we couldn't even hear our own thoughts. The same thing happened later on when we had a day trip to Cinque Terre and after that we both thought that we are not taking regional trains EVER AGAIN! Anyway, Genova turned out to be a beautiful medieval city with houses and other buildings just running up the mountain wall. Only about a day seemed to be enough to see the main sights in the city and have our first real Italian pizzas. We turned to the Lonely Planet Guidebook for some advice where to find good Italian food and the book turned out to be correct; pizzas in Ristorante Pizzeria Piedigrotta in Piazza Savonarola were cheap, huge and tasty. We likey!

A day trip to Cinque Terre was a smart move as it was only a 1.5 h train ride away from Genova. Well, at least on our way back to Genova as the outbound train was again full of loud backpackers with no manners whatsoever. Craig was almost losing his nerve when a French guy tried to push his way through on a Cinque Terre ticket line and eventually succeeded. But as we all know Craig appeared as calm as a lamb and only later on he told me about this incident. Eventually we were hiking up the beautiful coastline from Riomaggiore to Manarola where we had lunch. Unfortunately the path between Manarola and another village Corniglia was closed so we had to take a train to Monterosso and spend the rest of the afternoon in this delightful small village. From the photos below you can see how beautiful this national park is. Immediate waters of the coastline and their flora and fauna are protected by law and luckily that seems to be working. Later that day we returned back to Genova and prepared for our next city break in Rome, from which Craig has already wrote about.

On our way to Rome we had a brief stopover in Pisa, two hours. This proved to be just enough to put our packs in the left luggage, buy a map, walk briskly to the tower, take some photos, walk back, buy some lunch and get back on the train.

As you can see from this picture Leena succeeded in straightening up the tower!