Edinburgh: sightseeing for free

As I mentioned in the comments of my castle post, tourist attractions in Edinburgh tend to fall into one of two categories: free, and ridiculously overpriced. Travelers on a budget can focus in on the free sights, as there are plenty. I chose to do a lot of both, because I was in Edinburgh for a long time, and because the average price per attraction is still pretty low if you average the free stuff with the expensive stuff. This post covers my favorites of the free sights. » Read the full post

Tags: art, Edinburgh, Europe, free stuff, hiking, museums, Scotland, travel, UK

Faroe Islands: the expedition

Hey look, a post by Scott! 

As part of our trip to the Faroe Islands, we were treated to a one-day nature excursion run by CoastZone North Atlantic. When we got up that morning we had no idea what to expect. The first hint that it would be more than a simple hike came when one of our travel companions was told that her boots were inadequate and she was offered a pair to borrow.

Our head guide, Eyðun, had worked for several years as police officer in the Faroe Islands and looked the part. » Read the full post

Tags: Europe, Faroe Islands, hiking, travel

Germany has lakes and mountains, too

On Sunday we headed out of Munich with some friends to do a little hiking. The drive there took us past some beautiful scenery including green pastures and clear, aqua-colored lakes. It was not long until snow-capped peaks could be seen in the distance. It was almost as if we were back in Switzerland. The most notable difference was perhaps that along the hiking trails here you greet others with “Servus” or “Gruß Gott” rather than “Grüetzi”.

We started at the bottom of the Herzogstand and hiked for 2.5 hours up. We were rewarded with sweeping views of the Walchensee and a whole lot of mountains. At the top we dined at a mountain hut restaurant. The local food offerings varied a tiny bit from that which you would find in a Swiss mountain hut. From the vegetarian perspective, I got to eat Käsespätzle with onions rather than Rösti. And the salad did not come swimming in a foot-deep pool of dressing. And naturally, the beer was much better. I’m sure the non-vegetarian offerings were somewhat different too… at least I can say that I’d never before seen this gelatinized meat monstrosity that our German friend proudly ordered:

After lunch we rode the gondola back down to the parking lot.

Tags: Alps, comparative expattery, day-trips from Munich, hiking

Bernese Oberland, oh how I will miss you

And now for a more beautiful side of Switzerland… this weekend found us back in one of our favorite destinations, Murren, where we stayed at the Hotel Eiger. We paid a bit extra for a ‘superior’ room, which was superior, I imagine, only in the fact that it came attached to a balcony with a spectacular view of said Eiger (the room itself was fine, but unremarkable). The hotel’s staff was exceedingly friendly and helpful, and we much enjoyed our stay.

Murren is so idyllic it almost makes me weep. There are no cars in this little 400-person village nestled cozily into the side of an Alp, and the only way to arrive is via one of two big ski gondolas. We spent Saturday afternoon wandering around the village and taking pictures, with a brief stop at Coop (yes, even in this remotest of outposts there is a Coop) to stock up on happy hour essentials (i.e., beer and snacks). Then it was back to the hotel to sit on our balcony, consume our consumables, and soak in the view. Next we visited the hotel pool, which was full of various jets and bubbly things to massage and stimulate various parts of your body, and also had a panoramic mountain view. We also popped into the sauna, but given my aversion to heat, my stay didn’t last long.

We watched sunset from the balcony, then headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner (which wasn’t bad, but I would not recommend the vegetarian cutlet thingies). The next morning we went out for a hike (after a lovely hotel breakfast and another dip in the pool).

We decided that although it’s not quite as perfect as it is during the winter, Murren in the summer is pretty gosh darn lovely, too. More summer Murren pictures here.

Tags: Alps, hiking, swimming, Switzerland

Day trip: Schaffhausen and the Rhine Falls

We arrived at Schloss Laufen, a castle overlooking the falls, and then paid a franc each for the privilege of hiking down to the edge of the water while enjoying various views of foamy water crashing down around distinctive rock formations. The falls themselves were less exciting than I had imagined, but still worth a visit.

We crossed the river by boat, took a quick bus from Neuhausen back to Schaffhausen, and enjoyed a drink by the water at Rheinhotel Fischerzunft. We decided their dinner menu was a bit too steep for our budget, so we headed back into town to the restaurant Kronenhof. We had a fantastic meal and I can’t recommend this place enough – it was one of the best vegetarian meals I have had in Switzerland, and the meat-eaters were pretty happy with their food, too. Props to our Fodor’s Switzerland guidebook for finding us good eats twice in one day.

Tags: day-trips from Zurich, hiking, restaurants, Switzerland, travel

Warning: Crumbling Alp Ahead

Alternate title suggested by GenevaGal: Alple Crumble

Inspired by this Reuters article, we jetted (ok, trained) off to Grindelwald this weekend to see what all the fuss was about. It doesn’t take much of an excuse to get us into the Alps, especially when the weather is nice (for me, nice = anything but hot or torrential downpour). Plus, who can resist the draw of thawing permafrost?

After the 3-hour train ride from Zurich to Grindelwald, we had a quick lunch at Restaurant Rendez-vous (passable food with a great view) and then headed up to find the hostel referred to in the article. A short ski gondola ride and about 45 minutes of uphill hiking later, we started hearing the sounds of, well, crumbling.

The first couple times we scoured the rock face with our eyes, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from, to no avail. Finally we rounded a bend and reached a spot where you can actually see the rock slides. Although they looked like little more than pebbles off in the distance, the accompanying sounds made it clear that these were very, very big rocks tumbling down into the valley.

After resting and watching a couple of these rock slides, we pushed ahead another 20 minutes or so to reach the Berghaus Bäregg, which proved a lovely place to sit and have a snack while watching the Eiger crumbling away. The rock slides came intermittently; we saw maybe five or six of them within a half-hour period.

We headed back just in time to catch the last gondola ride back down to Grindelwald, and even survived a mountain goat attack along the way. We cleaned up at the hotel and then headed to Onkel Toms Hütte for some good pizza and great wine (the wine list was quite impressive).

Since the article didn’t give many specifics on how to find this Alple Crumble, here are the details for getting there for anyone who’d like to make the trip. But hurry – the crumbling is expected to stop as temperatures drop and the permafrost firms up again later this year. The easiest way to reach the Berghaus Bäregg is to first take the short aerial cableway (Luftseilbahn in German) from Grindelwald to Pfingstegg. From there, follow the hiking trail signs to Stieregg. The uphill hike takes around an hour and 20 minutes, and is pretty steep in parts, especially towards the end.

Information about the cableway and hiking trails can be obtained at the tourist information office near the Grindelwald train station, or at pretty much any hotel in town. We also found the Grindelwald Tourism Website to be helpful in booking a hotel for the trip.

See more pictures from this day here.

Tags: Alps, goat attack, hiking, Switzerland, travel

Just another weekend in the Alps

This weekend we headed to Flims, a small town surrounded by panoramic Alpine views that are snowy in the winter and cowy in the summer (can you believe spell-check doesn’t like the word “cowy”?).

There is nothing like a trip to the Romansch-speaking part of the country to suddenly make Swiss German sound familiar and understandable. Luckily the locals pretty much all also speak High German, so we were able to get around without a problem. We mostly spent our time there hiking, swimming, and eating/drinking/watching soccer.

Several of the area’s ski lifts are open in the summer to move hikers and mountain bikers to the higher-altitude trails. The areas that serve as ski slopes in the winter double as wildflower-covered cow pastures in the summer. It was amusing to see (and hear) cow bells actually tied around cows necks for once, rather than hanging in cheesy Swiss souvenir shops.

For swimming, there was a gorgeous clear blue-green lake to which one could either hike down or take a small free funicular (which looked more like an outdoor elevator). The water felt as good as it looked, especially after a long day of hiking.

Tags: Alps, cows, hiking, Switzerland, travel

The monks, the Jungfrau, and the mystery trip

This past weekend we were told to pack a bag and show up at the train station at 7:50 Saturday morning. On our packing list was hiking boots, a towel, and clothing for temperatures from -3 to 30 degrees Celsius (26 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). The mystery trip was organized by the owner of the company where Scott works. Trips to the unknown have been biannual requirements for the employees for several years, but this is the first one where spouses were also invited along.

We were slightly disappointed to find out that the mystery destination was the Jungfrau, one of the highest peaks in Switzerland, only because we had been there before. Surprisingly, most of our traveling companions (who are almost all Swiss) had not. Apparently the Swiss think themselves too sophisticated for the ‘Top of Europe’, dismissing it as a destination for silly foreign tourists (like us).

When we changed trains in Interlaken, our group was joined by a Buddhist monk whom was good friends with the organizer of our trip. The monk had a small entourage of monks, nuns, and monks-in-training with him, many of whom were on this trip to find out how they do in high altitude environments. They are planning to climb a holy mountain in Tibet later this year. Their group included a 6-year-old boy dressed in a monk’s robe, with a waist-length braid of hair sprouting from the top of his otherwise shaved head. I was fascinated.

We switched trains a couple more times before arriving at Jungfraujoch, at 3500 meters, billed as the highest point in Europe reachable by train. From there we had sweeping views out over the glacier and the snowy Alps. We had lunch and then wandered through the Ice Palace and up to the Sphinx observation deck for more sweeping views of snowy Alps and glaciers.

I was fine with the altitude (while many of the Swiss and some of the monks complained of dizziness as soon as we arrived at the top). Fine, that is, until we started the uphill hike through the sand-like snow. In those types of situations, my body likes to have oxygen. Although the hike lasted for less than an hour, I felt like I had been walking all day by the time we reached our destination, a small hut decked out with some sweet snacks and beverages for our group. The return (downhill) hike was a piece of cake.

We then took the train down to Kleine Scheidegg, a small skiing outpost that consisted of a couple hotels and a handful of bars. We spent the late afternoon watching a World Cup game in the bar, and then had dinner with the group. Scott and I snagged seats at the monks’ table, as we were curious to pick their brains a little bit.

We spent most of the meal chatting with a young monk-in-training from Massachusetts. After learning a little bit about his life at the pagoda and what brought him there, I got to my real question: what’s up with the little kid monk? The answer was not disappointing. Turns out, he is the reincarnation of a monk. How do they know that? One, the master can recognize him. Two, before the old monk’s death, he had gone to a certain woman and asked her to be his mother. So when this woman bore a son, she immediately brought him to the pagoda and put him in the care of the head monk (as had been pre-arranged). And there you have it.

After dinner we caught the second half of the Italy – US game and then fell into bed exhausted. The next day we enjoyed another scenic hike (at an altitude where the air still contained oxygen in reasonable quantities), had lunch, and then headed back to Zurich. All in all, a very enjoyable mystery trip. I hope spouses will be invited along for the next one, too.

Tags: Alps, Bernese Oberland, Europe, hiking, Switzerland, travel

A weekend with the Matterhorn

We spent the weekend in Zermatt with some friends. Zermatt is basically the Daytona Beach of Switzerland, not because there are any beaches, but because it’s a partying resort town full of spring break types (although more likely to be wearing snowboarding gear than a bathing suit). It’s mainly a ski resort (and it’s possible to ski all year round on the higher slopes), but it is popular in the summer, too. The summer high season doesn’t start until June, so about half of the bars and restaurants in town were closed, but we were able to get a fabulous apartment (with a view of the Matterhorn) for the weekend for a great price.

We arrived in the afternoon after a four-and-a-half hour train ride. We checked into our apartment, admired the view, and went to explore the town a bit. We also stopped for some groceries, and were talked into buying a piece of locally-made cheese by the friendly woman at the cheese counter. She neglected to tell us that the cheese was so stinky that it would assault us every time we opened the refrigerator, and permeate the entire apartment before the weekend was over.

We had dinner out on the terrace at Walliserhof on the pedestrian-packed main street. We enjoyed watching tour groups of various nationalities scurry by and played several rounds of Name That Language. The Canton of Wallis is known for speaking a version of Swiss German that even other Swiss can’t understand, but I was beginning to fear that I wouldn’t ever get a chance to hear the local dialect in this tourist-packed town. The locals we did encounter automatically spoke High German to us, assuming (correctly) that we weren’t from around there.

Later that evening our friends arrived from Geneva, and we caught up over drinks and cards. Upon seeing the package of Choco-Köpfli I had brought (I really am addicted to those things), Phil had the brilliant idea to open them up and use them as marshmellowy shot glasses. I had one with amaretto and almost went into a diabetic coma. To be safe, I stuck with dirty martinis for the rest of the night.

By the next day we were starting to suspect that Zermatt’s lack of public trash cans was specifically designed to prevent us (and others like us) from getting rid of the pungent local cheese we had purchased. After brunch in our fishbowl-esque kitchen, we headed up the world’s first underground funicular (or something like that) to Sunnegga Paradise (as Alison pointed out, pretty much everything in and around Zermatt is named something Paradise), where we started our hike. We wandered past several tiny lakes, closed-for-the-season ski trails, and countless marmot holes. We took many, many pictures of the ever-looming Matterhorn, which kindly stayed in view all afternoon (apparently it likes to hide behind clouds a lot).

After four hours of hiking, we headed back to the apartment to get ready for a night out on the town. The surprising highlight of the evening was GramPy’s Bar, which felt like the typical American spring break kind of place except for the entertainer, a slightly androgynous piano-playing ball of energy called Marco. He was insanely amusing, and only got better as the drinks went down. I’m going to have to write a separate post entirely about him.

The next day we rolled out of bed, made brunch out of all the food left in the apartment (except for the stinky cheese), and then headed up on a gondola to admire views of glaciers and Alps. We were hoping to go all the way up to Glacier Paradise (see?), but unfortunately that gondola was closed for repairs. Guess we’ll have to go back sometime.

Zermatt isn’t the most adorable Alpine town we’ve been to (it will be hard for anywhere to beat Mürren), but it did offer nice views of the Matterhorn, good hiking, and more marmots than you can shake a stick at (and we didn’t even go to Marmot Paradise). And I’ll bet it gets a little cuter in the winter, when everything is covered with a couple feet of snow.

Tags: Alps, cheese, hiking, Matterhorn, Switzerland, travel, Zermatt

Conquering the Uetliberg

One of the fabulous things about living in Zurich is the plethora of nature that is so close by. In less than 10 minutes we can be hiking atop the Zürichberg, and in about a half hour we can be on the Uetliberg, the ridge just to the west of the city.

Yesterday we braved the questionable weather report and took the S-Bahn up the Uetliberg for a little hiking fun. The views of the city and the lake were absolutely gorgeous. The hike itself was nice and civilized. There was a mass of people at the very start (where there’s a restaurant and viewing tower), but luckily it thinned out once we got along the path a bit.

We hiked for about two hours before stopping for lunch at the Gasthaus Felsenegg, where we enjoyed rösti and salad (typical Swiss style—lots of beets, cabbage, corn, and lettuce, covered with enough dressing to drown a small child). We got there just in time, as the gorgeous views turned into foggy rain just as we were sitting down. Given the turn in the weather, we decided to head back home via the Felsenegg cable car, which took us back down to another S-Bahn. There was a lot more trail that we didn’t cover, so we’ll have something new to explore for next time.

Tags: day-trips from Zurich, hiking, Switzerland, Uetliberg, Zurich