Happy Christmas! So, I've gotten a little behind and owe posts from Barcelona, Italy, Switzerland, and a quick stop in Munich. We're in Salzburg now (heading to Vienna tomorrow) and then back to the States on Thursday. Looking forward to being home for a bit but simultaneously bummed that this part of our trip is almost finished. It's been such a wonderful experience and Tony and I are so thankful that we had the opportunity to have this grand adventure!
Since it's Christmas, I thought I'd jump around a bit and share some of the more Christmas-y destinations we've visited. First- Switzerland! We spent a great week in Switzerland training it all around. Since Switzerland is a pretty small country, you'd think that wouldn't be a big deal; however, Switzerland is full of mountains (big ones) and it's amazing that there is such an extensive rail network there at all! Switzerland does have AMAZING chocolate, cheese, and watches, but what I found most impressive is the number of languages that are spoken. Switzerland has 4 official languages and we heard at least 3 of them everyday. Though German is the most common, we never knew whether they were going to ask for our train tickets in Italian, French or German and 99% of the people we met spoke English as well.
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| Our first Swiss destination- Lucerne. We arrived on the midnight train from Florence and woke to this fantastic view! |
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| The Medieval watertower and bridge, supposedly the most-photographed landmark in Switzerland. |
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| There are probably 100's of swans on the lake and countless other small birds. |
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| Our first Christkindlmarkt! Here we made our acquaintance with gluwein (mullled wine) and raclettes- where they melt a kilo of cheese over a piece of bread and serve it with pickles and onions. SO delicious (and filling)! |
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| The dying lion of Lucerne, commemorating a battle for a time before Switzerland embraced neutrality. Really moving, especially on a cold autumn day with the wind blowing and the rain just starting to fall. |
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| Here's a close up |
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| Tony got a cute little bread man.... |
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| At least it was quick... |
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| After 2 days in Lucerne we're off to Zermatt! |
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| The views from the train were incredible- we paid an extra 5 CHF/pp to reserve seats in a panoramic car that had huge windows and was completely empty (score!) |
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| St. Niklaus- they wrap the church tower so it looks like a giant St. Nick! |
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| Our hotel transfer! |
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| View from inside the carriage- Zermatt is a really cute little town with hardly any cars. The snow was really coming down and all the Christmas lights were on- so beautiful! |
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| We got upgraded to a suite- score! This was definitely the best hotel we've stayed at. It was a bit of a splurge but worth it! |
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| View from the hotel- it started snowing shortly after this and just dumped for the next 2 days- by the time we left Zermatt they were measuring in meters instead of cm! |
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| One more of the church |
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| Train! |
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| Train shenanigans |
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| Our typical Zermatt (or really EU) dinner: meat, cheese, and bread from the grocery. This time we got to include some wine (complements of the hotel) and stollen- perfect on a snowy night! |
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| The next day we wanted to take a train or cable car up the mountain, but the snow storm was so intense they shut down most of the mountain! At the top, it was -20 C before the 66km/hr winds. We made it to Riffelalp- the highest of the green X's. |
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| Brrr! You can't really tell, but in this pic (and pretty much all of the others from this point) we are wearing every piece of clothing that we brought! The Matterhorn is supposedly somewhere behind us- guess we'll have to come back in the summer to see it! |
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| Looks like someone's enjoying the weather |
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| Little hard to see but this guy got buried! |
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| We were supposed to take the Glacier Express train direct from Zermatt to St. Moritz but with all of the snow the passes were too dangerous so we ended up on a different route but still got to see the spectacular railway between Chur and St. Moritz. The train zig-zags back and forth across the valley to gain elevation. |
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| View from the train |
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| Steinbock ho! |
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| St. Mortiz. There was a lot less snow here (probably just a few inches). The storm had cleared and it was FREEZING but we could see the mountains. |
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| St. Moritz Olympic bobsled track- looks slippery! |
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| Bobsled |
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| Splurged on a hot meal- yum! |
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| On the train to Zurich |
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| Zurich- when we arrived it was gray and snowing big, wet flakes. We were on the 16th floor of the Marriott, which must have been one of the highest buildings in Zurich. There are very few high rises and no skyscrapers here- despite it's influence, Zurich is only a small city of 400,000! |
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| Outside the Hauptbahnof (main train station) |
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| Inside the Credit Suisse building |
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| Chocolate! We were lucky to meet up with Jon, the brother-in-law of one of our CO friends. In less than 2 hours he had us convinced that Zurich is one of the best places in the world and all of the tidbits about the city are thanks to him and Diana, his wife. |
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| Cute old street |
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| View of St. Peter's- the largest clock face in Europe. The minute hand moves 50cm each minute! Taken from the park on the Lindenhof- the oldest area of the city (settled in ancient times and once the home of a Roman fortress). |
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| Lindenhof fountain |
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| Close up of this female defender of Zurich |
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| On the train to Munich- this is what happens when Tony has too many chocolates! |
