1600 km with Dad, a VW Polo and the Autobahn
Thursday, June 2: Dad met me at work and we headed home and he met Simon and Jay (they were getting ready to leave for Croatia on Friday.) We headed into Zurich and walked around and grabbed dinner at a place modelled as a movie studio. The menus were on reels of film and there were classic posters everywhere. The food was good, I got quesadillas and dad got hot curry. We walked down the river to the old town and then the lake and basically just walked around randomly. Dad was pretty tired from the flight so we came home about midnight.
Friday, June 3: Dad came into work and met my boss and some of the guys for lunch.
I worked overtime this week, so after that we went home and packed up some stuff and started driving. Philipp (one of the German guys doing his Masters thesis at ABB) told us to go to Laufenburg to do shopping, so we headed there and bought a case of beer (20 1/2 litre bottles) and the same in juice.
This was really good because I wouldn't be able to cart all that back from Germany on the train. We loaded the car up with groceries, and I decided we would go to Freiburg. I chose this because it was one of the trips I missed last year when I lived in Germany. The highlight though was the drive there. We drove through the Black Forest, and the roads were beautifully scenic and super fun to drive on. It was like driving a race car, the roads wound back and forth and up and down all over the place.
All I knew about Freiburg was that there was a big Gothic cathedral there, actually if I remember correctly from my art history course, it was the first ever and took more than 300 years to build.
As we found out when we got there, that is pretty much all Freiburg is known for. The town was really nice to walk around though, and we sat in on part of the German service at the cathedral. We grabbed a bit of pizza and headed back through Basel. We got gas and picked up some beers at a convenience store and checked out the river.
Then we headed back through Zurich to Rapperswil, where dad had seen a festival going on at the monastery. On the way though it started pouring, the worst rain I've ever driven through in my life. But when we got there, the place was still alive. The first stage had trumpet players, and then we went down to the lake, where there were a ton of tents packed with people drinking. We were drenched by now, but it didn't matter. We found the main tent and after a ton of technical problems, a big Spanish band started playing. They were really good. We watched for a while, and headed home at about 1:00 AM.
Saturday, June 4: We got up and started our drive to Locarno. On the way there is the Saint Gotthard tunnel, the longest traffic tunnel in Europe at 17 km long. There was a huge lineup to get in because of the fact that it is only one lane each direction. We seemed to leave crappy weather back in the north, and it was really nice out in the Italian part. I saw my first real palm trees in a lonngg time. Locarno is a town on a lake where the International Film Festival is held, so I may have to come back for that. We started out just walking around the town kind of randomly. The 'Piazza Grande' is the centre of town, and they hold concerts and everything there.
We walked around the old town and checked that out, but there wasn't that much to see so we headed down to the beach area, and hung out on the lake for a bit. We walked down the pedestrian area to the 'Chiesa San Quirico', a small baroque church with some valuable frescoes. We decided there wasn't really that much to see in Locarno, so we decided to make our own adventure and do something I wouldn't be able to do later without a car.
We noticed on our map that the was a windy road going up the mountain behind us, so we decided to get up there as far as possible. It took us a while to find the access to the road, and we had to drive up through some village type areas. People seemed to like to live on any slope in this place, no matter how dangerous. Eventually we got to the opening of the road, and it was less established than we thought. It was barely wide enough for the car, and cliffs rose on one side, and fell pretty much vertical on the other side.
Guard rails were rare, mostly only on the turns. And there were lots of turns. The view was spectacular as we started to rise quickly out of the valley. We came across a little town on the way too, I have no idea how people would do their daily commute, or if they just stay up in the mountain. Then the road turned to rocks, and seemed a lot more barren. Now there were little waterfalls on the cliff side, and even less guardrails on the other side. Soon after that we couldn't get any further, the road was blocked off, but we were really high anyways.
I drove on the way down, and it was tons of fun. Passing cars was hard, and one guy had to back up for a whole switchback so that we could get by. I think we might have pushed the car too hard, but it survived, and it's a rental, so whatever. Once we got to the bottom we started heading back to the Gotthard, and we stopped at a beach on the next lake and had the rest of our bread, wine and cheese. They had a waterski and wakeboard school set up, so we talked to the girl there. It was 45 CHF for a 15 minute session (no lesson) so it's pretty expensive, but I might break later on. The ride home was uneventful, and we were tired so we crashed right away.
First we drove up to Grindelwald, and there were nice little towns there to drive through. Too bad the three mountains were almost entirely covered in fog, but they still look huge. We basically just drove around and took random turns there until we were around the backside of the Eiger.
We found a path and walked up it for a bit, and there was a Swiss jogging path, where they cover it in wood chips so it's easy to run on and there are different exercises like balancing beams and chin ups along the way.
Then we drove back and went the other way to Lauterbrunnen. We drove past Lauterbrunnen and found some people doing skydiving on the way. It was over 200 CHF and they took you up in a helicopter, flew you up to the peaks of the mountains to get a nice sight seeing view, then bring you back over the field and drop you for 45 seconds of free fall. It looked pretty insane.
There was a lady there originally from India, but living in Australia, that was kind of an extreme sports person. She had been hang gliding earlier in the day and had done some crazy stuff all over the world. We drove up the valley until we couldn't go any further, and then found a hiking path and jogged up that for a bit. It said 5 1/2 hours to the top, so we didn't go too far, but it was great to get an excellent view of the valley.
We headed back to Lauterbrunnen, where we decided to catch the alpine train up to the base of the three mountains. It was only 25 CHF a piece, which is good considering it's over 100 CHF to get all the way to the 'Top of the World', the highest train station in Europe, on the side of Jungfrau. It wouldn't have been worth it anyways because the mountains were socked in. The train ride up was great, you get great views of the valleys and I imagine the mountains when it's clear. It rides up on two normal train tracks and a middle one with teeth, because it's so steep at points.
We got off at Kleine Sheidegg, where it was pretty chilly and had to change out of our shorts. The ski hills there look pretty awesome, you can ski down to Grindelwald on one side, down past Wengen on the other and there are a few lifts that go up even higher. We checked out the restaurant from the movie 'The Eiger Sanction' with Clint Eastwood, that I suppose I should go see now. When we were on the restaurant balcony something weird happened. All of a sudden the clouds started to part and we could see a large chunk of the mountains. Not the peaks, but still a big piece. We must have timed it perfectly, because it only happened over the course of 15 minutes, and the rest of the day they were covered.
Once they were socked in again, we climbed up one of the runs to a little lookout and then ran back down to catch our train. On the way down we talked to a Scottish man and woman, who were doing a 52 week bike ride from Perth, Scotland to Perth, Australia. They were really nice people and it was really neat what they were doing. We grabbed our car out of the parking and checked out a campground that I might stay at for the open air Greenfield concert at the end of June.
We decided we better get home, so I drove us back to Baden and we quickly checked out the castle and the Thermal Baden (the hot baths), and went home for some late night pasta.
All in all, we had a great time this weekend, and it was nice to do things in a car that I won't normally be able to get to on a train. The biggest surprise is we didn't get pulled over (no insurance) and didn't get any parking tickets (no paying.) Lucky I guess.
Update: Turns out on the drive to Interlaken I got a speeding ticket for 20 CHF. I was going 130 km/h on the highway (120 km/h) and they give you an official 5% leeway, so it cost 5 CHF per km/h.
On the river in Zürich
Friday, June 3: Dad came into work and met my boss and some of the guys for lunch.
Outside Pickwick's in Baden
I worked overtime this week, so after that we went home and packed up some stuff and started driving. Philipp (one of the German guys doing his Masters thesis at ABB) told us to go to Laufenburg to do shopping, so we headed there and bought a case of beer (20 1/2 litre bottles) and the same in juice.
German border
This was really good because I wouldn't be able to cart all that back from Germany on the train. We loaded the car up with groceries, and I decided we would go to Freiburg. I chose this because it was one of the trips I missed last year when I lived in Germany. The highlight though was the drive there. We drove through the Black Forest, and the roads were beautifully scenic and super fun to drive on. It was like driving a race car, the roads wound back and forth and up and down all over the place.
Driving in the Black Forest
The Black Forest
All I knew about Freiburg was that there was a big Gothic cathedral there, actually if I remember correctly from my art history course, it was the first ever and took more than 300 years to build.
The Cathedral in Freiburg
Outside the Cathedral
Clock Tower
In the Streets
As we found out when we got there, that is pretty much all Freiburg is known for. The town was really nice to walk around though, and we sat in on part of the German service at the cathedral. We grabbed a bit of pizza and headed back through Basel. We got gas and picked up some beers at a convenience store and checked out the river.
Having a beer on the river in Basel
Then we headed back through Zurich to Rapperswil, where dad had seen a festival going on at the monastery. On the way though it started pouring, the worst rain I've ever driven through in my life. But when we got there, the place was still alive. The first stage had trumpet players, and then we went down to the lake, where there were a ton of tents packed with people drinking. We were drenched by now, but it didn't matter. We found the main tent and after a ton of technical problems, a big Spanish band started playing. They were really good. We watched for a while, and headed home at about 1:00 AM.
Tent Concert in Rapperswil
Saturday, June 4: We got up and started our drive to Locarno. On the way there is the Saint Gotthard tunnel, the longest traffic tunnel in Europe at 17 km long. There was a huge lineup to get in because of the fact that it is only one lane each direction. We seemed to leave crappy weather back in the north, and it was really nice out in the Italian part. I saw my first real palm trees in a lonngg time. Locarno is a town on a lake where the International Film Festival is held, so I may have to come back for that. We started out just walking around the town kind of randomly. The 'Piazza Grande' is the centre of town, and they hold concerts and everything there.
Waterfall
Grande Piazza
Ducati
We walked around the old town and checked that out, but there wasn't that much to see so we headed down to the beach area, and hung out on the lake for a bit. We walked down the pedestrian area to the 'Chiesa San Quirico', a small baroque church with some valuable frescoes. We decided there wasn't really that much to see in Locarno, so we decided to make our own adventure and do something I wouldn't be able to do later without a car.
Locarno
Housing in Locarno
Lake Maggiore
We noticed on our map that the was a windy road going up the mountain behind us, so we decided to get up there as far as possible. It took us a while to find the access to the road, and we had to drive up through some village type areas. People seemed to like to live on any slope in this place, no matter how dangerous. Eventually we got to the opening of the road, and it was less established than we thought. It was barely wide enough for the car, and cliffs rose on one side, and fell pretty much vertical on the other side.
Driving up the hill
Looking into the valley
Guard rails were rare, mostly only on the turns. And there were lots of turns. The view was spectacular as we started to rise quickly out of the valley. We came across a little town on the way too, I have no idea how people would do their daily commute, or if they just stay up in the mountain. Then the road turned to rocks, and seemed a lot more barren. Now there were little waterfalls on the cliff side, and even less guardrails on the other side. Soon after that we couldn't get any further, the road was blocked off, but we were really high anyways.
Windy roads at the edge of the cliff
Steep living conditions
Break from driving
I drove on the way down, and it was tons of fun. Passing cars was hard, and one guy had to back up for a whole switchback so that we could get by. I think we might have pushed the car too hard, but it survived, and it's a rental, so whatever. Once we got to the bottom we started heading back to the Gotthard, and we stopped at a beach on the next lake and had the rest of our bread, wine and cheese. They had a waterski and wakeboard school set up, so we talked to the girl there. It was 45 CHF for a 15 minute session (no lesson) so it's pretty expensive, but I might break later on. The ride home was uneventful, and we were tired so we crashed right away.
On the beach
Swiss dinner
Sunbeams over the hill
Sky shot
Sunset
Sunday, June 5: We drove up to Interlaken, which means 'between lakes' and it is between two lakes, Thunersee and Brienzersee, and to the south are the famous peaks, Eiger, Münch and Jungfrau.
Interlaken
First we drove up to Grindelwald, and there were nice little towns there to drive through. Too bad the three mountains were almost entirely covered in fog, but they still look huge. We basically just drove around and took random turns there until we were around the backside of the Eiger.
Glacier between the mountains
We found a path and walked up it for a bit, and there was a Swiss jogging path, where they cover it in wood chips so it's easy to run on and there are different exercises like balancing beams and chin ups along the way.
In the forest
Vitacours stretching
Running the course
Dad driving
Then we drove back and went the other way to Lauterbrunnen. We drove past Lauterbrunnen and found some people doing skydiving on the way. It was over 200 CHF and they took you up in a helicopter, flew you up to the peaks of the mountains to get a nice sight seeing view, then bring you back over the field and drop you for 45 seconds of free fall. It looked pretty insane.
Paraglider
Taking off to skydive
There was a lady there originally from India, but living in Australia, that was kind of an extreme sports person. She had been hang gliding earlier in the day and had done some crazy stuff all over the world. We drove up the valley until we couldn't go any further, and then found a hiking path and jogged up that for a bit. It said 5 1/2 hours to the top, so we didn't go too far, but it was great to get an excellent view of the valley.
Beautiful valley
Butterfly in flight
Spraying waterfall
We headed back to Lauterbrunnen, where we decided to catch the alpine train up to the base of the three mountains. It was only 25 CHF a piece, which is good considering it's over 100 CHF to get all the way to the 'Top of the World', the highest train station in Europe, on the side of Jungfrau. It wouldn't have been worth it anyways because the mountains were socked in. The train ride up was great, you get great views of the valleys and I imagine the mountains when it's clear. It rides up on two normal train tracks and a middle one with teeth, because it's so steep at points.
Into the tunnel
We got off at Kleine Sheidegg, where it was pretty chilly and had to change out of our shorts. The ski hills there look pretty awesome, you can ski down to Grindelwald on one side, down past Wengen on the other and there are a few lifts that go up even higher. We checked out the restaurant from the movie 'The Eiger Sanction' with Clint Eastwood, that I suppose I should go see now. When we were on the restaurant balcony something weird happened. All of a sudden the clouds started to part and we could see a large chunk of the mountains. Not the peaks, but still a big piece. We must have timed it perfectly, because it only happened over the course of 15 minutes, and the rest of the day they were covered.
Restaurant from 'The Eiger Sanction'
Clouds clearing
Up at Kleine Sheidegg
Once they were socked in again, we climbed up one of the runs to a little lookout and then ran back down to catch our train. On the way down we talked to a Scottish man and woman, who were doing a 52 week bike ride from Perth, Scotland to Perth, Australia. They were really nice people and it was really neat what they were doing. We grabbed our car out of the parking and checked out a campground that I might stay at for the open air Greenfield concert at the end of June.
Brienzersee
We decided we better get home, so I drove us back to Baden and we quickly checked out the castle and the Thermal Baden (the hot baths), and went home for some late night pasta.
All in all, we had a great time this weekend, and it was nice to do things in a car that I won't normally be able to get to on a train. The biggest surprise is we didn't get pulled over (no insurance) and didn't get any parking tickets (no paying.) Lucky I guess.
Update: Turns out on the drive to Interlaken I got a speeding ticket for 20 CHF. I was going 130 km/h on the highway (120 km/h) and they give you an official 5% leeway, so it cost 5 CHF per km/h.
posted by Devon at 16:08
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