Schilthorn--Slower Than Swiss Seniors

Yesterday (Friday) we took a series of cable cars from Stechelberg, a short bus ride from Lauterbrunnen, to the top of of Schilthorn (2970 meters/9744 feet). The summit has a sort of a lodge with a rotating restaurant and 360 degree outdoor observation terrace. We certainly spent a good amount of time enjoying the views from up there.


After lunch at the restaurant, we took the cable car part way to Birg, from where we hiked down to Muerren. The trails are clearly marked, and time estimates are posted for hiking to each destination. Our hike was estimated to take about 4 hours. Mostly due to my overall slowness and a tendency to take too many photos, the hike took A LOT longer. Rick Steves notes that the time estimates are determined by "local senior citizen"...


While hiking down we encountered a marmot--he was far away, but we noticed him because he was making high pitch squeeling noises. We have also come across a snake, many enourmous slugs and fields of wild flowers.




After dinner in Muerren, we took the cable car down in order to get home.

We Are In Switzerland

We arrived in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, last night. Eric was delayed getting in, but he made it here alright as well. Here is a view from our room in Hotel Oberland.


We are off to "conquer" Schilthorn.

Wednesday--Our Last Full Day in Venice

After breakfast we headed to San Marco Square in order to go inside St. Mark’s Basilica. Being adamant Rick Steves’ fans, we used his trick to bypass the line. Inside, while busy, it did not seem crowded enough for pickpocketers—Rick Steves’ promised the Basilica to be the most dangerous place in town. From the basilica, we also went into the Treasury (entirely not worth the €3—next time I would try the Golden Alterpiece area for €2,50 instead) and the San Marco Museum. The museum houses the original horses, whose copies are mounted on the basilica. The horses alone are well worth the €4 admission fee.

After leaving the San Marco, we walked to the north shore of Venice, grabbing some sandwiches along the way. We decided to spend the afternoon touring Burano and Torcello. We took a vaporetto from Fondamenta Nuove to Murano. We did not really linger there other then walking over to a different vaporetto stop to go to Burano. Another quick switch there, and we were in Torcello. On this route, the longest trip was between Murano and Burano—about 30 minutes of a very pleasant boat ride.


Only about 20 people now live on the island of Torcello, even though one time before the 14th century that number reached 50,000. Two churches and a bell tower is all that remains from those glory days. We looked into the smaller of the churches, and walked around main church of Santa Maria Assunta, which had some amazing mosaics from around the 12th century. After about an hour on Torcello, we caught the 5 minute ride on the vaporetto back to Burano.

Burano’s amazingly colored little houses are cute as a button. I cannot imagine that the locals enjoy tourists taking photos of their front doors, but it is simply irresistible. Thankfully the locals must feel relatively safe, because in the heat of the afternoon they leave their front doors open, covering them with a heavy curtain to block the sun.



Since Burano is known for its handmade lace, I couldn’t resist looking around a few lace shops. Most sold very similar beautiful items, sometimes more of what I would consider embroidery rather then lace. One shop had a large display of antique lace—exquisite.

After returning to Venice, we headed to the south side of town for a light dinner. We grabbed some “cicetti” (tapas) and white wine for a light cheap dinner at Enoteca Gia Schiavi on the San Trovaso Canal near the Accademia bridge. The sun was setting, so we walked to the water by the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and sat “on the pier” until it was almost dark watching the water change colors and the lights go on for the palazzos.

Along the San Marco Canal At Night

Doge's Palace and Laundry

Today we decided to sleep in. And we did... except that around 9:30 (we were already up anyway) we got a call from the hotel reception checking if we were planning to go to breakfast (which was supposed to be till 10). I guess they did not want us to go undernourished.

After breakfast we walked to San Marco Square and went inside the Doge's Palace. Visiting the Doge's Palace included walking inside the Bridge of Sighs!

After a rather odd lunch (where I struggled with an enormous piece of pizza while sitting on the pavement by the Grand Canal) we walked around a bit passing through Campo San Polo and Campo del Frari, and then went back to the hotel.


Our goal before dinner was to do some laundry. Yesterday we have investigated a laundromat very close to our hotel. Nick had to wash all of his pants, so he had wearing his swim suite to the laundromat.

Doing laundry in Venice, besides being rather expensive, is also complicated. There is one central automated paying station where you pay for everything (soap, washer, dryer--there is no attendant). So there is a strict sequence to everything--e.g. select the temperature before you close the door, add soap before you pay, you have minutes to push start on the machine after you paid for the load, etc. On top of this it turned out that out of 4 dryers, only 2 had heat working. Of course we found out the hard way--by first running through a drying cycle of cold air.

On To Venezia

Bon Giorno, Florence

We arrived in Florence yesterday afternoon. Our hotel, Hotel Maxim, was a bit hard to find because, as it turns out, the buildings are numbered in two different ways, and we were not following the right numbers.


At least yesterday, it seemed like everyone in Florence was shopping. I can smell the leather goods just by walking down the street. As if the number of shops in the streets were not sufficient, we also discovered an underground tunnel connecting the train station with other parts of town that is full of shops.


A bit disorganized, we never did buy tickets to the Uffizi ahead of time, but we decided to try our luck anyway, and lucky we were! We got in line around 4:30pm, and in less then 15 minutes we were climbing the stairs towards the galleries.


We will see if we are as lucky getting into the Accademia today.

Visting the Vatican

Today we spent the greater part of the day at the Vatican. We visited the Vatican Museum not once, but twice!

We wondered through various rooms slowly making our way to the Sistine Chapel.

After spending some significant time in the Sistine Chapel we exited and found ourselves back in the museum's vestibule. However, the goal was to exit in such as a way as to bypass the line and the second security check for entering St. Peter's Cathedral. So... we took a break and grabbed some very mediocre but filling pasta at the self-serve cafeteria. Then we started the pilgrimage to the Sistine Chapel again together with the tourist crowds just entering the museum. Only this time, we took all the shortcuts.

Our second exit we more successful, and we were able to go inside St. Peters without standing in a long line out in the sun.


It was hard to spend any time in the St. Peter's Square because there is no shade, but we came out for a little while to enjoy Bernini's colonnade.

There are 2 spots marked on the square that indicate the center of the circle for each colonnade. Each colonnade has 4 rows of columns and they line up as one when you stand in the circle.

Here I am standing in the special spot:

View from the special spot--i.e. the center of the circle of one of the 2 colonnades.

View of the center colonnade from about 10 yards away from the special spot:

“easyJet”ing from Berlin to Rome

The trip from Berlin to Rome by train can easily take over 16 hours, and flying within Europe is fairly inexpensive, so Nick and I decided to fly. This is our first trip ever with the easyJet airlines, and boarding was an experience in itself.

After checking in, we quickly realized that do not have assigned seats. It turns out no one does. Passengers are divided into 2 boarding groups, with group A having priority seating over group B. We were in group B of course.

Everyone was peacefully sitting in the gate area when we got there. Two men in uniforms worked their way towards the doors to the gate. Clearly this was the special signal. Everyone jumped up, and ran towards the doors. Needless to say, they did not let anyone through right then and there. When our boarding group did walk out onto the runway, people were running trying to beat each other to the airplane doors.

I expected the madness to continue inside the plane, but we were pleasantly surprised. Perhaps it helps that the airplane was not full, but we had no problem finding 2 seats together.

First Day In Rome

Our two major achievements today were visiting the Pantheon and the Colosseum.

In Berlin

We have actually left Berlin and are now in Rome. The internet access in Pension Peters involved a single Linux machine in the lobby, so I didn't do any posting. Don't get me wrong though--we liked the hotel. It was a bit spartan (no shampoo--just a large jar of gym-like orange soap for body and hair), but very cute and clean with super friendly staff and an excellent location.

However, before I start posting about Rome, I thought I'd do a quick summary post on what we did in Berlin.

We spent one full day in Berlin, during which we took a four hour walking tour of parts of what used to be Eastern Berlin.
On Tuesday we headed to Kreuzberg, a district of Berlin that is predominantly Turkish. We walked through a market which among other things included many fabrics and sewing notions stands. Later we sat down for some excellent Doner Kebabs.

In the two hours we had left in Berlin we headed to Treptower Park to visit the Soviet War Memorial.

We Love Berlin

We arrived here yesterday, walked through Tiergarten, and visited Reichstag.

A Few Photos From Prague

Prague has been both beautiful and stressful. We have been returning home rather late, and tomorrow we are taking the train to Berlin. While I will describe our experiences in detail later, here are a few photos.

I am obsessed with Prague's towers. (I will explain why later.) This is just one of a million photos of towers I have taken here.


Nick and I stepped off the beaten path while exploring the Castle Quater today.

Gargoyles spouting water (due to heavy rain) on the St. Vitas Cathedral, while we had to stand underneath waiting patiently in line to get into the cathedral...

We took a walk on the Charles Bridge tonight after dinner.

Deutsches Museum Highlights

We just arrived in Prague! Here in Hotel Hastal where internet is limitless, and the private bathroom is within our room--we are in heaven.

Now back to the Deutsches Museum. My favorite was the glass harmonica invented by Benjamin Franklin.

Many of the interactive exhibits in chemistry, physics and optics looked really cool, but the descriptions were only in German, so they did not work for us too well. We also spent a long time in the Mining section of the museum and went out to the Sundial Garden for some great views of the city.

More From Munich

Yesterday we left Munich for the day to visit Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. Hohenschwangau castle was built in the first half of the 19th century by King Maximilian II of Bavaria, and for many years served as the summer and hunting residence for the Kings of Bavaria. Yet it is the Neuschwanstein castle that is most famous, and apparently is the most visited tourist attraction in Germany.

It was Ludwig II, sometimes referred to as the “Swan King” and “Mad King Ludwig,” who envisioned and began building Neuschwanstein in the second half of the 19th century. Ludwig II died a mysterious death, and the castle was never completed. Ludwig himself spent less then 200 days living in the castle. Curiously it was open to the public only 6 weeks after his death. Of the two castles, Newschwanstein, which served as the inspiration for the Disney’s Sleepy Beauty castle, is certainly the most exuberant in its interior decoration. Unfortunately, photos inside are not allowed.
However interesting the castles may be, the experience of visiting Germany’s busiest tourist attraction at the height of the tourist season can be quite stressful. From the train station of the little town, called Fussen (about two and a half hours train ride from Munich), we literally had to squeeze our way onto the bus that took us 5km up into the hills to the castles.

Today we headed up to the top of Frauenkirche for excellent views of the city. We managed to avoid any sausage for lunch. Instead I had a some sort of a herring sandwich and Nick also had some sort of a fish sandwich at Viktualienmarkt. We then spent the afternoon at the Deutsches Museum, a place Nick has talked about ever since we met. He has been there before when he was in Munich 10 years ago.

We then returned to Viktualienmarkt for some fruit. After a brief rest we headed to the Englischen Garten for dinner.

Chinese Tower Biergarten, where we had dinner tonight.



P.S. Online again today, because Nick had to do something online for work.

Let the Vacation Begin

We arrived in Munich last night and started out by having some "wurst" and beer for dinner at the Viktualienmarket Beer Garden.

This morning we took a walking tour around the Old Center. We ate lunch at the "world's most famous beer hall," the Hofbrauhaus.

Nick is having a Weiss beer, which is a wheat beer, and I am having a Radler, which is half lemon-lime soda, half beer.

In the afternoon we went to the Alte Pinakothek ("Old Art Gallery")--the main attractions for me were paintings by Albrecht Durer, Raphael, and Rubens.

The ice cream in Munich is DIVINE and relatively cheap at 1 Euro/scoop.

Hotel Atlanta offers an excellent location for an excellent price. However, our very private bathroom is across the hall from our room.

Tomorrow we are traveling to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles.

There likely will be no more posts until we make it to Prague on Thursday night, as internet here is neither free nor consistent.