the hornymoon files: bern and interlaken
05.10.08 16:13
We just came back from going up the Top of Europe (aka Jungfraujoch) and it was mad tiring. More on this later.
We arrived at Interlaken yesterday after a four-hour trip from Tasch. Apparently our bus captain made a wrong decision and we arrived at Interlaken probably an hour later than the ETA. Before making our way to Interlaken, we stopped by Bern which is the capital of Switzerland. All the while I thought it was Geneva, which turns out to be a capital of a canton in Switzerland.
Bern was very busy and crazy. We had our lunch at Spaghetti Factory and we weren’t able to roam the city centre because we didn’t have enough time. Although we saw the Clock Tower and a few other landmarks.
05.10.08 21:34
Wheee, turns out our hotel has free wi-fi so I can continue my EU blogging spree.
Okay, so there's not much to do in Bern aside from shopping. We've been to three Bucherer shops so far (Geneva, Zermatt, Bern) and collected their metal souvenir spoons which they probably hand out to tourists who come on a group tour.
Travel from Bern to Interlaken took about two hours, we arrived in Interlaken about 5pm. We were told to collect our 4th Bucherer spoon before roaming the place. Well there's not much to do in Interlaken city centre too except for shopping (we bought a Zwilling JA Henckels cuticle nipper and I cut myself with it). But for daring souls (with deep pockets), you can ski, paraglide, parachute, hike, etc. We just did a quick walk around the city before meeting up with our group again for dinner.
Dinner was at Bebbi's, a local tourist haunt where they serve traditional Swiss (cheese) fondue. We were of course excited about having our first authentic Swiss dinner. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by the nice smell of cheese. So imagine our horror when cheese fondue actually tasted like crap. They use a different type of cheese (we thought it was going to be cheddar- I think they use Swiss cheese). We also had meat and chocolate fondue. I didn't touch any of the meat fondue but choco fondue was nice.
So this morning we headed out to go up Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe). After a quick 15-minute bus ride to board the train at Kleine Scheidegg, we had to sit through another 45 minute train ride to reach the top. It was very exciting seeing snow-capped mountains and so much snow. But the higher we went, the worse we felt. Joel and I felt nauseous and dizzy because of the change in altitude. Anyway, we went to see the Sphinx observation terrace, Ice Palace, and the Plateau (it was crazy cold outside at -5.5 degrees C).
Joel and I were already wearing our winter's best yet we still felt cold. We were at the Plateau and the wind was too strong but we managed to spend about 10 minutes outside to take photos of the stunning scenery. The moment we stepped into the building again, we felt so weak. Had lunch immediately after and we were lucky to have even kept it down- we were nauseous again. So our tourmates and us decided to go back out to take more photos. We took the wrong elevator and pushed ourselves too hard, we were drained in a matter of minutes and people were telling us to slow down.
Joel didn't make it for the Plateau return, he felt sick but I pulled myself together and took more photos. Wind was still terrible but managed to take more photos- this time every shot was in P or auto mode, I just didn't have the strength to manually adjust my settings anymore!
Well we left Jungfraujoch at about 1:20pm and reached the bottom about 3:30pm. I took loads and loads of photos (about 200 for this place alone) and were now fast friends with our Pinoy tourmates Dhey & Aileen. We also had fun talking to our S'porean tourmates Chiam/Sharon and Leslie/Christine.
We had an hour's rest first before grabbing dinner with our new-found friends. They're fun to be with! Two of them are about the same age as our parents but it felt as if they weren't a year older than 30! Anyway, ended our night bonding with them.
Okay this is the best I can do for today- writer's block! Can't think of neat things to write about. Anyway, photos to follow soon! Will have to post our wedding photos first before the hornymoon ones.
We just came back from going up the Top of Europe (aka Jungfraujoch) and it was mad tiring. More on this later.
We arrived at Interlaken yesterday after a four-hour trip from Tasch. Apparently our bus captain made a wrong decision and we arrived at Interlaken probably an hour later than the ETA. Before making our way to Interlaken, we stopped by Bern which is the capital of Switzerland. All the while I thought it was Geneva, which turns out to be a capital of a canton in Switzerland.
Bern was very busy and crazy. We had our lunch at Spaghetti Factory and we weren’t able to roam the city centre because we didn’t have enough time. Although we saw the Clock Tower and a few other landmarks.
05.10.08 21:34
Wheee, turns out our hotel has free wi-fi so I can continue my EU blogging spree.
Okay, so there's not much to do in Bern aside from shopping. We've been to three Bucherer shops so far (Geneva, Zermatt, Bern) and collected their metal souvenir spoons which they probably hand out to tourists who come on a group tour.
Travel from Bern to Interlaken took about two hours, we arrived in Interlaken about 5pm. We were told to collect our 4th Bucherer spoon before roaming the place. Well there's not much to do in Interlaken city centre too except for shopping (we bought a Zwilling JA Henckels cuticle nipper and I cut myself with it). But for daring souls (with deep pockets), you can ski, paraglide, parachute, hike, etc. We just did a quick walk around the city before meeting up with our group again for dinner.
Dinner was at Bebbi's, a local tourist haunt where they serve traditional Swiss (cheese) fondue. We were of course excited about having our first authentic Swiss dinner. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by the nice smell of cheese. So imagine our horror when cheese fondue actually tasted like crap. They use a different type of cheese (we thought it was going to be cheddar- I think they use Swiss cheese). We also had meat and chocolate fondue. I didn't touch any of the meat fondue but choco fondue was nice.
So this morning we headed out to go up Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe). After a quick 15-minute bus ride to board the train at Kleine Scheidegg, we had to sit through another 45 minute train ride to reach the top. It was very exciting seeing snow-capped mountains and so much snow. But the higher we went, the worse we felt. Joel and I felt nauseous and dizzy because of the change in altitude. Anyway, we went to see the Sphinx observation terrace, Ice Palace, and the Plateau (it was crazy cold outside at -5.5 degrees C).
Joel and I were already wearing our winter's best yet we still felt cold. We were at the Plateau and the wind was too strong but we managed to spend about 10 minutes outside to take photos of the stunning scenery. The moment we stepped into the building again, we felt so weak. Had lunch immediately after and we were lucky to have even kept it down- we were nauseous again. So our tourmates and us decided to go back out to take more photos. We took the wrong elevator and pushed ourselves too hard, we were drained in a matter of minutes and people were telling us to slow down.
Joel didn't make it for the Plateau return, he felt sick but I pulled myself together and took more photos. Wind was still terrible but managed to take more photos- this time every shot was in P or auto mode, I just didn't have the strength to manually adjust my settings anymore!
Well we left Jungfraujoch at about 1:20pm and reached the bottom about 3:30pm. I took loads and loads of photos (about 200 for this place alone) and were now fast friends with our Pinoy tourmates Dhey & Aileen. We also had fun talking to our S'porean tourmates Chiam/Sharon and Leslie/Christine.
We had an hour's rest first before grabbing dinner with our new-found friends. They're fun to be with! Two of them are about the same age as our parents but it felt as if they weren't a year older than 30! Anyway, ended our night bonding with them.
Okay this is the best I can do for today- writer's block! Can't think of neat things to write about. Anyway, photos to follow soon! Will have to post our wedding photos first before the hornymoon ones.